The Siberian Traveler

The students' lecture nssociation have reserved ihe best for April 4, when George Kennan, the famoag Sbcrian trnveler, will lecture in Ujiversity hall on '-Life in Siberia." All who are readiug the Century anieles now appearing from Mr. Kennan's pen, will cenainly see and hear this man ol iron will, of rnarvelous endu-ance, and rare powers of observation. Originally a defender of the Czir's govfrnment, his articles are now torn out of the Century before that magnzine is allowed to enter the great empire. Mr. Kennan was born n 1845, in Norwaik, O. At the age of 12 he began work as a teiegraphiat, and for five years worked the key in Wheeling, Oolumbus and Cincinnati. While in Cincinnaíi he applird lor a position with the American telegraph expedition sent out by (he Western (Jiiion telegraph company. He lett for eastern Asia on July 3, 1865, when scarcely 20 years oíd. A writer says ot thia time iü hls Iife: 'Tne two years spent ia the wilds of eastern Siberia, witb ita carups oq the boundless steppe its life in the smoky hut8 of the waidHring Koraks, its arciic winters, its multiplied hardships, and its miwifold interests and exciieinents, proved a prepira ory school for another and vastly more important Siberian j mrney. Not the leat ot its ïdvantages was the knowledge of the language tnen firgt acquired in those ruiinhs of often soiitary life among tlie wild tribes of áiberia. Among this man's many qualifioationa for this work is an uniisuHl linguis ie ability. Nat only is a language very easy to him, but, almost without his own knowledge. he himself of a certain inner sense of its use, and ■ ficility at its iiliotn. He has been called among ihe Srsi - if no(, indeed, the best - of Russian scholars in A-nenca. However this muy be, a sirong seuse of the genius i f the lauguage ig his to that degrt-e, that thoe fortúnate friends who have bet-n in'roduced by him to 8i)iiie of the leading Russinn novelists are someimes heard to expiess the wish that he would give over more important work and tüke lo irarslatin!?. It goes without 8yins; ih it his x quaiatauce wi;h Korak and Cmcasian, Gd..rguu aad Kamchatknn, wil J Cossnck and well-to do ei izen, nihilist and soldier, given hím a range oi speech eldom pose.-sed in a foreign tongue hy any on-; man, and obviouslv of ÍDe-tirnible valué in the diffi ;ult wnrk fore hiin. Certainly no oiher Russian truve er can eqiiHl him in his indispensable adjunct to invesrijration." Tlie s'ory of Mr. Kennan's latest journey In S beria, o far as he has lold it, ia lam Har to thousands. His fascinatin? article in the Mirch Cötitury, in which he iie-cnbes his interview wiih the Grand Llama of the Trans Baikel, is fresh in the mlnda of mnny. All who have read it must desire to Ree the man who has explained to that far eastern despot why he believes this earth is round and uot flat.