Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-14
snRAsToPoL. CrImea.


Journeylug from Batoum to sebasto-
pol we passed Gaghri, a pretty spot
which I am doubtful IL you will find
on the ordinary map. It rests In the
curve of an arm of land, and faces
south. The hills are beautiful and
wooded, and through the dehles are
seen the snowy and jagged ridges of
the Caucasus range. There are finely
built hotels and finely furnished
bathing house on the sea edge, and
laid out gardens. But the place Is de-
serted.
Gaghri provides an instance Of how
things are done in Russia. Two or
three years ago one Of the grand dukes
came yachting in these parts He was
struck with the charm of the situation.
He saw what nice thing it would be
to have a fashionable watering place
on this side of the Black sea, to be in
time, maybS, n rival to Yalta, I'm the
Crimea. Also, as he bought ground, he
saw means of enriching himself.
Next to the emperor, the wish of a
grand duke is the thing to be obeyed.
Six million roubles, Of public money
were spent in hotel building, road maxi
ing, laying out of gardens
When it was all finished the climate
was discovered to be unhealthy. There
are constant rains, and the whole
country reeks with malaria. Invalids
attracted to this new health resort fled
IN much worse state than they came.
There is no railway accommodation,
no harbor, and as the sea is often
rough, and ships dare not attempt to
anchor there, there is no knowing, when
you land at Gaghri, when you are go
ing to get away again.
Each summer the hotels are opened,
the walters come, the band plays.
Half million of roubles out of the
public chest are spent eachayear keep
ing Gaghri on its legs.
Russia In Earnest
Russia in earnest is seen at Novoro-
sinsk, new town with a railway and
harbor as it's parent. 1t lies just
where the Caucasus mountains-which
for hundreds of miles have fallen from
rearing snow-crested crags, dividing
the world in twain to gentle uplands-
slide into the Black sea. With no
guardian hills the wind bites hard
from the Cossack regions. There are
no trees and no verdure. 1t is a stark
land.
But here comes the struggling rail-
way, which wanders along the north
side of the Caucasus and trails nor
east, tapping the country to the very
banks of the Voga. The wheat fields
of the Volga valley give their surplus
to this railway, which brings it down
to Novorosinsk, where the sea is
touched and the road found to the
outer world. Only the Volga valley
has no surplus to give this year. 1t
has not produced enough to feed the
peoeple of Samara or Saratoy, or
people of Samara or Saratov or
the Don Cossacks. Through long
drought the people are slipping to
death.
The town is an evidence of what
Russia can do in squirt of good in
tent. With the building of the railway
came the construction of a fine sea
wall The harbor is deep and there
is no tide. There is a huge grain ele-
vator, with endless belts and shoots to
deliver right into the hold of ship.
Many millions have been spent.
NoVorosinsk is raw but it Is the raw
ness of western American port which
is still graphing with it's fate and in
tends to be boss port before long.
The simile, however, does not last. No
cars, groan1ng with grain, come rumb-
ling over the parched plain. There is
no hum of machinery in the fine ele-
vator. Rank and seedy weeds grow
in the well marked railway yards. The
long black piers are deserted. There is
easy room for hundred ocean going
vessels. / saw two
Always the Cossacks
The wind gathers the sand from the
steppes and brings it, a dun, gritty
cloud swirling over the town. 1t rasps
your throat and mucks your eyes
Through it, at a gallop, comes Cos
sack patrol-real Cossacks, not the
spick and SNOWY gentlemen you occa-
sionally meet on the Nevski in Peters,
burg-men grimy, in tattered gray
cloaks, mounted on hardy but ill-fed
nags with accouterments, harness and
the rest, of the dingiest. They ride in
a close bunch. the hoofs of their beasts
beating in four inches of the hot dust
For the pain of Russia's internal
trouble is even here.
To Novorosinsk have been attracted
thousands of men of daring. They took
matters into their own hands-backed
by regiment of Cossacks who killed
their officers-seized the governor and