An adventure story
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| Upon arrival to Tsuruga the next morning, we saw the Penza, a fair sized, rotten looking and ill-smelling old ship, of the Russian Volunteer Fleet. We had to transfer the baggage and freight from the train to the hold of the vessel, or rather, had to see that it was done. My particular duty was to see that everything was paid for and watch my money bag, as I carry the funds of the Commission.
Having discovered that there were some ladies in swimming nearby and that it was customary for men and women to bathe together, I became rather fidgety to see this remarkable sight and immediately became very busy looking for someone to take care of my charges and finally succeeded. Three of us walked down to the river bank for about a quarter of a mile near some shaggy rocks for the swim. We were told before going that we would find women in bathing naked, but to pay no attention to them, but undress and go in the water; that they were accustomed to it and thought nothing of it. So, sure enough, upon our arrival, we saw at least six or eight of these Japanese mermaids and probably four or five men in bathing, all stripped. Some of the mermaids were walking towards the shore and before we reached them some of them were on land, quite nude. Following our cue, we ignored them, stripped and waded in, had our little swim and came ashore. The women did not seem at all to mind our appearance; in fact, they thought nothing about it. They were not in the slightest way vulgar. It is the custom in Japan. Upon arriving in my smelly and impossible cabin, I found there were three berths, one lounge berth and one upper and lower. I took the lounge. It was a pretty fair size room, but -- I had some work to do in connection with treasury matters and after getting straightened out, I went to it. At the first meal all of our party were at the first sitting and the places were quickly filled. The food was something terrible. I can't imagine how a ship could be allowed to run and pass out such abominable food as we got upon this ship. It was a nightmare! Some of the commissioners simply would not eat it, and, in fact, did not eat anything except some fruit, which they had luckily brought on ship with them, during the entire trip of three days and nights. The crew is Russian and the cooking is Russian -- if this is what we will run into all through Siberia and Russia, I, for one, hope Russia will obligingly shrink considerably in size before we get there. No liquors of any kind are obtainable as Russia is dry, except a kind of near-beer, made from grain, which was no good. We are wondering if we will run into anything worse than this ship -- it seems the farther on we get the worse it becomes. During the night the weather was rough, to such an extent that the boat, which is not large, began to rock very badly, and I was told the next morning that screams were heard during the night from the nurses, and, upon investigation, it developed that several of them were unceremoniously given a bath, the sea coming in the port holes. I did not get in on this party because I was on the other side of the ship. This gave us an opportunity to tease the nurses, but matters took such a serious turn we didn't have the heart. There are no games of any description (except cards) to play on this ship. In fact, there is no room nor inclination on the part of our party. Most of them are already seasick. Out of our party of about forty, from thirty to thirty-five are under the weather and the farther we go the worse they get. They can not stay in their cabins, on account of the odors, so they are scattered all around the deck, lying on their blankets with pans at their heads for emergency use -- and the emergencies seem quite frequent. It is one sick crowd. Fortunately one nurse is not sick and she is one busy little mortal, looking after so many. Finally mattresses, blankets and other bed clothing, is being taken from the cabins by our party and placed on deck, where occasionally at least some respite is had from the odors of the ship by the breeze. The dining room by this time is practically empty at meal time. There is no longer any question about first sitting and second sitting. Some will come in and sit down, but, before the meal is even brought to them, they will bolt for the door. Even the thought of that food evidently makes them sick all over again. I suppose I escaped because I have kept busy in my cabin (with the port hole wide open, of course) working on some papers, and the roll of the ship does not bother me to any extent at all. I feel sorry for them, but there is nothing to do for a person when he is seasick except to let him sleep if he can. After finishing my work, I went up to the writing room and wrote a long letter to the folks at home, midst the terrible rocking of the ship. It seemed it reached the worst stage when I got in the writing room. The shutters to the windows, which were hinged, were continually banging, and it sounded as though the ship was going to pieces every minute. Rocking constantly, one minute I would be way up in the air and the next, seemingly on my way to the bottom of the sea. It was some ride, and I guess my letter will show in some way the stress of the moment. How the old ship remained afloat is a mystery. Everybody was starved when we reached Vladivostok, which was the stopping place of the dear Penza, and we went ashore as quickly as possible. It