The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-05
THE PLAINS OF THEssALY.
To Its Natural Advantages ThessaIy
Owes Its ImmemOriaI Prosperity.
From the London Telegraph.

From the London Telegraph.
1t is a singular and melancholy fact that
the British public learns Its geography
chiefly-if not entirely-from modern wars.
The average Englishman, who has for
gotten whatever he once picked up at
school and college about the rivers, noun
tains, cities and plains of the globe, would
never know anything about the Herze-
govina and Schleswig- Holstein Cuba and
the Soudan, the northwest frontier of In
dia and Alsace-Lorraine if battle tee-
grams and newspaper charts had nor
hammered comprehension into him Sim
ilarly to-day people at home are begin
ming to pick up quite a fresh and service~
able conception of that wonderful Thes-
salian plain to which, as we yesterday
showed by ancient instances, so many
rival belligerents have been drawn BY
and by Macedonia and Thessaly will be as
well comprehended as Kent and Sussex
though 1t is certainly an expensive mat
ter for mankind thus to have geography
popularity taught by bloodshed. Many
among the Turkish officers in the pres
ent conflict are very well acquainted
with the present and future fields of bat
tie, for the good reason that all that rich
and extensive campaign around Larissa
and Pharsala lately belonged to his mai
esty, the sultan. The Ottomans were
obliged to give 1t up TO Greece In 1SS1-all
that splendid corn and olive land from the
Othrys range southwark 90 the Cambun-
ian hills In the north, and stretching west
ward and eastward from Epirus to The
Aegean sea. But hard and bitter as mas
that treaty Of May "A, 1881, for all true be.
lievers, the representatives Of the sublime
porte did their duty well TO the crescent
when fhau retained "a aIr
for Turkey where recent fierce fighting
had been going forward.
The crafty Greeks got the fruitful levels
OF Thessaly without paying for them as
much as drop Of biood-but the states
men OF STEAMBOAT were wise to keep the
massive walls Of Bolutze and Krakobo
with majestic Olympus itself
Thessaly has always been a cockpit Of
war because Of It's geographical character
IL Is, practically speaking, one vast level
'campus"-a square extending very nearly
sixty miles In each direction, hemmed In
by the mountain ridges already mention
cd Ivy. who must have visited Larlssa
has described the appearance OF the pres
ent seat OF war in words which could not
be bettered The historian writes: when
the wayfaror, emerging from the rough
pathways Of Southern Thessaly where the
road Is strangled In the narrow clefts
comes suddenly upon Larissa, he behoids
mighty cNpanaes as u were, or "a liked
ocean, stretching 20 far on all sides that
its boundaries may with difficulty be dis
cerned." Such ID the aspect Of that fertile
upland Of Pharsala and LaHssa. and 10
It's natural advantages have been due the
immemorial fitness OF the province ana It's
especial fitness for agriculture and the
rearing OF horses. Thessallan cavalry
Thessalian lauces. Thcssalan hunting
sports have been famous since Eunpides
wrote his "Hippoytus" ana Nenophop
ooursod tho hare upon is well nigh bound
less spaces.
srhn tsoraau founfn rhnrnUt.. 81 NJ