The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-29
THE NEW YORK OF sIBERI4
The Name Given to the Town of Bla
 govestchensk.


 govestchensk.
 On the afternoon of Saturday, Sep
 tember 21, we reached Blagovestohensk
 the principal town between Irkutsk and the waters of the Pacific. Half a doz-
 en steamers lay moored to floating
 wharves, large one, flying the mail flag, leaving in q couple of hours for
 Khabarovsk, three days journey further down the river. Through pas- ssngers having to make hurried tran sit bade bon voyage to my acquaint- ances, the Russian and French women, who were getting little tired of Slbe- ria, and eager for the prettiness of lauded Japan. They went on; decided to stay in Blagovestchensk five days, till the next postboat went down stream. Therefore, I piled my belong ings on droshki, and told the hairy faced driver to take me to the Grand Hotel" with much misgiving about the kind of place 1t would turn out to be. And, as have grumbled about other hotels, I will give this its due. It was excellent. It's front was tawdry, blue and white stucco much like the French hotels you find overlooking Swiss lakes, but 1t was clean, we'll furnished, electric lighted and its manager, a Frenchman, could appreciate a Britisher's desire for water, and plenty of it.
 Blagovestchensk is the briskest si berian town l have seen. It is proud of it's position, and as it Is the fashion to compare this new land with older lands, it has dubbed itself "The New York of Siberia It isn't that, But again and again have I been struck with it's like ness to an American town. It is laid out on the T-square plan, every street running at right angles. The houses are of wood, mostly single storied, and yet in the middle of these stand great three storied public buildings, which you would cross the street to look at If you saw them in Moscow or St. Peters burg. The roads are in quite transat- lantic neglected state, but fringed with wooden sidewalks, and the main streets are festooned with wires for electric lighting, telegraph and telephone. The shops are "stores," selling everything from cigarettes to reaping machines All these stores are in the hands of Germans or Russians from the Baltic
 The droshki is old fashioned in Bla- goves tchensk-all right for slow slumbrous old Russia, but be- hindhand for a busting Siberian city. A light American rig. three parts spring, with horse that can move" is the proper thing. The youths are keen cyclists, and go whizzing along on Ger man and American machines. Just outside the town are athletic grounds, with a we'll banked up cycle track. On the river front is a. promenade, with q double row of trees and seats beneath them, where you can rest and watch the set ting of the sun over the shoulder of China.
 It is what the Americans call quite a own" Till twenty years ago it was It, tie more than Cossack outpost. Now it has a population of nearly forty .housand. There is a public library with ten thousand volumes-a little much to speak of, howev- ar-two neWspapers-one daily and the other weekly--four banks, two large ronworks, seven tanneries, two soap factories, three breweries, three steam four mills, three sawmills and two rope yards. Also, there is medical and society, which maintains q hospital for the poor, two dispensary -ooms and a home for the aged, crip- oles and orphans. A fine brick club house has a hall adapted for theatri- ,als Blagovestchensk is rather too far put of the general world for touring Ira ypa fic cnnpanieS tO call thnuph last winter an operatic company settled in he town, and three nights week per 'ormed more or less successfully all the