was a weak looking crowd and nothing could be accomplished until food was had. Here there was a big job of unloading our baggage and freight from the hold of the vessel, and, in two-wheel horse drawn carts, haul the baggage to our passenger train and the freight to our freight car. We had our men checking it as it came out of the hold, also as it was loaded on the freight car and weighed; and several of us were on the wharf to see that it was loaded by the coolies, and then one of us escorted each wagon to prevent theft. Before this was done, however, we marched in a body to the railway restaurant for a meal and had a splendid one. We were all very hungry and fortunately for us, at this one place in Vladivostok, the cooking was good. We had two meals at this place and also rode through the town. Our vehicle was the Russian Drowsky, of which you see thousands throughout Russia. I will describe the Russian Drowsky later, after I have seen more of them, as there must be several types. The town is a large one. Some very large buildings, but we had no time to go for a real sight seeing tour, as it was late. We did go for a stroll after dinner and wound up at a public park. In the park was a small theatre. We went in to see the movies and afterwards sat on the veranda and had soft drinks. One goes out between acts, just as one does at home, at the "legitimate theatres". The show seemed pretty good, although, of course, we could not understand what was written on the slides thrown upon the screen. We met here a very young Russian officer, who spoke a little English, and one of our party spoke a little Russian, so we could make known to each other our thoughts. We found this particular young officer very intelligent and particularly so on the subject of liberty. He realized that this is the real time for the Russian people to fight if they expect to retain the liberty which they now have. He really had the ideas of an American on the subject. This, however, is really rare in Russia. Liberty, with the masses, means, or meant, that they would have all the land they wanted and in fact anything else they wanted without working for it. Hundreds of tents and warehouses could be seen near the wharves and we were told these contained munitions and supplies, which were being held up on account of lack of proper transportation facilities. Back to the train, and our long journey from Vladivostok to Jassy starts. I am writing this part of my diary from Jassy from notes taken, but can not give the happenings strictly according to date. Our first stop of any importance was at Harbin, Manchuria. Here the soldiers and others come from miles around, particularly on Saturday nights, so they can get plenty to drink. The place is packed with Russian soldiers, who, apparently, have nothing to do. We changed some of our cars here and placed a guard at night over the train. Our guard consisted of men from our Medical Corps. We have no privates with us so officers do privates' guard duty, and do it very willingly. One cannot imagine seeing the hundreds of coolies at the station, lying around the long granolithic walkway on their rags, sprawled out with dirty packages, bundles, boxes, etc., around them, babies in arms, waiting for the trains. A regular bedlam! We saw a train arrive, and, instead of orderly unloading the passengers and then others getting aboard, they, amidst babbling noises of all kinds, made a rush for the train, piling in the windows and doors, for the world like so many cattle. One woman was seen to pitch her baby in the window and then climb up afterwards. Those who wanted to get out had to come out of the windows and doors on the opposite side of the train. It was truly a remarkable sight and one we cannot easily forget. The station and platform was always crowded with these dirty evil-looking coolies and many Russian soldiers. We were at Harbin a few days. It is a rough place, with no particular sights to see, so far as we could find, except the cabarets. On account of the many shooting affairs and regular roughhouse fighting in town, we had great difficulty in getting permission to go into the town after dark, but finally several of us went to one of these cabaret shows. One enters a dingy looking frame building, check your hat by hanging it on a hook, and then enter what seems to be an ordinary drinking place, with tables everywhere. However, there was a stage and regular theatre boxes all around the place -- the boxes, however, being larger than those at home. We arrived about 10 or 10:30 P.M., but the show did not commence until midnight. Life, they say, starts in this town at midnight. In the meantime, we sat down at one of the tables and had something to drink and eat. The place was filled with men in uniform and citizens clothes and ladies in their finery and paint. Everything is very expensive. Russian money is in Rubles (dollars) and Kopeks (cents). The decimal system is used everywhere except in Great Britain. Ordinarily a Ruble is work about fifty cents of our money. Today it is worth only twenty cents. All about us were people of every nation, but the great majority were Russians. One Englishman was sitting near us and we have talked to him for a short time. When the show began we were invited by an enthusiastic and not altogether sober Russian to join his party in a box, and he was so insistent we accepted. He ordered several bottles of champagne and was quite overcome with joy at our presence, continually