THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

llage!— and then made into shirts by hand for the whole family by the mother and daughters. The proverb: “self-made and woven by hand, attired aright the peasants stand,” was still fully operative. One did not only make the shirts out of this linen, but also the fine Sunday dresses of the wives and daughters, for which purpose it was dyed brown. And these our grandmothers, certainly considered themselves “mennisten infyn ” in accordance with the common Dutch proverb (that is, extremely presentable according to Mennonite standards, “solid, practical, clean and pleasing but not conspicuous”). What has happened to this 182 IN RUSSIA 1789-1860 mennisten infyn in hundreds of our families today! “Beautiful on the surface but underneath . . the author’s blessed mother used to say. Later the "Lavkes” (from the Russian “lavka,” store) appeared with their “Lavschniks” (lovotschniki), Mennonite merchants, partially schooled in Prussia, brought in the finished cloths from Romny (they said Remen), then from Poltava and Kharkov. Today one no longer spins or weaves, but the industrious mothers and daughters occupy their time with tailoring, sewing, knitting and crocheting. Nor does it pay to knit anymore, expect to serve as a pastime for the mother’s accustomed diligent fingers and in order to prepare gifts of love for children and grandchildren; it is more profitable to purchase ready-made goods. If one wanted to spin, weave and dye today as they did “once upon a time,” that would be about as profitable as trying to ride to Kharkov next to the railroad on a comfortable Mennonite buggy pulled by three horses, as was done forty years ago. But our wealthier settler fathers and mothers who came from Prussia were not as plain as those we have described above; it was the conditions pertaining in the settlements which brought this with it, until the “Lavkes” arrived making it possible to exchange their own products for money. My great-uncle B.F. in N. remembers (1904) seeing our great-grandfather F. 93 in H. walking gravely to church on a Sunday in a long blue coat with dollar-sized buttons, wearing knee-pants, silk stockings and shoes with silver buckles, and a metal-knobbed cane in his hand, while dear old great-grandmother tripped along at his side in a long dress with wide flowing sleeves, jewelry, silver buckles, wide skirt, shawl, and low-brimmed hat. The author’s mother, who came from Prussia in the early twenties, told us of etiquette lessons taken in the city, of steel vests (the present corsette, only much more barbaric), the dread of her wild sister "Busc hk e” (Barbara) on whom they would put the longest steel vest so that she would behave “properly” when visitors came or when they went to visit people. His grandfather wore a fur-coat during the cooler seasons, and, during the warmer season, a coat that is called a "Nikolaiev Schinelli” in Russia. Our mothers’ (grandmothers’ and great-grandmothers’) appare