River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1916-06-29

LONG the flooded banks OF the
~ Tigris river the English cam
a paign in Mesopotamia is still
being waged. 1t has brought
into the 1imelight this great water
course of western Asia which has al
most as many historical associations
as the Euphrates, which flowed
through the Garden of Eden. A bull
letin issued by the National Geo
graphic society gives an interesting
account of this highway Of ancient civ
ilization, which seems to have assumed
once more the role of history maker.
The great Tigris, upon whose banks
there fiourished the magnificent city OF
Lagash and the great Babylonian en-
pire more than three thousand years
before the Christian era, today has
fallen to such lowly estate that even
the Turks and Arabs, whom 1t sus-
tains, scorn to do 1t honor Almost
contemporary they have given it the
sobriquet, "the cheap cameleer," be-
cause it Is used by the natives Of it's
upper reaches to bring down RATS or
where the wood is sold while the in
f1ated skins used as floats are Debated.
On it's turbid course through Meso-
potamia, the Tigris, which is ira
versed by small boats for distance
nearly four times as great as the nav
igable reaches Of the Hudson river,
flows past many ruins which have
proved an almost inexhaustible mine
of information for psychologists. OPP
posite Mosul, from which we have de-
rived the word muslin, applied to the
fabric first imported into Europe from
this town in the twelfth century, there
are to be found the extensive remains
of what was once naughty Nineveh,
ever associated in the popular mind
with the Biblical account of Jonah, the
great fish and the gourd vine.
Ruins of Once Mighty Assur.
Sixty miles down the river from Nj
neveh, which was the last capital Of
Assyria, there squats the mean little
Arab village of Kal'at-Shergat, on the
buried ruins of Assur, the first great
city Of the Assyrian empire. 1t was
in honor Of their god Assur that high
priests founded the city of the same
name. These priestly builders and adj
ministrators were at first under the
suzerainty of Babylonia but when that
empire fell into decay they succeeded
in establishing themselves as indie
pendent kings, founding a dynasty
which held ruthless sway over this
section Of the world for centuries.
Another historic place on the banks
of the Tigris is Nimrud, which legend
tells us was built by the Biblical hero
who in addition to being mighty
hunter is credited with having been
the protector of the Tower Of Babel,
and also with having cast Abraham in
to the fire because the father of the
Israelites refused to worship idols.
Not long ago British soldiers were
contending with the Turks in the en-
virons of the ancient capital of the
Parthian kings, Ctesiphon, few miles
south of Bagdad. Here one finds the
ruins of the great palace known as
"the throne of Khosrau," the most re-
markable example of sassanian archi-
lecture extant.
The Tigris has two main sources in
the Taurus mountains, at an elevation
of 5000 feet. The headwaters of the
western branch are only two or three
miles from one Of the sources of the
Euphrates. After the two branches
join the river flows in southeasterly
direction for 500 miles until it unites
with the Euphrates 70 miles above the
Persian gulf, and forms the Shatt-el
Arab. The two principal towns on
this waterway of ancient glory are
Bagdad and Basra.
Diarbekir Once Was Rich.
Diarbekir, situated on the upper
Tigris, has an impressive situation.
Built upon basaltic table land, sur
rounded by walls constructed of basal
tic rock, the city overlooks a broad
bend of the Tigris, which flows by it's
eastern side. Beneath the walls of the
city and within the bend of the river
lies plain covered with vegetation Of
every shade of green that the East
can produce.
Few cities of the earth have under
gone greater vicissitudes than Diarbe-
kir. Roman and Persian, Armenian
and Parthian, Arab and Turk have dis
puted its possession. In one of its
many changes alone, more than $4,000
of its people were put to the sword. So
heavy has been the toll that war has
levied upon it that where once it was
larger than the capital of the United
States, today less than 10000 people
dwell there.
The city is rich in remnants Of it's
former greatness. Old Jacobite, Greek
and Armenian churches raise their
spires to heaven along with the nina
rets of host of Mohammedan
mosques.
Silk raising is a principal industry,