Evening Star Newspaper, September 29, 1894, Page 19

’ ——— R, SATURDAY,’ SEPTEMBER prers7s ‘99, 18094TWENTY PA GES. rear i9 Uo" Game R OF ICE. wy! IN A HARBO WELLMAN ICE BOUND Weary Days of Waiting in the Frozen Sea. Interesting Descriptions From the Explorer's Diary. UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCES —_+—_—_ Copyright, 1894, by Walter Wellman. All rights reserved.) UNDAY, MAY 13.— Officer of the day, Dr. Mohun. This has been our first unlucky day. Not that anything very terrible has happen- ed, but we are .t in @3 good position as we were this morn- ing. In fact, the Ragnvald Jarl is frozen in, and there is no telling when she will get loose. It ds a great consolation to us to know that if ‘we must be frozen in we have been caught ‘@s far north as we bad ever dared hope to go with the ship. Ovr experiences of the day show the un- certainties of arctic navigation in a most striking manner. Last night we arrived here and were surrounded by many miles of open water. Though the pack was to be Seen to the north, we were not without hopes of being able to find an opening in it through which the ship could be pushed gome distance farther north. This morn- ing a change came upon the scene. Before ‘We were out of bed Capt. Bottelfsen had found it necessary to move the ship, as the ice threatened from the northward, a fresh wind having sprung up from that quarter. The sky was overcast, and snow was fall- ing. Where the night before had been a bright arctic scene, with a flood of glorious sunlight, it was now thick and dark, and wwe found it impossible to see the Table Island, distant about two miles. Two or three times during the forenoon Capt. Bot- telfsen moved the Jarl to a place of greater safety nearer the bit of open water. About Bin the afternoon an incident occurred sure. In an incredibly short time the ship was completely imbedded tn this soft ice, with ice under her keel as well as all about her hull, and both Capt. Bottelfsen and you Lee tag crew the following rewards for latiti attained by certain dates, and jay ome oe members of the eapedition are on F By May 23. By June 1. By June 7. Latitude. Kroners. Kroners. Kroners. 81. TO 500 1,000, Tm 1,500 1,000 2,000 1,500 2,500 ‘2,000 3 8,000, 2.500 $2.45 8,50 000 00 3,000 One thousand Kroners additional for each quarter degree of latitude attained beyond 2.45. ‘The expedition will remain on board as long as there is a reasonable chance of get- ling farther north with the ship. Time is to run until midnight of the dates given, and the latitude attained is to be de- termined by yourself and Prof. French. Hoping that you and your crew will be able to earn at least a part of the above, I am, sincerely yours, WALTER WELLMAN. This offer was made not because we had any fear Capt. Bottelfsen and his men would fail to do the best they could without re- ward, but because we wanted them to feel that they as well as ourselves had some- thing to work for, and that there was to be some compensation for the hardships they are compelled to endure while navigating the arctic seas, Capt. Bottelfsen thanked us for the offer and modestly announced his intention to do the best he could, with or without reward. But that he was pleased with the opportun- ity given him was as natural as obvious. The master of the Jarl has hopes of being Capt. P. said this would protect her from| able to make at least 81.30 before the Zid injury. of May, and says if he had more coal in the There was nothing for us to do but to sit} bunkers he might a little later beat the down and await developments. We might be frozen in for a day or for a month. No one could teil. wind. We are a little south of Table Island and about three miles west of it, or in lati- tude 80.44. The temperature today is 31 de- grees F., and late in the evening the barom- eter begins to rise, indicating that the north- wesrly storm, only the edge of which we have felt, will soon have passed by us. Gloomy Forebodings. Monday, May 14.—Officer of the day, Mr. Dedge. Last night we had a little experience of sleeping in an ice-nipped ship. The Ragn- vald Jarl was not very badly squeezed, hav- ing enough of the light, spongy ice about her to make a bed for the hull to le in, safe from harm. Yet she had some wrench- world’s record for a ship, or 82.16. That record was made by Capt. Hall's Polaris in It all depended upon the|the Greenland waters. Ten miles farther north was claimed for the Polaris on that occasion, but 82.16 is all that has been al- lowed by critical arctic historians. First Taste of Ice Rear. We had our first taste of ice bear today when Mr. Franklin took the place of Stew- ard Wastfalt and prepared the lean parts of the cub shot on Tuesday for our dinner table. A platter two feet long and fifteen inches broad, heaped full of hamburg steaks made of cub flesh, was none too much for fifteen men—a sure Indication of the popu- larity of the meat in a crew like ours. Young bear is much esteemed by all the Norwegian sailors, but the old animals, they say, are rather rank. A peculiarity of ice ings, grindings and groanings that did not| bear as an article of food is the supposed conduce to sound sleep on the part of the| danger of cating its liver, which is general- member~ of the expedition. the manifestations which we had all about Considering | ly believed to be poisonous. This theory has been contradicte on what appears to be us of the power of the’ice pressure it was| good authority, but you couldn’t hire a Nor- not pleasant to He in our bunks and think of what might happen if a column of heavy pack ice should move down upon the little Ragnvald Jarl. She might be crushed into fragments and we turned out of bed to climb over the masses of screwed ice to a bleak and inhosp table shore. Though masses of heavy {ce did grind toward the shore all about us, fortunately none of them struck the Jarl, and we awoke this morning to find the ship just where she was last night and safe and sound. After consultation between the two ice pilots and the officers of the expedition it is agreed that our plan for a few days to come will be as follows: To exercise pa- tience in walting for a favorable opening of the debris ice to the north and then en- deavor to push to the edge of the main pack with the Ragnvald Jarl. This being our plan, it may easily be imagined how anxiously we watch the wind and the shift- ing of the ice. This evening, after a calm and for the most part bright and enjoyable day, the alert