Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-08-20

veloped resources The car himself has no
idea of the wealth of his country. Millions
upon millions of acres of it have never been
touched by the plough, and hundreds
upon hundreds of thousands of its
square miles have never been prospected. Il
has gold regions rich any in the world
which have never been worked with modern
mining machinery. and its vast iron and copper
regions produce the finest metals of this kind
known to man. It's oil regions have for a long
time been competing with those Of the United
States and Russian oil has largely driven Us out
of the markets of Asia
1t has all sorts of precious stones and as to its
agricultural possibilities these are far greater
than those Of any country in the world There
are millions Of square miles of the best of wheat
lands in Siberia and Asiatic Russia which have
never been touched by the plough and of the
vast grain regions of European Russia only a
small part is under cultivation. Such lands as
are cultivated farmed after the rudest
methods. and as it is in ordinary seasons Russia
II the greatest grain exporting country of the
world. SURPRISING even the United States in this
regard.
DORMANT WEALTH.
The bulk Of this great wealth Of Russia is
now lying dormant. Like the sleeping princess
in the fairy tale, it only waits the kiss of CAPT.
tai and labor to bring it into life, and no one
can tell how soon these giants of material pro-
gress will grid up their loins and moisten
their lips to kiss the sleeping maiden. Russia
has In her own territories the labor necessary
FOR the work, and il this was used Alright there
would be no land 50 rich upon the face of the
earth today. Admiral Porter once told me that
at fair estimate every man and woman in a
country was worth $500 as one Of the elements
OF that country's wealth At this rate the
peasantry of Russia are worth thirty billions of
dollars TO Russia, and when once walked up to
their possibilities they will make the Russian
empire jump as though j: had on the seven
league boots Of modern progress. As il is.
however. the peasantry Of Russia are more
asleep than Russias material resources. l am
impressed every day more and more
rs 1 go among them with their won
derful working power and their dor
manf possibilities. They are the wonder
among the laborers of the world. Surrounded
by the wealth Of Crpsus, endowed with the
muscles Of Hercules. born with the germs of
mans best intelligence, they live. labor and die
without knowing their power approaching
the fact that they might be better and richer
than they are. Simple and ignorant these one
hundred millions Of strong able-bodied. we'll
developed people are intellectually asleep. They
are men with the minds of children. who under
different system would quickly develop into
as intelligent workers and as good citizens as
our best Americans.
Peasant Russia is by far the most interesting
feature of modern Russia today. The peasants
are IN TACT the Russia of today, and their 5O0.-
oOO villages make up. as have said before this
great Russian empire. All of these villages are
ankle. and when you have visited one Russian
village you have to great extent seen the
whole Russian empire The Russian peasant
never has home outside Of a village He il
social animal and in the thousands of miles
which have travelled through the different
parts OF European Russia during the past few
weeks have not seen a single house standing BIZ
nse,i IN the fields In looking over a Russian
landscape you see no fences marking of the
farms as you do in America. There are no bank
barns nor stray hay stacks keeping sentinel
watch. As 1t were, over the fields. and the lone
iarm house on the western prairies of America,