| Show paper TRANS RAILROAD by bv frank G 1895 HE TRANS SIBER jan an railroad is being flushed bushed all along the line since the breaking out of the chi nese japanese war the w work ork has been more earnest and a large force of men are grading the routes and laying the rails as fast as possible the original intention was that the road should be finished in 1905 the indications now are that it will be completed long before that time in my last letter I 1 described the city tock the pacific terminus of the rail road it was here that the first work was done in 1892 the present czar who was then taking a trip around the world had come across siberia along the line of the proposed railway and it was with great ceremony that the first stone of this the greatest railroad in the world was laid there on the irth of 01 may 1891 the road when comple completed Eed will be more than seven thousand miles long and it will cost somewhere between two and three hundred millions of dollars the russian estimate is coubles roubles rou bles es it will give a continuous railroad line from to st petersburg and the probability is that a t ranch line will now be run down through corea I 1 and japan wi will I 1 I 1 be brought within a day days s ride of this terminus when this is done the japanese can make a trip to paris with a water vc aage of less than twenty lour four hours I 1 have already writ ten ot of my trip over the new chinese railroad this line now runs to the city city of Shan where the great chinese wall juts down into the sea there is ds a breach in the wall at this point and though the superstitious chinaman would hardly permit the cutting ot of the wall for a railroad they nave have allowed i it to go through this breach and it is now being pushed on into manchuria it will eventually reach the russian frontier and will probably connect with the trans siberian railroad and then we can go from peking to paris by land TEA AND SILK it is impossible to estimate the changes which this great railroad will make in asia the tea trade of europe will undoubtedly go over it and the great bulk of the exports from china japan and corea will be carried through siberia to europe As it is now the fastest steamers are used for the tea trade the new tea brings the highest prices in the market and ocean steamers go up to the city of bankow seven hundred miles in the interior rf of china and as soon as they can load they sail with full steam to london they go by the suez canal and it takes them about forty five days to make the voyage the chinese have already planned a railroad to the center of the tea districts from tien tsin where their new military railroad begins and the tea will be shipped right north to siberia and get to europe within fifteen or eighteen days tea earned carried overland is said to be much better than that which goes by water and this will make a revolution in the tea trade of ther the world at the trade of abma amounts to about three hundred million dollars per year and the bulk of this is made up of costly articles like tea and silk these can pay high freight rates and they will undoubtedly be shipped by rail there are now in the neighborhood of six six hundred million nul lioa there people eople in china japan and corea there are about four million in siberia and this road has the trade of nearly one half the world to draw from THE ROAD AND irwill it will probably make russia a great manufacturing nation and the ahe russian iron iron will be shipped over in to china there is no iron better in the world than that of the ural mountains and the chinese are ready to pay high prices for good iron most of their tools are now made by hand and they must have nave the best of raw material at pros pres ent a large part of the iron used in china is made up of castoff cast off horseshoes which are sent out from europe by the shipload tre tine chinese make razors knives and all kinds ot of implements out of this iron and there is a great demand for it all over the ern empire pi re there are great iron deposits in d different it points along the trans siberian railroad and big factories will spying spring up at all these points the Rus russians hians are good mechanics and they have vast iron works near moscow and tula which make as good hardware and guns as you will find anywhere in the world THE TRANS SIBERIAN ROUTE As the line is is now dow planned and is being built it is to run from moscow right through the southern part of siberia making an almost straight braig b t line through this immense immense te territory r to the city of it goes through lich gold mines it taps vast areas of rich soil and it will wil probably build up an empire in southern Sib siberia iria the first section of the road is at the west it begins in the ural mountains and there is an army at work building it it the next section is to run from ther the town of amsk on the river obi and the contractors are also at work here lo in the middle of siberia Sibena thereto there is adother army laying track and the road is F being ni pushed as fast as possible from a to the west it crosses great rivers which have to be bridged and it goes through some of the most wonderful scenery in the world it skirts lake baikal one of the biggest lakes in the world the average depth of which is