No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 357 



mind, though that was not the grandest exhibition of lights and 

 colors. At 11.30 the sun set and at 12.30 it rose and we saw the 

 lights of the sun set and sun rise side by side in the cycle and it 

 seemed to give me a greater realization of what it meant to realize 

 that the sun did not set in the sections when we got a little farther 

 north. I am going to take the trouble to read a little extract from 

 my diary that may give you a little idea better than I can give it 

 to you now because I wrote this when the freshness of the impression 

 was upon my mind of the lights and colors as they presented them- 

 selves to us in that northern section. 



I have but ten minutes time longer to speak to you and I am going 

 to leave you with this picture if I have been able to bring one of you 

 to the land of the midnight sun and I just want to tell you before we 

 leave that when we are on the North Cape we started out at 10.30 

 and we desired to reach the top of the North Cape which was about 

 100 feet above the mountain so as to see the sun burst, the flash 

 of glory from the top, but we we-re unfortunate enough to get into 

 a heavy fog just as we reached the top, but sometimes I think tbat 

 was a blessing that we could see such a wonderful sight as we did 

 from the top of the Cape even if we did not enjoy the glory of the 

 sun. In just about a minute the fog rose just as if a magic hand had 

 drawn the curtain and there below was the land and the islands and 

 our little boat moving around in the sea and beyond and up above 

 was the line of the sun and then just as it lasted a minute it seemed 

 someone gradually pulled the curtain over and there was nothing be- 

 neath us at all. 



Now let us go quickly into that vast territory of Kussia, one of 

 the largest countries in the world and one of the countries in which 

 you find the greatest accummulation of wealth, the wealth of all the 

 churches and palaces and in everything that pertains to the govern- 

 ment, but nothing spent upon the common people; nothing even 

 spent in the way of sanitation and no country needs it more than 

 Eussia. We cannot help but be impressed with the strange con- 

 trast between the luxury provided for royalty and absolutely noth- 

 ing for the large mass of the common people. 1 went through their 

 palaces and we saw doors lined with solid gold; we saw hundreds 

 of plates that were worth from |30,000 to |40,000. They had been 

 presented to the Czar by different people, gracious municipalities 

 and various sections of the country and there were numbers and 

 numbers of these in many of the palaces all through Russia. And one 

 thing that seemed to be different or made more impression on my 

 mind was that they took large numbers of peasants through these 

 palaces and these plates I speak of were always placed in large 

 panels and had a red curtain covering them and likewise their gold 

 doors were covered and when the peasants went through they were 

 exceedingly careful that they did not get a glimpse of this wealth 

 that they were glad to show to the tourist. We had the opportunity 

 of seeing the people congregate at the church festival and if I were to 

 describe a Russian costume it would be a conglamoration of color 

 something like this: a green skirt, a yellow ajjron, a red shirt waist 

 and a innk kerchief. So you can imagine the combination that you 

 see there. They don't seem to appreciate harmony of colors. It is 

 the common people that I am speaking about. The peasant people 