eyes of Capt. Bottelfsen detected signs of a storm in the northeast, and he decided to move the steamer to a safer position. Some open water had appeared, and in that, if the wind should come on to blow, the ship would be at least manageable, so that some choice might be made of a place wherein to Me for safety from the heavy ice. The question was how to get her out of the pocket in which she had been held for so long, and this problem was solved by all hands getting on the Ice with axes and oars and literally chopping a channel 200 feet long for the hull to make way through. This cost our men a good three hours’ work and a number of them a good wetting, but a little before midnight, by dint of pushing and chopping, a grand chorus of “She do move!” went up in three or four languages. Such daredevils as our Norwegians are! If they know what fear Is, they do not show it in the manner in which they work upon little pieces of treacherous ice, apparently as indifferent to falling into the sea as the Wegian to taste bear's liver for love or money. The polar bear is a peculiar beast in More respects than one. If a man comes upon a bear unexpectedly the best thing 1) do ts to run at him, shouting and wav- in the arms, whereupon Mr. Bear becomes frightened and runs away. If the man runs from the bear, the bear will be sure to run after the man. In such an emergency the best thing the pursued biped can do, if he is not too badly scared to think, is to take off his hat, his coat, his mittens and other articles of wear, one after another, and toss them to the pursuer. The bear can easily outrun a man, but is burdened with so much curlosity that he will stop to snuff at every strange object found in his path. The weak and awkward feature of the little game of running at the bear and scaring him out of a week's growth before he gets a chance to scare you is thut, while the bear never fails to improve his oppor- tunity when it comes, sometimes he is boorish enough to refuse to run in the right direction when you take your turn. A collision under such circumstances is not greatly to the disadvantage of the bear, but is likely to be uncomfortable for the man. The Norwegians are not afraid to meet a bear face to face at close range if they have boathook cr pikestaff in their hands. They approach the bear on the sunny side, where he has his front paw up to shade his eyes, he being unable to see in the bright sun ‘without taking this pre- caution. The experienced Norwegians take the sunny side because the bear cannot See them very, well there, and coming close to him they plant the end of their pike- staff in the snow or ice and permit him to rush upon it and stab himself to death. The Worst Day Yet. Wednesday, May 16.—Officer of the day, Captain Pedersen. During the night the gale increased in violence, the wind occasionally veering more to the north, and Captain Bottelfsen average American would be of getting his | fotnd it necessary to move the ship two BOUND. which came near getting us into serious trouble. An iceberg came within a trice of costing us the destruction, or at least the serious injury, of the Ragnvald Jarl. Capt. Pedersen, who has a nose for hear, ‘Was sitting In the forecastle telling sailors’ yarns when he happened to spy two bears on the ice near the ship. Cautioning every one to keep quiet, the captain seized his Winchester and generously gave the other gunning men the tip. Such a scrambling for guns and cartridges as there was for a couple of minutes! Capt. Pedersen, Mr. , Mr. Franklin and Mr. Wastfalt rushed on deck, guns in hand, and saw two ice bears—one large one and one smaller, a mother and her cub—about 100 yards from the ship. Six or eight shots were fired, and the cub fell to the ice, the blood flowing from two wounds. The mother bear was hit, too, for a great red blotch eppeared upon ker side, and at the wound she bit savagely, imagining in her vain rage that her tormentor was near at hand. Reluct- tly and slowly she moved away, turning about every few moments to look at her peor cub, kicking his last in the snow. Though Mr. Wastfalt fired several nore shots with his long range Krex-Jorgenson rifle, he was not able to hit the mark, and the dam dragged herself into some heavy «e and out of view, leaving a bloody trail after her. Some of our Norwegians put the small gluminum boat overboard, fastened skis to their feet and went over the thin, spongy ice after their prey. Two or three of them Merrowly escaped falling through into the ‘water, but there is no ice so thin or weak that a Norwegian is afraid to go over with @ pair of skis under him. While we were all busy with this bear hunt a large floe of pack ice and pressed-up shore ice had been stealing in behind us. Capt. Bottelfsen was the first to notice the danger and at once began efforts to move the ship, but she had been so tightly wedged in by the pressure of the heavy ice behind that it was next to impossible to move her. After a two hours’ struggle, in which the column of heavy ice came closer and closer, im time completely cutting off the egress, Capt. Bottelfsen changed his tactics and ran the Jarl away from the pack column into an area of the thin ice, but toward open water. After another hour of hard work, with all hands out breaking the ice and try- ‘ng to help the ship through, Capt. Bottelf- came into the cabin and announced that he was unable to go any farther. The streams of pack ice had closed in around the ship, completely cutting off escape to a large bay of open water lying to the south- west. We were not wholly grieved by this an- mouncement, for the only avenue of escape was toward the south, and at this season of the year we are radically and constitution- ally opposed to going in that direction. We did not at all like the idea of giving up even the few miles of the handsome north- ern advance which we have made, and were, therefore, quite reconciled to the imminent freezing in when Capt. Bottelfsen gave it as hhis opinion that the ship was in no danger whatever, now that she was in the midst of @ lot of soft young ice. In a few moments the pressure of the heavy masses driving down with the northwest wind began press- me thin ice about the ship. e could hear the grinding and sliding, and now and then the Jarl and greaked as she felt tbe force pres quivered Of the feet wet. Prof. French and Mr. Dodge, just to show that Americans are not to be out- done by any one, wallowed about in the slush, and took their share of the duck- ings, too. With cigars and hot coffee all around, musical instruments and song, we made merry till far into the morning, all but Capt. Bottelfsen unmindful of the lowering clouds and gathering fog in the northeast. The Ice Cleared Away. Tuesday, May 15.