The Russian, ax you find him in Siberia, has many good qualities. Above all he is hospitable. This prompts him when ing a glass of wine to spill it on the table cloth. That indicates his liberality. To somewhere about Russian grandees coming would be sorry to say things are exactly Hike that. But certainly the Russian is as ating with water as though it were holy oil from Jerusalem. When tuilway travel ling a Siberian lady decks herself in all her finery, light-coloured gowns and d loads of jewellery. The English woman who travels in a plain tailor made garment and a straw hat is thought something of a barbarian.
And yet it would be unfair if I attempted to convey the idea that Irkutsk is noth-
On all sides I have heard grumblings about the corruption of officials. There must be honest. officials, but commercial men declare the officials blocking the way, not only atory red-tapeism, but by hindering everybody who will not give enough in bribes. Indeed, Iam told that the bribing here, there, and everywhere, which carnot be avoided, is often such that very little margin of profit remains, The foreigner gets disgusted with the oiling of palms th: must be gone through at every turn. Here, indeed, a very pressing reform is needed. be careful and watch the pouring 0 that it comes within an eighth of an inch from the rim of the glass would mean stinginess, and such a thought is abhorrent.
But a Commission needs to be sent the Jength and breadth of the Russian umpire to teach the people, officials as well as ordinary folk, what are the table manners of Western nations. Said a man to me in a restaurant the other day, "I knew at a glance you could not be a Russian, because You were usin ka fe and fork er of a kettledrum holds the sticks—that in the right hand in a sort of grip, and that in the left with the palm turned up and by the two first fingers. A Russian holds his knife and fork in the same way He gets a Piece of meat on the end of the fork, and with it sticking up in the air bites whilst stoking vegetables into his mouth with his knife. There are no mustard spoons, so he dives his knife into the mustard pot. Personally, Iam regarded 9x an extras ordinary being because I won't tse a ser vidette that evidently six other people kate used.
It takes time for a Britisher to conform to the meal hours of the Russian. There are no bacon and eggs for breakfast. Indeed, there is no breakfast at all. You have a glass of tea, or two glasses of tea, with slices of lemon in it and that serves till two, three, or five o'clock, when you have dinner. Before dinner itis usual to have a sekuski. In case you should have no appetite there is a side-table Iden with twenty dainties. If you are an old hand you will have two, four, or six vod-hies, which put you into the best of humour, but unfit you for anything but gossip the rest of the afternoon. Then you pick up a fork lying about—never washed or wiped from one day's end to the other—stick it into a sardine, or a slice of onion, or a little bit of cheese, or some caviar, and you eat. You have just enough of these to provoke an appetite, and when it jis provoked you sit down to dinner. In the afternoon or evening you will drink many glasses of tea, which' is, I admit, an enjoyable occupation. Between ten o'clock and midnight you have supper, really another dinner, and about. three o'clock in the morning you think of going to bed.
To do things in the proper way and be correct and Western is, of course, the ambition of Irkutsk. So there is quite a <ocial code. The old millionaires who for forty found Irkutsk society—such as it before the coming of the railway satisfied with a red shirt and pair of gr tup boots are now " out of it." A millionaire only becomes a gentleman when he tucks in his shirt and wears his trousers outside and not inside his shirt. It is etiquetta to put ona black coat between the hours of ten in the morning and noon. No matter how sultry the evening is, if you 0 for the usual promenade and do not wear ablach overcoat you proclaim you are un~ acquainted with the ways of good society. As to wealth, there is but one standard in Irkutsk. A man is known by his furs, and his wife by her furs and pearls. A thousand pounds is quite a common price pay fora good fur coat. Macaulay writes ing but a wealthy, flauntingly-dressed, criminal, and licentious There are j the many schools, the philanthropic i tions. the museum, to prove another side. Though there is no manufactory in the town save seven breweries, there is a thriving industry in house build.
ing, and there is a fortune for some one who starts a saw-mill. Most of the houses are of wood, and every bit of it is sawn and prepared by hand.
In Irkutsk and throughout Siberia generally are artels or associations of workmen.
