登陆注册
5382300000107

第107章 CHAPTER XVI(3)

The Mennonites were originally Dutchmen. Persecuted for their religious views in the sixteenth century, a large number of them accepted an invitation to settle in West Prussia, where they helped to drain the great marshes between Danzig, Elbing, and Marienburg.

Here in the course of time they forgot their native language.

Their emigration to Russia began in 1789.

The fact that these Mennonites and some other German colonies have succeeded in rearing a few sickly trees has suggested to some fertile minds the idea that the prevailing dryness of the climate, which is the chief difficulty with which the agriculturist of that region has to contend, might be to some extent counteracted by arboriculture on a large scale. This scheme, though it has been seriously entertained by one of his Majesty's ministers, must seem hardly practicable to any one who knows how much labour and money the colonists have expended in creating that agreeable shade which they love to enjoy in their leisure hours. If climate is affected at all by the existence or non-existence of forests--a point on which scientific men do not seem to be entirely agreed--any palpable increase of the rainfall can be produced only by forests of enormous extent, and it is hardly conceivable that these could be artificially produced in Southern Russia. It is quite possible, however, that local ameliorations may be effected. During a visit to the province of Voronezh in 1903 I found that comparatively small plantations diminished the effects of drought in their immediate vicinity by retaining the moisture for a time in the soil and the surrounding atmosphere.

After the Mennonites and other Germans, the Bulgarian colonists deserve a passing notice. They settled in this region much more recently, on the land that was left vacant by the exodus of the Nogai Tartars after the Crimean War. If I may judge of their condition by a mere flying visit, I should say that in agriculture and domestic civilisation they are not very far behind the majority of German colonists. Their houses are indeed small--so small that one of them might almost be put into a single room of a Mennonite's house; but there is an air of cleanliness and comfort about them that would do credit to a German housewife.

In spite of all this, these Bulgarians were, I could easily perceive, by no means delighted with their new home. The cause of their discontent, so far as I could gather from the few laconic remarks which I extracted from them, seemed to be this: Trusting to the highly coloured descriptions furnished by the emigration agents who had induced them to change the rule of the Sultan for the authority of the Tsar, they came to Russia with the expectation of finding a fertile and beautiful Promised Land. Instead of a land flowing with milk and honey, they received a tract of bare Steppe on which even water could be obtained only with great difficulty--

with no shade to protect them from the heat of summer and nothing to shelter them from the keen northern blasts that often sweep over those open plains. As no adequate arrangements had been made for their reception, they were quartered during the first winter on the German colonists, who, being quite innocent of any Slavophil sympathies, were probably not very hospitable to their uninvited guests. To complete their disappointment, they found that they could not cultivate the vine, and that their mild, fragrant tobacco, which is for them a necessary of life, could be obtained only at a very high price. So disconsolate were they under this cruel disenchantment that, at the time of my visit, they talked of returning to their old homes in Turkey.

As an example of the less prosperous colonists, I may mention the Tartar-speaking Greeks in the neighbourhood of Mariupol, on the northern shore of the Sea of Azof. Their ancestors lived in the Crimea, under the rule of the Tartar Khans, and emigrated to Russia in the time of Catherine II., before Crim Tartary was annexed to the Russian Empire. They have almost entirely forgotten their old language, but have preserved their old faith. In adopting the Tartar language they have adopted something of Tartar indolence and apathy, and the natural consequence is that they are poor and ignorant.

But of all the colonists of this region the least prosperous are the Jews. The Chosen People are certainly a most intelligent, industrious, frugal race, and in all matters of buying, selling, and bartering they are unrivalled among the nations of the earth, but they have been too long accustomed to town life to be good tillers of the soil. These Jewish colonies were founded as an experiment to see whether the Israelite could be weaned from his traditionary pursuits and transferred to what some economists call the productive section of society. The experiment has failed, and the cause of the failure is not difficult to find. One has merely to look at these men of gaunt visage and shambling gait, with their loop-holed slippers, and black, threadbare coats reaching down to their ankles, to understand that they are not in their proper sphere. Their houses are in a most dilapidated condition, and their villages remind one of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet. A great part of their land is left uncultivated or let to colonists of a different race. What little revenue they have is derived chiefly from trade of a more or less clandestine nature.*

Mr. Arnold White, who subsequently visited some of these Jewish Colonies in connection with Baron Hirsch's colonisation scheme, assured me that he found them in a much more prosperous condition.

As Scandinavia was formerly called officina gentium--a workshop in which new nations were made--so we may regard Southern Russia as a workshop in which fragments of old nations are being melted down to form a new, composite whole. It must be confessed, however, that the melting process has as yet scarcely begun.

