The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1904-06-29
Russia and Japan.

miles. Half of Europe and the
whole of Northern Asia are included
within it's boundaries. It has great
er continuous area than any other ma
ton in the world. European Russia
has an area of 2 095. .6l0square miles,
about thirteen times larger than that
CT Japan.
In population the Russian Empire
surpasses Japan nearly threefold. Ac-
cording to the census of 1893 the
empire has 129, 9,562,7lS. Within the
the last half century the increase in
population has been tremendous. In
1915 it was estimated a 45.000,0OO.
At the present time it is nearly l5O,-
100000. The empire has seven cities
with population of over 100000, and
they are St. Petersburg, 1,48s,570;
Moscow, 1,147,145 Warsaw, 641, 1886;
Odessa. 4l4,2le; Lodz, l16, ,l46; Rigo,
26O,7l7, and Klev, 255,699
The Russian navy at the beginning
of the war with Japan consisted of is
battleships, 5 srmored cruisers, l9
cruisers. protected or otherwise; Z tor
pedo gunbosts, 26 destroyers, So tor
pedo boats (bulIt or building) and
several submarine torpedo boats. a
certain portion of the fleet is con-
fined to the Black sea, SO that Japan
opposed by Only S battleships, 5 ar
mored cruisers and Sprotected cruis,
ers, representing Total tonnage of
141,l73, or seven-tenths that of the
japanese fleet. The Russian ships
do not throw as great broadside as
do the japanese. Russia has no dock
Yards in the East where she Can re-
pair her ships, except at Vladivostok.
It has been estimated that the to-
tai war footing of the Russian army,
aftercslling out the reserves amounts
to 5,25O,00O men, more than ten times
that of Japan. The soldiers are drawn
from the ignorant peasant class and
the chcers from the governing ranks
of society. Should Russia call out
all her own troops she will have 1897
officers, 5,1SO,95S soldiers, 6l3,4OO
horses and 4,00U cannon. Germany
is the only nation that exceeds Rus.
sia in its military equipment.
There are nearly 1000 islands in
the Empire of japan, with total
area of 162,153 square miles. Only
500 islands, however, are inhabited,
the remaining isles being mere heaps
of rocks.
The population of Japan was esti-
mated at IS, 3,152,99S, according to tie
last census, 1aken 10 1898. Tnete are
four classes, in the following proper
tions: Imperial family, So; nobility,
1851; gentry, 2,105,696; common
people, 41,O5O.5GS In addition are
the 100000 inhabitants of Formosa
30 that the present population is estl-
mated at about 50,O0O,000. Honco
the chief island, Is the most denseis
populated part of the empire, having
s8l persons to the square mile, aid
it's southern districts have Ats ln-
! habitants to the square mile. OF re-
cent years there have been rapid cen.
| cent,stion Of population in cities.
| There are IS towns, according 20 the
! census Of 1898. having a population
of 10000 or over.
Japan's navy consists of six battle
i ships, 81. armosed cruisers and four
tesn protected cruisers. OF the bat
| tleships four have displacement Ct
more than $4,000 tons each. The
| remainder are of more than 12,COH
tons. All are supposed to have a
speed of Is knots an hour. The
armored cruisers are of the same
size, just little less than 10000
/ tons. The protected cruisers range
! in size from 2,7OO to 4,700 tons dis.
| placement. One has speed of "a