The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-12-20
@HERE Is n bit Of seashOre Of
such vital Importance to our
world today that thitherward

"~HERE Is n Dit or SeaSnOre OF
such vital Importance to our
world today that thitherward
Is directed the anxious gaze
Of all the leaders of the nations. 1t
figures prominently as one of the ques-
tons involved In the great war, is the
territory Of an important campaign,
and was, in fact, n of the prime fac
tors in the causation of the war. 1t
has been a region of high Importance
since the first morning Of our civili-
zation, rich alike in history and fable
probably the cradle of western culture,
the playground of many empires gone
(and perhaps of others yet to Gomez,
whose u%ndulating sands and hills hold
the ruins OF sixty centuries. 1t Is q
haunt OF tranceful dreams and infinite
fascination, q latitude which can lay
most plausible claim to the cOnsidera-
ton Of all Of us.
And yet, in our time Of knowledge,
these coast lands, famous for ages,
are scarcely knOwn-nO more probably
than they were to the curious Greeks
of HerodotuS' time or to the Chaldeans
who studied the stars and the sea a
dozen centuries enthusiastically no
more than they were to the geogra-
piers of-Bagdad or the merchants Of
Ispahan in the days Of the good Ha-
roun al Raschid, writes Proyer Bura-
nelli i'm the New York World. The Per-
sian gulf lies brooding with the ages.
Around It's ancient waters are set the
luster-shOrn crown jewels Of Islam. 1t
is a solitude of obscure wonders await
ing exploration.
The Persian gulf is a l~andlocked
body Of water of OblOng shape lying
between Arabia and Persia. 1t Is about
five hundred miles long by an average
Of two hundred miles wide, extending
from northwest to southeast. It's out
let to the Indian ocean, the Straits OF
Ormuz, is less than three hundred
miles from the outpost frontier OF In
dia, so that q power controlling the
| gulf, say by holding q fortress at the
tip of the Pirate coast, the Arabian
side of the narrow strait, would have
an immediate sally port for excursions
| against the empire Of the east. Indeed,
with proper railroad facilities in Ash
| attic Turkey, the Persian gulf becomes
the logical route to India.
So It is not astonishing that when
the heavy spectacles Of German schol-
arship formed an alliance with kaiser
Itch mustachiOs the idea of the North
sea-to-Persian-gulf railroad cropped up
Immediately and showed extreme per-
| tinacity. The center of equilibrium
in the Orient lies in the control Of the
Persian gulf.
AS in the Days of the Prophet.
To one side is Persia, to the other
Arabia, with crumbled Babylon look
ing down from the north. Where a
fairer setting for the romancer? Along
the low, sandy and %forbidding west
shore lie the provinces of Ell Hasa and
Oman, the latter with that precious
territory known as the Pirate coast
Here the various touches OF modern
culture are perfectly unknown. The
Arab holds forth much as he did when
the prophet was raising the first rue.
tions of the Islamitic storm. And the
Arab is a person of wide and deserved
reputation. On this coast he is seen
in his most characteristic guises-and
also In roles comparatively unknown
to the outside world. Camels, sand
storms and the desert are the usual
settings for the b%urnoused follower OF
the prophet. But on the Persian gulf
coast the Arab has become an expert
sailor-and pirate. He follows both
of these worthy avocations with all the
guile traditional of his breed-and
often it is guile quite fantastic to the
| occidental mind.
The coast has long been a refuge
for Outlawed characters from western
Europe. They partake readily in the
robberies and ~piracies of the natives
which in spite Of English gunbOats
flourish exceedingly. Slave trading
and gun running are lucrative profes
| sions, and the warriors Of central Asia
are enabled to make large amounts OF
trouble, thanks to the rifles placed In
their hands by these hardy rascals OF
the gulf littOral.
All along the sandy waste lie treas
ure stores Of ruins. Travellers have
described h%alf-buried stone formations
the relies of man long before the early
! civilization of the REGION Where Is 9