—Officer of the day, Prof. French. The morning showed us a strong wind from the east, justifying Capt. Bottelfsen’s move of last evening. The Jarl lay quiet and secure, anchored to the shore ice under the lee of Table Island, while a moderate gale from the east raged outside. The ice had disappeared with surprising rapidity. Except that adhering to the shore, none Was to be seen in the neighborhood, and the pack was just discernible to the north and northwest. For the first time since our arrival here there was a chance to make a little northing with the ship. Capt. Bottelfsen expressed the opinion that as long as the wind continued to blow from the east it would be better to Me in harbor, for the longer the wind kept up the farther from shore would be the winter ice and small broken up floes by which we had lately been surroynded. Moreover, the high wind from the east would consume so much more coal in making northing and easting. It was decided, therefore, that as jong as the wind continued we should re- main where we are, keeping careful watch for a more promising opportunity to push on. Coal power is an important consideration with us now. We brought out from Tromsoe all the coal we could get aboard, even building a bunker on the deck to hold an extra quantity. We knew the time would come in which our coal supply would be Worth its weight in gold, and that time is now here. We might ve been better off if we had left the dogs in Europe and devoted the space which they have occu- pied in the ship to coal. It would also have been better had we had a larger steamer, with a greater coal endurance, but one can- that the dogs will be found useful, if we are able quickly to reach pregeared pack, where the surface of the floes may be expected to be comparatively level. As to the size of the steamer, she is as costly @ vessel as we could afford. In this world, in arctic work, as in everything else. one has to do what he can, and not what he likes, and it must be remembered that steamers fit for ice work are not plentiful, en in Norway, and the few big sealing ee oa Pao adapted to the purpose cost too much for a private arctic en to afford. ee Instead of putting many more thousands into a larger steamer, we prefer to give our skipper and his crew something to work for, knowing that skill and courage work wonders in the arctics more than big ships or coal power. So we today ad- dressed the following letter to Capt. Bot- telfsen: N_ BOARD RAGNVALD J. TABLE ISLAND, May 15, Capt. Johan Bottelfsen: Dear Sir—This expedition hereby offers or three times in order to keep her away frcm the waves, which broke against the ice with considerable force. The tempera- jtvre was not low, but, with driving snow and a strong wind, the weather was any- thing but pleasant, even in the lee of the islands. Outside the moderate gale had increased to a strong gale, and it was in- teresting to watch the ice drifting—or, as Captain B. terms it, “shooting”. ‘by. Enormous masses, resembling now high buildings or castles, with here and there turreted towers or the spires of churches, Went drifting by at an incredible speed. In such a storm, with the air so thick with snow that but a few miles of sea could be Seen even from the crow’s nest, Captain Bottelfsen recommended a policy of in- action, at least for a few hours. This was also our own judgment, hard as it is to He still and see the day slip by in idleness, Still Ice-Bound. May 17.—Officer of the day, Thursday, Mr. Dodge. It was a stormy morning, but with o brightened sky and a cessation of snow Capt. Bottelfsen concluded to go out and have a look at the ice. So he steamed out @ short distance beyond Little Table Island, or to latitude 80.50, but the gale was still violent, and the heavy ice was coming in large quantities from the northeast. He therefore returned to anchor within the lee of Table Islana, where we spent a greater part of the day. In the afternoon the barometer rose a little, and the wind went down, inducing Capt. B. to try another look at the ice to the north. At 3 o'clock he steamed out past Little Table Island, past a point of pack ice that had drifted to the lee of that rock, famous as being the northernmost jand of the Spitzbergen archipelago, and only forty years ago believed to be the northernmost land in the world. It was in these waters, more than a century ago, that a young naval officer, Nelson by name, had an encounter with a polar bear which afterward figured in history. It was Clem- ents R. Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society of England, who said that the young officer's experiences with arctic storms and polar bear bore fruit at Trafalgar. We have ro naval ambition, but feel that we are becoming pretty good sail- ors. As the Jarl steamed northward in a lead of ice Capt. Bottelfsen called the writer to the crow’s nest for consultation. The wind was still blowing strong, and the temperature was the lowest we have yet seen—ll above zero F. But we mounted to the nest in good sailorman style, and, after a quarter hour’s study of the situa- tion, agreed with Capt. Bottelfsen that it was useless to go farther. Only scattered patches of open water could be seen ahead, and with the ice in rapid drift to the west We might be nipped and carried far out of our position, so we reluctantly gave the order to turn back and to round a point of ice just to the west into what appeared to be a large bay of open water, extending as far north as 81.15, and possibly to 81.30. Capt. Bottzifsen is eager to make this much northing for us, in order to earn the re- ward which we have promised him and his crew therefor, but we care more nuw for reaching the solid pack, where we can be- gin our sledge journey, than for the lati- tude in which it is to be found. We have been a little disappointed in not finding a way to the northeast from the Seven Islands. There have been years in these waters In which, even as early as this, in May, a ship could follow the edge of the pack to the northeast for a great dis- tance. Such was resby’s experience in 1806, and with the ease with which we reached the Seven Islards we had reason to hope for better luck beyond that point. Nothing but ice greets the eye