8
THE COURIER.
RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN COLONIZATION.
SKETCHES BY THE WAY.
Withla the lut few years the Russians
have established on the boundary of
Eastern Siberia a vast colony of restless
emigrants, whose busy, energetic life is
straafly oat of keeping with the slug
gish inactivity of sleeping Asia, Along
the banks of the Amur and the Sunjaru
and in the various districts which radi
ate from Vladivostok come thousands of
hardy pioneers, subjugating the soil to
cultivation, building roads, making
bosses, and driving an entering wedge of
bastling civilization into the lethargic
East. These men and women are not
transient settlers; they will never go
back to Russia, but they will draw Rub-
cious strength of anndustrial and vig
orous occupation of the lands already
under her control.
In the picturesque activity and toil of
these UuEsian colonist) there U some
thing which appeals strongly to our
American instincts of energy and ad
vancement. No one can read the des
cription of their life and work which
Stephen Bonsai contributes to the July
Harper's without being reminded of that
determination which made productive
the broad lands of our western prariee,
pierced the forbidding Rockies 5n search
of national wealth, and established the
great commercial prosperity of the Paci-
ippi valley, for instance, may be briefly
described by a division into three periods
settlement, extravagance, and de
pression. Upon a fourth era they are
now entering, and the many sighs of
prosperity and revival are sufficiently
emphatic and encouraging. The Anglo
Saxon theory of democracy leaves the
settlers of a new country to work out
their own salvation; they must And out
for themselves the natural advantages
and disadvantages of the new land, and
often without assistance must come to
an understanding of its capabilities
through many vicissitudes and discour
aging experiences. Directly opposed to
vk3
ft
j-m
.
-
sia to then in closer union, and add a
race of Mea to the people of the Czar
who will control thk part of the conti
awt ot.Aaia aa far south as it k habita
ble. A wonderfully effective system of
dvQ aad aailitary administration guar
antees governmental assistance to the
settlers .and it k claimed that by the
aid at the great imperial railroads an
amy of 100,000 men can be mobilised
within two weeks upon any point of the
fioatier of China and Korea. Russia is
ow the virtual suzerain over northern
Chins, and, moreover, there k no nation
ia the world able to place on the east
coast of Asia an army that could cope
with her; but she k far-seeing enough
to add to her military power the tena-
A GOLDI INTERIOR
fic coast. Mr. Bonsai traveled through
Eastern Siberia with both ejee open,
and hk long training as a correspondent
baa enabled him to recount graphically
the significant and salient features of
thk invasion of the Slays into the East
an invasion peaceful enough now, but
with all the portentious possibilities
within it of a mighty conflict, and of a
forcible solution of the Eastern Ques
tion. It will be of not a little interest to
note the economical history of thk new
section of the Russian Empire, and to
compare it with the corresponding
growth of new lands under a settlement
by Anglo-Saxons. The course of the de
velopment of the states of our Misskg.
thk idea, the paternalism of a strong
imperial government has a tendency to
be-little such self-reliance.
Many suggestions of a comparison be
tween the two systems are afforded by
reading, in connection with Mr. Bonsai's
article, a contribution to the July num
ber of Harper's Magazine from the pen
of Charle3 Moreau Harger. The latter
paper is entitled "The Middle West's
New Era." It comprehensively sketches
the business bktory of thk portion of
our country, arrays the many tendencies
which now point to permanent prosperi
ty, and concludes as follows: "The West
k settling down to make the most of the
resources which it possesses, and has
ceased worrying about those which it
possesses not In that lies the secret of
its future."
w-
t
Ten.' Desert.
Ia the long coastal desert of Pan,
which la 2.000 miles in length, but
only 120 miles broad at its widest part,
the rivers disappear in the dry season
and begin to flov again in February
ar March (wfcen rain falls in the Cor
dilleras. One of the most Important of
these rivers is the Flora, the return
f whose waters is welcomed with great
rejoicings by the inhabitants of Its
fdeattaad bj Hto GUm Kj.
