Evening star., 1922-03-28
|[|KEN WAD|V0STOk
T TO SAN FRANCISCO
Pre-War Conditions Similar
to Baroary Coast Days
of Golden Gate.

COW woman nao tol0 1elloW pas"
sengers on tho transsiberian rail-
way Of an Englishman who was ais
appointed because he spent ten days
in New York and had not seen an
Indian.
"Just before alighting at the ter
minal city of the longest railroad In
the world she inquired: is there
much danger from wolves in Vladi-
vostok?' ..
"Not only is there about as much
danger Of meeting a wolf In viadi-
countering q mountain lion In San
Francisco but there are other like
nesses between these port cities, es-
pecially IL the Vladivostok Of just
before the war be compared with the
San Francisco Of its earlier, Farbary
coast days" according to a bulletin
Of the National Geographic Society.
Vladfvostok II Younger.
younger than our city, OF the Golden
Gate, having been founded In 1860.
Had its normal development not been
interrupted by the war. its hinter-
land beset by soviet forces, unsettled
by rapid changes OF government and
because of the attacking Chita
troops. Vladivostok might soon have
rivaled our own coast city in popu-
lation and beauty.
Living is extremely dear said
the Baedeker of 1912; and of the
with equal truth that human life is
very cheap. The city warranted a
Bret Harte's attention for its bizarre
and colorful atmosphere during war
times, but for the variety OF peoples
who made up its transitory popula-
Al IL
Of our own frontier towns. Normally
1t has. fewer than $4,000 people: by
1918 its residents numbered nearly
100000. The influx was made mp OF
human gradations between typhus
victims and American millionaires.
Huge piles Of war material were
massed there before the revolution
came-acres Of automobiles, noun
tains of car wheels and square miles
of barbed wire.
City OF Extreme Contrasts.
Even in ordinary times Vladivostok
Is city of extreme contrasts, as
might be expected of a place where
Chinaman and Russian compete,
where east literally meets west.
station from one of the most luxuri-
GUS trains of any continent (191S was
the last year you could have done
that( you saw trailers, automobiles,
droshkies, carriages and jinrikishas.
Russians, Japanese, Chinese and
Europeans. occasional Americans and
Africans.
"A tongue Of hilly land thrust out
into land-locked bay constitutes the
site OF The Mistress Of the East
The architecture maintains the Eu-
r0pean note struck by the station:
which makes the presence OF oriental
people, conveyances and customs all
the more exotic. You no sooner ac-
customed yourself to the dreary
routine Of bazaar buying, fiourishine
lotteries and babel Of tongues than
telegraph office, motion picture thea
ter. museum. club and university. You
may dodge a European racing car,
under an American electric light, and
run plump into q coolie burden bearer
despite the warning cries of Rus
restaurant was the rendezvous of hon
wants Of the world.
Living Extfeinely Bear.
Small wonder living was extremely
dear IN the old days and is an acute
problem now, since thu city subsistAd
formerly on supplies from China and
Japan. Europe and even America Its
growth seems due to some inexplica-
ths, rte exception c,I that proves the rule
sustaining, interchange products with
the country around It, be thrifty.
cultivate civic consciousness, be we'll
governed. and possess some racial.
cultural or patriotic unity. It owed
It's commerce to the fact that IL was
the most nearly ice-free port OF ST.
IBERIA, by which virtue 1t became the
terminus of the transsiberian rail-
way, and to the military and naval
establishments maintained by the
government of the tsar.
Now its patron government has
disappeared, its railway has been cut
into units by the national entities
along its course, and bolshevism
passenger barrier along the far-fiung
rail ribbon that once extended some
1000 milss to Calais.
In the way Of exports, in its palfni.
est days. 1t had nothing more i'm.
portant to give the world than sea-
cabDAGe, trepane ana q fungus Rath.
cred from decayed wood Tor ali OF
which China was its principal Gus.
toner: Trepang II the dried body or
the holothurian, moro commonly
known as the sea slug, moro appeal
ing to the curiosity than to the palate
OF the occidental. For this snail
like creature can throw on, when
frightened. its vital orEans-diges-
and replace them all within . few
weeks. Nature here seems to hold
that two can live more easily. IL not
more cheaply, than one. When the
sea slug becomes too hungry for COM
fort 1t divides in two parts, and each,
developing rapidly into complete
units, goes on a search for food"