in that di- rection, however, and for an outlet to the north we are compelled to look westward. It has been a favorite theory of ours that to the north of the Seven Islands, or east- ward thereof, we should be less likely to find the pack in drift to the south. There is supposed to be the dividing line between two main currents, one flowing to the east of Spitzbergen and the other to the west. In this supposition we have been strengthened by a letter, received just before we left civilization, from Mr. Prentiss of Bangor, Me., who Is noted as a careful and intelli- gent student of the hydrography of the aretics, Mr. tiss’ opinion coincided with our own—that the best chance for pack work lies to the east. Still it is only @ theory, and we may do quite as well a ttle farther to the west. WALTER WELLMAN. HORSFORD’S ACID PHOSPHATE For Impaired Vitality And weakened energy ts wonderfully successful. ILLITERATE: RUSSIA — The Government is Opposed to Schools for thé People. MR. KENNANES ARRAY OF EVIDERCE At the Foot of the List Among Civilized Nations. AN IGNORANT PEASANTRY Written for The Evening Star. MONG THE A causes that may be assigned for the un- - satisfactory economic condition of the Rus- slan peasant farmer the first place must be given, I think, to over-regulation, —re- straint and inter- ference on the part of the government. Next co that in point ofimportancel should place the lack of popuiar education. The Russian peas- ant farmers, as a class, are the most Illit- erate people in Europe. The reports of the Russian ministry of war show that in the ten-year period from 1874 to 1884 77 per cent of the young men drafted Into the army at the age of twenty were unable either to read or write. In the province of Kharkof the proportion of Miterate recruits reached 85 per cent, in the province of Kiev 86 per cent, and in the province of Kazan 97 per cent, But these figures do not give an adequate idea of the illiteracy of the Population as a whole, for the reason that they do not include women. They reiate only to the flower of young Russian man- hood, and therefore show the literary status of the class whose educational facilities have been best. The great mass of the pop- ulation stands on a much lower level. From statistics compiled by the zemstvos, or pro- vincial assemblies, of twenty provinces in European Russia, between S80 and 189), it appears that 91 per cent of the whole pop- ulation were {literate, and that the pro- portion of jiliierate women reached 8 per cent. In other words, there were only ninety men in a thousand and only twenty women in a thousand who could either read or write. In eight provinces out of the twenty the iiliterate men numbered 950 per thousand, and in twelve provinces the num- ber of illiterate women exceeded 0 per thousand. In one-fifth of the villages in the province of Tambof there was not a single peasant who could read or write, of either sex, and in the district of Dmitrof, province of Orel, there were only twenty- three women who could read and write in @ population of 95,920. Statistics Ia the Case. If Russia be compared with other Euro- pean countries upon, the basis of illiteracy, as shown in the returns of the recruiting officers, it will be seen that, in point of edu- cation, she occupies’ the very last place in the list. The figures,.as given by Prof. Yanzhul, are as follows: ¢ 3 Countries. ' Hliterate recruits, per cent. mparison the number of children attending school in Proportion to population, Russia makes an even worse showing than in the reports of the recruiting officers. The proportion of scholars to population in the United States is 22.5 per cent. In western Europe it ranges from 7.1 per. cent for Italy to 2! per cent for Bavaria. In Japan it is 7.6 per cent, and even in Bulgaria, where the people have been subject for centuries to the domination of the Turk,it is 5.5 per cent. In Russia it barely reaches 2.7 per cent. The illiteracy of the Russian peasants is not attributable to any lack of inclination or disposition on their part to learn, On the contrary, they avail themsel with the utmost eagerness of all the educational facilit‘es that are afforded them, and the Russian newspapers are constantly filled with complaints of inadequate accommoda- tion in the existing schools for the children that present themselves. The Zhitomir cor- respondent of the Kiev newspaper, the Word, for example, reports that the schools of that town are not large enough to hold one-quarter of the children that would like to enter them. In 180, 2,500 children were turned away from the doors of the Moscow schools, and more than 1,000 from the Odessa schools, because there was no room for them. In Kazan, at the beginning of the present educational year, there were 5,847 applications for admission to the pub- le schools, of which 1,396 were denied for want of room. In St. Petersburg there were 2,180 applications for 36) vacant places in the higher schools, while in Cronstadt there were school accommodations for only 700 out of more than 6,000 children of school age. If this state of things prevails in the cities of the empire, what can be expected in the country? In the province of Kos- troma there is only one school to every 126 square miles of area. In the province of Kursk there are 1,140 schools for peas- ant villages, or one school, on a erage, for every eight settlements, while in the province of Viatka there is only one school for every thirty-eight settlements. It is estimated by the best authorities that, tak- ing the Russian empire as a whole, educa- tional facilities are accessible to only one- fortieth part of the children of school age. Where the Responsibility Rests, The respousibility for this state of things rests mainly upon the central government. ‘The well krown Russian reactionist, Prince Meshcherski, said recently in the Grazh- danin: “It is incomparably more impor- tant that the peasants should be subjected to the firm and prudent guardianship of the authorities than that they should be edu- cated;” and this is the view that seems to be taken by the government. No serious attempt is belng made, and no serious at- tempt ever has been made, by the tsar or the ministry of public Instruction, to pro- vide the great mass of the Russian people with educational facilities, even in their most elementary form. The best measure of a government's desire to do a certain thing is the amount of money that it is willirg to spend in°doing it, and, judged by