The state of affairs in the Far East was the chief, if not the only, topic of conversation. Moscow residents agreed that attention was riveted upon Manchuria, and they inferred that the trans-Siberian express trains were crowded with naval and military officers. They argued that although four trains ran every week, the three controlled by the State would doubtless be monopolized for Government servants, and that my best chance would be by the train of the International Sleeping-Car Company. I determined to leave Moscow by the first train, one of the State expresses. At the office of the Sleeping-Car Company I was informed that all trains were very full, and at the town office of the State Railways I was told the same, and that I could not book then by the next train, but might be able to do so at the station. I sent a messenger from the hotel to buy a through ticket at once, and he obtained it without difficulty. It will scarcely be believed that I was the only passenger going through to the Far East. A Jew merchant of Harbin was my only companion for days. He was utilizing the Christmas holidays to make his return journey, and had with him many of his purchases in Moscow, for he told me that although one should make the journey in less than a fortnight, the time required for the conveyance of goods was from four to five months, the average speed being less than 120 miles a day--about five miles an hour. The third day we were alone I called his attention to the fact that on the train and engines there were upwards of twenty-five men all engaged in running the train; that at great expense and with special effort the scheduled time was being kept--for one Englishman and one Jew! We represented the two races the Russian Government likes least; but for us the train would have been absolutely empty. I have crossed Siberia by railway three times, each at a different season of the year, and not once without encountering a delay through some breakdown. On this occasion we had a broken rail, which made us nine hours late at Irkutsk; another in Trans-Baikalia, which delayed us hours before reaching the Manchurian frontier, and on the Eastern Chinese line, a military train ahead ran off the rails, blocked the line all day, and caused us to be twelve hours behind time again at Harbin.