OCR Text |
Show In a Russian Village A traveler In Russia writes. "The outward aspect of a Russian village Is not attractive and there is little cholco In tho surrounding country between be-tween a wldo gray plain with a dls-tnnco dls-tnnco of scrubby plno forest, or the scrubby plno forest with distant gray plains, Tho pensants' houses arc scattered scat-tered up and down without any order or arrangomont, and with no roads between, built of trunks of trees, un-squared un-squared nnd mortised Into each other nt tho comers, tho Interstices filled with moss and mud, n mode of building build-ing warmer than It sounds. In tho Interior In-terior thero Is always an enormous brick stovo, flvo or six foot high, on which nnd on tho floor the wiio'le family fam-ily sloop In tholr rags. The' heat and tho stench nro frightful. No, ono undresses, un-dresses, washing Is unknown and nheopskln pelisses with the wool In-sldp In-sldp nro not conduclvot cleanliness,, "Russian stoves nro, in fact, thick, hollow party walls, built of brick, and sometimes separating or connecting ns many ns three or four rooms, and hcntlng them all from ono common center. Tho outer sides of thoso lofty Intramural furnaces arc usually faced with a kind of whito porcelain, though In somo houses they are papered Hko the rest of tho wall, so that tho pres-enca pres-enca of tho Btovo Is known in summer only by two or threo apertures Hko port holes, which have been mado for tnp purposo of admitting tho hot air. Sometimes, especially in country houses, tho stovo, or peitchka as it is called, Is not only a wall, but a wall wnlch, toward tho bottom, projects so as to form a kind of dresser or sofa, and which tho lazier of tho inmates use not infrequently In tho latter capacity. "When a stovo Is bolng heated tho portholes nro kept carefully shut, to provent the egress of carbonic-acid gas. But after tho wood has becomo thoroughly charred and every vestige of flamo has disappeared the chlmtby Is closed on n level with tho garrot floor, tho coveraro removed from tUo 04iCtUWilJBBtde ot ho stovo nnd tho hot klr iilWwod to ponetrato freely Into the room; which, If onough wood has been put Into tho poitchka, and tho Hd of tho chimney closes hermetically, her-metically, will, by this ono fire, bo kept wnrm for twelvo or fourteen hours." |