The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

love life al fresco. and here I even saw a man who had converted an old tomb into a bed a Tinis carpet and several pillows seemingly affordlng him that rest which most persons find beneath the slab of death.
 Yielding to the seductive persuasion of my dragoman l ventured into Mingreila' for l wished to view the country assoel- ated with the expedition of the Argonauts.
 Here I saw several Moorish castles and gardens said to contain every species or trees known to arboricuture. But the lawlessness of the land Is such that feared to trust myself beyond the shadow of my dragoman. The biggest horse thlef is a leading citizen and the preliminaries to q Mingrelian marriage consist Tn the abduction of the bride and a Wild ride with her wilowy form strung across the saddle bow l saw scores of men 60 years of age welded to girls of but 13 summers.
 Doctors are unknown in the entire prov ince and most of the healers are sorcer- esses who cure by incantation. u mat ters not what the aiment. be 1t smallpox fever or a gunshot wound, all are curea alike Fresh flowers are placed upon the wound or diseased spot and cabalistic nutterings do the rest. Trumpets or Ted copper are used to summon the orthodox to church service and Sundays are spent in public dances and ball games, in which the entire population participates The fieures of the dances are fearfully snS- Restlve. but not more SO than the Bunny Hug or Grizzly Bear movements Of our own civilization.
 still I shall never forget the Arcadian atmosphere of these native dances IHey lasted till twilight. and with the air redo lent with the aroma of the azaieas and stephenosis, the gigantic mimosas sll- toot qirV fla lowering or the lamps of heaven and tho fre-fiies H. l1rnining the tresses of the female dancers the scene presented paraulse on earth, a playground of troll and lay.
 From here I took the train 10 Bakou. and as I sped over the bare plain with mirage and silhoutted effect l almost im- aglned myself back in sad and luminous Arabia Petraea, The inhapltahls were nearly all Tartars, and those along tho hanks of the few streams sleep at night in odd nests constructed in the trees to avoid the fever, which is most deadly in it's ravages
 Soon q monstrous city greeted my eyes. If was Bakou. the petroleum city, the Town of Fire. as the natives call it.
 Bakou has from early times been the resort of the fire worshippers and ID" has population of over lOO,OOo sous.
 Ii has a most dabolical aspect with
  of flame and girdled by bastion of cast iron towers The town itself is conglom- erafion of gasometers. for the houses are reiterated to the oning beyond the rim Of smoke.
 If has been declared that the entire bed of the Caspian Sea rests upon second st1bterranean sea. which Is lake or naptha The maRi of the fre-worshlppers did homage on the western shore of the
 A. .- ctn or shore that tribute 10 commerce today. The entire neuinsula has been compared 10 a sponge plunged in mineral oil. It yeds 5W0,pDI hounds of kerosine per annnm and dls- putes in the European markets the pro- ducts of Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The output might easily be increased tenfold, for some of the wells average lW.eD pounds the day. The soil is continually vomiting forth liquid lava and the springs flow in snch abundance that 1t Is impos- sibie to stannch the oil.
 Occa sionailv the floods catch fire and burn for weeks and making aglow the air v--f-i, ia irnnr9gnated with naptha vapors.
 This natural phenomenon Is provocative of an unique local pastime and fin the evening I was invited to row out In small boat and assist In setting the sea on fire" I accepted and this I actually did Tn calm weather large patches of petroleum rise to the surface Of tho Cas- Dan Sea and form a continuous film on the waves. A lighted candle is used and in trce the horizon is on fire. If was a most wierd sport and I never felt SO impish in my life When I discarded the toat and stepned ashore again felt like Dante when the children declared him one "who had come back from hell"
 In an adjacent town may be seen the ruins of an ancient Temple of Fire and the sancfrarv is enclosed in works for the resning of oil. Such is the irony cf fate
 The kerosine Is shipped away In cis- fern-hoats nn the vol0a and tank cars on the railway. the latter as they stand