Evening star., 1909-07-11

ing up everywhere, and houses or nlty
and sixty rooms were being erected In
the new town, which formed the Russian
residence section, dozen or so of such
them, are still to be seen. Some are
finished to the roofs and others to the
first floors only. They have not been
touched since the war and are going TO
ruin.
Such residences as were completed can
now be rented for few dollars a month.
Just opposite my hotel stands brick
house of three stories which contains
fifty rooms. 1t probably cost $4,000 to
build, and it could be rented today for
$50 a month. Adjoining it is another resi-
dence which Is still larger 1t is occupied
at a rental of $35. On the hill behind me
are the foundations of Russian cathe-
dral which, if completed. would be as
large as any church building in the
United States. 1t was about ready for the
walls when the war occurred and 1t was
stopped forever. A new hotel which had
been erected in the old city was turned
into hospital during the siege 1t IS
now the property of the japanese Red
Cross Society, and is used as hospltai
for the Japanese.
x K
The Japanese officials occupy many Of
the Russian PUBLIC buildings. The civil
offices of the Manthurian government are
in a gray structure in the new town;
the military department is In white
building farther back and the Russian
naval Offices, which covered an acre or so.
are to be turned into Japanese military
academy The hotel in which | write
this letter is the once famous restaurant
known as Saratoffs, where the RUSSIAN
officers gambled away thousands OF rubles
and drank their vodka. 1t has the same
barroom and the same Odessa billiard
table, but the vodka has disappeared ana
q Japanese bartender dispenses saki IN
stead. Japanese girls wait upon you In
the dining room and Japanese boys act
as your chambermaidS. The Motel De-
longs to the South Manchurian railway
which is now Japanese corporation, and
1t has become most orderly place.
l had a talk this evening with an ofn-
ciai who was here when Port Arthur
fell. He tells me that the Russians
were crazy to get away, ana tnat furni-
ture of every kind went for song. said
he: sofas, tables and chairs could be
had for the asking. and grand pianos
brought $25 apiece. Costly hangings were
thrown out into the streets, and some OF
the houses were set fire to by their own
ers. After we took possession | found
our soldiers tearing up valuable books.
and using them for fuel or throwing them
out into the snow, and l besought the
general in charge to allow me 10 go
through the town and save the libraries.
there were gave me a detail of soldiers to
bring them in. We collected altogether
about 10000 volumes. The most of
them were in Russian. but there were a
thousand or so in French and English.
Several hundred were in Italian, and
some Chinese and Japanese. There were
nine sets of encyclopedias. all Russian or
German. and a great many musical books.
| tried to catalogue them. classifying
them first by languages, and later by
subjects. The most of the volumes were
fction, but there were many scientific
works. There were Russian translations
OF Shakespeare and Dickens, and also
of Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad The
Russians had every luxury here. They
lived well and at the close even better
than. we Japanese: for by the terms OF
our capitulation we gave them fresh meat.
although we were living on. canned stunts
ourselves Nevertheless We could NOT
satisfy them"