Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1885-04-03
FAR-FAMED HEART.
The Stronghold ever Which the Lion
and the Bear are Growing.
From the Chicago Tribune.

glance at famous Herat, which has
once again loomed up before the sight
of the world as the bone over which
the Lion and Bear are growing. Herr,
as it was anclen!ly called, from its con-
tlgui,y to the Herr Rood River. has a
record beyond the pen of accurate his
tory, and, according to Afghan tradi-
tions, it had an existence close to the
time when the world was miraculousIy
evolved from chaos. In the Zoroas-
train annals of the "Vendidad SADIE"
it appears as "Hariwa," or the coun.
try of the Aryans, and as the founder
OF the Geblr or Fire-worshiper faith is
supposed to have lived contemporaries
ously with Moses, 1t follows that its
ancient inhabitants may have been
contemporaneous with the patriarch
Abraham when lie was grazing his
flocks among the deserts of Mesopo-
tamla. There seems to be no reason
to doubt that Alexander the Great en-.
camped at Herat in the famous cam
palgn which Xenophon describes in his
Anabasls, and that it occupied a GER
tain Oriental magnilicience contem-
! poraneou5 with that period of Graeco
romance when the names Of Bacchus.
Semiramls, and Hercules became so
fulGent as to shine down through the
centuries 20 the present day In the
East there exists a tradition that the
Atghans 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 char
actelizes the Afghan race-and that it
was that Israehtlsh tribe which gave
out~ard splendor TO HerIi as a city.
Whatever truth there may be in all
this, it is certain that Herat rose its
battlementS IN the mists of antiquity,
and that whore the trading provindah
now leads his camels through its tor
tuous, narrow streets to- day Aryans
lived and died who have since given
their cognomen to conspicuous divl-
| SION OF the human race.
While Herat possesses immense inter-
ests historically, it occupies geogra-
phical importance OF such a nature as
has for many centuries made it the
central part for furious fighting among
uibesmen and nations. Again and
again 1t. has been made the focus
for Persian fury and ambition, and 1t
is only by continual hard fighting that
it now remains in the hands of the
Ameer Of Afghanistan. When Eng
land obtained, by intrigue, chicane,
and hard fighting, the dominant con-
troll of Hlndostan she fully recognized
Herat as one of the points d'appui
from which an enemy may threaten
that dominance. and hence it be-
came the fashion to name the city
The Gate of India" Situated PIC
turesquely upon spur of the Hindoo
Koosh range, and surrounded by a
bewildering network of deeply irrlgat-
ed ice.fields-so bewlldering that cav
airy operations are made impossible
with any freedom of action-Herat is
at the same time powerfully fortified
artificlally. Recent Russian travellers
have averred that nowhere in the East
is the art of canallzation carried out 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 circumstances naturally makes
Herat valuable basis of supplies
for any army that may be fortunate
enough to obtain possession of it, 1t
is, therefore, no wonder that Herat
has become singularly important
point of Central Asian commerce.
roads forking from it into Persia, to
Kabool, to Kandahar, 20 Beloochistan
and nothward through the Nerve OASIS
and Turkestan, more especially that
part OF Turkestan which is known as
Bokhara The city is nearly quadrant
gular, with faces about a 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 in
stance, the great gates in the celebrat-
ed walls of Delhi were known as the
Lahore Gate, the Cashmere Gate, and
SO on. The stupendous ear,hwork
upon which Herat is built has been the
wonder of modern times, beng accord
ing to Sir Henry Rawlinson, the
great English authority on Eastern
matters, $50 feet IN width at the base
fifty feet high, crowned by wall twen-
ty-fve feet high and fourteen wide at
the base, and supported by no fewer
than $50 circular towers, which again
are protected by ditch forty-tive feet
wide and fifteen in depth. There have
been disputes about the true
strength of the fortress. In
1916 Gen. Ferrler of the British army
gave it as his opinion that the place
was only an immense redoubt which
Eropean army could reduce in twenty
days, but it is significant that In 1887
with the assistance oftwo English En-
gineer Lieutenants, the Heratese sue
lcessfully held at bay for ten months