6 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-VIII 



only a few miles long, consisted of the line to Moscow; 

 at this second visit the system had spread very largely 

 over the empire, and was rapidly extending through Si 

 beria and Northern China to the Pacific. 



But the deadening influence of the whole Eussian sys 

 tem was evident. Persons who clamor for governmental 

 control of American railways should visit Germany, and 

 above all Russia, to see how such control results. In Ger 

 many its defects are evident enough; people are made to 

 travel in carriages which our main lines would not think 

 of using, and with a lack of conveniences which with us 

 would provoke a revolt ; but the most amazing thing about 

 this administration in Russia is to see how, after all this 

 vast expenditure, the whole atmosphere of the country 

 seems to paralyze energy. During ray stay at St. Peters 

 burg I traveled over the line between that city and Berlin 

 six or eight times, and though there was usually but one 

 express-train a day, I never saw more than twenty or 

 thirty through passengers. When one bears in mind the 

 fact that this road is the main artery connecting one hun 

 dred and twenty millions of people at one end with over 

 two hundred millions at the other, this seems amazing; 

 but still more so when one considers that in. the United 

 States, with a population of, say, eighty millions in all, we 

 have five great trunk-lines across the continent, each run 

 ning large express-trains several times a day. 



There was apparently little change as regards enterprise 

 in Russia, whatever there might be as regarded facilities 

 for travel. St. Petersburg had grown, of course. There 

 were new streets in the suburbs, and where the old ad 

 miralty wharves had stood, for the space of perhaps an 

 eighth of a mile along the Neva, fine buildings had been 

 erected. But these were the only evident changes, the 

 renowned Nevskii Prospekt remaining as formerly a 

 long line of stuccoed houses on either side, almost all poor 

 in architecture; and the street itself the same unkempt, 

 shabby, commonplace thoroughfare as of old. No new 

 bridge had been built across the Neva for forty years. 



