GLIMPSES OF SIBERIA, THE RUSSIAN "WILD EAST' 



525 



ing-cranes, and shed after shed of sup- 

 plies. 



The shores are lined with rotting hulks 

 of submarines, torpedo-boats and de- 

 stroyers, tugs, and many other kinds of 

 naval gear and equipment. On the floor 

 of the harbor rest expensive automobiles 

 and other material which had been un- 

 loaded on the ice during the last year of 

 the war and allowed to sink with the 

 spring thaw, during Siberia's period of 

 chaos. 



The city spreads out at the foot of 

 many hills and rises into a beautiful and 

 sudden spectacle, as one's steamer makes 

 a turn in the approach from the sea. A 

 cathedral with many golden domes oc- 

 cupies a place of vantage, and every- 

 where rise huge stone and brick barracks, 

 mostly white, with an occasional pile in 

 red brick for contrast. 



BARRACKS, BARRACKS EVERYWHERE 



All around the city are barracks, bar- 

 racks .everywhere. It is said that there 

 are sufficient barracks in and around 

 Vladivostok to house an army of half a 

 million men. These barracks are sub- 

 stantially built and provide protection 

 against the heat of July as well as the 

 cold of winter. Even out in the country, 

 beyond the suburbs, where one begins to 

 feel he is away from these structures, a 

 sudden turn around a hill reveals another 

 string of two-story brick barracks, in- 

 cluding chapel, officers' quarters, and 

 stables. When the Allied expeditions ar- 

 rived in Siberia these buildings were not 

 only found in numbers at Vladivostok, 

 but in all other Siberian cities of im- 

 portance. 



There are numbers of institutions of 

 learning in Vladivostok, notably the Ori- 

 ental Institute and the Commercial School, 

 while the noble Zemstvo building, apart- 

 ment houses built for officers and their 

 families, and many fine private residences 

 lend architectural distinction to the city. 

 The fine pile occupied by the American 

 Army Headquarters was built for a Ger- 

 man department store. 



The city skirts the harbor in shoestring 

 fashion, with one main avenue, the beau- 

 tiful Svetlanskaya, running the entire 

 length, ending in a popular bathing es- 

 tablishment, where the Siberians gather 

 in great numbers. 



The Tsar's advisers had thought of 

 everything in building this city — religion, 

 education, amusements, hotels, homes, 

 and everything needed by the military. 

 The best engineers planned it and the 

 cheap coolie labor of the Orient did the 

 work. Two large department stores 

 would do credit to an American city of 

 the first rank, and I was pleasantly sur- 

 prised in the variety of articles that could 

 be purchased. 



A CITY OE SENSATIONAL HEADLINES 



An American sensational newspaper 

 could get plenty of headliners in Vladi- 

 vostok. The city is "tougher" in fact 

 than any of our cities has ever been in 

 reputation. Let me give an extract from 

 my diary for one day: "July — saw an 

 American doughboy in an ambulance. He 

 had been wounded in a brothel brawl on 

 'Kopek Hill.' Rode out to Second River 



to see Lt. . At the little bridge 



where the road turns to go through the 

 railroad yards I saw the body of a nude 

 woman lying in the mud below. There 

 was a nasty hole in her head. Nobody 

 seemed to pay any attention to her. 



"On the way back through the city my 

 car was stopped by a huge crowd in 

 front of Czech headquarters on Svet- 

 lanskaya. Standing up on the hood I 

 saw a policeman searching the clothes of 

 a nude Korean. Nobody, not even the 

 woman standing close at hand, seemed to 

 be aware that the poor devil was naked. 

 I asked Pietro, my Russian driver, to get 

 the facts. He came back grinning and 

 said the woman had been robbed of her 

 purse and had chased this Korean, who 

 was finally caught by the policeman. The 

 usual method of search failing, the Ko- 

 rean was ordered to strip and the purse 

 was found. Shortly the crowd broke up 

 and the Korean nonchalantly dressed 

 himself. 



"Just as I was turning into the drive 

 leading to Barracks No. 7 I noticed that 

 the stone wall holding the embankment 

 on the other side of Svetlanskaya had 

 caved in, and as I looked I saw the body 

 of a baby, which some poor mother had 

 put there for want of a better form of 

 burial. 



"After supper I heard that General 

 K of the Ussuri Cossacks, had cap- 

 tured, or rather kidnapped, Colonel 