more than a mile near this lake the road passes through the mountains and has many tunnels and stone dikes the mountains are of granite and the work of construction will wil be very difficult throughout the whole central region and the west there is but a sparse and it is the same in the east the workmen have to be sent from european russia and all of the rolling stock and iron have to come from there some of it is shipped from the west that for the eastern section is being taken around through the suez canal by sea and there is another lot which is shipped down into siberia I 1 am told by the arctic ocean the road is being constructed in the very best manner the rails weigh eighteen pounds to the foot the bridges are of wood and the road is well ballasted ballested bal lasted the greatest distance allowed between the stations is thirty five miles and it is proposed to equip the road with enough rolling stock to form three sets of army trains every twenty four hours the road is to be to a large extent a military line and russia will probably use it to satisfy her gargantuan appetite for more territory the stations are built of wood in the interior though some of the larger ones are of stones the depot of at is is a big two story stone and brick building it is well constructed and it would be a respectable depot in the united states A SIBERIAN RAILROAD RIDE I 1 shall never forget my ride over the eastern section of the trans siberian railroad I 1 bad my permit from the chief of police and through this I 1 was able to buy a ticket to Nikol sk which is about seventy miles from only third class trains were running and these had been opened to passenger traffic only a few days before and so I 1 practically took the first trip over the new route I 1 was accompanied by a bright young japanese mr kobito who spoke russian and english and who acted as my interpreter I 1 was living on board the steamer in the har bor about three miles from the railroad the train started at ii up p mp m and a great storm came up about 6 the harbor was full of white caps and the waves ran high the wind was blowing and a cold misty sleet ran down ito into our bones like so many corkscrews as we left the vessel ond started for the shore I 1 cant describe the severity of this wind it almost split the scalp when it touched the back of my head and I 1 covered down in jhb sampan which I 1 had engaged while the chinaman in a waterproof coat sculled us through the darkness the night was egyptian in its blackness A wall of light rose out of the sea in in the distance where the great barracks with their thousands of russian troops covered the sides of the hills here and there out of the mist sparkled the lights of a great black monster steamer and we rowed under the shadow of the the block hulks which were carrying russian prisoners to to the island of Sag balin halin we narrowly missed getting the train we leit left the steamer at jumping into the boat which rose and fell like a bolt of paper upon the waves and we had worked our way almost to the shore when I 1 found I 1 had forgotten my my passport the possibilities of a russian prison came over me and I 1 insisted that we must go back to the ship after it both my japanese guide and tae chinaman objected but we finally turned back and in the end reached the land with only twenty minutes to make the train AT THE STATION hiring a druschky drosch ky with two horses we drove on the gallop through the mud to the station this was filled with soldiers and police they were common soldiers in uniform army cers in heavy overcoats and guards by the he scores marched up and down with bayonets ayo nets and guns there were police everywhere and the station looked more like a barracks than a railroad depot at one end of it was a restaurant and at the other was the ticket window alter showing my passport and my police permit I 1 was able to buy a ticket to Nikol sk the distance was as I 1 have said seventy miles and it cost me in silver the ticket was abo about the size of a small business envelope it was white and no thicker than note paper upon it were printed the date and distance and the names of the stations showing it 1 I passed out of the door to the train going by more guards and police as I 1 did so the train comprised about twenty five cars of which half a dozen were passenger coaches and the others where freight and baggage cars I 1 made a rush for one of the cars and my heart sank as I 1 looked at the accommodation and at the place where I 1 had to steep sleep during the night it was merely a freight car filled with wooden benches running clear across the car and lacing facing each other above the seats there were shelves and I 1 found these were upper births the lower seats were all ail filled when we entered and I 1 climbed up on one of these upper shelves to sleep there were no cushions and no bedding I 1 rolled my coat up for a pillow and wrapped myself in my blanket and aay down the space between myself and the roof was not wide enough to allow me to sit up and I 1 rolled over on my side and looked with interest on the queer crowd surrounding me the most of the passengers were soldiers but there were emigrants and farmers a half dozen one or t two wo tar tars and several japanese girls who seemed to be ot of a very questionable