The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-08-15
BICYCLING IN ASIA.
THE REMARKABLE WHEELING
TOUR OF TWO AMERICANS. .
In the Capital of Turkestan-Rus-
sian Home-Life Around the
Samovar On the Vast
Steppe-A Mishap.


Sachtleben, now running in the Cen
tury magazine, shows how many dan
gers and difficulties they had to con-
tend with, and what enterprise and
mastery of resource they displayed.
Their route lay through countries that
were not accustomed to Western visi-
tors, and their strange method of To-
comotion invariably called out great
curiosity, not unmixed with supersti-
tious fear.
In the August Century the young
men describe their journey from Sam
markand to Kuldja. Soon after leav-
ing the former place the lowering
snow-line on the mountains, the chill
ing atmosphere, and the falling leaves,
warned them of the approach Of
winter. A failure to obtain necessary
passports prevented them from at
tempting to reach Vernoye, provin-
cial capital near the converging points
of the Turkestan, Siberian, and Chi
nese boundaries.
Permission to enter Turkestan is
by no means easily obtained, as is we'll
understood by the student of Russian
policy in Central Asia. We were not
little surprised, therefore, when our
request to spend the winter in its
capital was graciously granted by
Baron Wrevsby, as well as the privi-
lege for one of us to return in the
meantime to LONDON. This we had
determined on, in order to secure
some much needed bicycle supplies,
and to complete other arrangements
for the success of our enterprise.
"Our winter quarters were obtained
at the home of a typical Russian
family, in company with young re-
serve officer. he, having finished his
university career and time of military
service, was engaged in Tashkend in
the interest OF his father, wholesale
merchant in Moscow. With him we
were able to converse either in French
or German, both of which languages
he could speak more purely than his
native Russian. Our good-nstured
corpulent host had emigrated, in the
pioneer days, from the steppes of
Southern Russia, and had grown
wealthy through the 'uaearned incre-
ment.'
'The Russian samovar is the char
scteristic feature of the Russian house
hold. Besides q big bowl of cabbage
soup at every meal, our Russian host
would start in with half-tumbler of
vodka, dispose of a bottle of beer in
the intervals, and then top off with
two or three glasses of tea. The mis-
tress of the household, being limited
in her beverages to tea and soup,
would usually make up in quantity
what was lacking in variety. In
fact, one day she informed US that she
had not imbibed drop of water for
over six years. For this, however,
there is very plausible excuse. With
the water at Tashkend, as with that
from the Zerafshan at Bokhara, dan
gerous worm called reshta is absorbed
into the system. Nowhere have we
drunk better tea than around the
steaming samover of our Taskend
host. No peasant is too poor, either
in money or sentiment, to buy and
feel the cheering influence of tea.
Even the Cossack, in his forays into
the wilds of Central Asia, is sustained
by it. Unlike the Chinese, the
Russians consider sugar a necessary
concomitant of tea-drinking. There
are three methods of sweetening tea:
to put the sugar in the glass; to place
a lump of sugar in the mouth and
suck the tea through it; to hang a
lump in the midst of tea-drinking
circle, to be swung around for each
in turn to touch with his tongue, and
then to take swallow of tea."
When the spring came the young
men began their journey again with
unabated ardor. At Chimkend their
course turned abruptly from what was
once the main route between Russia's
European and Aslatic capitals, and
here they began that journey of 1900
miles along the Celestial mountain
range that terminated only when they
began to descend into the burning
sands of the Desert Of Cobb.
"The steppe is q good place for
learning patience. With the absence
of landmarks, you seem never to be
getting anywhere. 1t presents the
appearance of a boundless level ex-
panse, the very undulations of which
are so uniform as to conceal the inter-
vening troughs. Into these, horse
men, and sometimes whole caravans,
mysteriously disappear. In this way
we were often enabled to surprise
herd of gazelles grazing by the road
side. They would stand for mo-
ment with necks extended, and then
scamper away like shot, springing
on their pipe-stem limbs three or four
feet in the air. Our average rate was
about seven miles an hour, although
the roads were sometimes so soft
with dust or sand as to necessltate
the laying of straw for foundation.
There was scarcely an hour in the
day when we were not accompanied
by from one to twenty Kirghiz horse
men, galloping behind US with cries
of 'Yakshee = ('Good!0. They were
especially curious to see how we
crossed the roadside streams. Stand
ing on the bank, they would watch
intently every move as we stripped
and waded through with bicycles and
clothing on our shoulders. Then they