the hauling and much of the sawing and splitting of
wood for the stoves of the house, besides all of the housework and the
spinning, knitting, weaving and making of clothing. The boys' specialty
during the winter evenings often is the construction of fishnets of
various sized meshes, and the making of baskets, which they do
beautifully.

On Sundays and holidays, even in these times of hardship, the native
dress of the northern people is seen in much of its former interesting
beauty. The women and girls in full skirts, white, red or yellow waists
with laced bodices of darker color, fancy head-cloths and startling
shawls, tempt the stares of the foreigner as they pass him on their way
to church or to a dance. The men usually content themselves with their
cleanest breeches, a pair of high boots of beautiful leather, an
embroidered blouse buttoning over the heart, a broad belt, and a woolly
angora cap without a visor. Suspenders and corsets are quite absent.

On week-days and at work the dress of the North Russian peasant is,
after five years of wartime, rather a nondescript collection of
garments, often pitiful. In the winter the clothing problem is somewhat
simplified because the four items of apparel which are customary and
common to all for out-of-doors wear are made so durably that they last
for years, and when worn out are replaced by others made right in the
home. They are the padded over-coat of coarse cloth or light skins, the
valinka of felt or the long boot of fur, the parki--a fur great coat
without front opening and with head-covering attached, and the heavy
knitted or fur mitten. In several of the views shown in this volume
these different articles of dress may be seen, some of them on the
heads, backs, hands and feet of the American soldiers.

What American soldier who spent days and days in those Russian log
houses does not remember that in the average house there is little
furniture. The walls, floors, benches and tables are as a rule kept very
clean, being frequently scrubbed with sand and water. In the house,
women and children are habitually bare-footed, and the men usually in
stocking-feet. The valinka would scald his feet if he wore them inside,
as many a soldier found to his dismay. Sometimes chairs are found, but
seldom bed-steads except in the larger homes. Each member of the family
has a pallet of coarse cloth stuffed with fluffy flax, which is placed
at night on the floor, on benches, on part o