Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-02-25
WEALTH OF SIBERIA
Rich in Minerals and the Soil is Extremely
Fertile.
May Become the Granary of the World
Vast Unexpiored FOrcsts-PrOs-
porous Peasantry.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.


Some years ago it was my privilege to be
introduced to a mining engineer of world
wide reputatio He had travelled and ex-
piored nearly every corner of the globe.
and his name is inseparably associated
with a famous process. He had worked in
America, Australia and Africa, and was
familiar with the mineral wealth of every
country one could name. When l met him
he had just returned from a visit to ST.
IBERIA, whittier he had been sent on a conf
Dental mission to report upon the mineral
resources of that vast region. He was most
enthusiastic, and told me that he had never
in the course of his vast experience visited
a country more remarkable for its mineral
wealth than Siberia.
MARK my words" he said to me, i'm
pressively, when that country comes to be
opened up there will be boom there COM
pared with which the Transyaal boom was
nothing"
He told me tnat there was practically no
kind of mineral wealth which Siberia did
not possess in abundance. There We're coal
and petroleum, there were iron and copper,
gold and silver, besides numerous other
minerals. The opinion of this expert was
all the more valuable because Ii was dsin-
terested. There was no question Of bring
ing out a company; his views were
pressed to me privately, without any ul
terror object.
Since then the public has learned to I'M
derstand that Siberia is an exceptionally
rich country, but what 1t does not realize
is that Siberia is also very fertile coun-
try, and that it embraces within its con-
!! fines every extreme of climate. What is
Siberia? 1t is really the largest part of
Asia. Stretching from the Ural mountains
to the Pacific ocean, it covers area in
which Canada could be conveniently lost
and would never be heard of again. Peo-
pie in this country do not know that ST.
c o. N q tnp ho ora prN-
of the world. In the southern parts of the
country the vegetation is tropical and lux
uriant. while in the extreme north the
country is practically an enormous swamp
covered with a dense brushwood growth
called tundra In the central regions
there are still dense primeval forests into
which the foot of man has never pene-
trated. These regions are inhabited by
sparse population-some eInigrants and set
tiers; others people whose ancestors were
transported thither for mild offenses; and
many conyicts, who have preferred to re-
main in this fruitful land after the expira-
ton of their sentence to returning to the
inhospitable country of their birth and re-
SHINING their old lives under the eagle eye
of unfriendly police.
Dostoyeffski, in one of his novels, describes
Siberia Eldorado. The population is
reinforced by escaped convicts, who are
among the most energetic of it's constitu-
ents. OF such material is the Russian
population composed fearless people most
ly. hardheaded, daring. who have preferred
the deSolation and WildS of Siberia to the
tyranny Of the officialism of European Rus
STA For Siberia is far away, the popu-
lation is sparse, and the officials are con-
sequently few and far between. and not
oVerzealous. Into districts out of the direct
line of communication officialsm seldom
penerates, hence the peasantry are pros
porous and Independent. They have
capped the yoke of serfdom from which Rus
STA proper has only been recently emanci-
patad, and they are made of very different
stuff to the soft ennrV9ta1 and tod
moujfks of central Russia. Besides these
Russian yeomen. who own their own land
and are as democratic as they are fearless
there are the descendants of the aborigineS.
the Samoyeds and other tribes, some of
whom still practice idolatry. But they
nave all grown marvelously civilized and
prosperous. In the towns we shall find
wealthy merchant princes leading lives of
luxury and splendor Here we shall find
gorgeous winter gardens, palm houses hot
mouse fruit and magnificence of private
lie winch the Englis Imam will not even
suspect. The houses are beautifully and
elegantly furnished; enormous mirrors i'm
ported at great expense, adorn the walls
marble columns support the lofty ceiling
Nor are art and music wanting.
In short, life in Siberia is far from being
the sad and dreary business we are apt to
imagine it. There is society; there are
theaters, concerts and particularly inteli-
gent people. AS a Russian once told me:
All our cleverest men in Siberia
There is much truth in this. Russia has
deported her frondeurs and original think
ers to this happy land. where they have
settled, prospered and found that breadth
of life which was denied them at home 1t
is believed that all this will shortly be al
tered, and that the lurid light of an effete
western civilization will be let into this
Utopia, and will show up the sothful lives
of its officials, the luxury of its middle
classes, the prosperity and lawlessness of
its peasantry, and put end to them, and
that this will be the result of the railway.
But Siberian merchants-and they are
shrewd fellows-to whom 1 have talked do
not share this view. They do not think the
existing Russian government is strong
enough to impose its yoke upon the Siberian
people and break their proud and independ-
ent spirit; and, moreover, they think that
the expectations which the railway has
given rise to not likely to be very rapid
ly realized.