In the Czar s Domain
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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