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154
Among German Colonists.
one time tlie sapient authorities attempted to curtail their
privileges, and large numbers emigrated to America, both to
the United States and the Southern Continent, but of late they
have been comparatively free from molestation.
The cause of the wonderful success of these colonists in
the face of considerable disadvantages is undoubtedly their
practical Christianity, i.e., the steadily applied principles of
brotherly love in their communal life.
To give the reader a clear idea of these colonies we invite
him to share our visit to one of them.
It is a very hot summer day, and we have a covered carriage
to protect us against the scorching rays of the sun. A few
hours’ ride over the treeless, waterless steppe brings us within
view of an oasis in the desert, conspicuously green. It is the
Mennonite Colony of Halfstaal, in Southern Russia, which we
are about to visit. The nearer we approach the more vivid is
the contrast between it and the surrounding country. All
round is the dreary, flat, and sun-scorched steppe, unrelieved by
a single tree. Here, in the midst, is a tract of charming
verdure, grassy meadows, and luxuriant foliage. At one of the
outskirts rises a three-storied building of handsome
dimensions ; it is the school for deaf and dumb, supported by all the
Mennonite Colonies in common, and used for the instruction of
their deaf-mutes of both sexes. The methods of teaching and
all the arrangements are in accordance with the latest
improvements in Europe. There is perfect order in the school, as in
the colony generally, testifying to the high moral and
intellectual development of the inhabitants. Snug and roomy
houses on both sides the broad street peep cosily out from the
green gardens, which always form an essential part of a
Mennonite home. Here are no abominations of terraced
houses, in which, as Maarten Maartens somewhere observes,
the central inhabitant has only to read the newspaper aloud,
and all the others in the street may save their pennies; each
home is surrounded by a spacious plot of land of its own, with
separate well for both drinking and irrigating purposes.
Behind the house is always a kitclien-garden, beyond a
well-built cowshed and storehouse. Scrupulous cleanliness and
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