Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1915-09-15
RUSSIA's LisnTLEss BOUNDS.
People of Some Sections Still Igno-
rant of Great War.

scrub pine and shaggy, stunted fir,
/ there is Russian people (the Sa-
moyeds) who, in all likelihood, have
not yet learned that the Crimean war
is ended, and who have no ideas of
the difficulties that the Tsar, 1.-The
| Little Father" who adopted them, is
| facing in present world-war. SO
vast is the Muscovite realm that ru-
| mors Of the greatest war in history
] cannot have penetrated to it's out
skirts, to the wastes fringing the
| Arctic, to the Mountain tangles just
, 'eyond Mongolia, or to the ever
green forests Of Kamschatka. Rus
sia harbors many strange peoples,
ern hemisphere within her bounda-
ries, and it will be long before the
| news Of the present war, told in
| ''friend pidgin,' will arrest the at
| tention of her subject tribes.
SO begins bulletin issued by the
National Geographic Society, which
tells about the fragments Of race
crowded into the bleak north by the
Tartars, race which lost its foot
| hold in the more fruitful, generous
| South, and which now is paying the
penalty Of being pushed to the wall
| by forgetting most Of it's former civ
iliZation and by dying out. Under
| the protection of the Tsar, these peo-
pie are assured of peaceful obliv-
ion behind the veil Of the North. The
bulletin continues:
| THE Samoyeds are Monaghan
| people, who live in the wide sweep
Of tundra country that reaches from
the White Sea across Europe, in
places belt more than 500 miles in
depth, from the Arctic Sea to the
northern line where the forests van
| iSh. They are reindeer herders,
fishermen and hunters Of seal. 1t is
through their surpluses in these
three things that they come into con-
tact with the Russian trader, who
visits them in their far northern CEN
ters, or whom they make long jour
neys to visit to the city of Archangel.
Reindeer skins, seal skins. furs, fish
and reindeer meat are sold by the
| Samoyeds to their Russian neigh
bors, for the Russian official and the
Russian trader is established in
widely scattered outposts here in the
: - tru
woTIu. maH hundreds ol miles from
! ralNoads telephones and telcErapha.
, and neyond the reach Of the press
"Tnc Yurah Satooyeds. the branch
NNirh Uwr.Is in HUrou>n. Eassia, it
is estimated, cOunts AZ al UA!. about
5000. OF these, 5000 live in the
| European tundra. In build they are
short and Stocky, with faces much
more nattened than the Firms, with
thick lips, black hair. fiat noses and
dark compilations. They are said to
be a fearless and warlike people,
though it is generations since they
have given any evidence OF aggrcs-
sive temperament. In their dealing
with the stranger, they are described
as mild and scrupulously honest
"Mighty rivers, like the Pschora,
drain through their lands into the
Arctic Sea. In the brief summer and
spring times, these streams, thawing
much sooner in their southern
sources sweep in turbulent floods
over the fiat lands bordering their
lower reaches. OF roads through the
tundra there are almost none, and
such as exist are passable only for
the hardy reindeer and the all-endur-
ing little horses of the north. Small
villages and human habitations are
hundreds of miles apart, and, then,
often, are merely post stages, which
the Russian government has estab-
lished for the transportation of
mails and rare passengers beyond the
confines OF civilization to such far
places as the village Aschino.
18th" Samoyeds are a poor people,
mostly. and very thrifty. They exc
out a precariOus existence in their
nhoSpitable country, and have learn
ed through necessity to eat anything
which grows there. They eat even
the wolves that menace the safety Of
their reindeer and Of themselves
upon their seal and fur-hunting trips.
Besides meat and fish, the Samoyeds
| have q nlain hnrl hlncl1 hrnnA nr