They make a contract to finish a certain amount of work in a given time for a given sum, and they share the proceeds equally. Iam constantly coming across wan-artels, especially builders. These get a peasant's cottage ready for oction in four or five days. Indeed, lais generally done king communities, with no jester between them and the persons who want a thing done. For instance, in mang villages, as the Siberians can't un derstand agriculture, the peasants find it dificult to get sufficient sustenance out of their lend." So a foreman is elected, a common workshop is built with common funds, and weaving, work in bone and leather, and other industries are carried on, and at intervals the foreman drives away to the nearest big town, and sells the produce.
The relations between employers and employees ore all settled by strict law. Wages must be in cash; there must be no Sunday labour in factories, and no arbitrary disniissal except for grave offence. The hours for women and children are limited. Fines imposed are to be in accordance with the standard sanctioned by the Labour Inspection Department, and they must all be put into a fund for'sickness or accident. Most country factories, and all factories in towns employing a certain number of hands, must provide a school, library, hospital, and bathroom for free use. Strikes, as we understand them, are vigorously prohibited. But when x dispute arises he-tween an employer and his workpeople a magistrate acts as umpire, and his decision is final.
In Irkutsk, in Tomsk, and in Omsk I have endeavoured to get into touch with the commercial classes, and find out th ideas about the future of Siberia. All the best men T have come across are Russians from the Baltic Provinces. and therefore there German than Russian. The keenness of competition is already beginning to be felt but it will he these men who will amass antic fortunes within the next quarter a century. They admit the ordinary jan will have to alter a good deal before he isa successful business man. Many Russians have, of course, gained great wealth in the past. That was because they traded with the Chinese, who are three times as slow-going as themselves.
The Russian lacks energy. If a thing is to be done he cannot sce what difference it makes if it is done to-morrow, or next week, or next month. He is improvident and extravagant. So he finds his property mortgaged to the Jews, and the foreigners or Russians of foreign extraction ma most of the money.
And the best reform should be the better remuneration of these officials, They are wretchedly paid.
The number of officials met with ly ply amazing to the man from western Europe. staggered at the thought of what must be the cost of this army of Government employes, notwithstanding their poor pay. Every man in Govern: ment service wears uniform, and as it takes at least four Russians' to do in a post office what a girl of eighteen will do at home, some glimmering of an idea may be obtained of their number, In a small town through which pass four passenger trains a day, and, say, eight goods trains, you will find two, or may be three, great Wuildings. They belong to the Railway Administration, and eighty or a hundred men will be employed. You wonder what on earth they can find to do.
Now and then I have got into conversation with officials, and have dropped more than a broad hint that they waste time, and have suggested that if they intend to do much with so wonderful "and rich a land as Siberia they must wake up. Never once have I found them resent my attitude. They get along very well, they say, and they don't see why they should race and tear about like the Englishmen and Americans. There the Eastern nature Peeps out. Hurry they don't. understand, ne travelled Russian was quite candid. "It is no good," he said, "a Russian can't do a thing quickly. If he tries ho only makes a mess."
Till the foreigner came along, the possibilities of Siberia only dimly entered the Russian's mind. Tt has, however, been drilled into him, and just now ' he is feverish. He doesn't know how to develop it himself, and he is somewhat dog-in-themangerish about the outsider. The Government, on the other hand, is spilling money freely—spilling it in the sense of getting no rettm—hoping to make Nester Siberia a mighty grain-producing and.
I suppose no country on the globe has ter ways as Siberia. Three rivers, Obi. the Yenesi, and the Lena, can be navigable fom their estuaries for thousands of miles, and the other day on Lake Bai. kal—hunt it up on the map and appreciate its geographical position—T saw steamers that had steamed from Glasgow to this in. land sea. About a hundred steamers chiefly belonging to Mr. Sibiriakof, known as "the gold "baron," because' of his wealth, ply on the Lena, Trade, however, on the Lena has its drawbacks because it is more or less frozen for nine months in the year. The Obi is more favourably situ. ated, as it flows into the Arctic Ocean further south, and passes through a comparatively populous district. There are 150 steamers on it belonging to various com-Panics; it and its tributaries have regular navigation for 10,000 miles. There is the Angara river here at Irkutsk, carrying with a rush the waters of Lake Baikal down to the Yenesi river and to the Arctic, Ves. sels can get through to Baikal now. But it is not easy, though it could be made so by a little engineering. Then you would fet a waterway for 4,000 miles. I feel ike apologising for giving this school-geography-book information were I nob
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.