Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

oPSNAoA correspondence Inc Sta
KOKAND, Turkestan, July 4, 1910.
The native farmers who raise the great
cotton crops of Turkestan and other
staples do not live upon
FARMERS their plantations, but ac-
Vi11ooae cordfng to the common
custom in Asia and east
ern Europe they live together in villages.
because In .olden times this was neces-
sary for mutual protection from rowing
marauders. They go to and from their
work In the morning and evening, and II
the distance is great they sometimes
build rude huts I'm the fields, take their
rations with them and Give out as they
say, until the planting or the harvesting
Is finished; and from the car windows or
from the carriage as we drive around we
can see the rude huts of brush or sod or
mud where they Sleep
The inhabited parts Of central Asia, as
l have told you in previous letters. are
separated by great stretches Of desert,
but there are strips Of fertile and cult
waited land wherever water can be
brought. Sart proverb says: Drop
upon drop makes a sea: but where there
practically no rain. No drop of moisture
falls from the sky in summer and only
occasionally little snow or a shower in
the winter. The maximum precipitation
is eight or nine inches, and sometimes
not more than an inch or two of rain
will be recorded for several years In sue
cesson. The proportion of rain increases
as you travel eastward. The nearer you
get to the mountains water becomes more
MI q
foothills. it is abundant. These noun
tains mark the boundaries. first of Per-
STA, then Afghanistan and then China:
and we are now only a short distance
from the western limits of that great
empire.
There are said. to be valuable mineral
deposits through the entire ranges, and
that must be the case, be-
Mineral cause the ancients were
:, rich in gold, copper, silver
UepoSltS. and precious stones. thirty
miles east of Samarkand is group OF
we'll built, solid-looking structures south
Of the railway track, with overhead troll
lev wires running down toward the 1oot-
hills. where they disappear in the dis
lance. The buildings seem to be idle ana
unOCCup1eQ diiI tlcle was iAS
life around them. We were told that
thew were the remains of an attempt 10
develop a coal deposit made by German
named Bauer, who SPENT two million
rubles trying to mine coal ana prlng II
to the railway a distance of thirty miles.
His money gave out before his enterprise
became self sustaining, and he was com
PEELED to give it up. The premises are
strewn with dead boilers and other ma
chinery. as the desert Is on either SIDE
with the bones of camels and cattle.
There certainly are coal and other MINER
ais nearby, but the Russian government
does not encourage, and, III Iact' lnlo~s
every ppssibIe obstacle in the way OF
their development The general policy Is
to prevent and even prohlblt the INVASION
Of this country by spectators ana au-
yenturers who will be certain to interfere
with the affairs OF the natnes anu aao ' irs
designs Of the government. Bona nde II
rigation enterprises and colonies or Rus
sian peasants to utilize them are en-
coura ged in every way, but Prospector
for minerals is apt to perish before ne
gets very far
and the DEVELOPMENT of the water supply
is the only investment that can be MADE
safely In Turkestan.
It IS the wonder Of wonders how the
armies Of ancient times crossed the des-
erts of central Asia-des-
Water erts that closely resemble
Death valley of California
IIopIcM. and the lifeless plains OF
Nevada. Yet Tamerlane was followed
by 300 600 warriors on his march to india;
Alexander the Great mustered more than
100000, and other invaders Of ancient
DAYS had similar numbers Of soldiers. who
must have carried all their supplies with
them. The country could furnish them
nothing. Forage raids would be wasted
here We know that Alexander the Great,
whose adventures were fully and accu-
rately recorded, transported water IN goat
skins as they carry wine in Greece and
Macedonia, but how could he carry ra-
tions for 500. 600 men across 1900 miles of
desert?
The waste of camels on these e1pedi-
tons has been terrible. That long sur.
fering beast can travel nine days without
a drink, but sometimes becomes exhaust
ed and lies down upon the desert sands
Gen. Schobeleff, in his expedition against
Merry In 1881. started with a pack train
of 1900 camels and at the end of the
campaign had 600 living The bones Of
the remainder may still be seen scat
tered along his trail. Gen. Kaufman
started for the siege Of Khiva with 10000
camels and 10000 horses. and reached cached, his rs
~
both. Similar other expeditions have
made similar sacrifices.
The most tragic tale ever told Of these
deserts Is Thomas De Quincey's Revolt of
the Tartars: or Flight Of
Ia Ou;noev'a the kalmuck Khan and
His People From the
Tragedy. Russian territories to the
Frontiers of China" 1t Is one Of the
most admired examples in English liter
ature. It Is recommended bN professors
Of rhetoric as model Of literary style
Az the same time the commentators warn
their readers that De Quincy took many
liberties with the facts and elaborated
more than historical accuracy will JUS
tifv Nevertheless, nothing more tragic
ever occurred and the story Is founded
unon a most extraordinary incident IN
the reign of the Empress Elizabeth OF
Russia- the daughter of Peter the Great.
In the wear 1851 an entire tribe OF Tar
tars Numbering 100000 souls, left their
homes near Astrakhan, IN the valley OF
the Volga. and fed three thousand miles
across the desert with their wives and
children. their horses. cattle, camels,
sheen and all their portable property and
were nursued the entire distance by an
armv of merciless and relentless horse