The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-12-22
Young Woman Bread Merchant Of 81 IBERIA.

tPrepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington. ID. c.
The passing of the Far Eastern re-
public of Siberia recalls that this pic
turesque government, which Moscow
was willing to have exist as q buffer
state toward the Japanese-occupied
territory around NlaAivoStok, was sup
posed to be built on the model Of the
United States, but with certain radi-
cal attachments" 1t is even probable
that, though the country is federated
with the Moscow government, its indi-
vidualistic tendencies nay continue /;
for the pioneer conditions of Siberia
and the struggle against them have
developed an individualism in the ST.
berians not unlike that which grew in
our Westerners.
When the daylight is fading and the
long shadows are stretching across the
plains, one realizes the vastness Of ST
beria-panorama OF a gently undulat-
ing, silent sea, green and brown, or an
ending white.
The area of the Far Eastern repub-
lie is 10000 square miles, larger than
Texas and California combined, yet it
is only the southeast corner Of Siberia,
o~ne-twenticth Of the former Russian
empire. From NladivOSt0k, on the
coast, to Verkhne-Udinsk on the re-
public's western boundary, is more
than 100 miles by rail, and little more
than One-third Of Siberia has been
crossed. Usually the train is the only
sign of life. AS far as the eye can see,
the telegraph poles stand sentry along
the winding railroad, fading away in
the distance.
Everywhere now are the scars Of
war. 1t may be Il locomotive. rusty
and half covered with sand, lying in
the ditch where it plunged with its hu-
man freight. 1t may be the skeleton
of a train, deserted on q side track,
burned except for the steel framework
of cars and trucks. Twisted rails,
wrecked bridges, or shattered frag-
ments, where an ammunition train has
blown up, vary the picture.
A peasants wagon, with shaggy gal
Looping ponies and the invariable dog
trOtting behind, is a sign that n village
is near. The lamps or the station plat
form are gone and semaphores of the
old days stand with broken arms, for
this is now a moonbeam railroad, run
ming without signals or headlights.
Railroad Still Running.
The railroad is the most important
public utility of the republic. Poverty
and dilapidation have overwhelmed it,
just as they have gripped the fallen
gentecl Of the barakholka. 1t keeps
running, which is about all. With the
obstacles which must be overcome, the
marvel is that even that is accom-
plished.
The passenger coaches are unheated
in winter, windows dirty and broken.
electric light fixtures wrenched out
bodily. lavatOries filled with dirt. rough
boards where once were mirrors, doors
nailed shut or broken off, and the
floors srlintered from being used as
chA,ping blocks. The prOletariat seems
20 relish a martyrdom to darkness and
dirt.
The Far Eastern republic has 1920
miles of railroad, exclusive Of the L.
100 miles of the Chinese Eastern rail
road. which also belongs to Russia.
They are more OF q liability than an
asset.
AS a part Of the Transsiberian, the
system Of an empire stretching across
two continents. these miles Of road
give access to the Pacific. They are
.~ 49,, .I,,, r.n,,tli. ,y;lt ,nnI for
many years to come. The 1.43S miles
of the Amur road parallel the river
through tracts of virgin forest, a corn-
try rich i'm gold and coal. hut mdevel-
Oped. Biologists say that there Is not
a 15O-mile stretch along THIS road
where coal cannot be mined. 1t was
constructed for military purposes. and
when the wal broke out much of it had
not been ballasted.
When one travels In Siberia these
days, ut regular intervals the train
stops and the conductor plOds along
the side, shouting "Tovarischi-za dro-
vami!" 1t is the call for the com
rades" to pile out and carry sticks
from the %neighbor.ng woodpiles to the
locomotive. 1t Is q crude study In com
munism.
Most Of the passengers, women and
girls as we'll as men, make their way
l~eisurely across the fields. Some climb
on the tender, and the fuel is loaded
as by a bucket brigade at an old-time
fire. ~
%--