Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-04-02


much of our enjoyment to the sun, and not
many years ago there was a large number
CT people who worsLiped the sun. When
man showed signs of emotional insanity
they took him up on the observatory of the
temple and sacrificed him to the sun. They
were very prosperous and happy people.
If the conqueror had not come among them
with civilization and guns and grand ju-
ries, they would have been very happy
indeed.
FAR.FAMED HERAT.
THE STRONGHOLD OYER WHICH ENGLAND
AND RUSSIA IRE OUARRELLING.
1t may not be uninteresting to take
glance at the famous Herat, which has
once again loomed up before the sight of the
world as the bone over which the Lion and
the Bear are growing. HERR, as it was
anciently called from its contiguity to the
HERR Rood river, has history beyond the
pen of accurate history, and, according to
the Afghan traditions, it had an existence
close to the time when the world was mirac-
ulously evolved from chaos. In the Zoro-
astran annals of the "Vendidad Sade," it
appears as "Hariwa" or the country Of the
Aryan, and as the founder of the Gebir or
Fireworshipper faith is supposed to have
lived cOntemporaneOuSly with Moses, it
follows that it's ancient inhabitants may
have been cOntempOraneOuS with the patrl-
arch Abraham when he was grazing his
focks among the deserts of Mesopotamia
There seems to be no reason to doubt that
Alexander the Great encamped in Herat in
the famous campaign which Nenophon de-
scribes is his Anabasis, and that it occupied
a certain Oriental magniticence contempo-
raneous with that period of Greco romance
when the names of Bacchus, Semiramis and
Hercules became so fulgent as to shine
down through the centuries to the present
day. In the East there exists a tradition
that the Afghans are really the offspring to
the lost tribe of Israel-a tradition to which
color is lent by the remarkably strong Jew
ish type of feature that characterizes the
Afghan race-and that it was the 1sraelitish
tribe which gave outward splendorto HERR
as city. What ever truth there may be in
all this, it is certain that Herat rose its bat
Elements in the mists of antiquity, and that
where the trading provindah now leads his
camels through its tortuous, narrow streets
to day, Aryns lived and died who have
since given their cognomen to conspicuous
division of the human race.
While Herat possesses immense interest
historically, it occupies geographical i'm
portance of such nature as has for many
centuries made it the central point for furi-
Gus fighting among tribesmen and nations.
Again and again it has been made the TO-
Gus for Persian fury and ambition, and it is
only by continual hard fighting that it now
remains in the hands of the Ameer of
Afghanistan. When England obtained,
by intrigue, chicane, and hard fighting,
the dominant control of Hindostan, she
fully recognized Herat as one OF the points
d'appui from which an enemy might
threaten that dominance, and hence it be-
came the fashion to name the city "The Gate
Of India" Situated picturesquely upon a
spur of Hindoo koosh range, and surround
ed by bewildering network of deeply irri-
gated rice fields-so bewildering that cavalry
operations are made impossible with any
freedom of faction-Herat is at the same time
powerfully fortified artiticially. Recent Rus
sian travellers have averred that nowhere
in the East is the art Of canaliZation carried
on so thoroughly or on so vast a scale as
it has been in the valley Of Herat, where
the waters of the HERR Rood are utilized to
the utmost extent. This state Of circum-
stances naturally makes Herat a valuable
basis of supplies for any army that may be
fortunate enough to obtain possession of it.
It is therefore no wonder that Herat has be-
come a singularly important point of Central
Asiain commerce, roads forking from it into
Persia, to Kabool, to Kandahar, to Beloo-
chistan, and northwards through the Nerve
oasis and Turkestan, more especially that
part of Turkestan, which is known as Box
hara. The city isnearly quadrangular, with
faces abouta mile long, and the high inner
wall of defence is pierced by four gates
pointing towards the different great cities
with which it has communication. Thus,
no roc in tho oa1 q nbra tod
walls of Delhi were known as the Lahoree
Gate, the Cashmere Gate, and so on. The
stupendOus earthWork upon which Herat is
built has been the wonder Of modern times,
being, according to Sir Henry RaWlinson,
the great English authority of Eastern mat
ters, $50 feet in width at the base, fifty feet
high crowned by wall twenty-five feet
high fourteen wide at the base, and support
ed by no fewer than $50 circular towers,
which again are protected by ditch forty
five feet wide and fifteen in depth. There
have been disputes about the true strength
of the fortress. In 1916 Gen. Ferrier, of the
British army, gave it as his opinion that
the place was only an immense redoubt
which an European army could reduce in
twenty days; but it is significant that in
1887, with the assistance of two English en-
gineer lieutenants, the Heratees successfully
llclu dI Udy lOl tel ulolitlIo a. Cloldi ttiliiy
of 80, 900 men supported by fifty pieces of
artillery, which were in many cases direct
ed by expert Russian officers.
The mosques Of Herat are made exceed
ingly picturesque by bluish-tessilated tiles,
the baZaars are rich, and swarm day and
night with motley groups of men drawn
from every part of Central Asia, Afghanis-
tan and India; and bearing in mind all
these facts, together with the fOrtuitous
geographical position of Herat, it is no
by Russia and England. 1t possesses the
unenviable reputation of being one of those
cities so happily situated by nature that it
must become perpetually the object of every
powerful nation placed in its vicinity.
>-----
pas@ For our own SakeS and our children'S
we cannot afford to lose a single great
thought, or good deed, or beautiful concep-
tiOn of those who have gone before US.
Ruskin says, "be assured that all the best
things and treasures of this world are
not to be produced by each generation for
itself, but we are all intended, not to carve
our work on snow that will melt, but each
and all of US to be rolling great white
gathering snow ball higherand higher, larg
er and larger, along the Alps Of human
power"
pa~ Make the bridge from the cradle to
manhood Just as long as you can. Have
your child child just as long as you can,
if you live in city. BE not in
haste to force your child into premature de-
velopment by intelligence or anything else.
Let it be child, and not little ape Of a
man running about the tOwn.-.SDanyeOn.