The Seward gateway., 1916-07-11
of the week.

that room daily not only does East meet West and West meet East, but they eat out of the same dish.
 Since the closing of public traffic across the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland the only open door between Western Europe and the Great Elm pire of the East, is Tornea, on the left bank of the wide and rapid Tornio- joki. Population 1,7OO.
 Inere Is one tram daily in each dl- rechon-LasC ana West-one dipping flown through retrograd and Moscow and on across SlDeua to the Tar East, the other down through Sweden thence to the Near and lar West.
 The Russian Customs examination and passport formalties take place here whether one be coming or going, so the arrivals from the East and the arrivals from the West are at first kept apart. But once formaIities are complied with, West and East mingle in the big dining room which, at the same time, serves as first and second class waiting rooms.
 Usually customs and passport regulations are tedious because the military take minute care of each 'n- GiyiduaI passengers papers, ever On the watch for spies. So by the time all these are attended to one is usually pretty hungry. One is tempted to whitney like the family horse when, the halter off, he is allowed to shake ms head and make for the feed trough.
 In the middle of the waiting-roOm stan IS a table laden with steaming food. Also clean plates, knives, forks and spoons. In Baltimore Dairy Lunch fashion East and West help themselves out of the same dishes, then retire to stand or sit, face to face. eating their fill.
 There are all kinds of food, Orient al and Occidental. Caviar sand wiches, cold roast beef, strange little hashcd-meat balls resembling saus- sages the size of the end of ones thumb; there are pickled herrings sardincs, head-checse, goula5h; white bread, black bread, French rolls, Fin nish and Swedish rye cakes dry and thin as a soda cracker and quite palatable; coffee, tea, milk, water beer, wine-for wine, yon know, car be had in Finland though not in Rus sia proper. For desert there are cakes and pastry and something like our mothers used to call floating island" only the cream turns out to be smear cheese and a disappoint- ment. Tarts, too, can be had and other sweets, strange ard without name.
 When one has eaten all one wishe: he tells the Finnish lady at the desk by word or sign-what damage he has done to the center table and pays His word is never disputed. He i. taken to be an honest man regardless
 When West and East first accos each other over the hash balls it i. perhaps noon. Neither the train fol the East nor the train for the yves leaves before around p. mo anC walking about the town is discourag ed both by snow and officials. S' they sit around, visibly interested il each other. An American missiOnar! and his wife are in the throng, re turning from China, and he has tw Chinese women as nurses for hi children. He plays waiter and serve |! all with food and drink-tea: he won trust the water and his education against liquor. A Japanese youth munching an egg sandwich. The bi
 Siberian is tackling the herring an black bread. Swedes, NOrwegiani Chinese, Roumanians, Mongolian' Spaniards Tartars, French, Russians Films, Poles, Americans, Armenian'
 Greeks, Portuguese, men from tn
 Indies, East and West-all are ther feeding about the common tabl'