character they laughed and chatted with the soldiers and were loud in their way SUSPECTED BY THE POLICE I 1 found that the soldiers were very inquisitive I 1 was approached a half dozen times by officers and questioned the guard of the train looked me over very carefully car fully and when the men found I 1 could speak german I 1 had bad to answer all kinds of questions the cars which are now used on the road are more like those of europe than of the united states they are only third and fourth class and them they bookmore look more like box boxcars cars thaw thary palace coaches the first and second class cars will undoubtedly be good and there will probably be a pullman car running over the line when it is completed at present the accommodations are anything but luxurious and as I 1 lay on that board shelf and was carried along at the rate of perhaps fifteen miles per hour I 1 thought of th the pennsylvania limited between new york and pittsburg with its library and sitting rooms and as I 1 looked at the candle which shone out of the lantern above me and which formed the only light of the car I 1 compared it with the wonderful electric light system of the chicago milwaukee and st paul railroad where the light is set into the back of your berth and where by moving a slide you can make your berth as light as day at any hour of the night As my bones ground holes into the wood I 1 thought of the good beds of the ciu canadian pacific over which I 1 had ridden in going to asia and I 1 longed for the railroads railroads of our own civilized land the air air was stifling and ill smelling and the fifty odd people whom we had in the car seemed on the whole to be rancid and I 1 was glad when the guard gave me a rude jerk and told me to get up for Nikol sk A QUEER SIBERIAN CITY is one of the largest towns of interior siberia it is a great military center and it has vast areas of rich land surrounding it the soil is as black as your boots and it makes me think of what senator ingalls said about the fertility of kansas which is according to him so rich that you cah cab poke your arni arm down into the ground up to the shoulder and pull out earth in your fist which is as rich as guano A great deal of wheat is raised about this point and the russians have established great steam mills for the grinding of food for the soldiers I 1 visited these mills during my stay their machinery had been imported from russia and it was of the latest modern make we passed many barracks and we saw soldiers on guard everywhere everywhere there were I 1 judge ten or fi fifteen t teen acres of buildings connected with the mills and the workmen seemed to be the land around is being settled like russia there are villages that own a great deal deaf of land in common and they sell their grain to the government the town itself has a number of stores and business blocks the houses are of wood and they make me think ot of our western frontier towns we stopped at the hotel which was run by a chinaman it was just daybreak when we arrived and we asked for a room he said h he had none vacant and pointing into the billiard room I 1 saw lour four russians with their boots on sleeping on the table I 1 asked tor for some breakfast and after a time was given some fried eggs smoked salmon and a cup of tea the tea was served in a glass and we had a bis big brass samovar or russian tea urn on the table after breakfast we took a ride through the city the roads were as muddy as those of a swamp and the streets were about two hundred feet wide on the edge ot of the city there were a number of dugouts dug outs which were inhabited by and we found chinese everywhere ON THE EDGE OF CHINA this city of is not tar far from the manchurian border and it was once a great tartar capital there is now an immense wall enclosing a space at one end of the town and this was the wall ot of the great tartar city of the past the probability is that russia will gradually move her boundary line further south As the boys say in playing marbles she is always inching on her neighbors and I 1 heard a queer story of how the russians got a big slice ot of chinese territory a few years ago there was a dispute about the boundary line and the russians had moved the line down so that it included a avast vast amount of good chinese soil A war was imminent and the chinese as asua usua usual wanted to settle matters by compromise the russians consented and they drew a line on the map showing the territory they wanted the chinese threw up their hands in horror and said they could not possibly allow them so much as that all right said the russians we will take less and they then showed them another made on a smaller m map which was san scale but in which the amount of territory taken was the same the chinese looked at it and did not perceive the cheat they made a treaty agreeing to this boundary and that is the boundary between china and siberia today the way the russ russians ians work is to colonize the country close to the line of china and gradually move southward they undoubtedly have their eyes upon corea and while they will not probably take the country they will exercise such an influence over it that they will be able to get what they want WORKING WITH CONVICTS A great part of the work on this eastern section of |
