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Show RUSSIA CALLING OUT SIBERIANS All Classes of Military Age, Trained and Untrained, Being Be-ing Sent to Camps Daily. WOMEN TAKE PLACES Unskilled Koreans and Chinese for Dock Laborers Owners of Large Businesses Called to Front. Vladivostok, Oct. 10. Correspondence Correspon-dence of the Associated Press.) Before Be-fore the great European war began Vladivostok had more than 100,000 inhabitants. in-habitants. Today its pppulation is less than 75,000, so heavy have been the calls of the Russian army upon tho men of eastern Serbia. The latest lat-est summons will take 10,000 from Vladivstok alone. Recruits are now being sent away at the rate of 1,000 a day. Many of them are badly needed need-ed In Vladivostok to help tali care of tho war supplies which are glutting glut-ting tho port But the call of the army is unqualified. Trained and untrained moa alike, of military ac , of all classes are being sent away daily to Interior Siberia, Si-beria, where they will go into training replacing others now ready to go to tno front. AM Men Being Called. Russia has such a great number of men that all of them are not compelled com-pelled to undergo military training. Exceptions are made in the case of an only son In a family, as well as under other special conditions, but now all men in Siberia are called out. More than 2,000 were taken from a single firm after this call. Many of tho American concerns with offi ers have lost virtually their entire Russian Rus-sian office forces to the army. Retail and wholesale establishments have such reduced forces that through a general agreement, all the larger places of business close at lunch hour, not having enough men left to arrange relief at meal time. Women are being be-ing transferred for positions they are fitted for, preference being given to wives of men called to tho front. Koreans and Chinese Working. Koreans and Chinese are coming into in-to Vladivostok to replace dock laborers labor-ers called to war. Virtually all the heavv work on the docks now is be ing "done by them, but they are so unskilled there is much uneasiness as to the effect the removal of the better bet-ter trained Russians will have on the handling of war supplies. The Russian government was slow to call out reservists in Siberia. Men I ire few and much needed in this nev i country. The government has expended ex-pended great sums In encouraging emigration em-igration to Siberia, and hesitates to take the cream of the colony's manhood man-hood back to the battle line. But the need evidently became so great that It was necessary to claim Siberia's men. The railroad guard, numbering over 10,000, was called immediately after the regular army forces were sent back to Russia. Then three calls were made and it Is reported another is soon to come, which will claim all men in Siberia up to -15. Business Men Called. Owners of large businesses have have been taken along with their humblest. Apparently there have been no exceptions made in the enforcement en-forcement of the call. Every night about 8 o'clock a troop train starts for the east. Hours before train time relatives and friends of the departing depart-ing reservists begin to gatner at the trans-Siberian railroad station which lies along the waterfront in the very heart of the city. Few of the new soldiers have uniforms. They carry rolls of bedding, boxes and carpet bags, such as one sees emigrants lugging lug-ging from the docks in New York. For many days it has been rainlng-but rainlng-but frequently mothers with young babies sit or stand in the rain, weeping weep-ing as they wa't for tho train which Is to carry their husbands away. There is little jubilation among tho departing soldiers. The war hag dragged on so long it has become a nightmare to the families of the men liable to service, and there are lo many women in black now in Vladivostok that duty at the front is regarded as almost certain death. A band plays each night as the troop train lea ea tho station, but its music cannot drown the audible Knet oi ine women ana cnuaren wno cling pitifully to ttn departing soldiers sol-diers and follow the train until its speed becomes so great they cannot keep pace with It., The reservists are transported in ordinary freight cars. Each of the cars has a stovo in the center and board benches and bunks at th ends. A single candle in a lantern lightB every car. Tho Russian cars are small and only forty men can be crowded Into In-to each. Tho trop trains ordinarily consist of about 25 freight cars and one passenger coach for the officers. Enthusiasm is little greater among the officers than among privates, apparently. ap-parently. Each night officere' families fam-ilies accompany them to the station and silent groups 'have farewell dinners din-ners at the station cafe. Many of the women of all ages in these parties are in mourning and the leave taking is gloomy in spite of the self-control shown by the better class women. A few wounded officers and privates pri-vates have returned to Vladivostok, but tho losses have been so great that men coming back from the fighting fight-ing line are received with great but- "Wo used to send flowers to the trains and gtvo the men a rousing send-off," a Russian lady remarked today, "but one cannot keep that up for ever. They are going constantly now. So many of us have lost relatives rel-atives and friends that wo havo not the heart to cheer and pretend to be gay when we are not." An officer's funeral moved through the main street of Vladivostok today. Such processions are not unusual in Siberia, but the Russian men are never nev-er too much occupied to stand in si-lenco si-lenco with heads bared whon a coffin covered with the Russian flag moves past A man dressed in high white hat and long white ulster walked at the head of the procession, bearing a large golden cross. Next came four black horses, covered with heavy nets, drawing a white flower carriage banked high with elaborate floral designs. de-signs. Then came a white hearse drawn by four black horses, also covered cov-ered with white nets, and led by Kor- can grooms in white, uniforms. The hearso was without sides or cover and tho great silver platod coffin was partly covered with a Russian flag. Immediately behind tho hearse walked the wife and daughters of the officer. offi-cer. After them were the male relatives rel-atives and friends, all walking and with bared heads. While the weekly express trains still make . the trip betwoen Petro-grad Petro-grad and Vladivostok in nine days, the movement of other trains is very slow. Trop trains frequently require 30 days for tho trip. Tho double track is said to be practically completed complet-ed through European Russia east as far as Irkutsk in Siberia, but from there on to the Pacific the double tracking has been delayed and trains move very slowly. This is especially es-pecially true of the line from Harbin to Vladivostok. |