this standard, the desire of the Russian government to eduéate its people is so weak as to be hardly worth taking into ac- count. In 1884 ti ‘central government drew from Its people ‘in the form of direct and indirect taxes a ft $408,000,000. It re- turned to them in thé shape of facilities for elementary instruction’ a little less than $2,000,000 (3,902,575 "ruples), or one two- hundredth part of the’ annual budget. If this sum had been Uistributed among the people upon a per “tapita basis it would have given to each person, for educational purposes, three and’ séven-tenths kopeks, cr about one and fout-fifths cents. In 1804, ten years later, the dentral government had increased its expen ture for primary schools to $2,366,000" (4,732,000 rubles), but Inasmuch as the pofulation had increased in the meantime by, 13,000,000, this larger sum, if distributed amofig the people, would have given to each person, for educational Purposes, an even smaller allowance than that provided for in the budget of 1884, In 1884 the total expenditures of the cen- tral government, for all objects, amounted to $3.87 per capita of the population, of which one-half of one per cent went for the support of primary schools. In 1804 the total expenditures were $4.57 per capita, of which only forty-four hundredths of one per cent were devoted to primary schools. In other words, the central government de- voted to elementary instruction in 1884 fifty cents out of every hundred dollars ex- pended, while {t was willing to assign for that purpose in 1894 only forty-four cents out of -very hundred dollars expended. Striking Exa: jen. In May, 1883, a well-known official named C—,, In the Ruesian town P- (the Press censor would not allow the newspa-~ per from which I quote this case to give full names either of persoms or places), re- solved to open, at his owm expense, a free ‘cation of the m: primary school for poor children. He pro- vided or collected the necessary funds, en- gaged a competent man with a teacher's certificate to take charge of the school, and then wrote to the district director of public instruction for permission. Mopth after month passed without a reply, and in August the petition for leave to open the school was renewed. A letter from the di- rector was then received asking what would be the grade of the proposed school, what would be taught in it, how many teachers would be employed and how many children would attend. Replies to all of these questions were promptly forwarded, nd, in September, after some further cor- respondence, the district director wrote to the patron of the proposed school that per- mission for its establishment would be granted if the local authorities of the town had no objection. Upon this the school was opened; but on the 28th of September another commurication was received from the director sayirg that on account of the opposition of the local authorities the school must be closed. On the Sth of October the local authorities notified Mr. C- and wrote the director that they had no objec- tion whatever to the school, but it was of no avail. On the 26th of October, six months after the beginning of the negotia- tions, a peremptory order was received from the director to close the school. The school was closed, and the public-spirited official, Mr. € - who had planned and organized it, was warned by his own superior that the establishment of free public schools was not one of his duties, and was not, more- over, onsistent with the dignity of a chinovnik.” From files of Russian newspapers for the past ten years cases of this kind—or cases d!ffering from this only in unimportant de- tails—might be quoted by the hundred. Rossin at the Foot of the List. If we compare the per capita allowance for elementary instruction in Russia with the per capita allowance for the same ob- ject in other countries, we shall find not only that Russia stands at the foot of the list, but that she is disgracefully oar even such countries as Spain, Italy and Ja- pan. See, for example, the following table which I’ have taken from an excellent series of articles entitied “A Fateful Ques- tion” recently published in the St. Peters- burg newspaper Russkaya Zhizn: Annval expenditure per capita for elementary ———S Countries. United States.. England, Scotland, Prussia, Saxony and France Japan. Russia (from the central government (From all sources, including the cen- tral government)...... A government which has an aanual rev nue of more than $400,000,000, anu which ap- fropriates annually for the elementary in- struction of its people less than two cents per capita, certainly cannot regard popuiar education as a matter of much importance. But the attitude of the Russian govern- ment toward education in general, and edu- es in particular, seems to be an attitude not so much of indifference as of suspicion, apprehension and hostility. It appears to be af-aid that, if it promotes elementary instruction among the peasants and creates a large reading and thinking class, it will Increase the feeling of popular discontent, add greatly to the difficulty of mairtaining an effective censorship, render the people more impatient of the “wise and prudent guardianship” which is so “neces- sary” for them and open a far wider and more dangezous field of activity to the revo- lutionists and liberals who are striving to rcome the paralyzing influence of bureau- ‘atic authority and encourage the peasants to make a determined stand for their individ- wal and social rights, if not for their politica} freedom. Only upon this supposition is it possible to explain the unusual and extra- ordinary restrictions which it throws about private enterprise in the field of popular education, and the apparent reluctance with which it permits the establishment of pri- mary schools and village libraries by the representatives of the people in the cantonal and provincial assemblies. “A Man of the Fifteenth Century.” Whatever view may be taken of the cases above set forth, it cannot, I think, be contended that they indicate a very ardent desire on the part of the Russian govern- ment that its people should be educated, either at its own expense or the expense of others. Meanwhile the Russian peasant is, in most respects, a man of the fifteenth century. He is a believer in sorcery and witchcraft; he murders in cold blood wretched old women whom he regards as embodinents of cholera and plague; he stones or kills physicians who try to save him the fatai consequences