THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY

WHAT I SAW ON MY JOURNEY

BY DR. F. E. CLARK

WITH SIXTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND A MAP

=London= S. W. PARTRIDGE AND CO. 8 & 9, PATERNOSTER ROW 1904

ILLUSTRATIONS

FRANCIS E. CLARK _Frontispiece_

CATHEDRAL AT VLADIVOSTOCK _Facing p._ 4

DRY-DOCK AT VLADIVOSTOCK ” 6

HARBOR OF VLADIVOSTOCK ” 10

GROUP OF KOREAN WORKMEN, VLADIVOSTOCK ” 12

GENERAL TCHITCHAGOFF ” 18

GENERAL VIEW OF VLADIVOSTOCK ” 22

STATION OF KORFOVSKIA, EASTERN SIBERIA, SHOWING AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE ” 26

“WHO’LL BUY MY FLOWERS?” ” 30

VILLAGE OF VIAZEMSKOI, EASTERN SIBERIA ” 32

THROUGH THE FOREST IN EASTERN SIBERIA ” 34

CITY OF KHABAROFFSK, ON THE AMOUR RIVER ” 38

FATHER ALEXANDER AND STATION-MASTER AT NIKOLSKOIE ” 42

A PATHETIC SIBERIAN VILLAGE GRAVEYARD ” 46

THE OLD WAY BY THE “SHIP OF THE DESERT” ” 48

THE _BARON KORFF_ ” 50

EMBARKING ON AN AMOUR RIVER STEAMER ” 54

ON THE SHORE OF THE AMOUR ” 58

A PRISON BARGE ” 62

A SIBERIAN RIVER TOWN IN WINTER ” 66

A THUNDER-STORM BY NIGHT ON THE AMOUR ” 70

ON THE BANKS OF THE AMOUR ” 74

SOME OF OUR FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. SIBERIAN EMIGRANTS ON THE AMOUR ” 78

SOME OTHER FELLOW-PASSENGERS. RUSSIAN OFFICERS AND THEIR FAMILIES ” 80

A TRIUMPHAL ARCH IN HONOR OF THE CZAREWITCH’S JOURNEY THROUGH SIBERIA ” 82

A MODEST TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT A LITTLE SIBERIAN VILLAGE ” 84

“EACH WOMAN HUGGING TWO OR THREE BOTTLES OF MILK” ” 86

THE LEADING HOTEL, BLAGAVESTCHENSK ” 90

THE CEMETERY AT BLAGAVESTCHENSK ” 92

ONE OF BLAGAVESTCHENSK’S BEAUTIFUL CHURCHES ” 94

A GREAT DEPARTMENT STORE IN BLAGAVESTCHENSK, WITH MARKET-PLACE IN FRONT ” 96

AN UPPER AMOUR RIVER STEAMER ” 98

ON THE UPPER AMOUR ” 100

TUMBLING ASHORE FROM THE _ADMIRAL CHICACHOFF_ ” 102

CHILDREN OF EMIGRANTS PICKING WILD FLOWERS ON THE BANKS OF THE AMOUR ” 106

AN EMIGRANT HOUSE ON THE UPPER AMOUR ” 108

THE MEN BEHIND THE BARS ON THE PRISON BARGE ” 110

THE HILL-SIDES WERE CARPETED WITH FLOWERS ” 114

A TYPICAL WATER-TOWER ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY ” 116

THE LIGNITE CLIFFS ON THE AMOUR ” 118

THE EVER-PRESENT SAMOVAR ” 122

SOME FIFTH-CLASS PEOPLE ” 124

A RAFT ON THE SHILKA ” 126

SIBERIAN RECRUITS BOUND FOR CHINA ” 130

FOR THIRTY-SIX MORTAL HOURS WE WAITED ” 132

A TRANS-BAIKAL TRAIN. PRISONERS CARRYING WATER ” 134

BOUND FOR FAR SIBERIA ” 138

FIFTEEN MINUTES AT EVERY STATION ” 140

PRISON CAR IN SIBERIA. FAMILIES OF PRISONERS AT THE WINDOWS ” 142

THE ELEPHANT’S NOSE, LAKE BAIKAL ” 146

THE ICE-BREAKER ON LAKE BAIKAL ” 150

THE SHORES OF LAKE BAIKAL ” 154

BURIATS FROM LAKE BAIKAL, WITH SEAL FROM THE LAKE ” 158

AN IRKUTSK DROSKY ” 160

GENERAL VIEW OF IRKUTSK ” 162

ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL CHURCHES OF IRKUTSK ” 166

A PART OF OUR _TRAIN DE LUXE_ ” 170

A VIEW ON THE ANGARA, NEAR IRKUTSK ” 174

A TRAINMAN WHO HAS TAKEN THE VEIL ” 176

SIBERIAN RAILWAY NEAR THE ASIATIC BORDER ” 178

ZLATOOST, A BORDER TOWN BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA ” 182

