The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-28

barovsk, on the Amur AS miles, was
completed in 1895, and as early as 1898
the traffic was enormous, 100000 passen-
gers being carried over the various pOr-
lions of the line that year and 100000
tons of freight, of which more than $780,
700 tons were cereals. Between 1895 and
1900 more than 1850, 900 passengers and
100000 tons of freight were carried on
the southern and central Siberian sec
tons. Much of this traffic, OF course,
consisted of men and materials pertain
ing to construction and the army, but
considerable of it resulted from the
actual development of the contiguous
country. Possessed of an insatiate land
hunger, the peasants of Russia have
hooked to the new fields of Siberia by
the hundred thousand, aided by the
government to the extent of free allot-
ments of land, almost nominal fares,
free public buildings, etc, including
more than 300 churches, schools and
chapels. The pioneer religious struc-
ture was the famous Church on
wheels" which went over the road as
1ast as the rails were laid and suficed
for the spiritual wants of the new and
scattered communities. The first allot-
ments Of land were near the railroad.
then farther and farther away, until
II now appears that in the process of
ume the vast steppes and forest Sec
uons OF inhospitable Siberia will be
taken up by actual settlers and will be
tolerably populous. This is in accord
ance with the scheme of the car and
his advisers, who are cognizant of the
difficulty attending the rapid trans
portation of troops in time of war from
the center of government to the Pacific
or the Yellow sea, for in these commu-
mites they will have so many bodies of
self sustaining fighting material al
ready adjacent to the seat of prospec-
tive war. By securing, also an ice free
port at Talienwm in the gulf of Pechili
the car provided place for the as.
sembling of his fleets. and thus in the
farseeing scheme of the Muscovite the
developments of peace Travelled hand in
hand with the preparations for war
Wisely projected and fearlessly car
ried out in the face of almost insupera-
BILE difficulties. the vast Transsiberian
railway is a monument to Russian sa-
gacity and endeavor which cannot but
command the unstinted admiration Of
the world. While references to the
WOIh nave been maze from time TO
time, it will not be superfluous to men,
ton, now that it is practically complet-
ed, that what many have denounced as
a chimerical idea--the uniting of Amer
lea and Asia by rail, via northern ST.
IBERIA, Bering strait and Alaska-may
yet be a possibility. At all events the
two continents are brought appreciably
nearer, and the journey round the globe
has been shortened by many days. The
amended time table. Paris to Paris via
Moscow, Irkutsk, VIadivostok, Seattle
or San Francisco, Chicago, New York
and southampton or Havre will prOba-
bly, be about thirty-five days, at all
events under forty.
Much complaint has been made of
rough roads and slow time-from ff-
teen to twenty miles per hour-on the
Transsiberian line, owing to light rails
and insufficient ballast AT the same
time, recent visitors to Siberia say
travelling over the line is not only COM
Portable, but luxurious. Besides the or