The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-03-30

huence was only nominal, for the authority
OF each petty ruler was Immediately asserted
when the genius Of the Khans was no longer
exerted; whose lpoWer was devoted to
the plumber of foreign peoples instead Of the
development of their own.
But northWard and eastward as the Per-
sian influence grew les and less apparent,
the arts al dWindled down to the making of
felt, and the only industry was the rearing of
herds of cattle, horses and sheep, and the
people themselves were herded like their cat
tie, living a camp life and dependent on the
other herd for sustenance and plundering
each other, and all plundering the CONNER
cial travellers, Or "peddlers' as we would
call them here, who eked a miserable and
poverty-stricken existence between q hope of
immense gain if they were fortunate enough
to escape the maurauding bands, and the al
most certainty of being robbed. In the
walled towns freebooting methods had given
place to official and legalized robbery through
taxation.
Vambrey, in his career as merchant, fitted
| out q mule train in Persia and loaded it with
merchandise. For the mules he paid two
francs each, and the merchandise was bought
at figures below European comprehension.
His success was marked on leaving Persia,
but the further he got into the Tartar domain
the worse off be became, for at every town
he was met by the representative of the resi-
dent potentate whose special duty it was to
collect revenues for q government which mad
no other reason for existence than to collect
revenue, "a condition which if applied to Eu-
rope and America would embrace the most
of its states). He paid his tax, first out of
his pocket, and when this resource gave out,
by confscation of part of his goods. Long
before he reached Khiva the mules had cost
him sixty francs each, all but two Of which
was the quota Of taxation, and his merchan-
disc had about disappeared to meet the heavy
drafts of government upon Industry" Soon
a few of the mules were sacrificed for the
same purpose, and at last the balance of
| mules and merchandise was stolen by one of
the innumerable bands of robbers. Poor
| Vambrey was now obliged to transform him
self into a dervish and beg bis way on foot
(not the only tramp made by misapplied tax
alton and weak government, and he nearly
starved to death as he trudged his way along
from city to city and tribe to tribe, of which
he would compass several in a days journey.
He describes q people industrious and ener-
getic, but existing without law and without
leadership or organization, with a society
kept in aimless poverty through its thousands
of petty governments. In the towns the
masses were slaves, while in the country they
were r bbers. Fer a fine 81 Wlthat would bring
athousand dollars in London the artisan who
made it would receive just enough Of black
bread to keep him from starvation; five dol
lars would represent all he would receive as
his share for its manufacture and the balance
was added to support these petty govern
ments through innumerable taxation.
There is" said Vambrey, zone power in
the world which they respect, but only as a
shadowy and portentious cloud, and that is
the Russian. On the borders of Siberia some
Of the tribes have their god represented in
the form Of q Russian officer of dragons.
They laugh at and despise the English. They
have an indistinct tradition Of Alexander the
Great, whom they designate as Islander and
have connected his personality with that of
the Gar He states that there is feeling
among the poorer classes Of hope in Russian
predominance, which they have gained
through the knowledge that Russian predom-
nance means their own freedom and the des-
truction Of their despotic hereditary chiefs,
and it is not accompanied with slavery,
which they never associate with q con quered
people, but to the contrary a peaceful pro-
lection of themselves.
Imagine this system Of innumerable and
ruinous oficialism, without even the nominal
authority of the Khans to impress upon
them the semblance of official responsibility,
(Which at present has dwindled down to a
mere expression); when there was only a
mass Of thieves always at war with each 9TH
er, making slaves Of each other, living on
their herds of cattle and sheep, and wander
ing from place to place as pasturage would
become worn out, and we have the mass that
was organized by the genius of Genghis
Khan for plumber, and the power that was
directed against Europe. It placed itself for
a time upon the Russian people and reduced
them to the condition of chattel serfs, and
placed its ohicialism upon society and gov
eminent until it permeated everything, and
left it as q legacy for the czardom to dispose,