The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-17
THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY
ROUTE OF THE GREAT ROAD LIES IN
VAST AND DREARY TERRITORY.
Long stations, Scarce Food, Great
Summer and Other DiscomfOrts.


will be readily understood that even the
transsiberian railway when finished, Will
still fall far short of providing sufficiently
rapid and punctual means of transit In
Asiatic Russia. There is an advantage in
road, as compared with railway travelling,
which consists in the fact that the traveller
need not start until he desires to do so,
but this is the sole gain. 1t does not by
any means follow that he will be able to
set out when he is ready, for he may not
be able to procure horses, either post or
private ones He must either purchase his
own conveyance or else be subjected to the
inconvenience of having to transfer his
baggage as we'll as himself to fresh one
at every stage, not always simple prob
lem in itself, since the vehicles are not in
variably of uniform capacity. Also he
must calculate beforehand the distances
between towns, which vary from one hum
dred miles or so to eight hundred often
nearer the latter than the former figure.
For the intervening mileage he must take
enough food of some kind to enable him
to live. since at numerous post houses
nothing except boiling water in samovar
(tea urn is obtainable. So much is this
the case that one sometimes puts the ques-
ton, when told that not even a morsel of
DletCh OLSdQ 10 W ne ldu LUZ 1--WE VI iAAOACS,
ION what, then, do you live?" to the Off
cial in charge Again, if pressed for time,
and being thereby DESTROYS of travelling
day and night for week or so at a pinch,
a correspondingly larger supply of provi-
sions must be laid in, as the intermediate
towns are often, of course, traVersed at
night.
Having made all the arrangements. above
indicated, there remains the question of
clothing for the journey, and very I'M
portant one it is, especially = the journey
is to be several thousand miles long. In
summer heat and dust the latter so thick
that one is literally calIed with it. have to
be provided for, as well as terrible mud in
the spring and autumn Winter. however,
IS the most trying season for a long
through journey, when the temperature in
the open air varies from a few degrees
below zero, Fahrenheit, to about 60 degrees
below zero that scale. On the other
hand. the thermometer inside the post
houses often shows 80 degrees, so that the
amounting to 40 degrees in the space of
few minutes, and to play tricks with the
atmosphere under such conditions really
means DEATH The ''yemshcnik (driver)
knows this, and clothes himself according
u. although he has but one stage at a time
20 do, and not. perhaps, forty or fifty
autumn. a conveyance called a tarantass is
employed. 1t is simply long, hollow and
rather narrow body made Of wood and
The traveller first puts in his luggage. then
some hay is placed on the top of it, and
the passenger reclines at full length. The
jolting at first threatens to become I'M
bearable, but afterward does not prohibit
sleep. In winter time the body of the We
hicle used is of substantially the same
character as in the tarantass. except that,
being on runners, it is called a sledge.
Travelling in the latter is decidedly easier
than in the former, but 1t also has it's dis
advantages, especially If 1t be one belong
ing to the post. In this case the traveller
has no half hood as cover to his head,
xxrniIa tha hnHx of Io 10 Yrf1 oro c co
close to the ground that snow thrown up
by the horses hoofs flies constantly into
the inside Of his furs and there melts
classes are open to this objection: that
when travelling at a rapid rate, particularly
when going down hill, the vehicle is apt to
slew to one side. Should the runner then
strike a lump of snow, over goes the whole
thing, and the passenger must extr1cate
afterward resuming his journey, if he has
not broken q limb.
MEANS OF TRAVEL NOW.
Whether tarantass or a sledge be used,
three or four horses, or rather ponies ac-
cording to the condition of the roads, are
generally employed. being harnessed
abreast. The harness is of a sufficiently
simple description, consisting merely of
rusty snaffle, with some thin and old bits
of leather and rope attached. The center
horse stands in the shafts, and on him
COIleS TIC WIlOlG N6tSnl VI TIC iOdQ WHICH,
travelling down a gradient. If this be steep
and the vehicle takes charge" then the
yemshchik's only resource is to let the
team gallop as hard as they can until the
bottom is reached, or, what is probable
enough, smash occurs. In view of this
possibility, no traveller should ever think
of setting out on journey unprovded with
stout rope an ak, hammer and nails, or he
may find himself fifty miles or more from
place where he can obtain any of these
essentials.
The ponies used are mostly of the Khir-
giz breed, varying from about l3l2 to four
teen hands and three inches. Fed chiefly
on hay and rough, shaggy and unkempt
as they are, their endurance is really Won
derful, and they will trot or gallop over
rough ice without being in any degree the
worse for their performance. The stages
vary from twelve to thirteen miles in
length although when dogs are used they
may exceed twenty-five, and at each post
station the contractor is bound to keep q
fixed number of animals. The number,
however, was determined some time ago,
when mails were dispatched less frequently
than is now the case, and 1T has not been
augmented because the comparatively
early completion of the great railways as
far as Stryetensk, on the Shilka, is hoped
for Thence the mails are carried by
steamer in the summer and by sledges on
the frozen rivers (Shilka and Amur) in
winter, as far as the Ussuri Railway In
spring and autumn, east of that town,
pack transport is the sole available mode
OF conveyance Also lneTe is less Ifdffc
east of Stryetensk than is the case west
of ii, owing to the population being small
er. Railway construction has brought
number of people connected with it as far
as Transatlantic, of which Chita is the
capital. and these are constantly passing
backward and forward on the public serv-
ice. Consequently they travel with official
passes which give them and others so
provided the right to take horses that
would otherwise have been supplied to pri-
waite passengers who may have been wait
ing days for them. Indeed, the latter class
comes off very badly just now; delays of
two or three days are considered nothing
al all, and one day, half way between
Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, a distance of
about seven hundred miles, l met a gentle
man who was in a hurry; he had already
been nine days on the road.
THE COLD IS BITTER
The post houses in Siberia are Of the
same general type as elsewhere in Euro
pean Russia. being one-storied buildings,
generally constructed of wood, with the in
terstices filled with bark to keep out the
wind. I may here parenthetically observe
that there is belief, prevalent even among
some Russians, that, although the average
cold is far greater in Siberia than in Euro
pean Russia, one does not feel it so much
as there on account of the absence of wind
can only say, in reply to this, that Sibe-
rians in Siberia assert it to be utterly in
correct; while speaking from my own ex-
perience, / have never felt any wind so
bitter as when posting in Siberia.
The accommodation in the post houses,
TO resume my description, is of the plain
est; a couple of rooms for the official in
charge his family and office work, and
couple more for travellers. The latter are
prOVided with one. perhapS two Wn0der