Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-09-15

| The City of Archangel, the capital o
Northern Russia is city of surprises
When we steamed up the estuary o.
the Dwina, past the large sawmills
and great lumber yards to drop an
chor at Solombala, l expected to see 9
| rather unimportant Russian port. Cur
ious | was to be sure, for who is not
curious about this great empire that
owns such vast territory, reaching
from its pine covered mountains with
in the Arctic circle to the tropical
home of the palm in the south. bound
ed on the west by Germany and Scan.
dinavia and on the east by the Pa
ciiic ocean; whose people number
millions, whose resources are mex
haustible, and about which so little
is known. | believed, however, that
the little corner we should see would
be squalid and uninteresting. a dirty
port in a wild and uncivilized region
OF Western Russia.
| was mistaken in many particu-
lars. Rude it was, but not uncivilized.
The meals we got on shore were good !:
coarse, heavy pottery was placed on
the table, but the tea was excellent,
and as an option, If you do not like
lime or lemon juice with your tea, you
may splash into 1t. with barbarous
magnificence, large spoonfuls of straw
berry JAM
Then, again, there is scarcely a
house in the whole city which is built
of anything but rough wood logs,
caulked with moss; but inside the few
saw were plastered, finely papered
and comfortably furnished.
The hotels are unimportant for a
city of 10000 inhabitants, but the
club where the English speaking peo-
pie foregather has large handsomely
doors of fine polish, and fittings which
leave nothing to be desired. Wages
are low. You can get a droshky, an
excuse for cab, for few cents
(about half dollar) a day, and other
labor in proportion. yet your driver
may be wearing a fine fur coat worth
a round hundred of good American
dollars in New York. There is fire
department that would be credit to
any American city of like size, while
the street is paved so roughly that no
pavement would almost be prefera-
BILE There are no sanitary arrange
ments visible.
1t was our good fortune to meet the
governor general, and he was one of
the greatest surprises. Great power
he has-even the power of life and
Of
here is such that the rudest unlettered
savage of a peasant will talk and jest
with him. and laugh loudly, for all the
world as if he were his social equal.
He speaks no English. though he is the
author of volume of travels in Nor
thern Russia which has been translat-
ed into English. He converses freely.
took a trip up the beautiful Dwina
river. and he tipped his hat and bow
ed in a pleasant manner to our three
rousing American cheers.
For three months in the winter
Archangel scarcely sees the sun; for
three months in the summer, seldom
loses sight of it. Yet there is no
city in the whole of Europe which lies
for so many months-for the greaterr
part of the-year, in fact-under man
tie of snow; and because of this, the
Russian fondly calls it THE White
City" White, too, it is in other ways.
All the chief dwellings glare with
white paint and blink with white
blinds. The churches-and they are
not few, are also of pure white, with
minarets of green, surmounted with
gold crosses. The private houses of
the better sort are white. the street
posts, gates, pillars, walls, fences
all white. For every official we saw in
blue or gray tunic, we saw ten in
white caps and uniforms.
Bright color is left alone to the wom-
en- and children; pink blouses, green
shirts. scarlet petticoats, orange
aprons and blue kerchiefs are common
sights, and a group of children looks
like a bouquet OF flowers. These and
the green fields are the color spots
Archangel capital of new Russia in
the near West is white city indeed.
We ran amuck of the Russian police
system when we stopped at place
where we heard music. The windows
of house on the street were open and
from within came the sound of an Or
chestra. We stopped to consult about
going in, and were surprised to hailed
by voice from the inside:
Hello, there," 1t seemed good to
hear English words again.
A man came to the window. We
asked if we might come in.
Sure, il you have the price"
But just then we were interrupted
by the policeman, and told pleasantly
to move on. He displayed a gun dur
ing his remarks just to show possibili-
ties, but his principal weapon seemed
to be sort of wooden club, somewhat
like farmwife's pound butter press
with handle about foot lang and a
square box on the end. This he car
ried somewhat as an American officer
might billy" and learned that II
could be used as a handcuff. Oh
course we moved on.
We were present at Archangel dur
| ing a holiday, and it appeared to me
in my innocence that all the city spon
taneously celebrated with flags ant
decorations. But learned that imme
| ftar tho yraaf day tho pnIic.