Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1918-12-13

T(HERE is bit of seashore 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, one of the prime fac
tors in the causation of the war. 1t
has been region Of high Importance
since the first morning Of our civill-
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 undulating sands and hills hold
the ruins of sixty centuries. 1t is
haunt of tranceful dreams and infinite
fascination, a latitude which can lGtt
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
dozen centuries enthusiastically no
more than they were to the geogra-
pliers of Bagdad or the merchants OF
Ispahan in the days Of the good Ha-
roun al Raschid, writes Proyer Bura-
nelli in the New York World. The Per-
sian gulf lies brooding with the ages.
| Around it's ancient waters are set the
| l,ster-shorn crown jewels of Islam. 1t
| is a solitude of obscure wonders await
| ing exploration.
The Persian gulf is landlocked
| 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. Its 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 power controlling the
gulf, sly by holding a 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-gu 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
tons 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 xhe usual
settings for the burnoused 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 refuge
| for outlawed characters from western
Europe They partake readily in the
| robberies and piracies of the natives,
j; which in spite of English gunboats
| flourish exceedingly. Slave trading
alic gun running are lucrative profess
sicns, and the warriors of central Asia
ars enabled to make large amounts of
| trouble, thanks to the rifles placed in
tkeir hands ny these hardy rascals of
| the gulf littoral.
| ALI along the sandy waste lie treas
ure stores OF ruins. Travellers have
| described half-huried stone formations,
the relics of man long before the early
civilization of the region. There is
resemblance to the famous stone age
work at Stonehenge and other remains