“ Fashionable carriages or sleighs bounce over ungraded streets. The antediluvian ox-cart with its Korean driver bumps and creaks through the streets alongside of the troika, with its three galloping horses in showy harness, and its occupants in the latest and daintiest of Parisian costumes.
But the all-pervading flavor of militarism overpowers the suggestion of the American Far West. The first buildings on the barren coast are military hospitals and barracks, and bar- racks thicken as the city is approached. The female element is in a remarkable minority. ”

“ There are ships of war in and out of com- mission, a brand-new admiralty, a navy yard, a floating dock, a magnificent dry dock, only just completed, and a naval clubhouse, which is one of the finest buildings in Wladivos- tok. No matter that Nature closes the harbor from Christmas to the end of March ! Science has won the victory, and the port has been kept open for the last two winters by means of a powerful ice-breaker and the services of the troops in towing the blocks of ice out to sea. Large steamers of the "Volun- teer Fleet" leave Odessa and Wladivostok monthly or fort- nightly. ”

“ The Chinese shops, which are a feature of Wladivostok, un- dersell both Russians and Germans, and have an increasing trade. Kuntz and Albers, a Hamburg firm of importers, bankers, shipping agents, and Whiteleyism in general, with sixty clerks, mostly German, with a few Russians, Danes, and Koreans, conduct an enormous wholesale and retail business in a "palatial" pile of brick and stone buildings, and has sixteen branch houses in Eastern Siberia, and the German firm of Langalutje runs them very closely.
The railway station and offices are solid and handsome ”

“ Theatricals, concerts, and balls fill up the winter season. Except on the few days on which snow falls, the skies are cloudless, the temperature is not seriously below zero, and the dryness of the air is very invigorating. ”

“ When he has served his time these are handed over to him, and a steady, industrious man makes enough to set himself up in a small business or on a farm. Vodka and schnaps are the Russian soldier's great enemies. ”

“ The latter keep most of the shops, and have ob- tained a monopoly of the business in meat, fish, game, fruit, vegetables, and other perishable commodities, their guild be- ing strong enough to squeeze the Russians out of the trade in these articles, which are sold in four large wooden buildings by the harbor known as the “ Bazar.” There are some good Japanese shops, but the Japanese are usually domestic servants at high wages, and after a few years return to enjoy their savings in their own country. ”

“ Roads were being graded, culverts and retaining walls built, and wooden houses showed signs of disappearing from the principal thor- oughfare. There was a “ boom ” in real property. The value of land has risen fabulously. “Lots” which were bought in 1864 for 600 and 3,000 roubles are now worth 12,- 000 and 20,000, and in the centre of the town land is not to be bought at any price.
Newness, progress, hopefulness are characteristics of civil Wladivostok. It has the aspect of a growing city in the American Far West. Few things are finished and all are go- ing ahead. ”