| Show SIBERIAS GREAT ROAO + Through Trains Will Be Running In 1902 GREATEST OF RAILWAYS + AROUND TEE WORLD I FORTY DAYS + This Will Be Possible When the TransSiberian Road i Completed Rates Will Be the Passenger t Wil Lowest I the World Ethan Allan Hitchcocks Views + New York Feb ISThe neb appointed ap-pointed secretary of the interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock who ha just arrived ar-rived in this city from Russia says in regard to the Siberian railway The Siberian railway is one of the greatest commercial enterprises of the country The man who is building it told me a month ago that trains would be running run-ning from Irkutsk to Yladivostock in 902 He told me the earth then could be circumnavigated In 40 days This Is four years earlier than was originally expected but the importance of the road has become so manifest that the utmost urgency has been enforced I is wholly surveyed and the rails are going down as fast a they can b got to their places I Is quite possible to travel by rail now from NijnlJsovgorod on the olga to Irkutsk made familiar b Jules Verne to the civilized world by in Michael Strogoff What will be the fIrst terminus o the Pacific It has not been officially promulgated promulgat-ed but you can say that it will be TalienWan a fine harbor in Manchuria Manchu-ria which will be made absolutely Russian Rus-sian Port Arthur would not suit though a branch line of railway will bern be-rn to that place Where they originally Intend to run one train a day each way they are the now running six The towns along Siberian steppes are quite populous The rates of fare in Russia are much lower than in any part of the world I is the intention of the Russian government gov-ernment to make a through rate from the Neva to the Pacific of about 60 The distance will be nearly 5000 miles in Russia What was the sentiment Russia regarding our war with Spain was asked In official circles the victory of the United States was regarded a a foregone fore-gone conclusion The great masses of the Russian people know little about the conlllct Newspapers are not read in Russia to any great extent Information Infor-mation travels slowly The feeling of steadfast friendship for the American people that is found everywhere Is inexplicable in-explicable but it could not be shaken by any diplomatic inlluence that any European power could exert Toujour Fidel is the phrase that avery citizen of our country ought to write or utter whenever the name of Russia Is seen or heard The people of the United States never should forget for a single Instant In-stant that expressed or unexpressed the friendship of the Russian czar has been and is with them To doubt the undemonstrative fidelity of the czar and the imperial cabinet is unjust and thoughtless Russia will be with us on that tess day when we shall need her help in the far east Is she averse to our encroachments In the east Not in the slightest She has her nvn plans regarding China but they ire commercial rather than Imperial She will not express joy or annoyance egarding the acquisition of the Philippines pine but she will stand ready to endorse en-dorse our course at the time moral support sup-port Is needed Are many of the great powers un riendly to our occupancy of the Phi ppines I think not was the cautious rejoinder re-joinder I cannot say exactly what Frances feelings were but she Is so tor by internal troubles that even If ve knew her attitude tohave been pro Spanish we ought to overlook it for the lake of the past |
