The morning call., 1895-02-24
FoaNk..G:CarpNter

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Private letters which have lust received
from the capital of Korea state that the
Russian surveyors are exploring the harbor
of Gensan, on the east coast of Korea.
This harbor is one of the finest on the Pa
clhc. 1t Is in about the middle of the east
coast OF the Korean peninsula, half way
between Fusan and Vladivostock 1t is
open throughout the winter, and the Rus
slams want to use it as a terminus for the
trans-Siberian railroad. Vladivostock, their
present harbor, is on the southeastern edge
OF Siberia, and it is frozen up for about five
months OF the year, so that no ships can
land, and so that the Pacific is practically
shut off from Siberia during the winter. L
visited both harbors last summer. and it
was from Gensan that 1 sailed to NladivO-
stock in order to investigate the condition
of the trans-Siberian railroad If the Rus
slams should seize Northeastern Kora, as is
supposed to be their intention from the fact
of the above survey, Gensan viii be one of
the most important ports OF Asia. Its harbor
Is large enough to float the navies OF the
world, and already there is 4 great trade
connected with it. The gold mines in
rounding it, though it IS mountainous. has
many well-cuitivated valleys. 1t has now
population of about 1000 Japanese and
1900 Koreans. 1t has a missionary sta
ton and Russian, German an Danish ex-
porting houses. 1t has a little japanese
hotel where l stopped while waited for
the steamer, and 1t has one japanese bank.
This bank, however, has not much faith in
-rrr,l lar Of L N
cash (or about $1O0) to make my trip across
the country and L landed in Gensan with
fifteen silver dollars IN my pocket. I had a
letter of credit with me and I tried to
get some money on it at the japanese
bank. They looked it over and jabbered in
japanese, but at last gave it back to me
and told me they could give me moth
ing. / tried to get trusted by japanese
steamship agency for my passage. They
looked at the letter of credit and then
looked at me, and told me it was no 90.
The fare was Just $14 10 Vladivostock, and
by persuading my hotel-keeper to wait
until I came back was able to buy ticket
and have 81 left for incidentals. The ship
was the Tokyo Maru, one of the greatest of
the Japanese steamers, which runs from
Kobe, Japan, to Siberia regularly. 1t was
sailors were Japanese, the officers were
English. The accommodations were good,
and after a voyage of two days we found
ourselves il the great harbor of Yladi-
vostock.
Fladivostock is the key to Eastern Sibe-
ria. 1t IS the great Russian city of the
East, and IS one OF the most strongly forti-
fed towns on the globe. 1t is the chief
1c-o !
Is now the terminus OF the Siberian rail-
way. 1t fairly swarn1s with soldiers and
officials. The military Governor of Eastern
Siberia including millions of square miles,
lives here, and 1t has an admiral who gov
ems the shipping, and who is independent
OF the Governor. 1t has scores of police,
and you can't throw a stone without hit
ting q general The town now contains
about 10000 people, in addition TO a large
garrison Of soldiers. 1t grows like a green
bay tree, and 1t is a slice of European
Russia spread out over the mountains of
Siberia. The houses are of brick. stone
and wood, and 1t has many fine buildings
1t has magnificent dry docks, and its new
floating docks admit OF the largest vessels
being laid up for repairs. An immense
ocean steamer was under repair during my
stay, and the harbor was filed with all
kinds OF shipping, including two Russian
men-of-war and an American sailing vessel
from San Francisco. This last had brought
= cargo of wheat and -four to Vladivostock,
and the captain, who was q bright young
fellow from Maine, came on board to in
quire his best route home by way of Japan.
There is no more picturesque bay on the
Pacific than that of Vladiyostock, and YOU
: &4,,-
Liverpool in a year within it and have
room to spare. 1t is known as the Gulf of
Peter the Great, and it has a length of
about fifty miles, while its width at the
entrance is more than hundred miles.
This gulf is divided into two large bays
by billy peninsula, and the Russians
call the straits which separate this
peninsula from the islands in front of
il the Eastern Bosphorus. Vladivostock
IS on the peninsula, which they call the
Golden Horn, and the city has quite
as beautiful a location as Constantinople.
lived on the ship during the week that I
spent III Vladivostock. as there are no
good hotels. We were anchored about two
miles from the shore, and were in harbor
surrounded by hills, and spread out in the
shape OF a fan, with Vladivostock built
great Notifications, and the hills were
crowned with what looked like immense
factories or machine shops. They had
many windows, and an army of men was
continually marching about them. These
are the barracks of the Russian soldiers, of
whom there are 5000 in this city alone.
Two thousand of these belong to marines,
and the other 6O00 are of the land forces.
saw other barracks and soldiers in my
trip over the trans-Siberian railroad, and
there are now, am told, about 10000 sol
diers in Eastern Siberia, or more than we
have in our army.
AS soon as the ship came to anchor 1
took a boat and was rowed to the shore
We went through all kinds of shipping
There were great Russian steamers from
Odessa, on the Black Sea, which were filed
with immigrants and stores. There were
ships from Japan, in the passenger and
carrying trade, and there were hundreds