Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1910)
In the Czar s Domain mmmmmmmmmmmmtmMmrmMKmmmamsmMjmmmmmmmmmmmwmmmmmmaamtm\i—a——w-n in- yiohvu.am-.n INTERESTING LETTER FROM FAR-AWAY RUSSIA. MR. F. F. TUCKER, MISSIONARY. WRITES INTER ESTINGLY OF THAT MUCH DISCUSSED DOMAIN. Russia, One day from Moscow, dune 2, 1910. Dear Friends—As we cross ed the Volga river this morning, the sun was a half hour high, and as 1 cam * to thi dining ear to write a few pages- and find I got up before four o'clock! Though the days are long (perhaps four to five hours of mild darkness) they pass quickly. Our last letter was dated Irkutsk, May 28. The grand scenery of Lake Duikal cannot be praised too highly. On one occasion, when tlie railway was a bit distant from the lake, William Inquired, "When they dug this lake, why didn't they did It nearer the track?" -which has more point as the lake is known to be one of the deep est in the world William also asked recently, "Mow does the train know to go where the houses are?" Irkutsk, tlie second city of Siberia, | has a population of about 100,000 anil Is the center of government for the province by that name. Our third change of cars was made here, mere ly stepping across into another and equally well equipped train, which will l ave been our "homo" for near- i ly a week when we leave it at Mos cow. on the same day we passed I the i (invent of St. Innocent, founded in i072. The country after leaving the 1 ike region lias been quite level and lolling, with much of it covered with beautiful birch forests, with some firs and recently oak trees. Just now (for a day or so) the fine land is well cultivated and not a tree Is in sight. Some of the birches were nearly two feel, in diameter. Our powerful engines at first burned wood, then soft coal, and now use petroleum for fuel. i On Sunday, the 29th, a helpful ser vice was held in the dining car, and the day was a restful one. The jour ney has been through a wealth of wild flower blue, white and yellow anemones, pansied, lilies of the val ley, buttercups and lilies. On the 29th. we crossed the splendid bridge, 291(1 feet long, over the great Yene sot Fiver. It takes its rise in Mon golia and flows over 2,0on miles to the gulf of Yenisseek. The bridges are uniformly fine, or aeont to be, and they were one of the big prob lems in ii consrticieon of this great line. There are over thirty miles of bridges in the 3,375 miles of road. No wonder the total cost of the line reached tIk* ton million mark. \nd now we S' e everywhere work going on for the double tracking of the whole line which Includes many minor changes of the line. Women nnd girls are nearly as much in evi dence helping in the earthwork as the men and all have something of an "animal” look and general appear ance. On the 31st, we crossed the Ir tish river and two of its big branches and paBsed Omsk with its 100.000 <v more people. About this time the country appeared much like Illinois and the people more num erous. At last we rend and much enjoyed a bundle of farewell letters given us on leaving China. What. with seeing, reading, resting and especial ly caring for the children, the days seem to pass swiftly. Our fellow passengers, including the Russian bride and groom, are most congenial. Among them is a German, who is gov ernor of New Guinea. Ponape Island, etc., asked about missions and he emphatically says that he favors their work so much that, whereas lie lias nine societies working in Ids domain, he wishes it were nineteen. Or. Sid ney Gulick (of Japan) is on the train and it appears that the gram mar the governor used in learning the Ponope language is one prepared by Dr. Gulitk's father! Yesterday, early, we passed the big stone pillar marked, Asia on one side and Europe, on the other,so Si beria, which is over one-fourth of all Asia, and one-half as large again as the whole of Euroupe, is behind us, and we are in Russia proper One can but rejoice that Russian exile to Siberia is a thing of the past. South ern Siberia is a great country with a great future. The annexation of this vast region began under Ivan the Terrible, the end of the sixteenth century. The frontier forts grew to towns and cities, hut. the necessary development by emmlgration is u matter of the last twenty years. The •wheat, stock, butter, eggs, etc., ate principal articles of export—and will he still more so, Siberia also pro duces about thirty tons of gold a year to say nothing of vast mineral wealth along other lines. 