The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-26

THE uninitiated are prone to regard |l the realm of the "White Tar" or |k Little Father" as his subjects love |, sneak of him, as dark and mysterious bnd that lies beyond border franght Eith the weird and occult. Indeed the |rontier which divides that shadowy |npire from the rest of Europe takes In the semblance of the limo of demar- |ation which separates this world rom hat of the beyond and of which we betaphorcally speak as the Great Dl- |ide
 Our ideas in this respect are fash bned from romance. misinformation Ind impressions born of the uncouth |easantry which immigrate to our lountrv or whom we meet upon their in other countries. The better classes of Russians are hegant. affable and impressive and the biddle class when you have secured l heir acquaintance and confidence are |nady, willing and anxious to frater- |ze.
 They are remarkably intelligent and ,e facility with which they acquire |breign tongue is proverbial. once het a Russian lady in railway car Ind carried on an hours conversation +ith her in English without guessing CT nationality. Finally she asked me That I thought of her English and told e that three months previously she d not know a word of the language French is the verbal coin of the world nd like gold is current everywhere; ,t even without its knowledge one can ok up much of a foreign language by kading the signs of the shops and maga- nes in any country where Roman let IT'S are used. In fact I know of no bet r way in which language can be lore expeditously acquired than by |,ch a medium. The windows of the hop displaying the signs usually con- lin some articles whrich give one an kling of that to which they refer and ith a little ingenuity one can supply @ rest.
 But in a country that has an alphabet
 its own, as Russia, and does not nploy the Roman letters, this resource
 denied one and he is completely in dark.
 Fortunately for myself had master
 the Russian alphabet with its S6 let rs before my first visit to the land
 the Tzar so that I was not so much
 sea.
 The best way to reach St. Petersburg
 by boat, preferably from Stockholm,
 the Russian railroads are govern ent monopolies and medieval in char fer the trains, with their cabin-l rs heinz quite primitive. l. of course, cept the comforts of the Trans-Sibe- n ro,ite which are undeniably most cellent.
 It is long, dusty. tedious route ov- land by rail. Tho trains rarely run
 a greater speed than 30 miles pei ur the roadbed is rock baiiasted III ots only and most of the track rests
 a cushion of pulverized earth.
 The trains are void of towels, soap, ushes and mirrors and the water tank
 of an extremely crude pattern Most
 the locomotives, however, burn oil,
 that the smoke nuisance IS in q easure obviated. Neither is there 1ch in a scenic way to relieve the iium of the 42 hours ride from Ber-
 to Moscow. A desolate expanse of iden lowland, forbiddinG forests, agnant pools. melancholy marshes
 iful fields, futile farm strips, nuts tb unkempt yards, primitive fences
 irregular boards. swarms of dirty iidren and a perpetual line of signal bins are the only adornmeRts or
 que after league of the wea 2ute As one views the lines of fzsak Ks,
 ps of gendarms and station masters
 is inclined to sit or stand with his ssport in his hands and he must keep
 eyes upon 1t as well, for the offi- ;s are not overly jealous in returning