Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-06-04
Russian Railway Travel.

A wide expanse of snow, broken by
patches of pine forests, whose dark,
sombre leaves are crested with white
flakes, forms the never-changing back
ground of the scene. Throughout the
whole five hundred aud sixty miles
that separate st. Petersburg from the
Russian boundary there is neither en-
bankment, nor cutting. nor curve.
Across dead waste of snow, tie line
stretches as far as the eye can
reach. The roadside houses you
pass on that long distance might be
counted on the fingers of your hands
the number of roads you see from the
carriage window is scarcely greater. At
regular intervals, some twenty miles
apart, the train stops at some roadside
stations. No town, or even village, is
visible in the near distance. Half q
dozen sleighs stand outside the station
score of sheepskin-clad peasants loiter
on the platform; sentry with fixed
bayonet stand at attention all the time
the train stops; nobody goes in or out.
The sole objectof the halt seems to be to
pile up anew the stack of logs
with which the engines tender is pro-
vided. The names of the stations are
unintelligible to western eye and the
queer combinations of unknown con-
torted blue letters with which the walls
of the railway waiting-rooms are cover
ed, bear little or no analogy to the Ger
manified versions provided by the time
tables. Koschedam and Lwentziuny
seem, in Russian, to be spelt with
the same letters and even the differ
ence between them and Ostrow is bare
" perccptible. Nor is there much in
the outward aspect of these stations to
distinguish them from one another.
They are all alike, only varying in size.
A long, low wooden barn-shaped
building, planted in the middle Of q
waste of snow, is their invariable type.
The train jolts slower and slower for
some quarter of an hour, then at last
comes to full stop the doors at the
end of each long railway car are thrown
open, the double windows lowered, and
q mass of figures, swathed in furs and
sheep.skins, disgorges itself slowly
upon the platform. Out of the frosty
air you pass into the refreshment rooms,
whose atmosphere is heated like that of
bakehouse oven. There is long table
in the middle for travellers who wish to
dine, bar Respondent with stacks of
colored hotties, where all kinds of
schnaps and drains are dispensed q
side table full of glasses of tea, presid-
ed over by woman in peasants dress.
The walters are dressed in black, with
white ties and white Berlin gloves. As
the large portion of the travellers are
foreigners, there is good deal of PAN
tomimic language and action, and you
constantly witness the spectacle of two
persons iabbering fiercely to one anoth-
or in different languages, each of the
speakers being perfectly aware oil the
time that what he says is utterly unin-
telligible to the other. A bell rings, the
passengers slowly reswarthe themselves
in their furs, Renter the cars leisurely,
and the train pants and puffs tardily
away. Nothing moves quickly in con-
nection with Russian railway. Again
for another twenty miles or so you pass
on through track of snow and pine
woods, and then yon reach another
hating place, the twin brother of that
you left behind an hour or more ago,
and then the same scene is repeated,
so the weary day passes slowly.-Lon-
don Telegraph.