The Appeal., 1922-06-24
WHAT WAR DID
TO VLADIvOSTOK
Development of Russian City Is
Checked by Great Conflict.


Rival San Francisco in Population
and Beauty-Living Is Extremely
Dear and Human Life Is Held Very
Cheap. .-
"On the eight-day trip from Moscow
she had told fellow passengers on the
trans-Siberian railway, of an English.
man who was disappointed because he
spent ten days in New York and had
not seen an Indian.
Just before alighting at the termi-
nal city of the longest railroad in the
world she inquired, is there much dan
ger from wolves in Vladivostok?
mot only is there about as much
danger Of meeting a wolf in Vladi-
vostok as there would be of encoun-
tering mountain lion in San Francis
co; but there are other likenesses be-
tween these port cities, especially if
the Vladivostok of just before the war
be compared with the San Francisco
Of it's earlier, Barbary Coast days." ac-
cording to a bulletin from Washing
ton ID. CO. headquarters of the Ma
tional Geographic society.
Compared to San Francisco.
1.-THE city of the Golden Horn is
younger than our city of the Golden
Gate, having been founded in 1850.
Had it's normal development not been
interrupted by the war, it's hinterland
beset by soviet forces, unsettled by
rapid changes of government and now
reported to be left without any be-
cause of the attacking Chita troops,
Vladivostok might soon have rivaled
our own coast city in population and
beauty.
Living is extremely DEAR said the
Baedeker Of 1912; and of the Vladi-
vostok Of 1922 it might be said with
equal truth that human life is very
cheap. The city warranted a Bret
Harte's attention for it's bizarre and
colorful atmosphere during war times,
but for the variety Of peoples who
made up. it's transitory population it
outdid any earlier experiences Of our
own frontier towns. Normally it has
fewer than $4,000 people; by 1918 it's
residents numbered nearly 100000.
The influx was made up of human gra-
dations between typhus victims and
American milliOnaires.
''Even in ordinary times V1adivos-
tok is a city of extreme contrasts, 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
continent (191S was the last year you
could have done that) you saw trailers,
automobiles, drOshkies, carriages and
jinrikishas. Russians, Japanese, Chi
nese and Koreans predominated, with
many 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 European
note struck by the station; which
makes the presence of Oriental peo-
pie, conveyances and customs all the
more exotic. You no sooner accus-
toned yourself to the dreary routine
Of bazaar buying, hourishing lotteries,
and Babel of tongues than you en-
countered the more familiar telegraph
Office, motion picture theater, museum,
club and university. You may dodge
a European racing car, under an Amer
ican electric light, and run plump into
a coolie burden bearer despite the
warning cries of Russian policeman.
Breaks All Civic Rules.
"Small wonder living was extremely
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 a
city, to succeed, should be self-sustain-
ing, interchange products with the
country around it, be thrifty, cultivate
civic consciousness, be well governed,
and possess some racial cultural, or
patriotic unity. It owed it's commerce
to the fact that it was the most nearly
ice-free port Of Siberia, by which vir-
tue it became the terminus of the
trans-Siberian railway, and to the mil
itary and naval establishments main
tanned by the government Of the czar.
"Now it's patron government has dis
appeared, it's railway has been cut in
to units by the national entities along
it's course, and Bolshevism looms as an
economic as we'll as passenger bar
rier along the far-fung rail ribbon that
once extended some 1000 miles to
Calais.
I'm the way of exports, in it's palm
lest days, 1t had nothing more impor-
Etant to give the world than sea-cab-
bage, trepang and fungus gathered
from decayed wood, for all of which
China was it's principal customer. Ire
pang is the dried body Of the holothu-
rian, more commonly known as the sea
slug, more appealing to the curiosity
than to the palate of the occidental
For this snail-like creature can throw
off, when frightened, its vital organs
digestive, respiratory and reproductive
land replace them all within few
weeks. Nature here seems to holu
. that two can live more easily, if not
more cheaply, than one When the sea
E slug becomes too hungry for comfort
it divides in two parts ssnd each, de-
! veloping rapidly into complete units
I 'Soes on a search for food ]. 5s# s
5