1 neglected to say that on the 30th we crossed the Obi— another of the great Siberian water ways, 3,000 miles long. This week we have seen perhaps twenty trains of emigrants, and, crowded into the little cattle cars with all their fam ilies and belongings, they certainly Btem low in humanity’s scale.. May the greater free dom of an enlighten ed Russia elevate them. Log houses along the line have been the rule. Inn crude, dry huts and thatch-roofs have he-eii the rule today—for much of the Tartar still remains. Indeed, the religion (about Onfa, Samaria, etc) is largely Mohammedan, rather than Greek church. Yesterday we found Onfa (o be a great oil center. Toward evening there was evidence of a great rain early ill the day and the train had to poreeod slowly over recently re paired plaei m. Long haired Greek priests, women carrying water with curved shoulder poles, women and girls with fagots of fuel on tlielr barks, koumiss for sale, greaat wheat and rye fields, are among the many items of interest. The children and the rest of ns continue to enjoy ev erything, Margaret and William en joy little Russian I ra, three years old, though they cannot understand a word she says. Moscow, June 5, J!I10, Wo arrived in the ancient capital on the early morning of the ::d—ex atietly on time, and. most thankful that we had met with not the slight est. accident during these eleven days of rail travel. Is it Howell who says that to go to a countrywithout know ing the language is like going to school without atone her? Perhaps so, and yet, as our party of six have had a most efficient and informed In-1 terpreter, we have seen far more* than we had thought possible in the two days wo have been here. .lust now 1 am with the children while JOitima has gom* to the (Greek) Church of St. Savious. I would like to do at. least partial Justice to the grand old sights in this important city (nearly two million population) but 1 know I cannot, even were words adequate. The Palace is a dream of elegance, wealth and magnificance, and tHe marvelous, inlaid floors never more enjoyed than by William and Mar garet who were allowed to play about upon them. The new palace, built after Napol lan’a time is far grander and at the same time far less Interesting than the old palace, dating from the thir teenth century. In the Church of Michael Angelo, packed with a wor shipping throng, are buried all the emperors up to Alexis, and here for these 7<H) years prayers have been offered, as today for the souls of the departed emperor, so few of whom died a natural death. Yesterday among the many fine paintings adorn ing all the 600 churches of the city, we irw one painting, many hundred years old, depicting the story of Jo nah, and though the whale seemed very small, Jonah emerged quite un injured, O i.- all too brief visit to the Mos cow art gallery yesterday can merely lie mentioned, though worthy the pen of an artist to the extent of many volumes, for here are many of the finest paintings of Hurope—though nearly all by Russian artists. Those by Verristchagen appealed to us es pecially. Though he was a painter of carnage and war, he has done natch for peace through the very truthfulness of the scene of battle. Ills great canvas of a mound of skulls is well titled, "The Results of War.' Alas, that he should be drown ed in the war with Japan. As would be expected, religious subjects abound, often with conceptions quite new to one. Thus the crucified Jes us is represented as being carried, cross included, by angels to heaven, by one painter. The several paintings by Malsofsky attract much' attention, and the crucifixion by Rabushkin gives food for new thought. On leav ing the museum when it closed, we took a launch on the Moscow River and went to Sparrow hill, five miles (S versts) away for a fine panaramic view of the city. Here Napoleon viewed th • city and determined to take it, but alas for the plans of men. 1 know better than to try to des crib. the Kremlin, with all its price less treasures and historic associa tions. Though oft rebuilt it dates back to the eleventh century. Crowns scepters, jewels, solid plate, thrones, rob. s are there till it is almost be yond the mind of men toeven coin put.. their intrinsic worth. These are | in want is call' d the "Treasury" and 'he Kremlin contains many other historic buildings. Most of these are i initvhes or monestaries, and the Musing or chanting we heard in a number was most wonderful in its richness and depth—like the voice of many waters. The jewels from a sing'e "Ikon’* had been stolen from tlie church of the Assumption, and their value was a million roubles or (500,000). They have recently been