William Moran, of Wellston, Ohio,
was so ba41y mangled by a railroad
train that It was only by a glass y
that the body was identified.
Straag.
He I can't get my wife to use tha
telephone. She That's strange! I
thought yoax wife liked to have a vela
la everything. Whlm-Whaau.
tt vr.
Walter Savage Landor, Saoaga ha
aften handled his fettow-en soae
what roughly, hated to see an old tree
felled aad even shrank from plncklag
a rose. On morning he collared hia
man cook and flung him out of the
window. Then, suddenly rememberins
on what "bed- In the garden the man
would fall, the flower-loving Landor
exclaimed: "Good heavens! I forgot the
rta-ttr'- " " - -
The American studio lacks the spirit
of Bobemianism tbat pervades the
Parisian prototype. In fact it resem
bles the boudoir rather than the atelier
and it is a far cry from the drawing
room to the workshop. In Paris if
one wishes to visit the artists one ex
pects to fnd them at the top of
rickety stairways that rise from little
courts filled with moss covered foun
tains and bright flowers. The court
is hidden behind a bare wall over
which the blossoms peep at the passer
by and behind which the concierge
keeps watch. The studios themselves
are full of surprises, odd corners,
quaint galleries with little winding
stairways, perUaps altar steps picked
up from some curio dealer and sup
posed to have been made sacred by the
tread of the priests. Algerian vases
rest on medieval chests and carved
griffins peer out from oriental drape
ries and a delightful musty odor
mixed with the scent of flowers is ever
perceptible. In Chicago if one wishes
to visit the artist he must elbow his
way through a rushing throng of busi
nessmen, along marble halls, into an
elevator where he is jerked to the
clouds, and after ringing an electric
bell he is ushered into a commodious
room with only right angles, big
square wi ndows and a sky light. The
dhe particular studio building I have
in mind has wide folding doors be
tween the studios so that on Satur
day, reception-day, these may be
opened, throwing all the studios to
gether. There are brass vases, orien
tal rugs and chests between them.
They look transplanted. The artist
pours tea after the most approved
studio fashion, good tea with lemon
and rum and sugar, etc., made in a
Russian samovar too, with the odor of
charcoal mingled' with the odor of
tea, but for all that the flavor of Bo
hemia is missing. But the pictures
are there and after all they are what
we go to see. One 1 remember best is
a portrait of a woman in black with
grey background. The woman has
rich red hair, which is the only touch
of color in the whole picture. Whist
ler would call it a color harmony and
such it is, aside from Its value as a
portrait. We found this in Mr. Clark
son's studio. It is just completed and
has not yet been exhibited. Mr. Clark
son has a picture (?) which he calls his
masterpiece. It is a view of the lake
seen through a small square window
half way up his studio wall, the casing
of which is hidden by a gold frame.
A little stairway covered with rugs
leads up to a seat beside it, where one
may enjoy the ever changing water to
his. heart's content. Miss Mentzler has
just completed a sketch of a girl in a
pink dress. It is very attractive but
hardly equal to her landscape and
Miss Ostatag is at work on some de
signs for a music hall. Mr. Taf t has
chosen a cool green burlap for the
background of his work in clay, be
cause, he says, it reminds him of the
woods which he loves so well. The
most attractive piece in his studio is a
bust of his wife. She wears her camp
ing costume and has taken a charming
pose. Mr. Taft has a skeich of a girl
by Mr. Benson of Boston, which is
most audacious in color. At this time
of the year the studio walls are bare
and many of the artists have gone to
more congenial haunts. This is the
season when, like the bee, they gather
the sweets from nature's fields and
store them up for winter exhibitions.
Coba Parker
Chicago, 111.
tt the armies of Europe ifcezi:
" at aa eight-mile gait, five
. fifteen Inches apart, it would
require mine and one-half days for
to pass a gives pola "
X
