The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-24
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of what the people about me were
| thinking of. But this growing intel
| ligence on my part did not extend to
! the Chinese and Koreans who infest
| the water front of Vladivostok, or to
| the queer Siberians from Saghalien-
ex-conyicts thrown on the mercies of
! the town. All these ragged and I'M
kempt swarms remained riddles to me
(very dirty riddles, too, as far as my
powers of communicating with them
We're concerned.
Subtracting the Chinese and Korean
elements from the streets of Vladivos-
tok, and also the large number of those
white men I speak of with a look of
the submerged tenth about them, the
town remains in appearance a squalid
imitation of ST. Petersburg. There is
dirt everywhere, and upon everyone,
too, except the army and navy officers
in their uniforms, and the Russian Ia
dies. A close scrutiny Of the latter's
sisters in the lower classes reveals an
Indifference to untidiness which is rath-
err appalling.
AS for the men one meets on the
streets, they appear to enjoy dirt. The
ischvostchiks are caked with dirt; their
large and furious yellow boards are full
of it. Their tall horses are rusty with
it; their vehicles have never been wash
ed of it. Yet there is some excuse for
all this, for Vladivostok during half
the year, or when it is not frozen up.
is lake, a Venice of mud.
The Russians are too careless and
too anxious to spend money on more
SNOWY things than street pavements,
such as buildings, dockyards, tall
horses, furs and uniforms, 10 pay any
attention to the cleanliness of the city,
Their footgear deserves a chapter by
itself. Tall boots are generally worn,
and they use a variety of leather over
shoes, some of them reaching half way
up the calf, for wading across the
streets. The big Russian military men
have in reality slender and we'll shap-
ed feet, but no one would guess it in
Vladivostok. The only exception to the
universal unconcern as to the size and
ungainliness in footgear is the Russian
lady who takes a pretty pleasure in
picking her way through this muddiest
of towns with her feet clad in Partisan
slippers.
The colors that dot the street seem
like a remonstrance to the general
monochrome of mud which threatens
to absorb their brillianey. There is no
brighter scarlet than the shirt waists
to the coachmea, or brighter magentas
and pinks than the women of the
poorer classes wear. The white dress
es of the nurses, trimmed with gay
embroideries, are as gay as butter
flies. The streets are at all times
dotted with the uniforms of the army
and navy, including the picturesque
costumes which belong to the Cossack
cavalry and the Siberian troops. There
is quick movement in the streets,
which adds to the gayety. The army
officers are generally driving, and al
ways driving fast Their lives are
said to be of a like pace, and the IA
miliar tales of extravaganza, official
corruption, debt and dissipation which
are whispered, in every Russian city
are heard in this remote spot of the
realm. The officers look just as they
do on the Nevsky Prospect of St Pc
tersburg.
There is a fine carelessness in the
manner of Russians of distinction. both
men and women. and here it is on
The Worlds Street One wonders
if it has its root in some Slavonic
strain of melancholy or some Asiatic
trait of mind which feeds on the idea
of the lack of Importance of all human
life. To the Russian temperament the
idea of suicide is not so abhorrent as
to us, and it did not seem extraor6i-
nary in Vladivostok to hear eyerv