The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1877-05-18

WILL DflnS the OtnefS 10 tcrlllS, anu
good machines at low rates will be with
| in the reach of every one.
CONCERNINE WAR MAPS AND THE
! WAR.
! Sundry correspondents entre:,t us to
| obi &c our readers with i map of the
| seat OF war in Europe and Asia. We
| respectfully refer them To the opinion
of Mark Twain on the subject of war
maps generally, which will be found
| in another column OF this paper. II
| anybody really desires to follow up in
| diligently the history OF the struggle
now begun, We advise him to buy Il
good German or English map Of the
| Ottoman Empire, stick it full of red
headed pins to represent the Turks and
blacil-heaueu pins to represent the Rus
slams, hang it up carefully with its
face to the wall in his back g;,rrct-anu
read the war news as it appears from
day to day in the World with devoul
attention. The chances are five to
one that the name of any place at
! which an engagement occurs will never
he spelt in the cable despatch as it is
spelt on any English lnap-and never
! ON any English map as it is sprlt on
amy German map. For example, here
is the first blood drawn in Asia, IL; the
! cable tells us ut "'rchurukson, near
Batoun." No such place as Tchurul1-
son, we venture to say, can be found
on any ordinary map OF l\siatic
Turkey, for no such place exists; nor
on most maps can the place be found
even under its more accurate name OF
"ChorillS-sOu.'' 1t is in fact not Il
splace'' at all in the common English
sense OF that word, but simply: Il station
with u bazaar but no dwcilin!s-hClises
except one, belonging to the Rey, on
the river which marks the boundary
line between Knrs and the H,Sl,aIic OF
Trcbizond. What has happened in
the ease OF Clioruk-sou is reasonably
certain to happen throughout the war,
at least nine times out OF ten.
Furthermore, no accurate idea OF the
conditions OF the conflict either in
European or in Asiatic Turkey can be
given by any maps on which the
| mountain-cft:tins, ranges of hills and
water-courses are not adequately rep
| resented; and it is impossible to rep
resent them adequately on Il newspaper
map. Towns in Western Europe or
America imply roads, for the ordinary
reader. In European and Asiatic
Turkey they imply nothing Of the sort;
and unless the reader has Il correct idea
of the Typographical character OF any
region in which military operations
are going on, Il map which enables him
merely to ascertain that the Turks are
at one point and the Russians 1T
another will not only afford him no
sort Of practical light on the subject
worth having, but in all probability
will miSleal him into wild and absurd
conjectural strategy of the sort affected
by Levers regimental surgeons ut mess
tables after dinner, with walnut-shells
and reversed wine-glasses.
Any respectable geography with a
decent atlas will enable amy ordinarily
intelligent person to get Il good general
idea OF the extent of the invaded
empire, anl of the relations of its
different portions to each other and to
the invading empire. After acquiring
that he may "rc:,d up on the subject
aS much as his leisure will alloy or his
inclination prompts; and then by fol
lowing IN our columns the march of
events from day to'ay he will probably
be able to understand what is SyOin. on
quite as well AS il is lillelytO be nee
cs>S:lry that he should. He certainly
will not better himself by trying to
follow the armies Of the Grand Dukes
Nicholas and Michael with tn" tine of
Il fork on the breakfast table, over maps
which make the Danube run up hill,
put Erzcroom on the the top of Mt.
Araf:tt, and, in 4 general way, feSein-
bic the Typographical engineering of Il
blind spider escaped out of an iukstanu.
Jno. l.. King, whom President
Hayes has appointed Collector of the
Port in the Tom Andersen interest,
was elected to Congress in 1865 by the
Democrats of his district, though he
failed to get his seat because he was Il
Democrat. At that time he was an ar-
tive member OF the famous order of the
X nights OF the White Camclia. He
developed into = simon pure Radical
some time last year, when he presided
over 4 Tom Anderson meeting in ST.
Landry parish, and very soon after
Brandlc Bill appointed hima member
of the Supreme Court. From this little
history it will he seen that Mr.. King
! is one of the most accomplished pollti-
| cal acrobats of the day, he having turn
Il suinmcraauit from the platform of X.
| W. C.'s, into the bosom Of Tom Andef-
I H,.it n %