drinking to the health of America. This finally became general over the entire place. There were several ladies in the box as well as gentlemen. Russians have the habit of talking very loudly. We stopped several times, thinking we were going to see a real fight and it developed the parties were not angry with each other at all, but simply discussing the topics of the day. After our friend had vociferously drunk our health many times, two of us went out and paid a visit to the actresses behind the stage. By this time it was generally understood that the Americans could do anything and go anywhere they wished. We took advantage of the occasion to see all there was to be seen. When we returned to the box we found something had happened out the ordinary. It seems that our enthusiastic friend had handed one of the ladies in the box five hundred rubles to hold for him and when he asked her for it about fifteen minutes later, it could not be located. The woman was arrested and searched in one of the rooms, but the money could not be found. Of course, the woman had passed it on to a confederate. She became hysterical and finally the whole affair quieted down and we could not even find out what happened to her. We were finally joined by some Russian officers, who also drank of the champagne and expressed their love of America by kissing us! Quite an experience, but we went through it manfully. We dodged it as much as possible, but had to go through this one-sided performance several times. These officers also insisted that they go home with us and then stopped the whole party in another cabaret. We took a box there (these Russians would not pay for anything -- they simply took what they wanted and went on their way). We discovered some National airs were to be played for our benefit, and as our allied friends continued their affectionate regard for us, we beat a hasty retreat to the train, getting there about 3 or 4 in the morning. We met a Mr. Wilde, an American, who lives in Harbin, in charge of an American Commission house, and bought cigars, cigarettes and other supplies from him. He drove us around in his American-make automobile and we also had lunch with him and his family. His wife is an American, but has lived abroad, in China and other countries, for such a long time that she is really more familiar, as she says, with their ways than with ours. We had a most delightful time. Finally our train, which is a special in charge of a Mr. W. Ertell, a high Government official from Petrograd, started again on its way. We had good service and the cars were handsomely finished inside; heavy brass fittings in our compartment with leather panel work and carved wood. The baskets to hold the baggage were of pure copper and very expensive. We were told by Mr. Ertell that the car in which Mills and I had a compartment had just taken the Czar (ex-Czar) into exile, and the reason we were held up at Harbin was to have the cars thoroughly renovated, as they had been on a run of some eighteen thousand miles without renovation. Their country is so very large, distance means nothing to these people. We stopped at many stations and mixed with the crowds. They all seemed of the poorer classes, usually not well clad and some very scantily clad. The Russian pullman of ordinary type is like our freight car from exterior appearance, except that it has small windows and within are arranged lower and upper berths. These cars are very small and it is little wonder that there is considerable disease, as the occupants are most assuredly not clean and the linen is filthy. In fact, the sheets on our special train would not be changed unless we raised Merry Cain with our lazy porter. In this connection I might mention that the pullmans on our special were about the length of American pullmans and really quite as commodious, in fact more so, because the Russian gauge is wider than our American standard gauge. The compartments extended down one side of the train and the aisle on the other. All of the rooms had an adjoining wash-room, or rather, one between two rooms. The service is good except in two cars where we are unfortunate enough to have poor porters. Our train consists of four pullmans, one diner, one baggage car and one freight car. The nurses have one pullman to themselves and the Commissioners one. The balance of our party is divided up, two to a single compartment (upper and lower) and four to a double compartment. Our first breakfast on a Russian train (in our own diner) was a distressing affair to good healthy Americans, who, all of their lives, have been accustomed to eating something for breakfast. We were served with a glass of hot tea, black bread and butter, which we consumed and waited for the next course. We were doomed to disappointment, as there was no second course, this being the regular Russian breakfast. Thereafter, arrangements were made to Americanize the morning meal. We catch ball at most of the stations, having to have exercise of some kind, and in this play several members of the Commission have joined us. Nothing like advertising home products in a foreign country. The Russians are very much interested in the game, but if you throw one of the them the ball they grab for it just as a kid would who tries the game for the first time. It is quite wonderful to them that we catch the ball without difficulty. I do not recall, at this writing, that anything of importance happened. We simply traveled day in and day