Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-07-20
A RUSSIAN RAILWAY STATION.

II ~
The following description of rail-
way station in the Ural Mountains is
taken from George Remnants account of
his trip across the Russian frontier, in
the Century,. 1t will be read with sur
prise and peculiar interest by many in
America, the railway country: eve
were greatly surprised to find in this
Wild mining region of the Ural, and on
the very remotest frontier of European
Russia, a railroad so we'll built, perfectly
equipped, and luxurio,lsly appointed, as
the road over which we were travelling
from Perm to Ekaterineburg. The
stations were the very best we had seen
in Russia; the road-bed was solid and
we'll ballasted; the rolling stock would
not have suffered in comparison with
that OF the best lines in the Empire; and
the whole railroad property seemed to
be in the most perfect possible order.
Unusual attention evidently had been
paid to the ornamentation Of the grounds
lying adjacent to the stations and the
track. Even the verst-posts We're set in
neatly fitted mosaics three or four feet
in diameter Of colored Ural stones. The
station of Mimi Tagil, on the Asiatic
slope of the mountains, where we
stopped half an hour for dinner, would
have been in the highest degree credit
able to the best railroad in the United
States. The substantial station build
ing, which was a hundred feet or more
in length, with a covered platform
twenty feet wide extending along the
whole front, was tastefully painted in
shades of brown and had red sheeting
roof. 1t stood in the middle of large,
artistically planned park OF garden,
whose smooth, velvety green sward was
broken by beds of blooming flowers and
shaded by the featherly foliage of
graceful white-stemmed birches; whose
winding walks We're bordered by neatly
trimmed hedges; and whose air was
filled with the perfume of wild roses
and the murmuring plash of falling
water from the slender jet of q sprink-
ling fountain. The dining of the
station had floor of polished oak inlaid
in geometrical patterns, high dado of
dark, carved wood, walls covered with
oak-grain paper, and stucco cornice in
relief. Down the center of the room
ran long dining-table, beautifully set
with tasteful china, snowy napkins,
high glass epergnes, and crystal candle
labra, and ornamented with potted
plants, little cedar trees in green tubs,
bouquets ofcut flowers, artistic pyramids
of polished wine-bottles, druggists jars
Of colored water, and an aquarium full
of fish, plants, and artificial rock-work.
The chairs around the table were of
dark, hard wood deliberately turned and
carved; at one end of the room was q
costly clock as large as an American
jewelers. regulator" and at the other
end stood a huge bronzed oven by
which the apartment was warmed in
winter. The walters were all in even
ing dress, with low-cut waistcoats,
spotless shirt-fronts, and white ties;
and the cooks, who filled the walters
orders as in an English grill-room, We're
dressed from head to foot in white linen
and wore square white caps. It is not
an exaggeration to say that this was one
Of the neatest, most tastefllly fur
nished, and most attractive public din
ing-rooms that even entered in any
part Of the world; and as I sat there
eating well-cooked and well-served
dinner Of four courses, found it utterly
impossible to realize that [ was in the
'lnheard-of mining settlement Of Mimi
Tagil, on the Asiatic side Of the mount
aims Of the Ural This, however, was
our last glimpse Of civilized luxury for
many long, weary, months, and after
that day we did not see railway station
for almost year.