Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-10-01
Railway Traycl IN Russia.

III there In a country In the world for who's
special benefit railways may be said 20 have
been invented. that country Ia decidedly Russia
From ST. Petersburg To Moscow the distance IL
six hundred aud four yersts or four hundred
and three English miles and the night train
travels over il in fifteen hours, ct the rate Of
twenty-six miles an hour. not reckoning stop
pages. which Is considered fair average speed on
the continent In posting times all that horse
mesh by the most strenuous efforts had been made
TO achieve was the conveyance Of the immortal
mails between the two cities I'm five DAYS and Eve
nights. or one hundred and twenty hours the
rate being three and a half miles hourly. The
gain In time was. perhaps. greater In this than
IA any other country; but I'm no country has
thaf speed. which Is after all the only real adj
VANTAGE OF railway travelling. been less counter
acted 10y its undeniahle drawbacks. In England,
LOT instance, the railways have rohned us of all
the Charms or the road-the shady mark the
breezy common. the crowding villagers. the
chafi OF driver and hostler. the inge nook nj the
wayslde nm. the loaming ale of the stiTTup-cup;
In France and Italy of the sight of the hundred
minor towns, with their cathe,lrals ana town.
nails IN the market place. the luscious fruits the
lively faces. the quaint costumes which enliy-
ened us at every stage. We travelled then
through the life of the country All we eniov
now is the blank dead wall OF the station The
thronged platform, the piles Of luggage the en-
gine shrek. the stale sandwich the. hurry
skurry. the sour look of fellow Passengers more
thankful Tor our room than our company. and
IL
up. locked up AT the guards discretion. the ex-
press tearing away deaf 10 our sufferings or dam
gers cooped up with bears or bores and with
the chance Of falling in with a Muller or a Le-
troy.
In Russia alone railway travelling nav be said
TO have been all gain and no loss. There is no
line in either hemisphere that comes up 20 the
comforts and iuxuries of the Moscow and SC.
petersburg line; roomy and lofty saloon car
riaSes; a window seat. a falatlal az a light lug
oil foil. ~ sl,a
carriage end; regular halts at convenient inter-
Vas. the finest stations the best Stumbled and
cheapest refreshment rooms and Hottest, widest.
ceahest platforms TO stretch ones legs
IN, ana everything everywhere contrived
TO protect you from winter cold or sum-
mer heat-a great Improvement all this
upon the cramped open sedge. with the
thermometer 80 degrees below zero, and the
cold creeping in and curdling your blood under
your fur coat. cap and boots. the snow and seet
peiting your face. pack Of wolves bowling in
your rear ready to catch the hindmost and the
motion OF the sledge over snow burrows causing
you to bob up and down in your seat like a log
on the waves, with an upset now and then. and
many passengers regularly sea-sck." vet even
all these miseries preferable TO summer travel
ing with the sitting heat and binding glare of A
TWENTY-FIVE hours day. and the dust both sitting
ana binding, and the jolting that broke every
bone i'm your skin.
The Russian travels fast and with the banpv
CONSCIOUSNESS that neither in town nor country
does he leave ANYTHING behind him worth loter-
ing for. Even Murray. who is bound to say
something, has but little TO tell us about
Chudowa. Volkhova, Tver, Kiln and other local
tiles the train stopped at on our route And az
Tor the country the panorama is almost every
where the same dreary fiat from end to end. the
earth spreading far and wide like a broad dish
All round to the horizon, and the blue vault Of
heaven encOmpassng il like dish coyer-tbe
very idea of the universe as man conceived ft
before Calico put spectacles on his nose and
made him see more worlds than one. GORE
spondence London Times