Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19

technicals
NET there is some attempt being made with
out modifying any of the sacred rights
guaranteed labor, to induce workmen to put q
little more spirit and effort into their jobs
Miners who complete the norm" in less than
a shift are treated to bowls of cabbage soup.
One night at Karabash attended the OPERA
Between the acts several officials took the stage
and detained at length very f1owerily,
how some 40 mine and smelter mechanics had
helped Communism" by working with unusual
diligence. Each Of the 20 was called up before
the audience, wildly applauded, thanked in
person and presented with a cheap watch. They
were as pleased as many Americans would have
been with eight-cylinder motor cars, for in
Russia timepieces are scarce and VIGOROUSLY
inaccurate, and good dollar watch Is
treasure
Going to the opera is still the chief amuse-
ment in Russia, it was in the days Of the
Gar. Every town of any size has its opera
house and troupe. In the Urals every ones
ambition is to get to the big opera at Sverd-
lovsk. An orchestra seat costs or rubles.
Tickets are obtained not at the door, but by
applying to ones trust weeks in advance. Each
trust is allotted so many seats for every per-
Torrance
The music is far superior to anything that
we hear in the United States outside of three
or four Of our largest cities. Jazz, even ON
photograph records, is under official ban in
Russia as likely to turn the minds of the people
to frivolous things.
Moving picture shows fairly numerous, q
ruble the universal price Of admittance. But
the films all made in Russia. All silent.
All are blatant Soviet propaganda. Spectators
sit goomily in their overcoatS, for the cinema
palaces are almost never heated. And as coats
are commonly made Of uncured skins, the
atmosphere is not exactly fragrant.
Cold Is just another aff1iction that the Rus
slams do not stir themselves about greatly,
occupied as they are with fear of the o. G. p U.
and the ever-impending famine. Surprisingly
little preparation Is made against the bitter
Winters. In December, 1929, Sverdlovsk, a city
of 100000 souls, ran out of fuel, with a dense
forest at its door! Orders were given that every
Office worker, women included, should spend one
day week out in the timber chopping and
loading f1rewood
Travellers never see Sverdlovsk unless it is
from the car windows as they pass through on
the TranS-Siberian Railroad If they did they
would see and smell sprawling semi-Asiatic
city very different from those of Western Rus
STA. They are not even invited to stop and see
the building where Gear Nicholas and his family
were executed when Sverdlovsk was known as
Ekaterinburg That building has been turned
into q museum and everything is kept it
was at the hour of the tragedy except that
the fatal bullets have been chopped out of the
log walls, leaving jagged holes. This vandalism
is attributed to German souvenir hunters who
said to have broken in during the confusion
that followed the shooting.
But the sight most worth seeing at
Sverdlovsk, in my opinion, is the fire depart
ment.
There is no water system and no fire plugs;
when the alarm sounds, immense barrels of
water are rushed 10 the scene of the blaze on
sleds. Two horses to a sled and two men, one
to drive and the other to hang on behind the
barrel The harness is festooned with bells
that jangle noisily the belabored horses gall
lop along. The luxurantly bearded hremen
wear high, brilliantly polished brass hats and
broad belts into which axes are thrust. When
I first saw 10 of those outfits careening along
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