and most honored men of the
village, probably corresponding to the mayor of one of our own cities,
but we were later disillusioned in this particular. It seems that each
male member of the community must "do time" some time during his career
as village elder, and each one tried to postpone the task just as long
as it was in his power to do so. True it is that the starosta is the
leader of his community during his regime, but therein is the
difficulty, for coupled with this power is the further detail of keeping
a strict and accurate account of all the business transactions of the
year, all the moneys, wages, etc., due the various members for labors
performed and services rendered. This, of course, is due to the fact
that everything is owned in common by the community: Land, food
products, wood, in short, practically all tangible property.

Imagine, then, the starosta who, we will say, at eight or nine o'clock
on a cold winter's night is called upon to have a dozen or more drivers
ready the next morning at six o'clock to conduct a sledge convoy through
to the next town, another group of fifty or a hundred workmen to go into
the forests and cut and haul logs for fortifications, and still others
for as many different duties as one could imagine during time of war. He
must furthermore see, for example, that the same drivers are properly
called in turn, for it is the occasion of another prolonged verbal
battle in case one is called out of his turn. During the day he is
probably busily occupied in commandeering oats and hay for the convoy
horses and when night comes he certainly has earned his day's repose,
but his day does not end at nightfall as in the case of the other
members of the commune.

During our stay here, practically every night he would call upon the
commanding officer to get orders for the coming day, to check over
various claims and accounts and each week to receive pay for the entire
community engaged in these labors. One occasion we distinctly recall as
a striking example of this particular starosta's honesty and integrity.
He had spent the greater part of the evening in our headquarters,
checking over accounts involving some three or four thousand roubles for
the pay roll the following day. Finally the matter was settled and the
money turned over to him, after which we all retired to our bunks. At
about one o'clock that morning the sentry on post near headquarters
awakened us and said the starosta was out