The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-09-07
STARK COUNTY
BOY IN RUSSIA.
Writes An Interesting Letter to
a Canton Man.
SELLS HARVESTING MACHINERY
The Mode of Travel In That Country Is
Very Slow And the Boats Make Bet
ter Time Than the Passenger

ter Time Than the Passenger
The following letter has been re-
ceived by Frank Braucher, of this city,
from C. w. Lichtenwalter, former
Stark county boy, who Is in Siberia this
year travelling for a Cleveland harvest
ing machinery house:
Aboard steiner Sumnold, Volga river,
| Russia, August Is.
Mr.. Frank Braucher, Canton. Ohio.
Dear sir:-I received your letter a
week ago, and I assure you that I was
glad to hear from Canton. 1t takes q
long time for letter to reach me. / am
on my way from Saratow to Kasan, a
jump of 600 miles. Agencies are not
crowding each other in these places.
Business Is all done on large scale by
the large wholesale dealers or jobbers,
who will sell direct to the owners OF
the estates, who come to the large cities
for hundreds Of miles to do their pur-
chasing. All farm implements are sold
this way. There Is no canvassing, no
driving through mud knee deep in
March to get farmers orders for
machine. I am on my way out Of Rus
sia. The harvest is over at Sartow and
I am going back to Kasan on the Vol
ga. When I am through there / go to
Moscow, Warsaw and thence to Berlin.
We have had an excellent trade here
this year, the crops being better than
they have been for years. Every har-
vesting machine In the country was
sold-no matter how long 1t has been
kept in stock, just so 1t would cut grain.
We could have sold hundreds more If we
could have gotten them. The jobbers
here do not make exclusive contracts.
Our agent at Kasan sells three Ameri-
can and several Russian makes.
had the novel pleasure Of operating
binders drawn by oxen and by camels.
during the government contest near
Kasan this year. Last week i was in
the Astrakan province near the Cas-
plan sea, where the camels are used to
q great extent. 1t u said that in this
province they raise the best flour pro-
ducing wheat in the world. 1t is called
Turkish wheat and looks more like
barley. I obtained several samples to
send home. This is a trackless, treeless
and waterless country. The drinking
water is full Of alkili and must be boil
ed before drinking. You drink tea boil
ing hot from morning to night. A cold
drink Is something unknown. The ma
tives think 1t would end ones career.
The boat has Just now stopped to take
on freight and leave off some passen-
gers. I went out to see where we were
and this is what is printed on the land
ing: Cnnonpck. Now what would you
COLL to- un,, looE ~, xnpr
lish map you will find the place on the |
Volga river called Simbirsk, which is
the same place. The hotels of Russia |
are simply rooms, where you sleep. You |
eat at a restaurant, the bed is a cot |
and a mattress, and IL you want pillows |
and covers you pay extra for them, Il
you do not carry your own. I have not
had a good bed since I came to Rus |
sia.
River steamboat travel is fine, but |
travel is very slow. A way |
freight in America makes better time |
than a passenger train in Russia. Rail- |
roads are few and far between, so that |
my work as an expert setting up ma
chimes is not the series, Of buggy rides
from one farm to the other that 1t would |
be in America. At Sartow for two
weeks worked during the day and rode
N a big blundering vehicle without
springs from one place to the other at
night, sometimes riding nearly all night.
out Of seven nights I got to bed only
part Of two.
Myself, Mr.. Shiller, Of Columbus,
and representative Of another har-
yesting machine company, took dinner
.ogether before I left SaratOw, forming
sort Of an exclusive set. We talked
English or the United States and dis
,ussed American institutions politics
md customs in American styles. 1t
vas quite treat for US, especially after
having been away among a people
whose language we did not know, for
10 long.
Farm laborers here get 10 to 15 cents
: day.
L. w. LICHTENWALTER.