Arizona republican., 1898-11-20
THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY
EnqfiShman'S Journey From ErkuiSh
 fo Moscow.


 Of the journey of the editor Of al Eng fish newspaper in Singapore from Pc king to London overland by the rou,e of the tea caravans through Mancluria to Irkutsll in Siberia, and thence by the Siberian railway into Russia itself. | The editor. MT. Arrot Reid, has now told the story of his journey at Ieng. h in the Times, and the larger part of il
 makes the first detailed account of the
 Siberian railway by a western hand since it was opened to Irkutsl1 and i. began to seek travellers from all Eu- rope.
 i MT. Reid joined the railway at Irk- l utsk, or rather a. the station on the i opposite shore Of the river, for the 1 line does ECE yet reach the city, and 1 the trayei5r must reach the terminus, l five miles away, as best he may by a crowded ferry. My destination was i Moscow" he says, about 3,200 miles i distant, and the time I had estimated i for the journey was twelve days. The actual tins, as it turned out, was three i hours less than my estimate-285 hours ! of continuous travel, unbToken save by
 two ferries. and at each ferry a change ] Of carriages. It may occur to some i to ask why l speak of my estinlate'- where were ths railway time tables? 1 There were none The railway to Irk- utsI had only been opened a few weeks
 before l arrived ,hsre, and time tables for that section did not yet exist. A i train was started only every second l day, and when it would arrive at any I particular place no one appeared to l know. We started an hour lcise, and | with i.wenty-siX persons in Q second l class carriage, which was seated for ] iob al icrIE tT0z would have been comfortable for ten. { The fact is that for the comparatively ! newly opened section elst Of KraSn0y- 1 arsk no first class cars have as yet
 been provided, while on the sill newer ! section between Irkutsk and the town ! oE ZeeEa, on the river Oka there is an i insufficiency evFn Of second class cars. i The explanation of that, Of course, ia 1 that, partly to oblige the public, the railway has been opened sooner than was intended and before it is fully equipped. It is q reasonable explana- tion but none the less the first twenty four hours on ,he Siberian railway were passed in q muddle Of travel. 1 had not gathered that it was necessary to form 3 party, to make a rush for mpaItmsnt, to fill it with your bag gage and to hold it agaiEs- all coClef.- Later, and under tho able tuition Of party Of engineer students, l learned to take my share il. that and other arts Of Siberian travel, b1g- at the offset l was cut of l. Alone, with my bag gags lying in the passage way, and wearing an expression of patient dis comfiture, 1 must have locked the pie ture of the helpless fOreigne1. That was my salvation. The wife O. 8 gov ernment official addressing me in French, made seat room fer ne. The engineer students made room for c19 baegage An Odessa J6Wess gave me a cup Of t5a- Everybody, indeed, was as nice as could be; but twenty-six per sors cannot comfortably dine, sup, sleep and play cards in carriage berthed fer ten.
 However, the night wore through, and in the early afternoon of the fol- lowing day the train dr5w up oa the banks of the river Ola in a snow storm, and we all proceeded to look at the river and wait for the ferry boat. Shel- ter there was none. Of knowledge as to when we could get across th2ra was none. But after some three hours we did get across and were rewarded with an excellent dinner at Zeema station and the nsws that i1 place Of half car for the second class people we should now ges two half cars. My diary, 1 find, contains the significant entry; "Only thirteen persons in the car. Slept soUndly all night" Let ne here add that most Of these discomforts' end cd at Krasno oyarsk, which is 660 nllSs from Irkutsk, and which we reached after exactly 100 hours of continuous travel Immediately before entering Krasnoyarsk station, on our fourth day out, we had to cross in the dark two arms of the great river Yenisel, finding our own transport and convey ing our own baggage. On thaf Yen isei, as at he Oka, the railway simply dumped Us out and let us find our own way. But after we entered Krasnoy- arsk station in a blaze of electric light we found everything changed. We got first class tickets; we bCoKed cur bag gage right through 10 Moscow; wc found a buffet, with walters in even ing dress, and a menu in French; in word, we had passed from an unflH- ished to a complete railway system. The administration, it appears, dce3 not vet run it's weekly train de luxe, already described in these leders, over the newest and scarcely finished parts of the line. It will be year or two in Mir Reid's view, befc-1 it will convey travellers to Irkutsk itself and beyond. On all the divisions Of the line hs found the fares surprisingly low; highest On the newly opened portions, where ac- commentators were poorest and travel sIowest, and steadily diminishing west ward, until for second class carriages,
 more comfortable than those Of the best English railways, they were only farthing mile
 The construction of the line inn pressed MT. Reid favorably:
 "Ths Trans-Siberian railway, travel ! ing from Europe, begins at the town Of Cheliabinsk, about 160 miles cas- of the frontier line of Russia ia Europe, and about 2,S40 kilometres cast cf St. Petersburg. From Cheliabinsh u Vladfvcstok. cn the original survey tnow much reduced by the ManchuTian Toute) is 4745 n1ilss, and of that dis tance the line is complete to Irkutsk, ! 9 distance Cf about 2,000- miles. About . 500 miles Of that w1re opened this aI- Y