The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-11-01
The Capital Of Poland.

Outwardly Warsaw, like the rest of
Poland, is pacified and prosperous. No
city in Russia can equal it for solid
progress, none maintains such a high
level of commercial prosperity in spite
of the depression prevailing throughout
the greater part of the Russian EN-
pire. In population it ranks third in
the list of Russian cities, st. Peters
burg coming first, with $4,000 people,
Moscow next, with $4,000, and War
saw third, with $4,000. In appear
ance there is little that is Polish about
the place; it has not that national look
possessed by Cracow. The lofty, solid,
whitewashed houses deposited in blocks
along uniform and regular streets. with
horrible cobble-stone paving and rat
thing droskies, remind one of an infe-
rior ST. Petersburg and Berlin. Bar
racks and Government buildings thrust
themselves upon the gaze everywhere
the streets swarm with soldiers and
officials; but, none the less. there is
plenty of genuine business in the place,
and in that respect renders Warsaw
more like Moscow or Mini Novgorod
than St. Petersburg. Efforts have been
made by successive Governors to Rus
sianize Warsaw and give it the ortho-
dox whitewashcd LIGHTHOUSE appear
ance. Russian names and signs have
been insisted upon, Polish monuments
and buildings destroyed, and Russo
Greek churches reared upon the sites
of Catholic ones. With all this they
have not succeeded in rendering War
saw place that Russians admire and
love, nor have they rooted out the
generation which the Poles entertain
for a city every inch of which contains
associations calculated to move the
deepest feelings of the patriot. For the
ordinary Russian it is a case of exile to
send him to Poland. In many instances
Siberia would be preferred. The Rus
sian has three pet aversiOns-the Jew.
the German, and the Catholic Pole
Warsaw is almost entirely made up Of
these elements. In the villages the
Russian comes in contact with sour
faced Polish peasants, protesting a re-
ligion he hates, and in the towns all mis-
business has to be transacted with
Jews and Germans. The Russian is
thus everywhere in false position.
He dominates, but it is at the expense
of mutual detestation. The worst is
that he feels he is losing ground. The
Germans and the Jews are overrunning
the country; out of population Of
1000, 900, 900, are Jews, and nearly
500, 900 Germans. Thus one out Of
every five persons he meets is Jew or
German. It can be readily under
stood that with a large cxpanse of
splendid country, uncultivated and
awaiting colonization, stretching south
of Russia to the Caucasus, the Musco-
vite should avoid settling down in Po-
land. The climate and soil of the Ste-
vropol plains being infinitely better
than Poland, and the land considera-
bly, cheaper, the overplus of the middle
Russian provinces yearly makes for the
Black Sea, instead Of moving west to
the vistula. To encourage the latter
movement, the Russian Government
nacted in 1864 that no Pole should
sell his land to q fellow -countryman
There being no Russian buyers, how
ever, the Germans have swarmed in.
and Russia. having won Poland from
the Pole, is now in danger of losing it
to the German. At the close of the last
century Warsaw was q Prussian pos
session; what is now the Vistula prov
ince was administered from Berlin.
Germans have proverbially long memo
ries, and have displayed considerable
tenacity in sticking to their programme
Of extending the Kaiser's rule to wher-
ever it was once acknowledged. With
Warsaw converted into second Metz,
Germany would be as powerful on her
eastern frontier as she is now on the
west-L0ndon Globe.