The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-04-19
Vladivost0k's
Arrested
Development

ION the eight-day trip from
Moscow she had told fellow pas.
sengers on the trans-Sibelian rail.
way of an Englishman who wa:
disappointed because he spent ten
DAYS in New York and had not seen
an Indian.
Just before alighting at the
! terminal city of the longest railroad
in the world she inquired, Is there
much danger from wolves in Vlad-
+! !ivostoll 2?
'Not only is there about as much
danger of meeting wolf in Nlad-
! ivostok as there would be Of en-
eountering mountain lion in San
/ Franc. SEQ; but there are other like
nesses between these port cities,
especially if the Vladivostok of
just before the war be compared
with the San Francisco Of it's earli-
er, Barbary Coast days according
to a bulletin from the Washington,
D. c.. headquarters Of the Nation
al Geographic Society.
Compared to San Francisco
The city of the Golden Horn is
/ younger than our city Of the Gold
en- Gate, having been founded in
1860. Had its normal develop
ment not been interrupted by the
war; its hinterland beset by Soviet
forces. unsettled by rapid changes
of government and now reported
to be left; without any because Of
the attacking Chita troops, ylad-
| ivostok might soon have rivalled
our own coast city in population
and beauty.
Living is extremely dear said
/ the Baedeker of 1912; and Of the
VIadivostok Of 1922 it might be
said with equal truth that human
| life is very cheap. The city war
ranted a Bret Harte's attention
! for it's bizarre and coiorful atmos-
j phere during war times, but for
| the variety of peoples who made
up it's transitory population it out
| did any earlier experiences OF our
own frontier towns. Normally it
has fewer than $4,000 people; by
! 1918 its residents numbered nearly
/ 100000. The influx was made up
of human gradations between
| typhus victims and American mill
lionaires. Huge piles Of war mate
rial were massed there before the
/ revolution came-acres of auto
mobiles, mountains Of car wheels,
and square miles of barbed wire.
Contrasts Are Extreme
Even in ordinary times Vladi-
vastok is a city Of extreme con-
trasts, as might be expected Of a
place where Chinaman and Russian
compete, where east literally meets
west Alighting at the European
! looking station, from one of the
most luxurious trains of any con-
tinent (191S was the last year you
could have done that) you saw
i,ailers, automobiles, droshkies
carriages and jinrikishas. Russians,
! japanese, Chinese and Koreans
predominated with many Euro
peans, occasional Americans and
Africans.
"a tongue of hilly land thrust
! out into a land locked bay consti-
tutes the site Of The Mistress Of
the East The architecture main
tains the European note struck by
the station: which makes the pres
ence of Oriental people, convey
ances and customs all the more
exotic. You no sooner accustomed
j yourself to the dreary routine of
bazaar buying. flourishing lotteries,
and Babel of tongues than you en-
countered the more familiar tele-
+; graph office. motion picture the
ater. museum, club and university.
You may dodge a European racing
| car. under an American electric
! light, and run plump into a coolie
burden bearer despite the warning
cries of a Russian policeman. The
Golden Horn restaurant was the
rendezvous OF bon viHantS Of the
/ world.
Breaks All CIVIC tuIeS
Small wonder living was eX-
/! tremely dear in the old days and
is an acute problem now, since the
city subsisted formerly on supplies
from China and Japan. Europe and
! even America. It's growth seems
due to some inexplicable exception
+; that proves the rule that city. to
succeed. should be self-sustaining,
interchange products with the
country around it. be thrifty, cult
] vate civic consciousness, be well
governed. and possess some racial,
cultural. or patriotic unity. 1t
owed it's commerce to the fact that
/ it was the most nearly ice-fcee port
| of Siberia, by which virtue it be-
came the terminus Of the trans
Siberian railway. and to the mill
tary and naval establishments
maintained by the government OF
the Tsar.
Now it's patron government has
disappeared, it's railway has been
cut into units by the national en-
titles along it's. course. and Bol-
ShcviSm looms as an economic as
we'll as a passenger barrier along
the far-flung rail ribbon that once
extended some 1000 miles to Cal
ais.
I'm the way OF exports. in its
palnliest days. it had nothing more
tl,o r.nrl6 fha n