The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-03
SERG|US W|TTE 4
 HUNTER OF BEARS Sport More Dangerous Than
 That of Roosevelt's IS A MAN WITHOUT FEAR M. Witte Has Broad and Comprehen- sive Knowledge of Railroads
 Which He Acquired by Prac-
 tcal Experience.
From the Washington Star.

Sergius Witte in this country would be regarded as an eminently conservative statesmen. In Russia he is regarded as very radical. But that only shows how things are viewed in different countries Personally, the ex-minister of finance Is a big man. He is all as muscular as he looks, too, and he is physically fearless. He ought to make a hit with President Roosevelt, for he Is a hunter, member of some of the best shooting clubs in Russia. and in his earlier days he has put moro than one bear out of action by the peculiar Russian sport of bear-spear- ing. This is a pastime that calls for more nerve and skill than bear shooting
 Nearly all hunting in Russia is done with the aid of beaters, and a party going out for bear always employ man who makes a speciality of locating the bears in piece of woods where they hibernate. The beaters then turn them out in the direction of the sportsmen. Shooting them under these conditions is comparatively easy work, and all depends on whether or not a bear breaks cover on your part of the shooting line. But with spearing 1t is different. The spear used is about ten feet long with lance point and cross piece of iron about three feet down from the spear head. This is to prevent the slender spear from going clear through the bears body and letting him down on the hunter. A bear almost always goes up on his hind legs to make his attack and the trick Is to spear him through the heart when he rises and keep him In play somewhat like fish till he is dead. If any one wants this sort of hand-to-hand frivolity with a bear they will get accommodated with all the sport that any human being could look for.
 M. Witte has gone up against this form of sport and a man who can face a big brown bear under these conditions is not apt to meet anything else that he Is afraid of.
 Destined for Railroad Business.
 But this is only an incident. Witte was destined for the railroad business. He was born in Triffis fifty-five years ago, and he was by no means one of the native aristocrats of Russia, but came from a line of Dutch immigrants that had set. tied in that part of the world. He went through the University of NovoroyIsk and graduated in 1870. Like most young Russians in similar position in life, he took a small job offered by the govern ment his lot being cast in the southwes- tern railway district But he was not the sort to stay in subordinate position very long.
 He was interested in railroading and he went at the technical side of it as young men have to do to succeed either in Rus sia or elsewhere. If he wanted an opin- ion on the performance of a new engine he did not depend for 1t on report. He would ride in the cab and talk to the en- gineer Witte did a good many things that are generally considered "infra dig" with government servants In Russia. He thought nothing of walking a mile up the track to find some engineer or fireman who would give him the practical opin- ion he wanted about new oil burners or wood fuel and more than one man who has gone out on the line to find him hold ing highly practical conferences with the men who actually do the work.
 He was made director of traffic in the southwestern railways and progressed from there to the director of the railway department attached to the ministry of finance. This was in 1889. less than twenty years after he had left the university In the same year be was made the president of the tariff commission and it was there that he began to show his grasp of for eign trade relations and put in practice some of the theories that have made him