The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-09-25


ture you eat, and you like it. 1t is not bad,
l assure you. But l have never found N.Y.
self able to get beyond the first course, for
after you have taken the liquid part of the
soup you are expected to carve up and eat
the meat, and the meat forms quite a meal
in itself.
The trains usually make long stops at the
stations, and from thirty to forty minutes
Tor dinner is not uncommon. at every
station pedders come around with fruits,
cakes and drinkables, and a common sight
Is the old fellow with the samovar in which
he makes tea and serves it to all who will
buy. 1t makes no difference how hot 1t is
this man always wears his overcOat, and
long-yisored cap usually snr0uds his eyes.
He Is generally bearded and he has fat,
jolly face ike that of Santa Claus. His tea
is good and he serves it with bit of lemon
and lump of the hardest sugar you have
ever put between your teeth. If you drink
the tea like he does you will put lump of
sugar between your teeth and suck the tea
through this, and the chances are that when
you get as old as he is your teeth will be in
the decayed condition of his. Nine-tenths of
the Russian peasants have bad teeth. and
there is more chance for good enterprising
dentists here than anywhere else in the
world. Idon't doubt but that there are $780,
100000 cavities ready at this writing in this
empire for SOC, 000 600 GOLD or amalgam plugs.
and the Russian with sound teeth is the ex-
ception.
1t is wonderful how much travel is done
by the poor class In Russia. The third-class
cars are always full. They are more like
csttle-cars than anything else. There are
no cushions on the seats, and the people are
crowded in In all sorts OF ways. They are
not supposed to have any rights that the
railroad officials are bound to respect, and |
saw one man knocked down and showed
back into the station just as the car was
about to start because he did not have his
ticket in his hand. He told the guard that
the party of peasants with whom he was
travelling had the ticket and they had al
ready gotten on the cars, but this did him no
good, and though he cried and hOwled he
was held back while tue car bore his friends
and his family away.
The peasant cannot travel in Russia With
out passport. | have not had to show
my passport at the railroad depots except
when L came into Russia, but the peasant
dare not 90 from one part of Russia to the
other without permission of the local gov
eminent under which he lives, and he is
asked to show his passport at the ticket
office. At Tamboff saw whole crowd of
peasants who were about to emigrate to an
other province. Each had his passport
10 his baud and they stood in single file
waiting for their turns to buy their tickets.
Ii was at this same station that l saw my
first prs0n-car. These Russian roads have
cars especially devoted to the carrying of
prisoners, and the prisoners who are taken
from here 10 Siberia 90 by rail to Mini
NoyOgrod, whence they are put on prison.
boats and are carried down the Volga and
up the river Kama 10 Perm and thence
start on their march to the wilds of Siberia.
These cars had iron bars and windows, and
they are guarded by soldiers who are ready
to shoot any who try to escape. The cars
themselves are third-class ones and the
prisoners sit on hard boards rather than
cushions.
1t don't pay to carry much baggage In
Russia. / have trunk with me that weighs
about 200 pounds and it costs me So every
time move. Only forty pounds OF bag
gage is allowed with ticket here and the
excess is always charged for. There is no
charge, however. for packages carried in
side the cars, and the result is that every
passenger has a half dozen bundles and the
cars are filled with packages and baskets
and trunks with handles on them. The
poorer classes carry all their baggage into
the cars with them, AMI as the most Of them
ara too poor TO own trunk they wrap
their goods up in cloths and carry them in
bundles on their backs. Ii they have to
wait over night at the station they throw
these bundles down for pillow and sleep
on the stones, and common sight at al
most any of these stations is Russian
peasant family, the father OF which is gen.
orally sleeping and the mother either chat
tug with her neighbors or engaged in her
never-ending search for the animals which
iEfest her children's heads.
Railroads are Russia's greatest need.
The present era Of railroad building is pro-
duclug but little in comparison with what
Russia should have in iron tracks. One of
the great causes of her recent famine was
the lack of transportation, and there are
millions of acres of good land here which
might be made valuable by railroads. Such
railroads as the country has have been built
as military roads rather than with regard TO
the agricultural and commercial necessities
q ~, 1-t,x
Russia are not tapped by roads Russia in
Europe is two-thrds the size of the United
States, and she has in her empire about
twice as many people as we have. Still we
have one mile Of railway for every 400 pe0-
pie in the country and Russia has only one
mile to every 5000. We have more than
eight times as many miles of railroad as
Russia, or sixteen times as many IN proper
tiOn TO our population.
If you will take your map Of Russia you
will see that there is scarcely line of road
in the vast area of Russia north of the line
running from Moscow to st. Peters burg,
and / am told that there are more than
10000 00 people in this territory. Siberia
has 100000 people and its resources are
among the greatest in the world, but with
the exception Of Il s line which is being
built from Vladivostock it has no road worth
speaking of, aud there are right in the heart
of South Russia vast provinces which have
been comparatively untouched by railroad.
The United States Is very much like the
Russian empire in that it is an agricultural
country and with us the average distance
Of the center of production from the nearest
railroad is less than four miles. Here in
Russia it is 240 miles. In Belgium this dis
lance is about two miles. in England it is
about three miles. and over the whole great
American continent it is only thirteen miles.
Russia is, perhaps. the most undeveloped
good country in the world. What IL needs
is good ca ital and railroads allied to good
government. If 1t ever gets these it will
be the great country of the future.
ERANK G. CARPENTER