Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-04-16
Copyrighted, 1906 by The Boo5s-Meriu Company
By GEORGE HORTON

the landscape for some sign or evil
dence OF the things that had given the
country its sinister reputation His
first impression, as the train left
Vladivostok behind, w,s complete
refutation Of all preconceive. notions
There were no convicts anywhere in
sight, no fielas of ice or snow In
stead, he was journeying on a pleasant
summers day through wildly green
prairie, wide as the eye could reach,
where fat cattle waded up to their
knees in lush grass, and yellow dande-
lions. as large as tea saucers, and
! fierce tiger-lilies, swayed and nodded
by the million in the balmy breeze. He
had expected to find something differ
ent, somehow, in the aspect of Siberia
itself, something sinister and forbid
ding. Yet this save for the greater
luxuriance of the vegetation and the
profusion and brilliancy of the flowers.
might have been a stretch of Mime
'scsa or Manitoba. He was in the same
old familiar world, and the idea oc-
Cured to him that man, not God, has
made countries good or bad. He
thought, too, of old Frederick Emery's
characterization of Siberia as a region
of unlimited resources and virgin OPP
portunites, and lie felt a resolve
sprining within him to seize strenn-
ously on every chance thrown in his
way, to show himself the stuff Of
which pioneers and conauerers are
made. If a man had any desire to put
an unpleasant past behind him and
begin anew, here certainly was the
place to do it.
There were two couches in his COM
partment, the one serving as a seat
or lounge by day the other folding
back against the wall into a comforta-
BILE back seat. AS the trail. was not
crowded, Hardy had me entire COM
pa-tment for himself and undisturbed
opportunity for reflection.
Again his experience in Japan and
on the Japan Sea ran through his
m-rld, and he could not help compar-
ing this country with the land Of the
mikado.
Two countries and people more en-
tirely and radically different from
each other" he unused, st would be
difficult to imagine. What differ
ence there is between these lonely
stretches of prairie and the teeming
rice-fields and villages of Japan! Be-
tween the muzhik in his blouse and
hign boots and the little slant-eyed
Asiatic; between the droshky with it's
two wild horses and the jinrikisha;
between these sto]id-faced peasant
women and the picturesque geishas:
between Aisome and the Princess Ro-
manoyna:
He was soon to learn that the WON
en- of Russia are quite as fun-ioving as
their sisters of the island empire and
that the daughters of France or Italy
are stolid in comparison with them.
That the eternal feminine" lives on
amid the SHOWS and solitudes of Sib-
eria and exists even in the hearts If
the lowliest peasants was made evil
dent at the desolate little stations
where they stopped to take on wood
an. water for the engines, for the
women who thronged the platforms
with bottles of milk and bouquets IT
gorgeous wild flowers, or who stood
at long counters laden with country
produce, were cay with bits of bright
color.
| Weary at last of sitting Hardy went
out into the long hall at one side Of
the car and walked UP and down. Here
=. found the Russia who spoke
French. also promenading, and squeez-
ed against the wall several times 20
let him pass.
Pardon, Monsieur" said this gentle
man as. the lrain stopped, "but we re-
! main here long enough to take zakotl-
ka. Perhaps you feel the need of re.
| freshment? Do you know what the
zakouska is 2"
ooh, yes,' replied Hardy laughing
| 81 know what zakouska is very well.
! | should indeed like some"
He/h had thought that he should
Bears the ~