of his own san- itary neglect; he buys pieces of the Savior’s cradle, and bottled Egyptian darkness from wandering pilgrim-peddlers, who pretend to have traveled in the Holy Land, and he has no more conception of the achievements of modern science, even in the field of material progress, than if he were an inhabitant of Matabeleland or the Soudan. He is not stupid—he Is not a mere senseless clod. He is, on the contrary, a man of warm feelings, vivid imagination and great innate intel- lectual capacity; but so far as education and knowledge of the world are concerned, it may be doubted whether he is any more advanced than his ancestors were in the “good old days” of Ivan the Terrible. It is unreasonable to suppose that, in the storm and stress of the fierce struggle for exist- ence which is now going on throughout the world, such a man can possibly hold his own against the sharp, intelligent competi- tion of the trained, enlightened, energetic and self-reliant worker of western Europe or the United States, If his economic con- dition is “unsatisfactory” to his official “guardians,” it is simply because he is ignorant and oppressed. He is like a handi- capped runner in a free-for-all race, who starts bebind the last of his competitors, and who must run, as best he can, with a yoke around his neck and a bandage over his eyes. GEORGE KENNAN. Baldeck, Nova Scotia. —_. -—_ A NEW ENTERPRISE. Supplying the London Brea’ New York Correspondent Chicago Herald. A new enterprise which will be watched with interest is the shipment of fresh fruit by the train load to London. Two cargoes have already gone, and the third will be carried by the steamer Paris, which sails on Wednesday for Southampton. A train of sixteen refrigerator cars, carrying 45,000 packages cf pears, plums, peaches, grapes and other fruit, left California last Monday morning, and will reach New York on Tues- day if nothing happens. The cars will be switched alongside the steamer on the dock of the American line, and the fruit will be transferred with the slightest exposure pos- sible to the great refrigerating compart- ments of the Paris, where it will be stowed away until its arrival at Southampton. Then a special train of refrigerator cars will be waiting, and the next morning the fruit will appear on the breakfast tables in Lon- don, fourteen days from the tree. But by maintaining an even temperature it can be almost perfectly preserved, and the wastage on the first two cargoes is said to have been less than is usual with that delivered in New York. This is probably due to the fact that greater care was taken in selecting and packing the London shipment. But the experiment is a success. It has been demonstrated that California can fur- nish Covent Garden market with fruit just as well as the Isle of Jersey, and at prices that admit of profitable competition. The shipments will now be a regular thing, and all three of the steamers of the American line will have trainloads of California fruits down to see them off on Wednesday of each week. It has long been the practice for the stewards of these and other steamers to take on enough oysters, fruit and other per- ishable food at New York to last the entire voyage, and people coming this way often wonder where the oysters came from that they ate off the half shell every day at din- ner and the lobsters and soft shell crabs, which taste as fresh as if they were eaten in Fulton market, The refrigerators of the ships are kept at a temperature that arrests decay, and the oysters, lobsters and crabs are taken on alive and packed in seaweed, over which buckets of salt water are thrown every morning. Some years ago an attempt was made to ship fruit across the sea, but it was aban- doned because of the excessive freight rates and the great wastage, but since then it has been discovered that fruit does not require a cold, but an even temperature, and the American steamship Itne has made con- tracts with the fruit growers by which they agree to land the fruit in London for $700 a car, which js about 60 cents a basket for pears, peaches or grapes. The new steamer now building at Cramps yard for this line will be especially fitted up for the fruit busi- ness, and the foreign lines will undoubtedly fall into the trade as soon as it proves profit- RULER OF THE RAILS How the Train Runner Works and His Autocratic Power. KEEPING TRACK OF THE TRAINS RED ere Se enn om The Slightest Mistake Might Mean a Terrible Calamity. A TRAIN RUNNER'S ERROR Written for The Evening Star. 0 FIND AN EM- Te of a railroad, not in the official class, who does not join the ranks of the strikers when « con- troversy is on is something quite out of the ordinary. Bat the train runners never strike. Taking the country over there cannot be more than 300 of these em- ployes, all told. They invariably graduate from the ranks of telegraphers and when the salary or sur- roundings do not suit them they resign, but do not strike. The average traveler does not know that there is such an employe on the pay rolls of the railroad, and if he does, the work he performs is a mystery to him. Perhaps he will notice while riding on a single track road that there is very little delay at the sidings while waiting for a train going in an cpposite direction, but he hardly takes the trouble to think that a master mind has calculated the running of the two trains to such a nicety that they meet and pass at a certain point with hard- ly a fraction of a minute delay. As a class the train runners of this country are far above the average as to moral and physical requirements. They are all picked men,who have had an extensive ratiroad experience and know every fcot of the tracks from one end of the division to the other, Absolute tobriety, conscientiousness and faithfulness in the discharge of their duties are re- quired of these men, the responsibilities of the position being too great for the railroad to appoint a man for such duty in whom it had not implicit confidence. They must be men far above the average railroad stand- ard and endowed with unusual clear-head- edness, exceptional decision and great nerve. Hesitation or delay on their part in moving the numerous trains might mean death to huadreds of people and a great financial loss to employers. At the headquarters of each division will be found four of these gentlemen, one of whom is division superintendent of tele- graph, while another will act as extra man. ‘Their hours of work are eight with one