Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-05-04

seeing her would conduce TO MIS- peace
of mind.
He was accompanied by his secre-
tary, Wang the Korean boy, who had
rendered himself Indispensable
through his genius for details.
CHAPTER XXI
Hardy never forgot that journey to
Moscow. For days the heavy train
rolled slowly along through a vast
park covered with illimitable stretch
es of snow, or through leafless, naked
forests, shivering In the cold blasts
Of winter. All the trains that passed
were crowded with emigrants, bound
for the Amur region, and the car
windows were thronged with the
fresh, innocent faces Of children. To
many of the trains, prison cars we're
attached, bearing their sorrowful
freight to the dread island of Saghaltn
which has taken the place of Siberia,
as land for deportation. From the
windows Of these cars, also, many
children looked out, pressing their
little faces against the bars, for the
condemned are allowed to take their
families with them. Hardy had long
since realized that he was In Russia,
the Russia Of the story books and\ the
magazine articles.
That he was In Holy Russia, too. he
was not allowed to forget, for there
were shrines and icones Of Christ, OF
the Virgin and of different saints In
all the railroad stations, and before
these his fellow passengers often
crossed themselves, or purchased and
lighted some of the candles to be had
for copeck or two apiece.
Occasionally, too, travelling church
built on the bed Of a railway-car,
would pass, trailing at the end of
train. These churches were gorgeous
with much fretwork, tinsel and gold,
and through the open doors could be
seen the SNOWY glass pendants Of
hanging chandeliers, the yellow blink
ing Of lighted candles and the gleam-
ing of polished icon frames These
churches, Hardy learned, were COM
mercial ventures, conducted by the
priests in charge, who took religion
about the country very much as
patent-medicine man takes the wares
he sells from his painted wagon. On
and on the train rolled tirelessly night
and day, through the land Of the car,
the greta wood burning engine breath
ing steadily. rather than putting. They
crossed the broad Yenisei, with its
iron bridge, at night, while the cleo
trio lights Of Krasnoyarsk glittered
in the distance like cluster of stars;
over rolling stretches, snow-white.
they undulated, to the river Tom,
which they passed at ten in the morn
ing! then on through the country of
the Kirghiz, the land growing more
and more billy, to the arrowy ON
and the woodruff city of Omsk.
They we're nearing the frontier now,
and Siberia, with it's broad well-fen-
ced fields reminded Hardy Of the west
ern states of the union.
Up and up they climbed steadily in
to the picturesque Urals, until at last
they passed stone monument on the
left of the track, and Hardy knew
that they had left Asia behind and
were in Europe. AS they stopped at
the various brownish-yellow stations,
he saw frequent gangs Of buxom, pref
ty girls marching down the track with
long rakes or brooms resting on their
shoulders, or engaged in cleaning the
rails of snow and litter. These girls
wore red waists and over their heads
handkerchief of bright color, making
q vivid picture against the white back
ground Of snow.
Villages now became frequent. First
the cleaning dome of church would
be seen a long distance off, and then
the cluster Of squalid straw-thatched
huts about it. and perhaps row of
picturesque wind-milis, for grinding
grain.
Then came the stately VoIga with
It's mile-long bridge, pouring the Ural
SHOWS into the Caspian's mighty urn.
One evening little before sunset,
they came in sight Of Moscow an
indistinct blur of houses. out of which
doomed large and clear the towers and
aomes OF numerous churches, many
of them OVERHEAD with gold-leaf and
glittering gorgeously in the light OF
the setting sun.
At eight the train drew up in tho
modern and commodious station at
Moscow, and the American, as he
looked about him, felt that he was in
the heart of European civilization
once more.
Wang, who was invaluable through
his ready wit and his knowledge OF
Russian, attended to the baggage and
engaged sledgs to take his employer
to the Slaviansky Bazaar, or hotel, the
hocf oorouopsory IN the ni{ and (.