The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-27
THE PARIS OF SIBERIA.

The Slipshod, Primitive Town of Irk- utsk-Is No Place for a Woman.
 man might do worse than to aban-
 don, for once in a way, the Riviera or
 Engadine, and take winter trip by the
 Trans-Siberian railway to Irkutsk. I
 say "a man" advisedIy, for at present
 the Paris of Siberia" Gas Russians
 alone call i) is no place for woman,
 even for one who can rough it.
 At this season the journey is de- lightful one, for Siberia is now at it's
 best; not the dark Siberia of the novel, ist-hoWling blizzards, chained con- victs, wolves and the knout-but
 smiling land of promise and plenty,
 even under it's limitless mantle of snow.
 The outlook is wintry, of course, but
 most days you have the blue, cloudless sky and dazzling sunshine so often sought in vain at Riviera resorts. At
 midday your sunlit compartment is of
 ten too warm to be pleasant, although
 outside it is ten degrees below zero. But the air is too dry and bracing for
 discomfort, although the gentle breeze we are enjoying here will probably be cutting you to pieces in London in the shape of a boisterous and biting east
 wind. The train is luxury itself-an ex- cellant restaurant, a piano, library and every comfort that ingenuity can de- wise. This journey of nine days costs | exactly eleven pounds (first-class, ex- elusive of meals), and with good shoot ing of all kinds in Manchuria or the Trans-Balkal, trip oe this kind in mdwinter is certainly worthy of the at tention of (especialIy impecunious) sportsmen.
 At present the Paris of Siberia" is an | unfinished slipshod city, badly paved and worse lit. The sanitary arrange | ments are practically nil, and only the intense winter cold prevents the severe epidemics that periodically occur in summer time. There is now one long, | struggling main street, with fairly good shops and buildings. but beyond this | Irkutsk remains the same dreary, look | ing place that I remember in the early | sos before the railway had aroused the l town from it's heavy sleep of centuries. Even now the place is absolutely
 primitive and uncivilized. from Euro
 pean point of view, and the queer Chi nese and pastyg faced sTartars that throng the streets are quite in keeping
 with the Oriental filth around. unre- deemed by eastern color. The best ho- tel (rejoicing in the misleading title of Metropole) is foul and filthy den, sug- gestive of the purlieus of Soho, all though, it's prices outvie those of the
 Carlton in Pail Mall. Only lately built, the jerry built house reeks of sewage
 and swarms with vermin. You will find a bedstead certainly Gan unknown luxury here a decade ago), but sheets and pillows (generally dirty, as they were left by a former guest) are charged "extra!" And this is the Par is of Siberia" 4
 In some respects Irkutsk has gone ahead. There are, now several banking houses, the shopseare good, and the pop ulation, perhaps, trife cleaner than they used to be, Moreover, there is fine theater Qately built for thirty thousand pounds), where I witnessed, in
 Russian, La Dame de Chez Maxim,
 which, however, was coldly received. There are other so-called places of
 amusement. Electric light blazes till the small hours from certain "cafes chatants," and here the local million aires-and there are many-take their pleasure sadly enough, amid surround ings that would disgrace dive in San Francisco.
 The streets are dimly lit with oil, and you must grope your way about after dark; but, if wise, you will stay at home, for robbing and murder are com- mon. Only last week a. woman was
 killed just outside this hotel. A large proportion of the population here con-