Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 9, 1903, Page 31

New Railroad the is Building VIEW ON THE DINER OF (Copyright, 193, by Frank G. Carpenter.) O8COW, July 29.—(Special Corre- spondence of The Bee.)—The czar Is building new railroads In every direction. He is gradually forming a network over the KEuropean part of his empire and lay.ng out trunk lines in Asia. During tre pres- ent year more than $10,00),000 is to be spent on the Transsiberian rallway and $72,000,- 900 on other lines. 8o much is publisiel about the Transsiberian enterprise that the other new roads are lost sight of, al- though they are costing many time: as much. They are plinned to open up tha eountry on the other side of the Caplan ®ea, where 1,600 miles are now in course of eonstruction and an equal distance has been surveyed, The Russian roads ers gradually approaching India. In an Inter- view which [ had with Prince Hilkoff, the ezxar's minister of wiys and communica- tions, he told me that the time would come when the Anglo-Indian lines and the Rus- slan lnes would be jolned. He thinks such a union will stop all talk of trouble between the countries, and that an ¢nor- mous transcontinental trade will Lte ths result. He says the Transcaspian road, which runs from the Casplan sea to beyond Bamarcand, is paying well. It has a great traffic in cotton and other goods, and the lands through which it passes are growing rich. Russia now has about 40,000 miles of rail- way, of which all are controlled by the government, and two-thirds belong to the czar. The freight and passenger rates are carefully regulated, and the passenger traffic is the cheapest in the world. A zone system, by which the fares are ¢ leulategd, bas been introduced, each zone being thir- ty-five miles in width, After the first few hundred miles it costs only 10 cents to cross one of these zones, making the ordinary long-distance fare less than four-tenths of & cent a mile. The rate from here to War- saw, about as far as from New York to Detroit, is §5. From 8t, Petcrsburg to Odessa, or as far as from New York to Omabha, is $6.50, and from St, Petersburg to Bebastopol is $7.50. The third class rate from Moscow to the petroleum fields about the Casplan sea is less than $10, and to Irkutsk, a distance farther than from New York to 8an Francisco, $15. All the above fares are third class. Tho second class is only one-half as much again, and the first class Is only two and one-half times the third class rate, I have traveled many thousand miles on the Russian trains. I go first class and take a sleeper when I can get it, and as it Is the accommodations are not the best. The Transsiberian express has fine cars it is true, but the ordinary sleeper leaves much to be desired. On some roads one is expected to supply his pillows and bed lUnen. He carries his own towels and soap, and as for combs and brushes he would be brave Indeed who dared use such things in common with the average Russian. The second class cars are a little worse than the first and on some of the roads the third class cars are fitted up with benches and are without modern conveniences. BSome of the cars are lighted by candles. The peasants carry their baggage with them wrapped up In cloths or in great bags and the cars are packed full of such things. Everyone takes as much with him as pos- sible, for only thirty-six pounds can be checked free and the balance Is charged for according to welght and distance. As to sleeping car tickets, they must be bought at the offices and not of the conductors. The ordinary rate is from $1 to $1.50 a night. or, if you want a compartment to yourself, $8 A passenger has a right to his compartment from 9 p. m. to 9 a. m. If one is without bed linen he can, if he wishes, rent a blanket, a pillow case and two sheets for 50 cents a night, The other night I rode In a second class sleeper from Moscow to the Volga. The first class accommodations were all taken, and the second class was cheaper. Besides I wanted the experience. I got it. My car was divided up into compartments or pens THE TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS, THIRD-CLLASS PASSENGERS WAITING FOR A TRAIN VIEW OF MOSCOW, SHOWING GRAND CANAL open at the top like the box stalls of a stable. Each compartment had four long berths, two below and two above. Thero wore no curtains. We undressed in the open and lay down facing each other. The cars were filled with Asiatics and Russlans. There were a half dozen pig-tailed Chinese in silk gowns, Persians in turbans and long cowls of fine wool. Armenians In red fez tarbooshes and Tartars with