The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-01-25
BriIIiance Vies With Vice.

The opera there is almost as bril-
liant as the opera in Paris. Duels,
suicides, murders are of weekly oc-
currence, but a formal reception at
st. Petersburg could not boast of
any more culture than is to be found
at smart entertainment at one of
the fashionable homes in this Sibe-
rian city
Irkutsk is the capital OF eastern
Siberia. l has wide streets, lined
with fine buildings.
Irkutsk has among it's citizens
| more milliOnaires than any city of
its size in the world, and they have
to spend their money in the city,
for the rason that they are not al
lowed to leave the province. Most
of especially the rich ones
are convicts or the descendants of
convicts who have amassed fortunes
in gold mining.
The Baikal mountains near IT.
kutsk are filled with rich veins of
gold, and it is no exaggeration to
say that thousands of men in the
comparatively small town in the
heart of Siberia have become rich
/ beyond the dreams of avarice.
The monastery of ST. Innocent,
which cost upward of $7,00O,000,
is one of the finest specimens of
architecture in the world The city
! has more public institutions than
any city of its size in the world. It's
cathedrals vie with any to be found
in Russia, St. BasiIs alone excepted.
! IT'S opera house is eclipsed only by
I Opera in Paris.
With these refnements came gor-
geous hotels and cafes. The princi-
! pal cafe in Irkutsk is as grand as
! anything anywhere, and it's prices
are at least four times as high. All
! the delicacies of the world are to be
had, including the rarest wines, and
at prices that would stagger Pitts
burg millionaires.
Meeting Place of World.
Irkutsk is a meeting place for the
vicious from all quarters of the
globe. There is nothing secret about
any of the vice. Every type of beau
| ty is to be found-beautiful geisha'
girls il native costume vieing with
/ Viennese and Partisan women in the
latest creations. All the gambling
houses are wide open, the more i'm
pOrtant conducted under police pro-
lection The cafes never close, and
it is between the hours of midnight
and in the morning that they are
at their liVeliest Everyone drinks.
! Tragedies, as might be expected,
are frequent, and suicides are so
numerous that scarcely any atten-
ton is paid to them except by the
immediate friends or relatives. There
! is extreme poverty in certain dis
tricts, and there is a large class of
poor eX-conyicts who make trouble
! from time to time. A regiment of
200 COssacks are needed to pre-
serve order, and when disturbances
arise they make arrests by the whole
sale.
! Every road is carefully guarded,
and no one is allowed to board a
train on the Trans-Siberian railroad
in either direction without having
his passport scrutinized by at least
half a dozen officials. A native of
! Irkutsk has to make the best of his
! life there. Escape is impossible.
Even the nearest city, Krasnoyarsk,
is $40 miles away.
During the season, which, as in
all Russian cities, is during the win
ter, all sorts of festivities are in
progress. In addition to the opera
there are theatres, concerts by IA
nous musicians and balls of almost
Vienese brilliance.
For either acute or chronic kid
ney disorders, for annoying and