day off each week. They have a sort of sliding scale as to days off, and sometimes there 15. great figuring as to who will be lucky enough to catch Sunday. On that day there is only about one-fourth the usuai work to do, which makes the time hang slowly on their hands, and then Sunday is the great lay-off day for railway men, and they like to be with the masses. Mis Busy Time. The busiest hours of the twenty-four are from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m., and they are also the most desirable, as night work is a great bugaboo to the general run of railway em- ployes. The train runner that comes on at 5 in the morning has the situation explained to him in every little detail by the man he relieves, where such and such a freight is side-tracked; how many cars on this and that siding to be moved east or west, and how many minutes a certain train has been given to reach a siding and clear the passenger train following. ‘these poinis are all jotted down cn a tablet near at hand, and after assuring himself that he under- stands the situation, the train runner pulls off his coat and goes to work. It is about 8:30, and the suburban trains at each end of the division need attending to. Two will start off simultaneously, one from a point fifty miles up the road and another from a station twenty-five miles out. These trains are valuable sources of revenue to the railroad, and have to be carefully attended to, so as to not rufile the temper of the “commuter,” and, if possible, make them attractive enough, both as to promptness and cleanliness, so'as to add to the already large army of suburban patrons. If a through express is twenty-five minutes late, these suburban trains will be given the right of way, and should the express icave the head of the division that late, caicula- tions must be made as to whether any lost time can be made up in the run of a hun- dred miles to the other end of the division. Then again, after orders to this effect have been given out by the train runner the express loses ground instead of all the work has to be gone over again. Each division has from three to six work trains who generally run wild, and who re- ceive their orders, generally, before starting out. Each train has about twenty-five men on board, and to keep them at work with as little loss as possiole also devolves upon the train runner. If the work train gets onto a siding near a telegraph office all will be well, but, if not, a loaf of from thirty to fifty minutes sometimes foliows. The con- ductor, of course, sends this loss into head- quarters in his reports, and inquiry is made of the train runner as to caus¢. It fre- qQuentiy happens that the loss could not be avoided, aud with good train runners a plausible excuse is always forthcoming, Checking the Trains. The operator that assists the train run- ner has a check sheet vefore him, and in little ruled-off squares time is kept of each train or lecomctive at every telegraph point along the division. The train runner knows perfectly the distances between the stations and also the obstacles that may prevent good time being made. In this way he can tell to a certainty where the trains are and whether they are running on the schedule he has allotted them. Mistakes, though possible, cannot easily occur, as he is also an operator, and the little clicks that re- echo through the room are as perfectly in- telligible to nim as to the receiving eperator. A dozen smail worries may spring up at any minute, such us the tardiness of an operator along the line who is slow and neglectful; a wire working badly through stormy weath- er, or an engine refusing to make steam, and, consequently, losing time. Of course, there is @ certain amount of easy routine in running trains, but every day brings forward a new combination of events which taxes the alertness of the dis- patcher to the utmost. On a double-track road, which is usually run under the block system nowadays, the train runner does not have to watch out for the meeting and passing of trains as on a single track road, and his duties are, therefore, somewhat easier. But he still has to xeep everyching moving, and it is no slight task if he has many freight trams to handie which will persist in “laying out" the important pas- senger and suburban trains, He has fre- quently to see that the locomotives of the divisicn are properly distributed; that sta- ton agents get all the cars they want; that cars get a prompt movement and are not unduly Celayed; that an express train is Stopped at a way station to let one of the officers of the road off; that yardmasters are kept informed of the movement of freight and passenger trains; that a doctor meets @ train to attend to an employe that has been injured, and a dozen other “thats.” When a Wreck Occurs. But the greatest trouble and hard work ts given the train runner when a wreck oc- curs. Expert railroaders will say that a wreck on a single track is a calamity, but on a double track road the man that has the running of trains to do will find the most work. In the first case a wreck gen- erally blocks the road, anj until the debris is cleared away no train running can be done. In the second case, when only one track is blocked, preparations must be made on both sides of the accident so that the clear track can be utilized, and on occasions like this the very acme of train running skill is called into use. A heavy freight may have been close to the scene of the ac- near that spot that will hold the and he orders it backed onto the same, Then the express receives orders to on the opposite track until a switch north of the wreck is reached and thence back again to its proper rails. Trains coming South will be held at this switch, and $f im- portant ones, will have the right of way. Further up the road freights will be order- ed on sidings, eo as not to delay through passenger trains or extra trains ordered out to the relief of the mjured, should the wrecked train prove to be a -car- trying one. Wrecking trains and work- train crews are, of course, ordered to the wreck, and have, or are given, the right of way. With this mix up, it does not re- quire the eye of a railroader to see that the work of the train runner is not only important, but of the most complicated character. Take the case of the wreck up on the Northern Central road the Gay after the last inauguration of President Cleveland. Two engines were coming south, coupled together to carry the heavy travel west, At