out, stopping here and there, when we would all get out for a stretch or a game. All this time we had plenty of work to do. This very long journey, probably the longest in the world which can be taken by rail, was naturally tiresome, but we had a good crowd and many pleasant parties in the various compartments after leaving Harbin, and there was much singing, card playing, cleaning belts, shoes, uniforms, etc. Any of us can easily qualify now as bootblacks. In all it was a very happy crowd under the circumstances. Before leaving America, I was warned that if one made such a trip with his best friend, upon your return if you saw your friend (?), you would cross the street to keep from speaking to him. I have not, however, found this to be the case. Probably because our party is so large. If one man gets on your nerves, you can keep away from him for a while. For a wonder to us all we have ice cream very frequently for dinner. It is not the ice cream you get at home, but it is cold and really not so bad as long as we can get nothing better. Most of this track is single track, but at two places en route the train was stopped (on single track too) especially to allow us to go in swimming. We all enjoyed this greatly. At the first place, the water was pretty cold and very swift; in fact, so swift that we could not swim against the current. We were like a bunch of school boys. At the second place, we found the water not so cold and a good place from which we could dive and there was no current. We had our pictures taken here, without our knowledge, with one exception. Here I also left my watch in the sand and missed it after we were many miles away. We had a near accident also. Major Kirkpatrick was taken with cramps while swimming to the opposite shore and could hardly make it. It left him in such condition that instead of later swimming back, one of our men walked down to a bridge with him and came across the bridge to join the party. At this same stop Colonel Anderson was presented with a wonderful jeweled dagger by the head of the dining car service, who is a man of some wealth; and, in return, the Colonel gave him a handsome wrist watch, worth about three hundred dollars. Arrived at Moscow, Friday, September 7th . Colonel Anderson, with four of our party, left for Petrograd about midnight, leaving the balance of the party at Moscow, still aboard the special train, in charge of Vice Chairman Glasgow. Some of the boys went out sight-seeing Friday afternoon and returned jubilant over the wonderful sights. One of our party also went up town and bought wash-boards, boilers, pans and other paraphernalia, for washing clothes - so far we have been unable to have our laundry done, since leaving Japan, and there is no telling whether we will ever get to Roumania or not, and we are preparing for the worst. We may yet come to washing our own clothes! Saturday, September 8th - Everybody seems to have a bad cold, not excluding the writer. At any rate, I went out in the city sight-seeing with Lieutenant Davidson, who speaks the Russian language, and who made everything very clear to me. We walked to the Kremlin, which is that portion of Moscow within the walls of the city. On the way we passed an Eye Hospital and saw many patients at the windows who were suffering from blindness and eye trouble caused by shell explosions and gas. Some of them had really horrible countenances. We also passed a magnificent stone residence with spacious grounds, and, upon inquiry, found that it had been the home of a German and in 1915 it had been visited by a Russian mob, due to the owner being a German sympathizer. The walls and some of the inner partitions were still intact. In fact, from a distance and at first glance, one would not think the building had been damaged; but upon closer examination it was seen that the interior was completely wrecked and fired -- in fact the building had been gutted. We continued our way on toward the Kremlin, about an hour's walk from the Kursky Railway Station, where our train was located. Moscow is full of wonderful buildings. The style of architecture is very ornate, too much so. We passed one merchant's residence, which was really as handsome as many of those located on the fashionable end of Fifth Avenue, New York, but, of course, we could not tell how the interior was decorated. This particular house contained certainly ten good-sized rooms to a floor, and the building was three stories above ground. There were iron gates, very tall, say ten to twelve feet, at the carriage entrance. There was no front porch, simply a massive entrance door farther down the street. The building was smooth stucco on brick. Most of the handsome buildings here, both residential and governmental, are either stone or smooth stucco on brick -- the majority in the latter. We stopped at the Big Cannon, which stands in front of a very large building, now used as an Armory. This cannon is the largest in the world of its kind, weighing 39,000 kilos, but it has never been used. A kilo equals about 32 pounds. It is a very strange looking cannon. It does not taper at all and the diameter of the barrel is at least twenty-four inches. It is profusely decorated with portraits. It was cast in 1586. Very near this Cannon we found the wonderful historic old Big Bell, cast in 1735, which stands at least twenty to twenty-five feet in height and about sixteen to eighteen feet in diameter at the bottom. This old bell was ordered made by Ivan, The