Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-04-17
THE BONE OF CONTENTION
THE ANCIENT AND FAMOUS AFGHAN
CITY OF HERAT.
A Place Over which the British Lion
and Russian Hear have been
GrOwling FierceIy.

A Place Over which the British Lion
and Russian Rear have been
Growing FierceIy.
1t may not be uninteresting to take
glance at famous Herat, which has once
again loomed up before the sight of the
world as the bone over which the Lion
and the Bear have been growing. Henri,
as it was anciently called, from its con-
tiguity to the Henri Rood river, has
record beyond the pen of accurate his
tory, and according to Afghan traditions,
it had an existence close to the time
when the world was miraculously evolved
from chaos. In the Zoroastrian annals
of the "Vendidad SADIE, " it appears as
"Hariwa," or the country OF the Aryans,
and as the founder of the Gebia or Fire
worshiper faith is supposed to have
lived eonteInporanoouoly with Moses, If
follows that its ancient inhabitants may
have been contemporaneous with the pa
triarch Abraham when he was grazing
his focks among the deserts of Mesopo-
tamia. There seems to be no reason to
doubt that Alexander the Great en-
camped at Herat in the famous campaign
which Xenophon describes in his Ana
basis and that it occupied a certain ORR
entail magnifcence cOntemporaneous
with that period of Graeco romance
when the names of Baccos. Semiramis,
and Hercules became so fulgent as to
shine down to the centuries of the pres
ent day In the East there exists ira
dition that the Afghans are really the
offspring of the lost tribe of Israel-a
tradition to which color is lent by the
remarkably strong Jewish type of feature
that characterizes the Afghan race-and
that it was that Israelitish tribe which
gave outward splendor to Herri as city.
Whatever truth there may be in all this,
it is certain that Herat rose its battle
ments in the mists of antiquity, and that
where the trading provindah now leads
his camels through its tortuous, narrow.
streets to-day Ayrans lived and died who
have since given their cognomen to a
conspicuous division of the human race
While Herat possesses immense interest
historically, it occupies geographical
Importance of such nature as has for
many centuries made it the central part
for furious fighting among tribesmen
and nations. Again and again it has
been made the focus 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 the dominant
control of Hindostan she fully recog-
nized Herat as one of the points d'appui
from which an enemy may threaten that
dominance, and hence it became the
fashion to name the city "The Gate of
India" Situated picturesquely upon a
| of 4lo
surrounded bv a bewildering network of
deeply irrigated rice-tields-so bewilder-
ing that cavalry operations are made I'M
possible with any freedom OF action
Herat is at the same time powerfully for
, titled artifcially Recent Russian trav-
, elers have averred that nowhere in the
East is the art of canalization carried out
so thoroughly or on so vast scale as it
has been in the valley of Herat, where
the waters of the Herri Rood
are utilized TO the utmost extent.
T This state of circumstances nat
urally makes Herat q valuable basis OF
/ supplies for any army that may be fortu-
nate enough to obtain possession of 1t.
2 1t is, therefore, no wonder that Herat
q has become a singularly important point
! of Central Asian commerce, roads fork
, ing from it into Persia, to Kabool, to
I Kandahar, to BeIoochistan, and north
a ward through the Nerve oasis and Tur-
I kestau, more especially that part of Tur-
kestan which is known as Bokhara. The
city is nearly quadrangular, with faces
about mile long, and the high inner
wall of defense is pierced by four gates
. pointing toward the different great cities
. with which it has communication. Thus,
. for instance, the great gates in the cele-
% brated walls of Delhi were known as the
!, Lahore gate, the Cashmere gate, and so
:. on. The stupendous earthwork upon
70 which Herat is built has been the wonder
! of modern times, being, according to Sil
- Henry Rawlinson, the great English au'
=. thority on Eastern matters, $50 feet In
: width at the base, fifty feet high,
- crowned bv wall twenty-five feet high
- and fourteen wide at the base, ana sup
- ported byno fewer than $50 circular tow
- ers, which again are protected by ditcf
+ forty-fve feet wide and fifteen in depth
: There have been disputes about the tru'
u strength of the fortress. In 1S46 Gen
- - eral Ferrier, of the British army, gave i
- - as his opinion that the place was only al
n Immense TeuOupG WulCu u LulopOaA eel III
;o could reduce in twenty days, but it /
! 1' significant that in 1887, with the assist
=, ance of two English engineer lieuten
u ants, the Heratese successfully held a
:, bay for ten months Persian army of 30,
:" r. 900 men supported by fifty pieces of az
n, tillery, which were in many cases dl
= rected by expert Russian officers,
" " The mosques of Herat are made ex
~ ceedingly picturesque by blush tessei
3 lated tiles, the bazaars are rich, ant
10 y swarm day and night with motley group
~ ~ of men drawn from every part of Centrs
W W Asia, Afghanistan and India; and beal
~ ing in mind all these facts, together wit
rO iro the fortuitous geographical position
~ II, Herat, it is no wonder that the famor
W city is coveted both by Russia and Ems
L land. 1t possesses the unenviable repr
=. tation of being one of those cities s
Nv Nv happily Situated by nature that it mu
Iu i'a become perpetually the object of ever
ns ,xs powerful nation placed in its vicinity
~ Chicago Tribune.
w A Kerosene Drink.