New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-08-02
RlAKHTA

sbops are displayed painted pictures of the wares
Within especially prolific in design are the cross
section of sausage frescos. One wonders whether
the fertility of invention of the sign painter put
the sausage maker his mettle TO create the
multitude of exhibits his shelves. or wee versa
Some sections of street in Trotskosavsk are
stone tagged instead of the eternal wooden side
walks gaping with tripholes. And-unparalleied
evidence of budding municipal pride in Siberia!-
strips of birches and larches have been planted
along each side of the main street 1t is the last
week of May, and this spot is on the same latitude
as the Straits of Dover but these sapiings are
only lust beginning to bud The thieket of willows
lining the brook that flows through little gorge
past the cathedral have not shown speck of
green yet. Look closer and you see that yard Of
mud covered ice has to melt before a sunbeam can
attempt to battle with the chill around the frozen
roots The weather is hot. and has been for few
weeks now 1t is IS degrees Fahrenheit in the
shade to-day. But the legacy of ground frost left
by seven-months winter mostly way under zero,
resists.
The wealthy tea merchants of generation or
two ago have done their duty by the city. AT
cost of nearly a million dollars they built the
gorgeous cathedral and gave it solid silver 200
pound doors. The beautiful altar of gold and
platinum and silver cost nearly 100000. Chande-
lers studded with diamonds and rubies and en-
eralds droop from the starry blue dome and gem
incrusted kons hang from the walls. fright
here, on the top of the recountal of all these
dazzling splendors I'll digress to tell you that my
bedroom door-the best bedroom in the best hotel
in town-has no handle and must be fastened
stablewise by two padlocks affixed to cluster OF
nails slammed into the Intel. Thus locked it
pushes open three inches, afording unlimited
peeking facilities to those without II is hardly
necessary to add that there is money in the tea
business on the frontier. Nempshinov, who mod
estly ran up mausoeum for himself in a vacant
lot on Trotskosavsk's broadway" at the cost Of
100000 was worth cool five million. Quaint
fowl these tea magnates. Another of them, worth
more than million, had grand piano brought
out from Europe on carts and sledges- ABOUT
far as from Alaska to Palm Beach. To his dying
day, however, he slept on three chairs, deemng
beds mere efemnate WITNESSES. And there was
the worthy old person whose ash tray for com
pany" was a huge gold nugget Not on any ac-
count did he let you get away before hearing cX-
actly how much money, to a fraction, he was losing
annually by negleeting to turn this toy into his
bank and draw interest upon it. 1t took work, of
course, to amass these piles-mainly strolng
down TO the warehouses after luncheon TO see
there were no bad leaks in the chests and bales.
AUTOMATIC AIMS WITHOUT EVEN A WORD
OF PLEADING.
There is other easy money to be made here
You can hardly call it begging. for the gentry
in this profession ask for nothing. Any one in
rags and tatters who enters shop and makes
bee-ine for the cashier-even the blind men seem
to know by instinct where he is standing IS
automatically handed d kopek, half a cent. There
is no cringng or whining to get it, and no bow
or smile when it is received Not word passes
On either side. When the tatterdemalion some
times Russ. more often Mongol, has thus visited
eight or nine shops he has enough capital 70
keep him in food and lodging for DAY. for the
cost of living in and around the bazars of TrOts-
kossvsk and Maimachin is not excessive. There
must be something rather jolly about labor else
Why does any one here bother TO work?
Troitskosavsk- Kiakhta- Alaimachin is town Of
four main nationalities, Russian and Booriat,
Khaka Mongol and Chinese. And get clear about
the Mongos We have slack habit in America.
largely developed by reporters who lust inordi-
nately after the elusive synonyme of terming
Cinnamon "Mongols" "Mongolians." Utterly
incorrect The Mongos, the nomad herdsmen
who inhabit the widernesses at the core Of Asia,
arc quite another people Some of their khan
the Eastern Asiatic The Khalkas, for instance,
TO whom belong most of the Mongols north Of
the Cobb Desert-a territory hereabouts-are sun
tanned to the complexion Of 0jibways, but those
whose occupations have kept them out Of the
sur look like athletic New Workers. They never
wear pigtals, Of course They usually clean
sLaven and they keep their hair close cropped.
MERRY GO ROUND WITH AN ODDLY MIXED
CREW.
In the middle Of the town, under the slope oceu-
pied by the cathedral and the fire stations wooden
watch tower, is bare, open space where folks
amuse themselves There is a merry -go-round al
most always on tap II carries mixed crew
Siberian peasant girls, in gay print dresses and
with pink or yellow or blue kercbiefs over their
heads; black haired little Boorats of the Cossack
levy more moon-f faced than but reminiscent Of the
Japanese; young Russian soldiers Of the goth and
DIST Siberians; Chinese clerks, who look perfect
ladies. whatever antics they arc up to, clinging
desperately to the Of whizzing wooden
horses their plated back hair following at right