Evening star., 1920-11-18
CR|MfA GARDEN. :: ::
SPOT OF RUSSIA;
Land Made Famous by
Florence Nightingale and :
Almost Countless Wars.

The crimea, in which nsFspaper dis.
patches say Gen. Wrangels anti-bolshe-
Sik forces have met disaster, 10 a. land G
which has aspects known % every school
child. says bulletin issued by the Ma :
tional Geographic Society.
IT is the land Of the Cimmerians
ABOUT whom Homer sang in the -Odys- .
sey and from whom the peninsula takes
us name, the land of the Crimean war
the siege of Seyastopoi and the Charge
of the Light Brigade thSslsnff in which
Florence Nightingale first caused eff
cient, ordered mercy to have a part in
war :
The Crimea is known as The Little
Paradise to the ratars, last Of the many
races to overrun the peninsula before
the land fell under the sway of the
Muscovite. A traveller journeying from
the north is likely to accept this appel
Lation. If at all. with a strong mental
reservation. as he crosses the almost ,
desert-like plains of northern Crimea !
but once over the mountains that rim
the southern shore he will approve the
description with enthusiaSm. There ma
ture has made wonderful garden spot, !
the Riviera of Russia, a combination
or sea, mountains and ;riotous verdure
that really We'd with its famed Italian
counterpart in the days when czarhood
was in flower @ ~
| Land Beloved by. .CEarx.
Though part of what has come to
E3e toked. upon as cold Russia, the
southern shore Of the Crimea brought
70 the old empire. a touch of the
tropics. On the mountain slopes and
! in the sheltered valleys grow grapes,
figs. olives and all the tender fruits;
magnolias. bays and InyrtIes, and a
profusion OF wild flowers and grasses.
fThat the delights Of its mild climate
were discovered q a n ~ SO hr-
! the ruins of Greek, Byzantine and
Italian architecture which are to be
found among the mosques OF the later
Iartars. the palaces OF the Russian
| magnificent modern hotels of the
pleasure town to which the prosperous
classes of Russia focked before the
| world war. Yalta, in these care-free
Gays, was Russia's MICE, Newport and
Miami rolled into one; its cafe and
casino life was as hectic, gay and
expensive as that to be found in any
OF & the worlds pre- war Fairgrounds.
Ihe Crimea is a. Peninsula that
bangs bane fsom Ss1aped .he being an island: It
Russia down into the. Black sea, like
a gigantic watch fob shaped like a
hounder. 1t is attached by the mar
| row ribbon of the Isthmus of Perekop,
mile wide and only a few feet above
sea level. On one side is the Black
sea and on the other the stagnant,
SHALLOW, malodorous waters of the
swatch, or Putrid sea, a lagoon of
the Sea of AzoS. This 'fIs the only un-
broken natural land connection be-
tween the mainland and the Crimea,
but a Few miles to the';easts narrow
part OF the" Putrid sea has been
bridged by the railroad which enters
the peninsula
Still farther eastwSrd a peculiar
natural formation. a mere thread-like
causeway of sand known as the Tongue
OF Arabat. stretches for more than fifty
miles from the mainland to the base Of /
the Hounder's tail that forms the east
ernIpost extension OF the Cnmea. A
canal. has been cut through this spit of
sand near its northern end to. connect
the waters Of the, Sea Of .Azov and those
OF the Putrid sea-. The iRtrenching or
frances to the Crimea are relatively sim
pie matters from the point of, view of
military engineering,
The greatest Width, OF the Crimea
north and south is ,,1ls miles, and its,
greatest length from ,fhead' to tail is
225 miles. 1t contains about 9,70O-
square miles, and is thus approximate
ly tho size Of the state Of Vermont or
the island of Soicilys ,Pefofe the world
war its population vas about 100000.
HaaI uhannsn. In Control.
The Cinasnesaanscelts and close
COuSluSs VI Htt6' 'ttGfyn. were Ih0 mrs.
people known to be ID. possession of the. 4
Crimea,. at the early t;daHn of Greek
historN They weFey dSiyen out by the
ScythiapA. Coast .cnmnunities we're
established by the Greeks at q later date.
The Huns overran the, e,Grimea when they =,
surged sinto Europe. i 1t MAS coIonized
/ by Byzantine Greeks. Ysnetians and
The Tatars later took control and
set up a Mohammedap state under a
line of khans. Bakshi-Saraf. their
capital, remains little changed today.
slice of Asia in Europe. The domi-
nant feature of the old. Tatar city is
the palace of khans. which in many;
ways is like the AIhanbra OF Gra-a
NADIA. -
"The crimea was Conquered by
Catharine the Great Of Russia in It'll y
and remained part of the Russian
empire until that political entity's
collapse in 1917. The bulk of the
population remains Tartar, though there
is an admixture Of both Greek and
Italian blood in the norninally Tartar.
people. =" >
Former Home OF Russian Fleet. :.
'Sevastopol, on the west coast of
the Crfmea, was a great military post .
in the days of the old Russian re- .
gime, and it was as well the home
port, or the Russian Black sea fleet.
From there, according to cherished
imperial dreams, was to 60 forth on
the Russian counterpart of Der
Tag the forces that would wrest the
Bosphorus and Dardanelles from the ,