IN THE URAL MOUNTAINS ” 186

THE KREMLIN IN WINTER ” 190

A SHRINE AT A RAILWAY STATION ” 194

RUSSIAN TYPES ” 196

MAP SHOWING THE AUTHOR’S ROUTE FROM VLADIVOSTOCK ACROSS SIBERIA TO ST. PETERSBURG ” 200

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION

This volume describes the last six weeks of a long journey undertaken in the interests of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor.

Mrs. Clark and myself having been invited to attend various conventions of the society in Japan and China, we started for the far East, accompanied by our little son Harold, a boy of twelve years, in the early days of January, 1900.

The conventions were, beyond our expectations, large in numbers, enthusiastic in interest, and important in their results; but they cannot be described in this volume.

Knowing that a new all-steam route around the world was to be opened by the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the head of navigation on the Shilka River, and having important engagements at the World’s Christian Endeavor Convention, which was to meet in London in July, we determined not to follow the beaten tracks around the world which we had before taken, but to attempt this new route, which binds Asia and Europe, the Pacific with the Atlantic.

The last meetings of the series we had gone to the far East to attend were held in north China, in Tientsin, Peking, Tungchow, and Poatingfu, only a few days before the terrible uprising which bids fair to make such momentous changes in the map of the world.

The meetings being over and our object in visiting China being accomplished, we left Taku, as it proved, by the last steamer that sailed for Corea before the bombardment of the forts of Taku and the siege of Tientsin.

For nearly two weeks we coasted around the peninsula of Corea, stopping at Chemulpo, Mokpo, Fusan, and Wonsan, or Gensan, as the last-named port is indifferently called.

At Fusan, at the southern extremity of Corea, we spent four days waiting for a steamer to take us up the coast, and here, in soil already prepared, the first Christian Endeavor Society of Corea was planted in a church of the Australian Presbyterian Mission.

At length we reached Vladivostock, and our long journey across the Siberian plains by rail and river began.

At Taku our party had been pleasantly enlarged by the addition of Miss Anna Northend Benjamin, of New York, a well-known lecturer and newspaper correspondent, on her way home from the Philippines.

At Wonsan, in Corea, Mr. J. M. Jordan, British Consul-General to Corea, and Mr. Burn Murdock, a mining expert, became our fellow-passengers.

At Khabaroffsk Mr. J. C. Smith, a leading merchant of Nagasaki, who was accompanied by Mrs. Smith, took the same steamer; also Baron Hartogensis, of Germany, and Herr Ritter, Swiss Consul-General to Japan, all of whom, with one or two other foreigners (non-Russians), afterwards formed themselves into the “Never Again Society,” to whom this book is dedicated.

Interest is perhaps added to this journey from the fact that we were the first Americans, and in all probability the first foreigners, to go around the world by the new route. The trans-Siberian all-steam route had been opened but a few days when we took passage at Vladivostock, as I have explained in an early chapter, and none of the few who had preceded us across Siberia by this route had completed the circuit of the globe.

If this fact is borne in mind, it will explain some of the difficulties inevitably incidental to a new and untried route.

I wish gratefully to acknowledge the courtesy of their Excellencies the Russian Ministers Plenipotentiary to Japan and China, and to General Tchitchagoff, the Governor of Vladivostock and the Primorskaia, for their kind assistance in a journey which, were it not for their aid, would have been far more difficult and tedious.

It is also fair to add that already, in the minds of some at least of the “Never Again Society,” the discomforts and delays of the journey have faded into the unremembered Past, which so kindly and so quickly touches our little woes with the finger of oblivion, while its novelties and pleasures stand out in ever-bolder and happier relief. If the above-mentioned society were canvassed to-day, it would not be at all surprising if its members should unanimously resolve themselves into a

“_Some Time Again Society_.”

BOSTON, _February 2, 1901_.

A NEW WAY AROUND AN OLD WORLD