The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-07-20
An Asiatie Railway.
Youths Companion.

Russians experienced In their snbjuga- tion of the Turkomans was not the resistance of these warlike tribes, though that was brave and determined, but the necessity of carrying supplies over the almost foodless and wAterless deserts of Turkestan. After a severe defeat in 1876, caused chiefly by the failure of the transport service, the command of the Russian army was given to the gallant young General Skobelefr. ProfitiDg by his predeces- sor's experience, be determined to build small, temporary railroad from the Caspian, for carrying provisions and materials Of war, instead of rely ing on camels.
 The building of the road was en- trusted to General Annenkof, the chief of the transport department of the Russian army, and work was begun in 1880. 1t was proposed then to carry the line only to kiEil Arvat, town one hundred and forty five miles from the sea ; and in December, 1881, the first locomotive steamed into that place. Meanwhile Skobeleff had finished the campaign and completely subdued the Turko- mans by the capture Of Geok Tepe.
 In 1885, the prospect of war with England, over the disputed Afghan frontier, turned the attention of the Russians again to the railway, and General Annenkof was sent out to extend 1t southward. The crisis was soon passed, but by this time the plans of the czar and his ministers had changed. Instead of purely military road, it was determined to build & permanent highway for commerce, which should also be the means of consolidating the Russian dominions in Central Asia.
 With this end in view the work was pushed with extraordinary vigor. The roadway, low earthwOrk or embankment raised slightly above the plain, was constructed entirely by native workmen,-Turkomans, Per sians, and latterly Bokhariots. Their wages at first were eight cents, but afterward sixteen cents a day. The the Persians the worst, being incorri- gibly lazy, though strong as oxen.
 After them came the track layers, all soldiers of the Russian Railway Battalions, each from a thousand to fifteen hundred men strong. The men lived in construction trains consisting of two-story cars, which contained, besides sleeping quarters, kitchens, hospitals, work shops, telegraph stations, as we'll as chapel and a school. A battalion was divided into two brigades, each of which worked six hours day. Supplies were brought twice 6 day over a narrow gauge railway alongside the other.
 These soldiers lsOmetimes laid and spiked nearly four miles of rails & day, though their average was only about two miles. Others raised palis- ades at places exposed to winds, to guard against the drifting sands, while still others planted tamarisk, wild oats aud the SdrdOul along the the line, that their roots might bind the sand. These desert plants were started in nurseries made for this purpose in the neighboring Persian mountains.
 Although every piece of timber, iron and steel, including even the more than two million wooden sleep CTS, came from Russia, being brought down the Volga and across the Cas- plan, yet the work advanced rapidly. On May P, 1888, the first train entered Samarkand, nearly nine hum