Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-25
ONCE WORLD QUEEN
Merv Now a Small, Common
place Russian Town.
POETS SANG OF MOORGHUB
But It Is a Dirty, Sluggish River,
With Clay Banks.
LIFE DEPENDS ON WATERS
Stream Makes Up in Usefulness
What It Lacks in Beauty.
Russians in Control.
POETS SANG OF M0ORGHUB
LIFE DEPENDS ON WATERS

| Russians in Control.
| BY WILLIAM T.. CURTIS.
| Special Correspondence OF The Star and tne
Chicago Record Herald.
MERV. Turkestan. June %, 1910
| The city of Merv. once THE Queen OF
| the World is now small common
place Russian town. with a bad reputa-
ton for malaria. Like all of the new
| Russian towns in Central Asia it was
laid out in generous proportions, with
wide streets, shaded by rows of thriv.
ing poplars and lined with one-story
buildings with whitewashed walls.
There are a number of shops contain
ing the necessaries of life. and some of
| the luxuries can be purchased. The resi-
| dences extend back from the street a
| considerable distance and usually sur
round courtyard or patio in Spanish
style. AS there is plenty of room upon
the steppe there has been no crowding.
| Everybody was allowed to inclose as
much room as he wanted for garden and
groves, but those attractions are hidden
by>high walls. The offices of the Rus
| sian administration are plain but COM
| modious buildings: there is a large
| church of Byzantine architecture with
| the conventional five domes, almost al
| ways found in orthodox Greek architec-
| ture, and schoOihOuse near by where
am told excellent teachers are employed.
Heavy Garrison Maintained.
There is an officers club, with a mess
for bachelors. which affords a social Gen.
ter for the Russian population, and
enormous barracks, as usual, accommo-
dating garrison of several thousand
men. One is inclined to speculate whether
SO many soldiers are actually needed IL
| TurkeStan. There is no danger of revo-
buttons or instructions among the ma
! tives. and certainly Persia, which is the
only neighbor i'll this part of Turkestan,
has sufficient trouble of her own to look
after without interfering with Russian
| affairs.
There is a pretty public square, well
watered and we'll shaded, and in the
morning you can see groups of neat. in
telligent Russian girls with blonde hair
and blue eyes, wearing long white aprons
| to protect their frOcks, and white hand
kerchiefs over their heads. on their way
| to school. Their shining morning faces
are plain but attractive. Any fair-haired,
pink-faced young woman looks pretty
in these surroundings. A great deal more
attention is given to the education OF
! women in this part of Russia than In
| Europe, particularly as there is grea,
demand for teachers in the public schools.
Poets Sang of River.
The Merv oasis is in some respects the
greatest in Asia and has the largest area
of cultivated soil, all of which is owing
to the Murghab river, or the "Moorghub,'
as Matthew Arnold calls it in his poem
! l have seen Afrasian cities: Samarkand.
I Bokhara and lone Khiva in the waste;
I And the black Toorkmen tents. and have drank
The desert rivers MoOrghub and Te1end.
| Kohik and where the Kalmucks feed their sheep,
The northern Syr and the great Oxus stream
| The yellow Oxus.
And genial Tom Moore sang the praises
of this same river:
And. fairest of all streams. the Murga roves
| Among Merou's bright palaces and groves.
| The Moorghub, the Murga and the
Murghab of the present day are the
same river, and Merou is the Persian for
Merv. But neither Matthew Arnold nor
Thomas Moore ever saw this place. Ii
they had they would not have written
those lines. Merv and the Murghab may
be full of romance. but they are not
beautiful to look upon. and painful
disenchantment is in store for sentimental
persons who come here, or VINO visit any
part of central Asia with the expectation
of seeing things as they are described IN
| ''Lallah Rookh."
| Muddy, Turg1d Stream.
1.-The fairest of all streams" is muddy
turgid river, the color of poor coffee. flow
| ing in a channel of brown clay, between
high banks which cave in every year
during high water, and are always likely
to crumble. In the spring months, when
the snow is melting in the mountains. the
Murghab is a terrible torrent, tearing its
way through the desert with irresistible
1 Tn ho 70 nf pXh2nSfpO
| by these exertiOns, emaciated by evap-
Grafton and the demands of the irrigation
canals, it is sullen. staSnant, unWhole'
some stream. The annual overflow
valley with water. which remains In
stagnant ponds after the flood recedes
and slowly evaporates. leaving Shiny
acres of decaying vegetation which poison
| the air.
The Tejend. of which Mr.. Arnold writes.
| is similar in appearance and habits. but.
like. plain people, unlovely rivers have
their uses and beth the Murghab and the
Tejend are the most precious gifts that
nature could have bestowed upon desert
They are inexhaustible. They have met
all demands that have ever been made
upon them and cause the desert to
smile about 200 miles in one direction
and 145 miles in another. Besides TINS
local irrigation they spread their blessings
| by railway for many more miles. Long
trains Of cars. bearing huge water tanks,
occupy every side track, and when they
are filled locomotives haul them to
! thirsty communities in both directions.
| the most important and profitable freight
that the Central Asia railroad handles,
| because without it the desert would win.
| River Necessary to Life.
The Kohik river. referred to by the
| gentle poet, is the modern Zerafshan
which waters the oasis Of Samarkand and
| Bokhara, and without it neither of those
cities cou!S survive fortnight. The
| great Oxus stream-the yellow Oxus," is
one of the largest and most important
bodies of water in the universe, and the
| longest river in Asia. 1t is called the
ANU Daria today. and is altogether
worthy of the rhapsody in which Lord
Curzon INDUCES in his well known book
on central Asia. He says:
| 1.-The Gihon of Eden. that encompasseth
| the whole land of Ethiopia the Vak-Shu
! of Sanskrit literature. the Oxus of the
Greeks, the Anu Daria or river sea OF
| the Tartars-no river. not even the Nile,
can claim a, nobler tradition or a more
| illustrious history. Descending from the
hidden Roof of the World, its waters tell
of forgotten peoples and whisper secrets