recovered. Aapolean took some ten thousand pounds of silver and seven hundred pounds of gold from this ant i lit church, now doo years old and mor", and the evident wealth of this and all the churches may be inferred. Some 900 cannon trophies are shown in the Kremlin, and the great est bell in the world, weighing some 450,000 pounds is here. The Mones tary of Miracles show., a three phase | picture on the outside, siting at dif ferent angles a picture of the Fath er, '.lie Son, and the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. Everywhere one sees pictures of the Father, God. The view from the top of it nil's tow>r is a beautiful one, with spires, gilded domes and minarets in all dir eel ions. Truly these people arc very religious. Our guide remarked that Russia was a grand country and the people a "good people" but the royal ty and officialdom hopelessly bad, while the Dounia was an expensive farce. Certainly it seems strange for the government to have a mon opoly of the manufactures and sale of all alcoholics, not to mention play ing cards, and other monopolies, spec ial taxes, levies, etc. I must not take time to tell ofthe church of St. Basil, 500 years old, eight chapels about a central one. John ill put out the eyes of the Italian ai'tiphect so another would not be made. We probably go on to night and will write again from Lon don or Edinburg. Excuse poor writ ing. All four send greetings. F. F. TUCKER A Great Cow. They have a cow at the University of Missouri that is really a wonder. There is no guess work about what this cow does; for every pound of milk is weighed and tested, not merely for but Ur fat but for total solids, including the protein, sugar and ash. The remarkable thing is that this cow produced as much food in one year as is contained in the carcasses of four fat steers weighing 1,250 pounds each. She produced 18,406 pounds of milk which contained 552 pounds of pro tein, tils pounds of fat, 1)20 pounds of sugar, and 128 pounds of ash. A 1,250-pound steer contains by analysis 172 pounds of protein, 330 pounds of fut, 4'! pounds of ash, or a tot it 1 of 541) pounds of food. The total of the dry matter in the milk which this cow gave in one year was 2,218 lbs. all of which is edible and digestible. The steer with a live weight of 1,250 pounds contains 56 per cent water in the carcass, leaving a total of 548 pounds of dry mutter. This includes the hair, hide, bones, tendons, en trails etc., in fact, the whole animal, and a good deal of this, as wc know, is not fit for food. In short, this cow produces proteids equal to that of more than three steer s,fat enough for two, asli enough for three, and be sides that produced 920 pounds of milk sugar, worth as much tier pound for food as ordinary sugar. Now, don't tell us that this is a fairy story, It. is absolutely true, and allows how much food for man a cow can produce if she isbred for milk production, in the hands of a man who knows how to make her give1 down. Suppose you divide the result by four, and succeed in producing a cow that will give as much dry matter as there is in a first class two-year-old steer. Now it takes two years to grow a steer; and tlienyou cannot eat all the dry matter, nor is it all digest ible; while the milk is practically all digestible. The possibilities of the cow are beyond the conception of most men, even those who have made it a matter of special study. As meat advances in price we will have to live more on milk and its products. 1.4 cause it can be produced cheaper than | meat. WED DING J Copn To Mark the Day you call her thine, the handsom-1 est engagement ring you can af- I ford is none too good. Come here and we'll help you choose wisely and according to your means For the Fastertide Wedding it will be just as well to secure the ring now. That will give us plenty of time to attend to the en graving all wedding rings should bear. R. B. Simpson North Window Kerr’s Pharmacy UNTIL JANUARY 1st SIX MONTHS • The Falls City 1 rsbune Richardson County’s Leading Newspaper FOR 50 Cents A Clean Family Newspaper. An expo nent of all that's good and wholesome; fearless in its condemnation of all that is evil. We want YOU to read it. Grand Opening The New Zimmerman Music House has thrown its doors wide open, and in the fullest sense are now ready to serve i the public in their line. A full line of all kinds of Musical Instruments will be carried, together with extern sive assortment of Sheet Mu= sic and musical supplies. TWO CARL0AD5 High Grade Pianos just re= ceived and now ready for inspection. Zimmerman EJousi FALLS CITY, NEBRASKA