long gowns belted in at the waist, wearing high caps of black astrakan. Not a few of the Tar- tars carried daggers, and there were also Russian soldiers and officers with guns and swords. Fortunately the windows were open and the wind from the plains kept the air comparatively pure. I shall not soon forget my two room mates. They had dark faces, Roman noses and long, curly black beards. They laid aside their astrakan caps a short time after entering and a little later on pulled off their high boots, showing boots of soft, black leather within. I asked them whence they came, and they answered by signs, telling me that they lived in Asia and were Kirghiz I replied, pointing to myself, that I was an American, saying “Amerikanski.” They were surprised and seemed glad to meet me, I noticed that both men were well to do. Their clothes were of the finest broadcloth; they had inlaid daggers, and their watches were gold, On the other side of me, with a board will between, slept a Turk, and with him a Mohammeglan Tartar from Kazan on the Volga. Both these men knelt and prayed as the sun rose. They had their faces to- ward Mecca and bumped their heads on the cushions again and agaln as they went through their devotions. Another Tartar read the Koran aloud unti]l late in the evening. His tone was a sing-song, and he was still reading when I dropped off to sleep. This road from Moscow to Nijni Novgo- rod is in good condition; it is well ballasted and the road bed is weeded as carefully as we weed our gardens. I saw women on their knees scraping out the weeds between the ties with knives and everywhere the trackmen are smoothing the ballast and repairing the rails. Many of the Russian roads are too lightly ironed, but this is being improved and the roads re-railed. The tles are wooden, and some of the rails are of American steel. Most of the rolling stock is made in Russia, and there are great car shops in Moscow and in other parts of the empire engaged In build- ing it I am told that the cost of construction has been high. 8o far about $2,000,000,000 has been spent upon railways, and of this 9% per cent has come from the govern- ment, either directly or in the form of guaranteed capital for private concerns, The average the whole country over has been about $50,000 per mile, which is ex- cessive, considering the low cost of labor. Many of the roads have been built as mili- tary necessities rather than as a commer- clal proposition. They were laid out with- out regard to traffic conveniences, and as a result you find towns miles away from the track when a slight curve might have brought them right on it, You may have neard the story of how the road between Moscow and St. Peters- burg was built. The American engineers made the line curve in and out like a snake, taking in all the large towns. The czar took a ruler, lald it on the map and drew a straight line from St. Petersburg to Mos- cow. ““That's the road I want,” said he, and 80 they built it. The results is one has to drive four or five miles to reach some of the cities, and the villages lie far off the line of the road. All these towns may some day be connected by electric railroads. The Russian station arrangements are different from ours. Everything goes slowly, and one must come early to avoid red-tape detention. The offices are open an hour before the train starts and a bell is rung three times before the cars move out of the station. Every depot has its first, third class waiting room, has its own restaurant. There are also tea peddlers, notion stores and news stands, 80 that one can buy what he needs with- out golng out of the depot. The restau- rants are excellent. The food is as good as you find anywhere and remarkably cheap. A plate of soup is enough for a meal, and Russian soup is as good as any in Europe. There is .one kind called “stchee,”” made of cabbage and other veg- etables with a chunk of meat about four inches square and two Inches thick in each dish. The proper way to take it is to eat the soup first and after that the meat. A bowl of thick cream:is furnished with the soup. This is poured into it to thicken it and a green cucumber or so is also furnished to eat between the spoonfuls. It is not at all bad, I assure you. There are always tea peddlers ahout a Russian station. ' Tea is brought to the windows at the stopping of the train; it is also served in the depots and is drunken at all hours of the day. The Russians have better tea and more of it than any other people of Europe. Most of the people drink Chinese tea, which is brought in car- avans over the mountains of Thibet, and consequently