St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-19
SAINT PAUL.
RUSSIA AS a BACK NUMBER.
Interesting Chat With a Former
st. PauliLe Now From Odessa.

st. PauliLe Now From Odessa.
George A.Freudenreich, Odessa, Rus
STA" upon the register of the Windsor
hotel, naturally attracted considerable
attention yesterday. Upon inquiry it
was discovered that the bearer of the
name is all old st. Paul man who
served through theWar of the Rebellion,
and who has lived in Odessa the
past fourteen years. He is the Swiss
consul to Odessa, he being a Swiss by
birth, and is the general wholesale
agent of the Mccormick reaper COM
pany for Russia. He still owns the
farm in Douglas county, this state,
which he bought before he went to
Russia, and his wife and children live
in ST. Cloud. after having lived with
him seven years in Russia. He has fin
iShed visit to his family and leaves for
Russia tonight.
He said last evening:
1.-The farm machinery trade of Rus
STA Is not up to the expectations of
tried to Introduce their improvements
in that country. Labor Is so very cheap
there that they have less need for means
of cheapening the cost of producing
than Americans have. l deal only with
retail merchants. There are no Rus
slams engaged in the machinery trade.
All my customers are foreigners
to Russia. You will probably
be surprised. when L tell you
that while Odessa is in the center OF the
hroadest wheat-grOwing countries of
Russia. there have been but three good
crops of wheat there in the fourteen
years of my Russian citizenship. There
is but one country in Russia where the
wheat crop is reasonably sure thing,
and that is the locality koWn as the
Rostow u VladickafkaZ railway. The
two names are of cities located at the
extreme ends of the railway. In this
locality there is never crop failure.
10 give you all illustration of how
far behind America Russia is, let me
tell you that Odessa is city of 334, 600
people, a railroad center, the grertest
wheat-eXporting city i'll the world; and
yet there are but four passenger trains
entering or departing from the place
daily, and two of these are mixed
trains. The people know nothing of
electricity, and the horse car service of
the place has been all institution of only
twelve years standing. Russia is very
far behind the time, and it
would not answer for me to at
tempt to tell them of the wonderful
things which exist in America, for they
would not believe ME, and, besides, they
would become prejudiced against me.
l will moi pretend to describe to you the
pitiabie condition of filth and ignorance
the Russian common people are in. The
NlhlliStS made great mistake when
they murdered the predecessor of the
present car. He was at the time OF
his death formulating constitution
for his people, and trying to elevate
Russia to plane with the times He
recognized the fact that his common
people were behind the times, and pro-
posed to lift them out of the mire. If
the present emperor is not so liberal
with them, he may be excused, for he
has had sad experience at the hands
of these very unwise people.
Il intend to come back to America for
good as soon as / can make arrange
ments to suit my financial desires. But
will probably stay there several years
longer"