Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-21
Paris Will Have a Panorama of the
Trans-Siberian Road.
ARTISTIC And MECHANICAL WONDER
Some Inside information About This
Great Enterprise.
CHANCES FOR AMERICANS
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

perlaI government, ana not only TallIodu'
but the great Trans-Siberian in its entirety
tracks. trains. way stations, bridges. peas
| ant population, cities distant hundreds of
miles from each other. frontier forts and
customs houses, all the way from Moscow
| to Pekin. There is no question here of maps
and photographs. You buy your ticket (half
a yard long,, get on board, feel the train
start. hump along over countless versts of
steppes. stop at stations watch the chang
| ing viStas of the land Of Tamerlane and
Michael Strogoff, sleep through long nights
Qwo minutes each}, win the Manchurian
frontier. and clatter down to where the
dawn comes up like thunder outer China
'crost the bay" 1t is the bay of Port Ar
thur. and if there be no American steamer
waiting to take you on to San Francisco.
blame the crowded condition of the eXhi-
bition grounds.
This sensational side show In the heart of
the Trocadero. partly in the Russian and
partly in the Chinese section, has cost a
great deal of money to prepare: but even
while under the high patronage of the Rus
sian emperor it is clear-headed result of
business enterprise. and the International
Sleeping Car Company, to whom its exploit
alton has been conided has a deep object
to attain in making it a success. 1t is al
ready foreseen that the Siberian route is
bound to be not only chief commercial
highway, but the new resource Of tourists
and sportsmen. The sooner the public be-
comes acquainted with it the better for all
concerned. 1 have been taking lunch with
Prince Sabachnakoff. one of the great ST.
berian land owners, whose gold iron, coal
and lead and silver mines grazing lands and
timber forests are tapped now for the first
time by railroad. According to Sabach-
nakon IA learned prince. a chemist and
| mining expert from the German universities
as well as killer of big game). the sports
men Of all Europe are to find their happy
hunting ground for fifty years to come
10 Tran ;ho-;o
To Exploit Siberia.
Apart from South America and Central
Africa the one inaccessible, the other pref
ty we'll hunted already this land is the last
| land Of big game remaining" he said. LAS
for the tourist, the imperial government will
make things so easy and agreeable for him,
| and the attractions of the wild, the unex-
plored and the romantic will so draw him
that there will be no resisting the trip.
Siberia finds itself much in the condition of
your own great west forty years ago and
she is taking a leaf out of your boyk.
From the time when the Grand Duke Alexis
| made his historic hunting trip over the
plains and the Rockies with Buffalo Bill.
the sportsmen and tourists of the whole
world, finding things made easy for them
by your transcontinental railway companies
became SO many investors and advertisers
for your undeveloped resources. The tour
list followed-and capital follows the tour
ist." unused the prince. Then he invited me
without my capitaD to make trip over
the line. 1t is rosy dream. He says it is
to be realized next October. when ne re-
turns to his country. Meanwhile we strolled
toward the Russian and Chinese sections Of
the exhibition grounds, and (without a
tickeD passed through the portals of the
novel side show of the Russian emperor and
NJ. Georges Nagenmackers. director general
of the International Sleeping Car Company.
1t was great trip!
Moscow to Pel<in.
In this show the visitor receives a COM
plete illusion of railway trip from Moscow
to Pekin over the great line that Is to be
opened in 1902. Situated at the junction Of
the Russian and Chinese sections, the long
railway train restaurant cars. sleeping
cars, bath room and barber shop cars and
gymnasium carr has its last wagon in
the first and its lomocotive in the second
On entering it is the Russian railway sta
ton at Moscow. You would think you were
there. The illusion Is perfect. Russian
porters in uniform help you with your lug
gage. Russian police eye you covertly. On
board the train there is no longer any room
for doubt. You are going to Siberia.
Everything announces long trip. Shall
you take your meals In the restaurant car?
The walters come through with the menu
T-i-u-u! T-i-u-u! 1t is the plaintive Euro
pean locomotive whistle. A Jolt. A gen.
eral movement. The train is in notion
Past the windows sink the vision Of the
Moscow depot, the city streets and SUBJ
urbs. The train is already level plain
of melancholy monotony, crossing now and
then stream, while the telegraph poles
rush by and the more distant trees sink
past more slowly. A great hill in the dis
lance scarcely moves. The passengers en-
joy the scenery.
How 1t Works.
The way this thing is managed touches
the high notch of panoramic ingenuity. We
had thought the mareorama ingenious. The
mareorama takes you past the Mediterran-
can shore in q steamer, from Marseilles
to Naples. and then on to Egypt. Its miles
of painted canvas roll past at one deter
mined speed. In this show there are three
sets of moving canvases. The first con-
tains the track, the ties and rails, the cuts
and tunnels and the telegraph poles, all of
which fit past the view at a surprising
speed. On the second canvas, moving at
slower rate, painted the more dis
tant trees, fences, herds Of cattle and the
middle landscape. The third canvas IS
towns and far-away landmarks. They
move still slower, as they actually seem
from the window of a moving railway car.
Thus the complete illusion of a rapid rail-
way motion is obtained: and you may even
stand in the observation car at the end of
the train and watch the train fit from you
and the landscape curve away into the per-
specttve. The whole thing works by cleo
tricity.
Illusion Is Complete.
1t is the master decorator. Jambon who
has done so much fine stage scenery, that
signs the canvas. His son-in-law, Albert
Baiily. made the journey from Moscow to
Pekin to procure the panoramic views, OF
course, he has not brought back every mile
of 1t. There are repetitions and variations
of the same themes. But sat in the
smoking car and the vast steppes swept
past majesticaliy the Illusion was COM
oiete.
When we reached Mimi Novgorod, we
We're allowed to step out for moments
glimpse of the fair. These "steppings OUT
are indeed most curious features. OF
course, it Is the same place each time a
small space in the Paris exposition grounds
between the Russian and the Chinese sec
tons. yet the transformation is so perfect
that one is lost in admiration. You get out
| at Tobolsk and Krasnwarsk. Then it is a
great blue sea, the Lake Baikal. Over
bridges and under arches the train humps
along to the Amoor river, broad. majestic
and imposing; and 1t Is here that the Chi
nese architecture appears. two-horned pa
godas, little houses fenced with bamboos
tiny gardens. At Vladivostock there is a
glimpse of the Japan sea- Then 1t Is down
TO Port Arthur fhro,,ph q rociop Of pJooa,