a by no means exorbitant rate of interest.

A laudable attempt has been made to remedy this state of things by village banks, but these have proved successful only in certain exceptional localities.

As a rule the peasant who contracts debts has a hard struggle to pay the interest in ordinary times, and when some misfortune overtakes him--when, for instance, the harvest is bad or his horse is stolen--he probably falls hopelessly into pecuniary embarrassments.

I have seen peasants not specially addicted to drunkenness or other ruinous habits sink to a helpless state of insolvency.

Fortunately for such insolvent debtors, they are treated by the law with extreme leniency.