McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1915-09-17
HAS HISTORIC PAST
Northwestern Battle Theater Of
Europe.
Black Sea and the Sea OF Marmora
Have Been From Earliest Times
the Scenes Of Events That
h...: Affected Civilization.

With the northwestern battle thea
ter of the Turks proclaimed by the
war prophets as that where the de-
Gliding master strokes in this most
titanhke Of all struggles are to be de-
livered, sketch of this remarkable
regions past prepared by Harry Girls
void Dwight for the National Geo.
graphic society is of more than usual
interest. Here the West won its self
confidence, and this confidence has
borne fruits with splendid richness for
longer than 1000 years. Here the
course Of civilization has been
changed and modified several times,
and here. again today, the attention
of the world is fixed in the belief that
the future Of Europe will once more
be determined by events about to
transpire. In the bulletin just issued
by the National Geographic society.
Mr.. Dwight tells about 1.-THE Gates to
the Black Sea-:
There is something alluring in the
very shape and position of these lakes
the Black sea and the Sea of Mar
mora-separating as they do the two
most historic continents of our globe,
and communicating with each other
and with the outer seas by openings
that seem miraculous. And those land
locked waters have been from earliest
times, as they happen again to be to-
day, the theater of epic events. For us
of the West no legends are older than
those of Zeus and 10, Of Phryxus and
Helle Of the Trojan war, of Jason and
the Argo, which commemorate the
earliest voyages into the great lakes
of the Levant.
"Of the two, the Marmora-the Pro-
points. If you prefer to be classical--is
by far the smaller. Not much more
than 100. miles long and some forty
miles across at its broadcast part. 1t is
about the same size as Lake Cham
plain. The Marmora has much of the
softness of air, vividness of color and
beauty Of scenery that we associate
with the Aegean and Ionian seas.
Thread the narrow slit of the Bos-
porus, however, and you pass into an
entirely different world-sterner,
barer, rocker, colder.
III the Marmora may be compared
to Lake Champlain, the Black sea Is
about four times the size of our great
est lake. Lake Superior is 412 miles
long by 1877 wide, while the Black sea
has length of $50 miles and breadth
Of 1856. That there is something dark
and unfriendly about 1t Is more than
legend. The Bosporus is 20 miles long
and at one point Of its tortuous course
the hills Of Europe and Asia come
within $50 yards of each other. The
Dardanelles is twice as long and
nearly twice as wide. varying from
1,400 yards to five miles. Its Euro
pean shore, Gallipoli peninsula. is the
Thracian Chersonese Of the ancients
and its steep ridge overlooks the plain
Of Troy on the Asiatic bank and the
broken. foothills OF Mount Ida.
while its two historic gateways are
strategically the most important fea,
lures Of Marmora, that picturesque
little sea has character all its own
In any other part Of the world 1t would
long ago have become q place of So
j0urn for yachtsmen and summerers,
so happily is 1t treated by sun and
wind. SO amply provided with bays,
capes, islands. mountains, forests and
all other accidents of nature that make
glad the heart of the amateur ex.
plorer. As 1t Is, the Marmora remains
strangely wild for sea that has
known SO much Of life. More numer.
GUS than, the settlements of today are
the ruins Of yesterday. About no body
of water In the world, of equal size,
have stood 80 many stately cities. 1t
is almost impossible. indeed, to give
any coherent account Of the story of
Marmora, SO much history and legend
have crowded its shores"
Writing Of the antiquity Of the
straits question. Mr.. Dwight says:
"The true question OF the straits
arose as early as the fifth century
B. c.. when Alcibiades of Athens coun.
seled the people OF Chrysopolis. the
modern Scutari. at the southeastern
extremity Of the Bosporus, to take toll
of passing ships" But the Ottoman
regulation of the straits has been far
more jealous than anything attempted
by the ancients. "Tbe Turks have al.
lowed no foreign manof-war to enter
the Marmora," the writer continues.
unless under rare and special cir.
cumstances; and not only do they ex-
ercise surveillance over the tiaflc in