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National Geographic : 1920 Dec
Contents
GLIMPSES OF SIBERIA, THE RUSSIAN "WILD EAST" ing-cranes, and shed after shed of sup plies. The shores are lined with rotting hulks of submarines, torpedo-boats and de stroyers, tugs, and many other kinds of naval gear and equipment. On the floor of the harbor rest expensive automobiles and other material which had been un loaded on the ice during the last year of the war and allowed to sink with the spring thaw, during Siberia's period of chaos. The city spreads out at the foot of many hills and rises into a beautiful and sudden spectacle, as one's steamer makes a turn in the approach from the sea. A cathedral with many golden domes oc cupies a place of vantage, and every where rise huge stone and brick barracks, mostly white, with an occasional pile in red brick for contrast. BARRACKS, BARRACKS EVERYWHERE All around the city are barracks, bar racks everywhere. It is said that there are sufficient barracks in and around Vladivostok to house an army of half a million men. These barracks are sub stantially built and provide protection against the heat of July as well as the cold of winter. Even out in the country, beyond the suburbs, where one begins to feel he is away from these structures, a sudden turn around a hill reveals another string of two-story brick barracks, in cluding chapel, officers' quarters, and stables. When the Allied expeditions ar rived in Siberia these buildings were not only found in numbers at Vladivostok, but in all other Siberian cities of im portance. There are numbers of institutions of learning in Vladivostok, notably the Ori ental Institute and the Commercial School, while the noble Zemstvo building, apart ment houses built for officers and their families, and many fine private residences lend architectural distinction to the city. The fine pile occupied by the American Army Headquarters was built for a Ger man department store. The city skirts the harbor in shoestring fashion, with one main avenue, the beau tiful Svetlanskaya, running the entire length, ending in a popular bathing es tablishment, where the Siberians gather in great numbers. The Tsar's advisers had thought of everything in building this city-religion, education, amusements, hotels, homes, and everything needed by the military. The best engineers planned it and the cheap coolie labor of the Orient did the work. Two large department stores would do credit to an American city of the first rank, and I was pleasantly sur prised in the variety of articles that could be purchased. A CITY OF SENSATIONAL HEADLINES An American sensational newspaper could get plenty of headliners in Vladi vostok. The city is "tougher" in fact than any of our cities has ever been in reputation. Let me give an extract from my diary for one day: "July - saw an American doughboy in an ambulance. He had been wounded in a brothel brawl on 'Kopek Hill.' Rode out to Second River to see Lt. - . At the little bridge where the road turns to go through the railroad yards I saw the body of a nude woman lying in the mud below. There was a nasty hole in her head. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to her. "On the way back through the city my car was stopped by a huge crowd in front of Czech headquarters on Svet lanskaya. Standing up on the hood I saw a policeman searching the clothes of a nude Korean. Nobody, not even the woman standing close at hand, seemed to be aware that the poor devil was naked. I asked Pietro, my Russian driver, to get the facts. He came back grinning and said the woman had been robbed of her purse and had chased this Korean, who was finally caught by the policeman. The usual method of search failing, the Ko rean was ordered to strip and the purse was found. Shortly the crowd broke up and the Korean nonchalantly dressed himself. "Just as I was turning into the drive leading to Barracks No. 7 I noticed that the stone wall holding the embankment on the other side of Svetlanskaya had caved in, and as I looked I saw the body of a baby, which some poor mother had put there for want of a better form of burial. "After supper I heard that General K- of the Ussuri Cossacks, had cap tured, or rather kidnapped, Colonel - 525
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