Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-07

much admired ''smartness" of the crack regi-
ments. Their clothes are soiled and coarse
then boots are unDlacked, and their weapons
look as If they had seen several campaigns
But the men themselves are happy and hardy,
the picture of physical well-being and content
They are mostly much younger than troops
with US, and they are evidently drawn from
the lower classes of a farming population.
Their winter barracks are spacious and hand
some buildings. but their summer barracks,
several miles inland by the shore of a beauti-
full part of the Amur bay, are rather ram
shaekle. and If the truth is to be told, much
satisfied to live in. But spent jolly evening
with them when / rode out with my military
guide, and shared their very palatable if frugal
supper of black bread, potato soup, and Krdss
"a kind of thin bitter beer. They would GER
tainly make excellent rough fighting material
hdaOnenfutte1', as the Germans cynically call it
all the better for war work in this far-off
hard country, because they do not know what
it is to be petted or pampered in time of peace.
In fact. peace means perhaps more hard work
for them than war, for they are employed on
building Notifications, making bricks, and sew
eral other occupations that ar not included in
the military curriculum elsewhere, very much
like common laborers. The following estimate
of their numbers at Vladivostok is not far from
the mark: Two battalions of infantry, 1900; ar
tillery, $50; sappers, $50; total, on peace foot
ing, 1900 men. This is doubtless much smaller
than Is generally supposed. but the tendency
is to distribute the forces all over this part of
Eastern Siberia, and only to collect large
Then probably from Il, 900 to Is 900 men would
be concentrated here.
THE OFFICERS.
on the whole, strike me as fine body of men,
dignifed, devoted and intelligent But they
must suffer intellectually from being cut off by
the strict Russian censorship laws from the in
formation which circulates SO freely elsewhere.
The growing Importance, by the way, of the
stronghold in Russian Tartary is shown by the
fact that officers are no longer literally pen
stoned for short service here and elsewhere on
the Siberian coast Officers used to elect to
serve in Siberia, and after ten years service
were entitled to retire upon half pay, and after
twenty years service upon full pay. For serv-
ice in European Russia, on the other hand. re-
five years service. These liberal terms of PEN
sion naturally made service in Siberia popular,
but the whole system of naval pension was
altered year ago, and the above only applies
now to officers who entered the navy before
last year. An occasional officer here speaks lit
tie English, several speak French, and almost all
speak more or less German. To Lieut.. Vladimir
Maximoff, flag officer to the commander of
the port, in whose charge was placed, and
who combined the maximum of courtesy and
hospitality with the minimum of information,
/ owe my hearty thanks. NY pleasantest expe-
rience under the Russian flag was lunch on
board the gunboat Nerpa, to which he took me.
The meal lasted from IL till 3; the vodka, which
looks like water, circulated like it, officers from
the other ships began to come over as soon rs
1t was known or signaled that there was fun on
board; everybody was familiar vito the formal
hilarities of German student life and it was
'Stosst am and Itch erlaube mir" and 80
leben wir." and AIT Heidelberg du sch0ne"
and the rest. The commander gave us 1.-The
Pal Mall Gazette and its conductor. Herr
Stead" in little speech full of admirable
feeling, and a tall, yellow-haired young officer
turned to the piano and sang a delightful Rus
sian ballad, Eyes of night and eyes of pas
sion" with many sly glances at my friend
Maxlmoff, who found was to be married in a
few days to the daughter of the doctor of the
Nerpa, and all good go with them!
THE COMING IRANsCoNTINENTAL RAILWAY
from Europe to Vladivostook is just beginning
to be the chief topic of conversation here an
indeed an interesting topic all over the east.
But so far as l can make out, some misconcep-
tions prevail about it. The intention. accord
ing to my information, is not by any means to
make an all-rail line across the Russian empire
that would be altogether too big and too
costly an undertaking. but only to insert
lengths of railway in the gaps between the diff
ferent pieces of INSTRUMENTATION already
existing and for the most part in active use
Engineers are busy surveying here in Siberia
and the route is not yet fully decided upon
now two months and half; this rail and river
route will reduce it to one month. The new
route Is expected to be complete in four years
time. Its inception is admitted to be wholly
strategical, whatever commercial interests it
may serve to develop. 1t will be but the first
of many strange and revolutionizing enter
prises in the northern world. A telegraph
line from New Westminster to st. Petersburg
via Behring Strait, instead of Pacific cable
is certain to come before long; indeed it was
already half built when the Atlantic cable
proved a success, and then abandoned. And
even a railway from New York to Peking, via
the Canadian Pacific, Alaska Behring's Strait
Siberia and Manchuria, is not wholly a wild
dream.
NOT A CLOSED PORT.
1 have kept for the last my chief discovery
here. 1t is universally belived that vladivostok
is closed port for four months out of the
twelve-isolated by impossible ice from about
December IL to April II. And this is regarded
as the natural explanation of Russia's ''Drang
mach SUDDEN" her supposed necessity to press
gradually southwark for an open port in Korea
or below it. Such is not the case. A man of
war-and therefore dozen-can be got in or
out OF the Vladivostok harbor in case of urgent
need at any time OF year. There is an Ameri-
can ice-breaking machine here which on a
trial trip" last winter broke channel through
the thickest part Of the ice, 100 feet long and
fathoms wide, at pace which would take it out
beyond Goldobin Point, where the ice is natur-
ally more or less broken, in three or
four days. Moreover Patroclus Bay, and
especially the bay farther to the south
east. are practicable bays all the year round
AT any rate two American ships came up there
unaided last winter. Indeed the authorities
are considering whether they will not make
this the mercantile terminus of the coming
railway. The bearing of these facts upon the
whole question of the international politics of
the Pacific is obvious as it is of the first i'm
portance. especially to England and the United
States. III Russia has what she needs. she is
under no temptation to seek it elsewhere.
may add that have decided to cross Korea
on horseback, as a short cut to China and an
opportunity of really seeing country attract
ing much attention at the present moment 1t
is trip that very few foreigners have ever
made, and certainly no journalist. My next
letters will tell, 1 hope, how fare.
HENRY NORMAN.