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4 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
But the new town did not thrive. Peter the
Great could build St. Petersburg on the swampy
marshes of the Neva, and compel a large population
to leave their homes in many provinces and town-
ships from all over Russia and settle down in
these bleak, Inhospitable regions. A powerful
minister like de Witte had been able to conjure a
modern city up from the ground, but to populate
it he had not the power, at least not with the
class of people he would like to see settled there.
The town did not develop out of any inner neces-
sity, or because conditions of trade made its exis-
tence desirable ;
it has, in a sense, been forced
upon the world, and the world does not take such
acts of violence in good grace. Port Arthur was
the old-established place ;
it held a large garrison,
and quite a number of firms, Russian, English,
German and Danish, were established there and
did a roaring trade.
Although Port Arthur, at least what then
existed of it, the "old town,” was a dismal place,
devoid of every feature, in the way of handsome
buildings or gardens or hotels or such like, which
could make it attractive—I would rather live in
a Chinese inn than in one of Port Arthur’s ‘‘gas-
trinitzas
”
—yet, because it was the garrison city,
it was so much gayer and brighter than pretty,
dull Dalny, that everybody wanted to live there ;
and so Port Arthur thrived and Dalny had no
chance. The merchants kept away, and only the
officials connected with the Government service,
the railway, the docks, and so forth, came to live
there, though house-rent was very cheap.
Things became worse still when Admiral
Alexeieff was made Viceroy and fixed his resi-
dence in Port Arthur, and when at the same time
de Witte temporarily lost his power and his
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