Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-07-02
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In THE HEART OF ASIA.
DAVID KER'S EXPERIENCES IN A
WILD, BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY.
Eplendor of the Scenery IN "Queenly
Samarcand"-Brave Old Gen. Abramof
and His Wound-A Curious Meal in
Far Away Land.
Especial Correspondence

and His Wound-A Curious Meal in a
Far Away Land.
Especial Correspondence
NEW York, June The Zer-Affshan
(gold giving river is rushing down in full
food. and all around us is one whirl of boil
ing foam as we struggle against the charge of
the headlong current, while the dull grinding
roar of the cruel pebbles that are champing
und chatting against each other in the waters
below sounds like the distant trample of a
thousand horsemen.
Only few moments ago l was laughing at
the huge clumsy frame and seven foot wheels
of the Turcoman wagon, for which we had
Just exchanged the hight Russian transport
cart that had carried Us across the ghostly soil
tudos of the Hungry Steppe." But now those
seven foot wheels are already half covered
and sinking deeper with every moment. Our
sturdy Tartar horses can barely keep their
footing against the mighty swirl Of the tor
rent; and the steep grassy ridge of the farther
b1orr, which seemed 50 near when we first
caught sSht of 1t, now appears terribly far
away and seeaS to recede farther every time
we look up at ii.
Bang, bang, bans ~ leaping waters come
hammering against the trembling planks be-
knocking for entrance Our driver-a gaunt,
shaggy haired, wild eyed Bashkir, with moth
ing on but a greasy sheepskin-goads his
tagging horses TO new efforts with q success
sion OF screams as ear piercing as the whistle
of a locomotive, while my Tartar servant, as
be and / cling to each other to keep ourselves
from being flung headlong out Of the rock
ing reeling wagon, Inutters with sullen Mos
lem resignation:
Master, if we are drowned it is. kismet'
Gate).
Fate be hangedr' growl /; and, indeed,
after having ia the course of this one sum-
mer had two previous escapes Of drowning,
risked being hanged as a spy, lain prisoner
for seven weeks in a CoSsack mud fort, faced
a desert sand storm, tracked my way for a
thousand miles over the most perilous wastes
of Central Asia by the bleaching skeletons of
my predecessors, passed unframed through
countless Tartar savages, and de6ed two at
tacks of fever and Asiatic plague, it does
seem hard TO be drowned at last in beggar-
ly ditch like this.
But such appears only too likely to be the
end Of it, after all Our horses are already
almost off their feet, and another moment
may see them and the wagon and ourselves
whirled headlong down the furious river to
certain death.
But all at once the deadly pressure slack
ems the rocking OF tho wagon becomes less
violent, the gasping, struggling horses seem
q to rise higher out CT the water, and our COB
lin driver pants forth cultural, ''Mash-Al-
lahI" praise God. Wehave struck sunken
bar of gravelly sand that juts out into the
stream from the opposite shore, and, picking
our way carefully along it, we come safely
out upon dry land few minutes later.
And now comes our reward A zigzag
path carries us quickly up the Chepan-Ata
ridge above us amid the thorny under
growth of which a few whitened, sapIess
bones still Enger as tokens Of the great battle
that sealed the fate of Samarcand and of Cen
tral ASIA, and from its crest we look down
in the glory of the sunrise upon the full SPLEEN
dor of a panorama to which no words can do
justice.
The whole breadth of the vast oval basin
below Us Is one dark green mass of semi
tropical foliage, through which three or four
tiny streams dance and sparkle in the sum
light. On either side OF US the curving slopes
of the bold ridge that We have just climbed
form frame well worthy of this matches
picture. Far to the southwark the bare, yell
low sandstone hills Of Shahr Sabz the Cen
lItll aSldu tower Ike IL DrdZ6n
wall against the lustrous sky, while in the
midst of all, high above the sea of clustering
leaves aud green tender vines, rises the former
capital of Asia, ''queenly Samarcand," with
its endless vista of shining domes and tall,
spear pointed minarets, and white, fat rooted
houses, and stern, gray ramparts, and giant
towers glowing like rainbows with the bar
barrie richness of their many cclored mosaics
oil xrbl Srn kn clio
of the clear bright summer morning, burst
upon our eyes in one dazzling blaze of glory.
IF they ever get railroad up here,n
thought i, little dreaming how soon the
TransCaspian railway, via Askabad and
Merv, was to make good my words, ''al the
tourists in the world ought TO come here in a
body"
But at that moment we had something else
TO think of than admiring the scenery, wet
and weary as we were and sleenlesS during
two nights of incessant hurrying through the
ghostly soltudes of the Tartar steppes; for
just then l was doing the sape sort of
match against time" along the eastern side
of the great desert which my brother CORE
spondent, J. A. McGahan OF The New York
Herald (the only man except myself who had
succeeded III penetrating Central Asia during
the war in spite of RussiaS oppositionl, was
performing at its western extremity. Urging
our jaded team 10 what little speed was left
i'll them, We ratified down the rocky slope into
Samarcand, and, fighting our way through
clouds of dust worthy of an Arabian sinoo1n,
pulled up at length in front of the quaint lit
tie timber post house, with its black and white
stripes, which was our only available refuge,
hotels being an unheard of phenomenon in
Central Asia.
My first care was to examine my store
chests and camp equipage, which, after two
days humping and jolting over the desert
and the passage OF flooded river, would
naturally be-as a British tourist said of
Pompeii and Hcrculsneum-''mos disgrace
fully out Of repair" And in truth found |
them-in the graphic phrase of English sail I
ors-''aIl nohow" The fragments Of my ink /
bottle were stuck like cloves al over my last /
Bologna sausage, while the ink which it had /
contained was adding a new and piQuant /
favor to my Russian camp biscuits. 4 hump /
of half melted sugar had modeStly re-
tired from view into one Of my stockings.
Ny few remaining sheets Of writing paper
were adhering, with firrnnesS worthy of
better cause. 10 the inner side OF half eaten
rye loaf, and large piece OF chocolate lay |
at its ease in packet OF black
tea