New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-13


earth to which the European wars
echoes have reached has longer or
more striking history than the country
between the Black and Caspian seas,
where the troops OF the Car and the
German-led Turks fought for control
Of the rich Caucasian mines and oil
fields. When the Mahometan army
corps swept up from Armenia against
Russia with the purpose of Gripping
the great empire of the north by strik-
ms at Odessa, Batum and Baku, they
met where Persian and Greek. Crusader
and Saracen, Genoese and Venetian,
Seljuk and Ottoman Turk had in past
centuries given up their lives in con-
flct.
The traces left by former masters Of
this battle-scarred land still linger IN
the bleak, inhospitable hills which rise
almost from the shore of the Black Sea.
Krupp guns battered down bridges
built in the graceful arch which still
spans the canals of Venice. Russian
rife fire sounded from ridges capped
bv the ruins of Turkish and Genoese
/
/ through which in ancient times long
/ caravans. dusty and wearied by their
| Journey through deserts and perilous
valleys of Afghanistan and China,
! brought treasures from Pekin down to
TrebiZond.
1t was at Trebizond. the ancient ter
minus of the great southern Trans
agiatic trade route, that the Turks
massed their troops for the drive into
the Caucasus. Ii was at Batum, the
/ Russian port which has stolen the
trade of the earlier city, that they
aimed.
Long before Alexander the Great
marched from Macedonia TO India files
Of camels, guided by the wild Tartars
/ and Mongolians of Central Asia.
brought down to Trebizond the riches
/ of the Far East. When this desultory
commerce between the East and West
/ began is not known. Jade and other
/ Asiatic ornaments are found amid the
dust of ancient Egyptian tombs.
/ Between the riches of Asia and the
avarice of Europe, nature had erected
a barrier of mountain and desert, pene-
ira Bile only at a few places At Trebi-
zond began the long trail that led
through Bagdad and lspahan, Kanda-
| har and Kabul. into Hindustan and on
to China. This slender thread held the
East and West in touch. Along IT
Xenophon and the Ten Thousand made
their retreat from Persia down to
| Trcbizond and the Black Sea. The
mailed phalanxes CT Alexander marched
through il. 1t resounded to the war
cry of the Mahometan and the tramp
OF the Crusaders charger. In the dawn
ice seized the routes western terminus,
and each in her time became the rich
est nation of the age, with the wealth
Of the East, gold and silk. precious
stones and spices, steel and pottery,
which poured through the caravan
route.
Jason and his argonauts visited this
land From the riches they gained IN
trade with the desert scorched mer-
chants of Asia grew the myth OF the
golden fleece. A century later the
white columns of Greek temples
cleaned along the coast, and the Hell
lenes reaped great wealth from their
trede with the Phenicians, who came
in their low, black ships TO barter TN
of Britain and amber of the Baltic for
the fabrics and jewels of India and
China.
For centuries the land was held
under the sway of the slowly rotting
empire of the East, with its capital at
Constantinople. Rich and vice ridden
as il was, the city on the Bosporus
withstood the attacks of the fierce peo-
pies of the East sweeping TO her gates
and threatening to overwhelm Europe.
Each of these westward surges roared
in across the ancient caravan route and
engulfed its terminus at the Black Sea.
First came the Omayyad Turk chant
ing the new found war cry of Ma
homet. He seized the caravan
routes, and under the far-fung touch
of Eastern civilization became the
most cultured and powerful race in
Europe, with dominion extending along
the southern Mediterranean and into
| Spain.
Bagdad was his capital. the Bag
dad of the Arabian Nights and Of
Haroun al Raschid. Their scimitars
cleared pathway into Southern Gaul.
/ The dust of their caravans was waited
across Asia, from Trebizond 10 Pekin.
/ Then. softened by culture, they fell
before the Seljuks, a more warlike
tribe, who took the trade routes and
were weakened by the Orient, like
their predecessors.
Against these came the crusaders,
bfrbarians from the West, whose only
claim 20 civilization was the religion
for which they slaughtered. Through
Asia Minor the fight Of Christian and
ragan ragged internationally. Then the
Crusader came no more, and in his
place the countless hordes Of the Mon