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About The daily reporter. (McMinnville, Or.) 1886-1887 | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1887)
RUSSIA'S FINANCES. A RICH MINERAL COUNTRY WITHOUT PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. A Young Government Engineer’s Novel Method of Reaching tl.e Precious Met als—Southern Siberia’s Prosperity and Fertility of Soil—The Cossack. I had tliis morning a long and pleasant conversation with Col. de Gessler, an ex- meinber of the staff of the Grund Duke Vladmir, in the Russian army. Col. de Gessler has occupied an official position in the military forces of the Russian govern ment for many years, and is intimately acquainted with their resources, their quality, and their power. ‘•Just what," I asked in the course of our conversation, “is the condition of finan cial affairs in Russia?” “There seems to be an utter drainage of gold from the country. Our ruble, worth nominally something like 80 cents of your money, now sells for 47 cents. This, of course, applies to the paper equivalent which is in circulation throughout Russia. Coins of all kinds are very scarce, and pa per money is about the only thing one sees. There was a time, directly after the last war, when the banks would give no gold at all, no matter what kind of an or der was presented to them. They were willing enough to comply with the de mands made upon them, but they had no gold whatever to do it with. We have a rich mineral country, but there is no in centive to private enterprise in mining, while we all know what such work is likely to amount to when it is done by the government. Let me give you an exam ple of the way these things are managed. A man buys a piece of land in the mineral country, and undertakes to locate a mine on it. He digs down and down, until he reaches the vein of metal. “Up to this point he has been allowed to go ahead upon his own responsibility, but the minute lie touches gold or silver he is compelled to report to the governor of that province, and the representative of the czar comes in and takes possession, paying a certain amount in cash for the property. Thus the discoverer does not receive enough of benefit from his work to attract very many gold-diggers to the mines. Some of the frauds that are prac ticed on the government are interesting. The methods of digging gold are very primitive, and the fashion is to cut a great gash in the mountain side instead of sink ing shafts or tunneling. A NEW METHOD OF MINING. “A number of years ago the government sent a young engineer to adopt more prac ticable means of digging out the precious metals. He went, and reported that he was about to put a new scheme into prac tice. The soldiars in Siberia can not do military duty to any extent in the winter, and they are allowed to work as laborers in that period, keeping tr>'. themselves whatever they may earn " his young en gineer engaged thousands of them and set them to work, making an excavation which covered more than a square mile at the surface. Year after year this work was carried on, the excavation growing smaller and smaller toward the bottom, the sides slanting so as to keep the earth from falling in. By the time the rock was reached there was not much space for the proposed operations, and the whole thing was abandoned as a failure. In the inter- v*l, by paying hie laborers 1 ruble a day per head, and drawing three or four times t hat amount from the government, t he en gineer hail aceumnlated a fortune of about 8,00Q,W rubles. The affair has nevei been investigated Siberia is not altogether the country it is represented to be Only in the north is the climate severe “Southern Siberia is one of the most tortile and prosperous regions in existence It it to this part of the world that moat political prisoners are exiled. The govern ment gives each of them a fixed number of acres of land, a house, cattle, horses, and farming implements. The only restriction placed upon them is that they shall not go outside a given circle, and there is a suf ficient force to see that they obey this lie best The vast majority of them Bettie down to a quiet, peaceful, and prosperous life, and never want to come back again, even after their tenos Of exile are fin , iabed Thsre are pjany enormously rich people In this portion of Siberia. The met chants make vast fortunes, financial •atdnem is prevalent, and there Is just as aanch luxury in that country as there 1a In ••«rtSPtLit Mw wnr-t «rlmlMla —efc M murderers ana tmevesoi tne vuest degree, are sent. To condemn a man to work in the copper mines is as good as reading his death sentence, for he seldom survives a year of labor there. THE COSSACK AN INDEPENDENT SOLDIER. “What,” I asked, “is the difference be tween your Cossack and the ordinary soldier in your army?” “The Cossack,” responded Col.de Gessler, “is an independent soldier. I can only liken him to the militia in your country, and even there I find points of marked dissim ilarity. He owns his horse, his uniform, his small arms, and all his other accoutre ments excepting his rifle. That alone be long to the government. When he begins in the service of the czar he must remain in that service whenever it is demanded of him to the end of his life. His only ad vantage is thru in time of peace he is •to carry on any pursuit which he may care to embark. The Cossack country is always thriving and pleasant. The Cos sacks, indeed, regard themselves as the original Russians, tracing their ancestry back to little Russia, and they speak of all the other inhabitants of the great country as being ‘with them, but not of them.’ It is difficult to toil what will be the future of Russia. There is a great change working in the country, and there seems no way out of the nation’s financial difficulties. It looks indeed, as though absolute bankruptcy were impending.” Some of Col. de Gessler’s anecdotes of life in the latter campaigns of his career were interesting. He told, for instance, how, at the fall of Plevna, Osman Pasha sent his sword to Skobeleff, and that upon the meeting of the commanders or the hostile force, the grand duke personally took the weapon, and, with his own hand, hung it again about the waist of Osman, while the troops on both sides cheered them selves hoarse, and in their ardor wildly embraced each other. Skobeleff is still sincerely mourned in the Russian army. He was the most dashing and impetuous of all the czar’s chief officers, and he was held in great reverence by the men in his command. Among other things he was a tremendous drinker, and it was his steady habit to consume a dozen bottles of champagne in the course of a day’s fighting. He would hold the bottle in his left hand, knock the top of it off with his sword and drink the entire contents at a draught—New York Cor. Boston Herald. -------- SCHOOL AND CHURCH. —The National Educational Associ ation. in session recently, at Sarato'ga, elected N. A. Calkins, of New York, President. During his ministry at Cheltenham, the late Dean Close received over fifteen hundred pairs of worked slippers from lady members of his flock. During the past convention year the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Iowa traveled, on official duty, upward of fifteen thousand miles. It was stated by Dr. Vose, of Prov idence, at a farewell meeting to a lady of his church about to start for India, that hitherto no foreign missionaries had gone from Rhode Island. —"What do they do when they in stall a minister?" inquired a small bov: "do they put him in a stall and feed him?" "Not a bit,” said his father; "tb*y harness him to the church and expect him to draw it alone.”— Ex* change. —Women have been elected, for the first time, to positions on the Glasgow School Board. When Scotland breaks through the trammels of conservatism, in any particular, it is usually safe for the rest of the world to follow. — Car re al. —The number of names carried on Baptist Church books of members whose whereabouts are unknown is said by the New York Examiner to be very large; and the same thing is said of the Pres byterians by the New York Observer, while a third authority reckons the pro portion of these lost members at ten pec neat of the whple________ —"He stood in rumination deep and long,” shouted a high-school boy, de claiming Montgomery’s poem, "Ar nold Winkelrefd ” Ae he ceuldn’t think of the rethahnitig lines, he very aptly illustrated the text. FfiF* 1 1,X> in advance! for the Reporter for 1887, means just what it aayt—nr Not a month after ths begi>*iiig. POPULAR ROUTES. MISCELLANEOUS. County Sir, or Ho County Seal; Oregonian R. R. Co. limited Line, CHAS. N. SCOTT, Receiver. ¡on Let: Talk Business i Little. Portland and Willamette Valley Bailway. From Portland. Coburg Passen and ger Airlie Fare. Mail. OUR MOTTO IS SMALL Prof its and quick returns. Holi est Goods, Honest Weights and Full Measure To Portland. STATIONS. Coburg and Airlie Mail. —---------- Lv a.in LV AK Ar p.m 4 45 915 Portland, PWV* Ft. Jefferson St. $ .24 .29 .52 .75 .SS 1.00 l.Oo . Elk Rock . 11 00 Oswego 11 06 .. Tualitan.. 11 46 Winters... 12 10 Summit . . . 12 28 . Newberg .. 12 50 1 10 pwv Dundee ji n 4 15 4 60 3 40 3 10 2 53 2 20 2 15 Upon which we hope to win your esteem and patronage. 1 25 orv Dundee 2 10 1.00 1 03 2 32 West Dayton 1.16 Our connections with Ea>t- 12 53 Lafayette 244 1.24 12 3> 3 02 . Davton Juncton 1.38 ern and Pacific coast dealers 12 29 3 08 McMinnville Cs.. 1.40 12 18 . Armstrong 3 19 1.48 and manufacturers are such 12 07 Whites 3 30 1.56 11 45 Briedwell .. 3 52 1.72 that we are enabled to 11 40 Harrison 3 57 1 75 11 27 4 08 .Broadmeads . 1.84 buy these goods as low or 11 25 4 10 Sheridan June n 1.86 lower than our competitors, 1108 Ballston 4 23 1.96 10 45 Sheridan. 5 00 whether general or special 9 25 Perrydale.. 5 55 1 94 dealers. Buying goods in 9 00 .Smithfield.... 6 17 2.12 8 46 . .Polk ........... 631 2 24 greater quantities than most 8 30 6 50 .... Dallas. 2.37 8 06 7 10 .♦ Cochrane 2.53 competitors, and when hand- 7 50 . Monmouth. 7 28 2.65 7 30 Lnckiainute . 7 47 2. SO ling business of any kind the 7 14 . Simpson. 8 00 2.91 7 00 .AntiiE. 8 15 3.02 volume of business enters AR ’-V . largely into the account in C has . N. S cott . Receiver 0RC(L<1 > Line. determining the profit or W illiam R eid . President P&WVllCo. margin to be realized out of it. Therefore all Gencr«ll DCillCl’S do have an ad vantage over special dealers, and the greater quantity of goods sold or the volume of business done, the greater that advantage and the less the price ought to be. Hav ing a full and Complete Stock of the following HENDERSON BROS., lines of goods from the lead Ample room to care tor horses. Livery at as reasonable rates as any where in ing dealers and best manu- teams Oregon. New stable Third St.. McMinnville. facurers. which we replenish with new fresh goods month SAMUIL COTT, ly or oftener as the trade re Late of Independence, having purchased the quires, to wit: LADIES TÈA WS AM) TRICKS City Stables. Dre«» «nd Fancy Good«, Gent* Of Logan Bros. & Henderson, offers his and Boys Clothing »nd Furnish servioes in that line to the public, and will ing Goods, llats and Caps, Boots <*tiaranter Satisfaction and Shoe*. Crockery. Queens To all who favor him with their patronage. He will keep a wagon specially adapted to the ware and Gift** ware. delivery of parcels, trunks satchels, etc., for and a full line of fresh grocer the accomodation of the public. Orders left the stable will be promptly attended to at ies, so our customers do not at reasonable rates. have to deal at half dozen 7^I<*3Tiu ii ville places to supply their wants. While we do not propose to LIVERY FEED AND SALE STABLES be undersold, yet do not and can not put these goods in competition with Auction or Short Weight goods iold to the trade by unscru pulous dealers. We fear no honest competition. Thank ing people for past patron LOGAN BROS. & ---- PROPRIETORS---- age and favors, will be pleas Fine Carriages, Hack* and ed to have you call and de Saddle Horses, termine for yourselves what And everything in the Livery hire, in food thane merit is in our modest claim. At Reasonable Wale*. ' ArJ. APPBR80N.