Terrible, and weighs over twelve thousand poods, about four hundred and eighty thousand pounds, or about two hundred and forty tons. It evidently is made of many metals melted and cast. It appears to be brass and copper. After the bell was cast, the wooden construction around it caught fire and the metal became heated. To prevent its melting, water was thrown upon it, causing it to burst; and there lies the one broken piece, about six feet square (if it was square) and the thickness at this broken place (at the very base) is a good sixteen inches and possibly eighteen inches. I bought a small collection of picture post cards from some one at the Bell for R1.75 and hope to be able to hold on to them until my return home, should we be lucky enough to ever get back. Next we visited the monument of Alexander II, which was erected as late as 1898. The old gentleman stands there in all his glory, coronation robes and crown. Around the statue, in a kind of half circle, is a gallery -- really nothing more than a walkway -- in mosaic. The roof and side walls are lovely; inlaid in silver, gold and ivory, with the portraits in this beautiful and expensive kind of work of many noblemen, from Grand Duke Vladimir to Nicholas I. The statue of Alexander II is in the center of this half circle. The outlook from here over the city of Moscow is splendid. It is really a city of golden domes and crosses. The Russians are particularly strong for gold leaf work and are very expert in this respect. We saw no disorder during the entire day. There were many bread lines and also many lines here and there of well-to-do people waiting for the privilege of buying a small bit of meat or possibly some tobacco. We were told only one-half pound of bread per person is allowed daily, and sometimes they have to stand in line for hours to get even so little. We returned to the train, following the river, and saw many picturesque things, hard to express on paper. Saturday evening I went to bed at about one o'clock (really in the morning). But I am getting ahead of my story. I had made up my mind, on account of a very severe cold, that I would retire at 8:30. About 8:00 P.M., I was assigned to the duty of paying off some of our trainmen, who had come with us from Harbin, Manchuria, and were leaving us to go to Petrograd. While I was trying to locate them, our special train was moved to another station and about seven of us waited until after twelve o'clock at the station before the train finally pulled in. While waiting we had a very interesting talk with a few English soldiers, belonging to the Royal Fliers Aeroplane Corps, who were here to teach the Russians how to fly. There were ten in the party and their conversation was splendid and sounded fine to us until the continual use of the word "bloody" got on one's nerves. There was no "doncherknow" business about these fellows, but lots of "bloody" this and "bloody" that. They say the Russians are a bunch of jelly fish with absolutely no backbone, but the Cossack is a wonderful fighter and they have great respect for him. They spoke of one case in particular where the English had supplied the Russians with field pieces. Later the Russians retreated and, when asked about the guns, said they left them -- making absolutely no effort either to retreat with them or destroy them, although they had ample time to do either. Later, these guns were captured by the British from the Germans on the Western Front. These aeroplane boys also told us of the Russians shooting themselves in the left hand or arm so they could be sent to the rear. They told of instances they actually saw -- where Cossacks would approach Russian soldiers, either in retreat or returning to the rear with wounds in the left hand, and, without ceremony, either shoot them down like dogs or neatly sever their heads with swords. They also told of a wagon load of wounded returning to the rear (they saw this themselves). The wagon overturned and one of the wounded soldiers had his arm run over above the elbow. It was noticed his hand was very carefully bandaged, and in order to bandage the badly lacerated upper arm, the bandage was removed from the hand and the discovery made that no wound existed at all upon the hand; so the cowardly devil met his just dessert. All Russians, however, are not of this type. The intelligent class (which, unfortunately, is in the very great minority -- about ninety-five percent of Russians being illiterates) deplores the condition of their country, which they fully recognize but can do very little. If only some true patriotism could be put in to the breasts of the Russians! Education is lacking first. They have really a wonderfully fertile country. Our idea in America of Siberia is a cold, desolate, ice-bound waste, where starvation, privation, disease and death abound. To the contrary, that portion of Siberia traversed by our train is magnificent in the fertility of the land; black, rich, earth where seemingly anything can be grown, and many crops are growing and being harvested; great grazing lands with an abundance of cattle roving the fields. If only the people had good American brains and push they could make Russia (with proper railroad facilities) a truly great and powerful first class power. This will necessarily come in time if the country holds together instead of being divided up into a half dozen countries. Download 399.67 Kb. Share with your friends:
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