Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1920-01-09
INTERESTING TRIP HOME
(By DR.. May Fleming)

~ 49, 4t1eey = Q
Dear Recorder:
AS have just returned to the Unit
ed States from long journey
through a part of the world not Of
ten visited by most of your readers
it may be they will be interested to
hear of some of my experiences.
We left Tabriz, Persia, a party of
five, on Sept. 90th:< Now although
there is a railroad running into Ia
briz from what used to be Russia,
you cannot just decide which day you
wish to go and then go down and take
the train. At present trains run on
ly by arrangements and very great
deal of arrangement at that. When
VIC sent to ask about a train the rail-
road people tried to make us pay Tor
the whole train. But we knew quite
well they intended to sell tickets to
other people and accept freight too,
so we said we would only buy tickets
like anyone else. After more than
week of bargaining, and having the
time changed again and again, we
thought arrangements were sufficient
ly sure fer us to get our lunches
ready and go to the depot. After a
further delay of four hours, the train
really did start. We took with us
lunch for several days, and besides
that enough tea. sugar, native bread
and cheese to last us for good long
time We also took our camp beds
and enough bedding to keep us warm
in cold weather.
We travelled twenty-four hours on
this train, passing out of Persia into
what was Russian territory and is
now claimed by the Armenians, but
was when we came through it in the
hands of the Tartars. We crossed
the Aras river, stream that only
about two months before had been
full from bank to bank with bodies,
the results of the latest Armenian
massacre.
We spent the next night in house
that showed the effects Of the fight
ling that had been going on between
the Tartars and Armenians. From
this place the railroad for about a
hundred miles had been torn up and
we had to go over this gap in auto
mobiles. AS we had to pass through
both the Tartar, and Armenian lines,
and the mo Mans Land" between
them we did not know quite what
might happen. We had permission
from the Tartar chief to pass, if we
did it within ten days, for after that
time they expected fighting again.
However, we were not at all sure
that his followers would respect the
-pass if they thought we had anything
they wanted. We flew the American
flag from each of our three cars and
a big flag of truce on the first one.
1t was a beautiful autumn day and
the road was fine. We were all day
lin sight of beautiful Mount Ararat,
that is the grandest mountain I ever
saw. The spice Of danger was
enough to make things interesting,
and 1 enjoyed the day very much.
We did not stop for lunch or any
thing else except when we were stop
ped. That happened several times,
but they always let us go again and
we got through all right.
This brought us to Erivan, from
which trains were running, though
somewhat irregularly. -Erivan was
just one big relief camp for Armenian
refugees, the population of the city
having been more than doubled by
them. We saw few Of the twenty
two orphanages that are being main
tanned there by the Committee for
Armenian and Syrian Relief.
The next stage of our journey was
accomplished in box car. We rode
in this way not because we could not
get anything else, but because we
thought we could be more comforta-
BILE there than in the dirty, vermin
infested, regular cars. Also because
in that way we could keep all of our
baggage under our own eyes, and we
knew this was necessary If we did
not want to run great risks of losing
it. So we set up our camp beds at
night and sat upon our trunks and
bags by day, and ate our meals from
our own supplies, for another day
and night. This brought us, through
some wild and beautiful mountain
scenery, to Tifiis, which is in the
Georgian Republic. We had to stay
there several days waiting to get
transportation. Tiflis is quite big,
busy city, and the fine houses, paved
streets, electric lights, and attractive
stores, looked very fine to us. We
finally got car attached to the spec
ial train of an American army officer,
and one nights run brought us to
Batoum, at the eastern end of the
Black Sea. Batoum is very hot
place and very low and damp, and
coming out of high, dry Persia, we