The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-25
Raymond McCune Arrives In Salt
Lake.
HAD MANY EXPERIENCES
RODE ON THE FIRST TRAIN
THROUGH SIBERIA.
Dined With Lord Kitchener, the Sir
dar, and Visited Plague Hospitals
In India-Saw Corean Raids On
Japanese-Trip to Spitzberger,
1000 Miles North of Alaska.

Kay InOnu QIcCune, sun u MI ann
Mrs 4. w. McCune, arrived yesterday
morning, completing a circuit OF the
globe, after experiences such as fall 10
the lot of few men. Mr.. McCune left
Salt Lake more than three years ago.
He first spent two years on a mission
in England, but for the last eighteen
months he has been travelling. Mr.. Nc
Cune bv no means confined his world
wide wanderings to the paths blaZed
by other tourists. Instead, he visited
out-of- the-way places and mingled with
varied classes of humanity, from
princes of the blood royal to natives
whose evening dress consists princl-
pally of necklaces and anklets.
Mr. McCune dined in Egypt with
Lord Kitchener, the sirdar whose
praises are being sung on more than
one continent. He rode through 81
IBERIA on the first passenger train that
ever crossed that once trackless des-
ert. He travelled on a roadbed built by
American contractors; he sat IN an
American coach, drawn over American
steel rails by an American engine.
Mines of Siberia.
THE train started Aug. 10, 1898, said
the returned traveller yesterday alter
noon, land was the first to so over the
new road, which is controlled by the
government, as all Russian roads are.
1t runs through an extremely rich min
ing country. There are gold and cop
per mines, as we'll as vast oil fields. n
small per cent of the population is ed
ucated, the vast majority being poor
and illiterate. The wealthy men are
afraid to put their money into mines,
but as soon as the government makes
foreign
italists, money will flow in and the
mines will be opened up.
From Siberia came back to Mos
COW, and then went down the Volga
river and on to the Dead Sea. l Wis
tied Sebastopol and went through
Crimea. From there l went to Con-
stantinople. After seeing that city L
went into Persia, and spent six weeks
looking over its ruined cities before
going into Egypt. That part of Egypt
which is under Turkish rule l found
to be in bad condition. The people there
are taxed to the starvation point. The
English, where they are in charge, are
encouraging people to work, and are
putting dams in the Nile in order to
make irrigation possible.
Il was at Wadahaifa when the sir
dar returned. 1 met him and diped
with him. He is not an old man. but
he is an awfully strict disciplinarian.
He is the right man in the right place:
by odds. He went into the ranks or
the enemy long before he was placed
at the head of the troops. and disguised
as a date vendor. ne learned the Ian
guage. So carefully did he map Tut
his plan of campaign that he announced
a year in advance the exact day he
would take Khartoum. He was lust
one day late, but this was caused by
a storm.
Visits to Plague Hospitals.
After leaving Egypt l visited Pales-
tine, and then went on to India, arriv-
ing in Bombay when the plague was
at its height 1 inspected the hospit-
ais with a Russian prince who was
there studying the disease. The danger
of contagion has been greatly eXagger
ated. l saw a number Of cases. and
there is no danger unless one comes in
actual contact with a patient. One rea
son why so many natives die of 1t is
that they give up too easily.
They have been known TO die from
a broken arm, or an injury that most
people would consider very trifiing. The
natives contract the plague through the
soles of their feet, as they go barefoot,
and the bacilli collect in the dust. In
dia is a wonderfully interesting coun-
try. 1t contains much magnificent seem
cry, and the people are well worth
studying.
''Frcm India l went to Burmah, then
to Singapore, Borneo, Java and Cey
Ion. Ceylon, by the way, is one of the
very prettiest islands on the globe.
After Ceylon 1 went into China, aud
looked over Shanghai, Pekin and other
places. Several missionaries have beer
killed in China, but the people didn't
seem to be very hostile. / think the
missionaries adopted the wrong policy.
They were not sufficient. conciliatory.
From China l went to Corea, where
saw one or two raids by the Coreans
on the japanese. Then l went over TO
Japan and stayed there nine weeks, Wis
iting many places where they had never
seen a white man. At the conclusion
of my visit in Japan l came over 10
Honolulu, stopping there brief time,
and then on to San Francisco, where 1
arrived July A.
This is the briefest kind of an out
line of Mr.. McCunes travels. In addi-
ton to the details already given, he
went up the Norway coast TO Spitzber-
gen, which is LOCO miles north of the
most northerly point in Alaska. Here
it was that Andree made preparations
for his balloon voyage, and Mr.. McCune
saw the places where the explorer out
fitted for his trip.
Mr.. McCune brought back with him
a magnificent collection of photographs.
showing scenes he visited and people
he saw. His trip was taken alone, eX-
cept for such casual acquaintance as
he picked up while travelling.