Hanover junction the engines ran into the rear end of a freight and smashed things generally. The wreck could hardly be called a bad one, yet, at the time, was as troublesome as could well be imagined. The engines were pushed sideways and blocked both tracks: hundreds of cars were coming into Baltimore every hour for the west, laden with passengers; the engines that were crippled were badly needed, and about every siding south of the wreck held @ freight train. Such times are the ones that call for coolness and nerve, and it very seldom happens that these essential qualities are not fully exemplified in the train runner on duty. It is no wonder that eight hours seem @ long day’s work to these men, and the Strain after that time almost unbearable. Yet, to casually observe them at work in the office, one would never suppose that they had a care in the world. They will joke and laugh and chat with the operators and seem never to give a thought to the fact that they stand between the passen- gers of the railroad and death. They are simply a good illustration of the statement that 4 man can grow accustomed to any- thing. in conversation with several of the train rynners, a majority of them have stated to a reporter of The Evening Star that when first intrusted with the important post they occupy they felt conscious all the time of the tremendous responsibilities imposed upon them. But as time passed on, this feeling wore off just as they became used to the strain, and they ail agreed that when this time arrived they found they could do better and more satisfactory work. cident, and behind it an important train. The train runner knows of © ading freight run Made Him Crary. An interesting story has been handed down bythe train runners of the Erie railroad, ani will bear printing, as it has not before appeared in a newspaper. It relates to the big wreck some years ago near St. Mary’s and the mysterious dis- appearance of “Mike” Brady, a big-hearted fellow, and one of the best train runners in_the country. On the night of the wreck Brady was on duty. About 12 o'clock the operator at St. Mary's reported that Conductor Ho- gan of extra No. 72, loaded with fruit, west bound, wanted to know if he could have ten minutes on the ttme of No. 3, the east bound night express, to make Jelico. Brady cast his eyes down upon his train sheet, which toid him at a glance where every train out upon the road was. Then he looked at the clock. Jelico was sev- enteen miles from St. Mary's. If he did not allow Hogan to use ten minutes of the express train's time the fruit train would be delayed for an hour or more. All the train runners: head- quarters to give the fruit trains as much show as possible, the roads being bound @ contract to get them reported the fruit riving at 12:10 and leaving at 12:15. Brady Fl 5 z Z 3 E é 2 steady calling Brady stopped. ner Donnelly, who worked the second was ill, and his work had fallen upon and Wiers, the third train runner. And then, to make matters worse, Wiers had been taken suddenly f) early in the fore noon, and Brady had been pulled out of bed to keep the road from being clogged up. He had sat at the desk since early in the morning, and with the terrible strain of the position was in no condition for duty that night. When he failed to raise the operator at Warren he dropped his head and stared at the train sheet on the desk before him. He was not asleep, but there was a t lapse in his mind. The express had Kane, and the operator there had it. This made it absolutely necessary get orders to Warren before it ran by station, as there was no other telegraph Station between that point and Jelico, wheré, the freight was to meet it, open Suddenly the wire opened, and came the words, “No. 3 passed Wr.” Wr. was Warren’s telegraph Brady straightened up in his face wearing an expression wild. He reached for the key ment, and ~*~ fingers shook as — the operator at Warren to repeat report. ‘There had been no mistake. Brady up from his chair with a weird cry. and down the office he walked, wringing his hands and sobbing: “My God, what done, what have I done?” The other men in the office about Brady and one look at the sheet told them the whole story. It perfectly plain that only a miracle prevent the heavy fruit train, running on fast time, and the flying night express, from clashing together. If the operator at St. Mary's had reported Hogan's departing time correctly the two trains would meet on the flats several miles west of Jelico. But the chances were that Hogan had not pulled out of St. Mary's for five or ten minutes after he was reported. That was a common thing when the operators and trainmen were on friendly terms. It was called “stealing time.” If Hogan had stolen any time Brady knew that the two trains would meet on the curve a few miles west without a moment's warning. Nothing could save them in such event. Brady had really become deranged, and was talking to himself, but in tones loud enough to be heard by every one in the room. “Look at No. 3 sailing through Jel- leo. Why, she should stop! But it won't matter. Everybody knows enough to keep out of her way.” Then the poor fellow subsided for a moment, but in a minute was on his feet and shouting, “Took, look, is hi 3 from the west. Don't tg | God, don’t you see them? They should have met at Jelico.” A moment later he cried out, “Did you hear that crash? Do you see the fire?” It was 12:50 o'clock. Rrady was all ine heap in his chair. His companions were motionless. None dared to interrupt him for fear of violence. The sounder “ticked, crear YE ey no no attention to the sounds until ti operator at Jelico called. Then Brady came back y message he sent was this: “Extra west-bound freight No. with east-bound express No. 3 on the curve just west of the big flats about 12:45. Both trains in the ditch ond on fire, dozen killed outright and many badly in- jured. Track completely blocked. “HOGAN.” Brady took the message without a break, He was as firm as a rock. and not a serve im his body quivered. He the message to one of his colleagues. The wild look re- Clear Complexions, ; Youthful Faces Free from Ws Liver foi Sas re eae oe Pies Ultra Pace Beautifier and Flesh Foot. It is neither troublesome nor ive and ts harmless toa chiles abi, Decaune it ds prepared in strengths to sult all ages sod all for trial, will be seat pastpeld on ot Pine frotist Sealed circulars net on Sppliatlon Mme, bm ge Se 27 ‘Royal’ Ne vor French Hair Restorer (not a it re-