The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-08-04

ST. Petersburg to Mos
cow, and it took me another twelve hours by
rail to the quiet, fair City of Mini Novgorod,
where hundreds of thousands of merchants from
I'll parts of Asia assemble every year.
Kazan is day and a night by fast steamer
from Mini, and it is reached by the Noga
River The Volgs is one of the great rivers OF
The world. 1t is the Russian Mississippi and 1t
compares in size with the Nile the Ganges, and
the Irriwaddy Of Burmah. 1t is more than
1000 miles long, and it taps the richest parts OF
Russia. 1t has hundreds of branches ana 1t is
connected by canal with the Neva, so that goods
can be shipped in boats from the Caspian Sea to
the Baltic and from all r. IS OF the south to st.
Petersburg.
This river is of just about the color of the
Ohio, and its water is rather yellow than white.
1t is nowhere very picturesque; for Russia is a
fat country, and European Russia from the
Caspian to the Baltic has not mountain more
than 300 feet high and the most of the En-
pire is made up of vast plains rising IN the
south central part into steppes.
In coming to Kazan we passed through per-
haps the most rugged lands of its course; but
there were nowhere any great hills, and such
of the banks as were steep were rugged rather
than pretty. The houses and the people, how
ever, were far more interesting than material
nature and the journey was one of strange
sights
The yolga trade itself was interesting. Tho
ships are of all kinds, from the old-fashioned
boat which is pulled up stream by means OF
anchors and a windlass worked by horses-for
all the world like the old horse power thrash
g-machine-to the passenger steamers of the
American pattern which carry thousands OF
Russians down into the Caucasus Mountains
for their Summer outing.
There are great steam side wheelers from
Perm, which are hauling cargoes OF iron, salt,
faa fberia ha
coal oil-the whole barge filed with the fluid
in bulk-ior the cars and manufactures Of
central Russia
There are hundreds of great RATS of logs,
b8rges loaded with poles and wood, and every
thing else in river craft, from the rowboat and
the skiff Of the fisherman 20 the steam tug and
the great freight steamers OF Zeveeke g Co.
The banks Of the Volga are lined with cities
and villages.
The cities are a cross between the mining
town of the Allegheny Mountains and the
white Mexican cities of the plateau Of our
Blister Republic. Their suburbs are like the
dirty wooden cabins OF the miners, and their
business parts and the better houses remind
one forcibly OF Mexico. Russia is land of
wood, and the houses of the poor are of logs
over vast part Of the Empire. The logs are
sawed in half and are not used whole as with
rs. The bark is taken of them, and the fat
of the cabin.
This gives smooth walls. The logs are
notched and fitted as ours are, and the creviccs
between them are plugged with lax or oakum.
The logs used are straight. and such log houses
are often very handsome. You see many of
them in the ST. Petersburg suburbs, and the
railway stations of the smaller towns are made
of logs. The main part of these Yolga towns
are however. of stucco and brick, and they
are colored dirty white.
The buildings are often rooted with green,
and the usual roofing is of sheet-iron. The
business houses often have corridors running
along under their front stories, so that ore can
walk along sheltered from the sun and rain,
and examine the store windows. The houses
are almost always close to the street, and there
js no variety Of architecture. Ali Russia has
in this respect great sameness, and the only
buildings outside Of Moscow and ST. Petersburg
which have any architectural beauty are the
churches.
These are always picturesque and extrava-
CANT. You see them dotting the great plains Of
the Folga at every turn OF the ships wheel, and,
no matter how small or mean the town. there
is sure 20 be some great church rising out of
the collection of matched huts. The people
may be starving but the Church is not; and
an all this famine you hear little of aims being
given by the priests.
Kazan is the old Tartar CAPITAL, and its popu-
la.ion is largely Tartar to-day. 1t has quar-
ter which is essentially Mahometan, and the
Tartars rule the followers of the
Prophet rather than the disciples Of Christ
There were crowds Of the lower classes of
them at the wharf when landed here.
They could be distinguished from the Russians
by their dress aud features
The Russians are long-haired race. They
have great shocks of hair. which the men wear
parted in the middle, and which, in the case of
many Of the peasants, looks as though they had
never seen a comb The Tartar men shave
the head and wear caps OF black astrakan with
out vsors. The Russian cap always has a stiff
visor over the eyes, the Tartar cap never
Both Tartars and Russians wear long coats and
the better class of Tartars whom saw made
me think of the Parsees. and were their caps
shaped like scoop-sbovels they would easily
pass for the famous fre-worshpers of Bombay
The Tariars came into Russia in the Middle
Ages when Gerghis Kahn overran Asia and
Eastern Europe. This was about 500 years ago.
and for 200 years thereafter Russian history is
filed with the fights of the Tartars and the
Russians.
At last Ivan the Terrible. one of the most
cruel OF the many cruel Russian monarchs, con-
quered the Tartars, aud among other victories
he gained great one over them here al Kazsn
aad from that time on Kazan has been Russian.
1t was here that Peter the Great established
naval station during his reign, and here be
Quilt TIE ufSt man -oI-war lor the holga and
the Caspian.
The town is now more of business center
than military post, though / saw perhaps q
dozen regiments of Tartar troops marching
through its streets while / drove along them
yesterday afternoon. These troops were stocky,
heavy-set, back-faced men, who looked more
like Turks or Chinese than Russians. They
were dressed in white and more sullen, fero-
cious lot OF cut-throats never saw. They are
good fighters and they will fight TO the last
Some of the greatest barbarities of the Russo.
Turkish war were committed by them, and
when their passions are reused they can hardly
be restrained.
The pure Russians do not admire their Tar
tar citizens. They speak of them as dirty
Tartars, ard they decidedly object to the ex-
preston " If you scratch Russian you will
cstch a Tartar" do not wonder at this. If
all the Tartars in Russia are like those see on
the streets OF hazan they are not TO be desired
IS companions or bed-fellows.
Dirty and Sowing, they spend much OF
their time ia scratching their pates and pick
Ing certain uncomfortable insects out Of the
clothes of their cmpanions and children.
Such as were at work looked though they
had not been tathed for weeks and their long
coats and black caps were greasy and filthy.
Their shaved heads gave them a half-insane
look, and the women j saw were not prepos-
sessing. though some were gorgeous enough.
Ihe Tartar quarter of kaZan is in the most