escapes the long sea voyage, which is said to Injure the flavor. The tea Is served in glasses instead of in cups. It Is always taken hot and usually without milk, A slice of lemon is generally droppod Into the glass and several lumps of hard loaf sugar are placed beside it. The favorite way of drinking is to take one of these sugar lumps between your lips apd suck the tea through it. The sugar is as hard as rock candy, and it is made so for tea drinking. The custom is bad for the teeth and has opened up a great field for the American dentist. I venture one-half of these Russians have bad teeth, and the cavities awaiting fillling with gold or amal- second and each of which gam may be counted by millions. The freight cars here are much smaller than ours and the traflic is less heavy. The rates seem low. Heavy goodls cost one-eighth of a cent per ton per mile and the dearest freight rate is less than 6 cents per ton per mile. There is a great va- riety In rates, so that it is impossible to describe just what things cost. The freight brings in the greatest per cent of profit to the road and it is increasing more rap- idly than the passenger traffic. Russia is a farming country, and a large part of the freight is made up of graln and agricultural products. Some of the arti- cles are peculiar. Prince Hilkoff told me that he was shipping trainloads of game birds from Siberla to the markets of Europe, and I know that the export of pouitry is so enormous that it forms an fmportant freight item. More than 200,000 tons of geese, chickens and eggs are car- ried over the railroad in a year, and the exports of this kind to other parts of Europe now amount to almost $25,000,000 annually. The eggs exported alone bring in about $15,000,000, while the live geese sent to Germany are sold for some million dollars more. . A great many pigeons- are being ralsed and also ducks, turkeys and pheasants. Some of the larger estates have begun to breed partridges, quails and grouse, and others have great flocks of half wild pheasants, which they raise for the market. As to eggs, 145,000 tons are now annually carried over the railroads, and this traffic is steadily increasing. The most of them go to Germany and Austria, a large part to Great Britain and some to Belgium and Holland. Almost 3,000,000 pounds of eggs are exported in bulk, the eggs being broken and the yolks separated from the whites, The yolks go to Germany, Denmark, Eng- land and Holland and the whites to Ger- many and Great Britain. It is interesting to look at one of the Russian bird trains. The birds are put in wicker crates, each of which will hold about twenty, and there are forty or fifty such crates in one car. There will often be 1,000 ducks or 1,500 chickens in a single car. There are whole train loads of fowls, especially live geese, which come from cen- tral, southern and western Russia. They go chiefly to Germany, although some are exported to Austria, France and Turkey. As to the home market the chief center of the trade is here at Moscow, where about 1,500,000 birds are annually consumed. The busiest time is along in the fall and from then until Christmas. The birds are killed as soon as the weather is cold enough to freeze them, and they are kept in a frozen state until needed. This is so of all sorts of fowls and birds. The chief market for poultry is St. Petersburg, where Moscow chickens bring 60 cents a palr, turkeys $1, capons about $1.16 and geese the same as the turkeys. At present most of our exports come to the Black sea or the Baltic. Some goods are shipped across Furope, but these are generally consigned to Germany. The di- rect shipments go to Odessa, Riga, Rival or St.. Petersburg, whence they are sent by rallroad or by river and canal to differemt parts of the country. The new railroads will open up the whole empire, and within a very few years it will be possible to con- sign goods to any village in Russia. The water communications of Russia are also improving. Indeed, few people have any idea of their enormous extent. In Europe alone Russia has 76,000 miles of canals, rivers and lakes which are naviga- ble for some kind of oraft, In Siberia there are 30,000 miles of navigable rivers, and in Central Asia 2,000 miles more. The merchant fleet is neormous. There are about 23,000 vessels and more than 300 steamers. More than 3,000,000 tons of goods are annually carried on the rivers and the petroleum fleet of the Casplan rea com- prises fifty-seven steamers and 263 sailing vassels. The Volga is a great water high- way thronged with shipping, and the same (Continued on Fifteenth Page)