同类推荐
  • Vailima Prayers

    Vailima Prayers

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 撄宁静禅师语录

    撄宁静禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 传神秘要

    传神秘要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Bramble-bees and Others

    Bramble-bees and Others

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太清金阙玉华仙书八极神章三皇内秘文

    太清金阙玉华仙书八极神章三皇内秘文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 鸵鸟小姐与狐狸先生

    鸵鸟小姐与狐狸先生

    暖冬,二十五岁,一直没谈过恋爱,却有一群时而如手足时而如衣服的“狐朋狗友”。她被嗷嗷待哺的众人培养出了一身好厨艺,她的家也变成了身边朋友日常聚会、休息疗伤的革命根据地。就在她以为自己的感情生活会这样维持原状一潭死水下去时,曾经的暗恋对象邵宇哲以空降上司的身份再次闯进了她的世界里,再次面对邵宇哲,她的心里只有一个念头,躲!对于暖冬而言,不论过去多少年,邵宇哲都是那个,在芸芸众生里发着光,独一无二的存在。当他一再接近她的生活,无视她的逃避步步紧逼,曾经按捺在心底的情愫再次沸腾,而当初他的默拒和不辞而别似乎另有隐情……如果她是那只把头埋进沙地的鸵鸟,那么他就是那个努力拨开沙粒看见她真心的狐狸。
  • 温情浓汤

    温情浓汤

    在这里,你能得到四季都可与家人分享的佳品,让你和家人一同进入温馨的世界。在这里,你可以了解煲汤的技巧与宜忌,你可以把你所了解的告诉你爱的人和爱你的人。传递关爱从这里开始。
  • 重生小农女

    重生小农女

    提起农家女苏如,整个京城无人不知:她八岁冒死救太子,十岁一舞惊圣上,十五岁及笄那年更是引来七大家族继承人同时上门提亲,一时轰动全城!面对诸多羡慕嫉妒恨,苏如很淡定的在家里喂猪,都闹什么闹?她这一世的精彩人生不过才刚刚开始而已。至于嫁人这事嘛?她心中已经有了良人。【这是一个女主重生到她最厌恶的女配身上的“精彩”故事~\(≧▽≦)/~】
  • 玉楼一弦

    玉楼一弦

    她是异世寻死的孤魂,却离奇穿越重生。四年亲情让她蜕变成蝶,玉楼郡主横空出世,翩翩美男层出不穷,这郡主有点招架不住。他唇边勾起一抹浅笑。
  • 九间棚采风

    九间棚采风

    在一个勃勃春天里,在冰雪还没有消融时,日子被悄悄打开。九间棚就开始生长了勃勃向往,放飞阳光与不懈的追求。这片曾经荒芜的山地,蓄意地追求着美好。
  • 篮坛父子兵

    篮坛父子兵

    社会我三哥,玩球骚话多;篮坛乱不乱,三哥儿子说了算。想看篮球的书友请从12章开始。
  • 山丹丹红透碾子湾

    山丹丹红透碾子湾

    他们都还是娃娃嘛,你害(陕北话:明白)下了没有?你说那个时候……当我黑头黄汗地来到碾子湾,把高服良堵在他家门前的石碾旁,向他问起四十年前的一些往事时,平日乐观的高服良为难了。他甚至躲开我的眼睛,低头摆弄着他捏在手里的那杆黄铜唢呐,十根粗壮的手指,像是一节节受惊的草蛇,在唢呐的眼儿上,没有目的地弹动着。显然是,我的询问让他沉入到回忆中去了……回忆使他的眉头拧了起来,他本能地张开嘴来,慢慢地噙住了唢呐,朝着脚下的黄土“呜哇”低吼了一声,就又高举起来,朝着蓝瓦瓦、亮晃晃的天空,持续不断地吹奏起来了。现在的高服良,已然花白了头发。
  • 皇后很倾城

    皇后很倾城

    一场风驰电掣,雷霆万钧的无间道战役,她为国家光荣牺牲,葬身黑海。这个她可以忍受,可是为什么让她模糊的看到无数身穿白大褂,蒙脸的医师日在奋战抢救了了几十个小之后,醒来时却发现自己已成一个襁褓婴儿,正被一个眉目刚毅,丰神俊朗的小男孩抱在怀中,只见他凝视着自己,剑眉一挑,面目天真,眼底却深邃的道:“她是朕的皇后?”皇后?靠,老天爷,你跟我开什么玩笑!
  • 重生幸福人生

    重生幸福人生

    许菡雯莫名回到了14年前的医院,既然老天让她重新过一次,许菡雯觉得不能辜负了老天的好意,于是她充分利用自己是重生人士的优势,甩掉负心丈夫,斗倒无耻小三,并利用前世有限的认知,努力让自己和女儿的生活过得风生水起,最终不但自己找到了新的生活伴侣,也将女儿培养成为设计大师,飞扬人生,享受重生的幸福生活。
  • 素殇浅情

    素殇浅情

    从天而降的妹子?还是个妖族?等等,我之前还救下来一个半猫妖女孩子?父亲追杀,兄长陷害,唯一的母亲也因此命丧至此。我云轩,定会手刃仇人为母亲报仇雪恨!!天界帝君,下凡历劫,却不慎碰到了一堆来寻仇的。某天帝:这师父谁来收了他,我师母怎么还没来……某殿下:我不会害你,放心吧,我做的这一切都是为了你好……一时不慎,失了女主。天界帝君下凡历劫,就是只是为了寻妻!!【1v1,甜宠!】