Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-22

their photographs exhibited in a large
frame
thing to do with the battle is represented
by an oil painting or a photograph ex-
cept the famous Gen. Skobeleff, fol
years the idol of the Russian army, who
was in command of the attacking party
and was responsible for the massacre.
Horrible Massacre.
horrible atrocities. But perhaps, after
all. Gen. Skobeleff was right when he
said:
My system is to strike hard and keep
on striking until resistance is completely
subdued. Then cease slaughter and be
kind and humane to the PROSTATE en-
envy"
The terrifying effect of such a massa-
ere upan a semi-savage people is per-
petuated for generations, and the ruined
walls Of the fortress, several monuments
to the heroism of the various regiments
and brigades and this memorial museum
are maintained by the government as a
perpetual reminder to the sons and the
grandsons of those who were slain of the
strength and the merciless energy of
Russia.
new generation occupies the land,
although many Turkomans who had a
prominent part in the battle are still
living and holding honorable positions in
the Russian service. AS soon as the ma
tiyes submitted hOnors, ohceS and pen
sions we're bestowed upon them, and, as
one might say, the Russian governor gen.
eral has ever since been leading by the
hand orphans of those who fell in the
fight.
II hold it as principle that in Asia
the duration of peace is in direct pro-
portion to the slaughter you infiict upon
the natives said Skobeleff in defense
of his tactics. 1.-The harder you hit them
the longer they will be quiet afterward.
comparison with the British policy of
moral suasion with India, which has not
been so effective as the brutal blows that
the Russians have inflicted upon the peo-
pie they have conquered. There can be
no doubt that the Russian tactics are
exceedingly effective from a practical
point of view, because the oriental mind
recognizes in every terrible disaste the
all-powerful will of Allah and, being a
fatalist, that means submission.
Resistance to Russia.
You must not understand that Russia
was allowed to occupy and annex the
various khanates of central Asia without
opposition on the part of the natives.
The invasion was resisted by all the
tribes, except the Bokharoits.
The Amir of Bokhara, when he saw
what was happening around him,
shrewdly placed himself under the pro-
lection of the car and has been allowed
to maintain nominal and somewhat
ostentatious independence ever since. The
remaining rulers made the hardest fight
they could They resisted the invaders
to the limit of their strength and the
conquest cost Russia an enormous num-
Der of lives as well as roubles.
Every now and then you can see from
the car window a ruined town or a
crumbling fortress, all built of mud and
incapable of sustaining an attack from
modern artillery. Those ruins mark the
spots where the natives endeavored to re-
pell the invasion, and it is said that for
two or three years 1t was impossible for
q horseman to ride over the steppes with
out the hoofs of his animal striking a
human skull.
Tekkes Make Stand.
In the fall of 1880 the Tekkes, one of
the strongest of the Turkoman tribes.
driven from one point to another, de-
cided to make a final stand at Cock Tepe,
where they expected to annihilate the
invaders of their country. If they had
scattered to the mountains, which were
only thirty or forty miles away, they
might have carried on a guerrilla war
fare and harassed the Russians indefi-
nitely
Their confidence in their own prowess
and in the strength of an enormous mud
fortress they had erected convinced them
that 1t was best to concentrate their
forces. Therefore, more than $1,000 per-
sons, including 10000 mounted warriors,
with as many horses, and 5000 camels,
assembled within the walls of one Of the
largest fortresses that was ever built.
Its walls of mud surrounded a quad
rilateral Enclosure measuring $50 yards
on the north, 1,6SO yards on the east,
1,57o on the west and $50 yards on the
south, making a total circuit of two miles
and a third.
These walls were fifteen feet high
thirty-five feet thick at the base, twenty
one feet thick at the top, made of mud
thrown up and trodden hard by men
and horses.
There were twenty-one gates, masked
by large semi-circular traverses outside
and protected by rifle towers. Outside
the wall was a ditch the entire distance
varying from six to nine feet deep and
from twelve to sixteen feet wide.
conducted into the fort through an open
ing under the wall and after supplying
seven or eight large reservoirs dug in
the ground, passed out again At various
points along the inside of the walls were
warehouses for the storage of supplies
and ammunition which had been gather
ed from all parts of Turkoman and were
supposed to be sufhfent to maintain the
garrison for a year.
In a broad, open space in the center
of the Enclosure were 1900 kibitkas, cir
cular huts. resembling the tepee Of the
North American Indian, in which the
nomadic Turkomen live.
Women and Children in Fort.
With extraordinary confidence in their
ability to resist the advance of the in
Tekke clan brought their wives and chill
dren within these walls prepared to re-
main indefinitely.
The country around Geok-Tepe is rich
and highly cultivated. The oasis extends
about one hundred miles east and west,
and between thirty and forty miles north
and south. Nearly all who came into the
Sortreaa ware rnen NJ substance the