Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-03-26

1
ands when they are not out after big
| game. The Kurds are fond OF raiding
over the border line and have no OBJ
lection to numbering a stray Cossaek
when they catch one. One officer
taught them n lesson. He made VOW
TO xiii ten Kurds for every Cossack
slain in his command. When Prince
Demidoff. the famous Caucasian hunt
er, visited that post he found that the
score was seven Cossaclls and seventy
Kurds. we don't have much trouble
with them now the officer grimly re-
marked to his visitor
Although their lives are so full of adj
venture. IL must not be supposed that
the officers on these lonely outposts
are rough. uncOuth men. On the con-
trary. they practice in their tiny social
circle all the amenities of civilized
life and even observe the elaborate
etiquette OF the Russian nobility in all
its infinite detail. Many of them are
married and their wives ard families
live with them. They have, perhaps,
not seen city for five years, but they
get books and newspapers aS tOng in
tervals and keep up as well as they
can with the affairs of the great world.
81 have spent many an evening in
isolated military posts hundreds Of
miles from the nearest town and per
haps fifty miles from even Il telegraph
station said Russian officer who
rode on horseback through Siberia,
land the society was SO refined and
even brilliant that | almost imagined
l was in ST. Petersburg. l remember
one such post in particular, on the
fringe Of the PamirS. 1t was the near
est RussiGn post at that time to the
Indian frontier. There were three of
ficers there two of whom were mar
ried and living with their wives in
that desOlate waste. They were ladies
of noble birth and the best social eXpe
rieuce They had lived in court cir
cles at St. Petersburg and Moscow and
were familiar with the society of Wen
na and Paris. Yet they cheerfully
buried themselves alive there in order
TO be with their husbands. Their chill
dren were being educated in Russia.
Il think they spent Il happy life.
They went hunting a good deal with
their husbands. The commandant
showed me the biggest bearskin l had
ever seen and told me that his wife
killed the brute single handed. The
other lady was Il fine artist.
In the evenings they had q jolly
time. They invited one another to
dinner as formally as if they had lived
Il mile apart in a big city, and they
gave pleasant little dances, card par
ties and musical soirees. Although
they knew one another so well. they
never relaxed the formal etiquette usu-
Offfn nd I,ai ~.
wives in the Russian service. l chaffed
the commandant about this once, but
he replied
If we did we should quarrel and be
flying at one anothers throats in less
than a week. You have no idea how
such solitude as this gets upon ones
nerves. Your only salvation is to play
that you are living in the midst of a
big society
THE work of the officers was inter
Csting and dangerous. They were
there mainly as diplomats and secret
service agents among the tribes living
around the Pamirs. They surveyed
the mountain ranges and mapped out
routes by which armies could cross
them, and they Travelled among the
tribes, seeking to persuade the head
men that it was to their interest to
become allies Of Russia and fight for
her whenever i clash came with Eng
land. Sometimes they were away
from the fort for weeks and months
on these dangerous expeditions, and
you can imagine the terrible anxiety
their wives suffered. The wife of q
Russisn outpost officer needs to be a
woman of high courage and infinite
capacity for self sacrifice
Like the English on the frontiers of
India, the Russians in half n dozen |
parts of Asia are constantly engaged |
in little wars" of which the world !
hears nothing. Even now that the |
Transcaspian railway has been run |
through Russian Turkestan to the Dor |
ders of Afshanistan tribal fcuds and |
petty uprisings are not infrequent |
among the Moslem tribes of central |
Asia. They usually begin through |
cattle lifting" or camel lifting by |
one tribe in another's territory.
1t is the business of the Russian out /
post officer to suppress promptly these
lawless manifestations before they /
reach point where they can be dig |
nified by the name of war. He must |
strike quickly and strike hard in order
to teach the tribesmen TO respect the
peace of the car. Above all, he must !
never be defeated, for that would lead
to rapid extension of the rising. and |
it would become necessary to dispatch /
a large expedition. with all the attend |
ant publicity so distasteful to the Rus
sian government.
For this reason the troops kept at !
in no q
always OF the most mobile kind. Usu-
ally they are Cossacks, who can always /
be depended on to ride day and night |
for week If necessary and fight like 4
furies at the end of that time Even if .
a Cossack is a coward at heart, a rare 4
case. he dares not show the white /