The Normal Record. November 1896

              THE NORMAL RECORD.
men to find a new way, and the passage of
Good Hope and the voyage of Columbus to
America, result.
A third period, if history may be divided
into periods, followed the one in which, ignoring religious zeal and political ambition,
Venice aimed only to pour into her treasuries.
Venice grown rich sought pleasure in display
which necessitated art and culture. Drawing
from the various nations with which she had
come in contact and with ample means to
gratify her desires, she then entered upon an
era of artistic glory of which the lingering
splendors still attract the distant traveler.
In the story of Venice may be seen the
typical evolution of national life. First there
was the struggle for existence; then came a
psriod of material prosperity which formed
the foundation for and necessarily preceded
the era particularly characterized by the
higher arts of civilization.
Americans have had preached to them
from pulpit, platform and press the degrading tendencies of trying to get rich, and
the deplorable results that must follow if this
thirst  for   wealth   is   not   overcome.    Such
doctrine ignores the profound significance
of the intense struggle of the American
people to wrest from their resources that
which can be exchanged for something
higher. The American nation has been unfolding with such amazing rapidity that it
has been necessary that the struggle should be
intense. Already in less than a century and
a quarter of national existence the third
stage of national growth has been reached.
The Salvation Army, the union of sects inte
that great republic, the Christian Endeavor
the founding of libraries, galleries and
museums; the erection in our cities of edificies
of artistic architecture and the improved
taste shown in the building of modern homes;
the revival of learning shown by the founding
of new universities and the phenomenal
growth of old ones, all these are but a few
of the cloud of witnesses which testify to the
higher life that is unfolding in America. And
mark how much of this growth has been
within the last ten years. The forces that
make for Tightness were never more vigorous
than to-day, and Tightness endures. The
time is one for great hope.
A Trip   to Siberia.
CLARENCE   W.   LEININGER.
I had long had a desire to visit certain
parts of Siberia, when one day a particular
friend of mine informed me that his father
was fitting out a vessel for the East Siberian
trade, and knowing my wish to travel there,
volunteered to procure me a passage. Seeing
my friend later in the week, I was informed
that his father had gladly given his consent
and that the ship was to sail the following
Monday.
The few intervening days before departure
were spent in preparing for the voyage and
in bidding adieu to my friends.
It was a beautiful morning in September
when the "Pharaon" spread her sails, and
passing through the Golden Gate stood out
to sea. She was a snugly built craft, comparatively new, and manned by as able a
crew as ever sailed the Pacific.
The first few days out were exceedingly
pleasant, but as the equinoctial storms were
due, we knew there would be a change. It
was not long in coming and with it a complete
change in my opinion of the pleasures of an
ocean voyage.   The vessel pitched and tossed
in the fury of the storm, and I, deeply
buried in a narrow birth, rolling and vibrating with each lunge of the ship, had my
attention quite equally divided between the
pangs of sea-sickness and trying to retain the
equilibrium of my body.
The storm lasted about a week, and with
better weather came a revival of interest in
ship affairs, together with an increased
happiness in existence, which could not have
been attributed to me or the other American
passenger, a furtrader. The remainder of
the voyage was delightfully spent in the
company of the officers, at whose table we
dined. We found them to be splendid fellows
and ever ready to feed the imaginations of
two patient listeners with daring sea yarns.
During the voyage I became well acquainted with the furtrader, whose name
was Franklin Furrier, and eagerly accepted
his invitation to accompany him on his trip to
the fur-catching tribes of northern Kamt-
chatka.
After a month of steady sailing we finally
dropped  anchor   before   Petropaulovski,   a