Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1877-05-31

'ies-Vol. 17-No 90
The Romance of the War In Asia
To the following the course Of tn
Russian army in Asia and speculatiD
as to what its aim really is, we are ap
sometimes to forget the historical asso
Citations which cluster around the citie
OF that Eastern land. Wepicture then
only a. homes of sq0alor and barbarisu
with mosques cleaning in the burning
sunlight, and that sultry- oriental calu
which saps the springs of hfes anf
makes the spirits Of men rust In idle
ness, breeding over all. And II We
were to climb the crest Of the bill on
which one of these cities stands, and
let our eye sweep away TO the far hori
zen we would see purple mountsiBs
crested with ancient Georgian castles,
grim defiles and passes where hardy
mountaineers kept the Russian h0rdes
at bay as bravely "a did the immortal
toree at tThermopyle; vast and illumi-
mated steppes, whose awful stiffness has
at intervals throughout the centuries
been broken by the steady march OF
millions; and rushing waterfalls. which
leap through these giant. gorges and
find themselves .mingling with the
waters Of some tropic SEA. But every
where there is desolati0n. Civilization
finds no place there; commerce and
trade come to the ports which skirt the
ocean, and bring with them no de-
velopment of the people, and 10 is hard
to believe that in ths country where
turbaned Turk and fur capped Russian
are now struggling, long before men
dated events from the Christian era,
and before even Julius Cesar had cross
ed the RubicoI. men lived there,
fought and conquered, and some of the
most wonderful events in history
which have furnished material for ro-
nance and food for poetry We're con-
summated in that barbaric land.
Erzeroum, to which the Russian army
il fast approaching, IL only known to
us through gazetteers as the principal
city of Turkish Armenia, with narrow
anu filthy streets, and mud or dried
brick houses, and with savage dogs
baying the moon or quarrelling over
the offal which lies scattered around.
But away back in the dim ages, when
the byzantine Empire flourished and
TheOdoeius reigRed, this city was
built, and Roman, Hun and Moslem
have In turn ruled over 1t. Fire and
pillage have wasted IL; the hOrdes OF
hardy soldiers from the far north have
captured il; the long caravans of pill
grims who make their weary march
from Teheran to Mecca have halted
there, aud onlya days journey from II
In mountain gorge rises the Euph.
rates, linked with the most important
events in history, and literally the
cradle of the human race. Pfusging
through narrow gOrges, rushing across
the plains of Western Mesopotamia,
and joining itself with the Tigris, on
whose banks stood ancient Nineyeh, il
was at one time the great commercial
artery of the world. The rich products
of the looms of India, the wealth Of
Egypt and the splendor of Tyre foated
over IL in rude shaped vessels, and al
though to-day its dykes are In ruins,
its locks mouldering. and the glory OF
Babylon is buta dream. yet the scholar,
the student and the sage alike look to
ii as the homo Of ancient art and beau
ty, and the spot from. which civiliZa-
ton burst into blO0m and irradiated
both the glowing East and the more
sombre West :
= 1--we turn our face northward to
Tifiis, the same romance accompanies
Us. We could cit ourselves on the
streets and "tell strange stories of the
death Of kings" A mixture of Asiatic
and European architecture prevails.
From the hotel on whose tables lis the
English journals we could look on
ducal palaces aud theatres intermingl-
ed with sun.baked brick houses,
Persian mud novels and voulted bar
zaars. And away overhead could be
seen fortress reared before the Nor
man conquest, hills which echoed to
the shout of the followers0f Vakhtaug.
who, when England was unknown,
when Germany was wilderness, and
the great migration of nations was
scattering curious Goth and fiery
Hun" over the territory now held by =
potent Gar, swept in barbaric triumph
across the region lying between the
Black and the Caspian Seas, and
founded the city which in the strange
of .nings is being used to-day
by the Russian as the outwork Of fresh
conquests. nod, -.--'.,,., -.
Trebizond, the capital Of the province
of that name, bullion the eastern shore
Of the Black Sea, five hundred and
sixty miles due east of Constantinople,
Is to day an i'm p0rtant position, in con-
l. Ia e,
designs and ambition. 1t possesses
fine haxbor, sffording shelter and an
chorsge for the largest vessels, while
the country around it prGdnces staple
articles Of food and aids to manufsc-,
ture. Across the fertile valleys and
cultivated tracts which surround 1t
come the long trains of pack horses,
asses, csmels and oxen from PersiS
laden with radiant silks and brilliant
carpets. And from its harbor four
lines of steamships carry these oriental
goods to Turkey and Russia, and from
thence to the empires Of the West.
Probably not one person In fifty until
they began to study the war maps
knew fits existence. They had heard
of the "Princess of Trebizond,n D but she
was only the creation of French
musician, who welded some absurd
story to lively, rollicking music and all
the absurdities of modern opera bouffs.
And yet this place, almost unknown,
was the home of the tabled, Amazons,
who killed their male, trained their
female children to the arts Of war and
the chase and worshipped Mars and
the Taurian Diana. The Argonauts,
"who were the first that ever burst"
into silent and unknown seas, sailed to
its shores led by sturdy old Jason in
his pious search for the golden fleece.
Seven centuries tofore the Christian
era the Greeks, in their advancing pro-
eress and civilization. had stretched
out their arms and founded coloni,s
there, and four centuries before the
same epoch it was ruled over by Ario-
barzanes, Persian satrap, who rose ur
In rebellion against his father and made
himself master OF the whole coastland.
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