A Social Study of the Russian German ail 
America, they adopted the type of buildings prevailing here but 
retained, though all unconsciously, their ingrained conviction that 
he who enters in at the front of the house is a “thief and a 
moepber. °° 
The people also show the effect of their former environment 
in their sparing use of water as a cleansing agent. In the colonies 
there were the communal sources of water supply as we have in 
Lincoln, but instead of having the water piped into each house 
where unlimited quantities were easily available, each house- 
holder was obliged to carry from the spring, creek, or river all 
that was used for household purposes. Under such circum- 
stances, it may be imagined what economies were practiced in its 
use, and in this respect the Russian scorns his German neighbor. 
The Slav performs his ablutions from a ewer hung from the 
ceiling and (according to his interpretation) washes the dirt away 
trom his face, while the Teuton returns a good share of it to its 
original place by using the water from a basin. Moreover, the 
Russians are famous bathers and no isba is so poor that it does 
not include a pile of stones for the mujik’s vapor bath. The 
German, on the other hand, contents himself with the less primi- 
tive but less effective “tub,” and the mark of his complete as- 
similation in America appears when he considers a bathroom a 
necessity and not a luxury. The tendency of the Russian Ger- 
man to economize in the use of water was shown in an exagger- 
ated but not exactly typical way by the following incident. A 
kindergarten teacher had threatened for sometime to send home. 
one of her pupils who came to school with a dirty face, and one 
25 The heavy wooden shutters on the windows of the houses shown in 
the illustration preceding may be seen on many of the dwellings in the Lin- 
coln settlements. In Russia they served primarily as a defense against rob- 
bers, and secondarily as a protection against the cold. In Lincoln they are 
found chiefly on houses owned by “ beetfielders ” and are used only during 
the absence of the family in summer to protect window panes from the 
unerring aim of mischievous boys. 
It is interesting to observe that the better of these two houses belongs 
to a man who spent several years in Lincoln as a section hand. He 
returned as “a rich man” with two or three thousand dollars and built 
this house, which is one of the finest in a colony of 12,000 people. 
157 
