Evening star., 1920-02-09
CAUCASUS REGION :
NOW IN L|MEuGHT;
One of Richest Areas in!
World 0vershadowed by Ma
ieStic Mountain Peaks.


and capital at one end of the range
and fabulous oil hoarhs of Baku at
| the other. inspiring covetous inn
| perialistic interest, the long line of
mountains which separates Europe
| from Asia gives promise of once more
attaining the headline position it sor:
often has held throughout the ages.
says bulletin from the National
| Geographic Society. "a
| Made up of 400 miles of majestic
| peaks in three ridges. tive Caucasus
! stretches from northwest to south
east like "A petritied wsNe, whose
northeastern face mounts to the
! snowy crest. but whose southwestern
| front. facing toward Turksy. seems:
| dashed into countless preccipes by
| the titanic forces of nature.
''Once the Caucasus was p fabied
| land of rivers of gold and rieh VINE
! yards. of orchards bent low with the
weight of luscious fruit And OF
storied hills rich in all the known
\ minerals of the age. g.
| Caucasus Haven for Many.
| The Caucasus is the most inter-
| esting rabbit warren of humanity on
| the globe For uncounted ages yari-
Gus people sfted through the seelud-
/ ed valleys leaving fraction of tceir
number in some remote spot. so t2iat
| at one time FL azizi said that thSIe.
| we're 300 tribes and dialects in .he;s
\ a :.
! broad which he called the 'MountavnJ
| of Languages Y"
! ..Strabo spoke of seventy races OF meis,
| some of them armed with poisoned ar =
rows and wearing skin shoes wltls
spiked soIes Troglodytes there werek
| and are The Caucasus is sort Oh
three ring group of natural marveis
! compressed between Europe ana ASA, q
between the Black sea and the Caspian.
| ION the European slope. the Caucasus
| is f1anked by the Cossacks of the Don.
| the Kuban and the Terek, along whose
banks the famous Tolstoy served as
| young soldier.
new republics of Georgia. Azerbaitan
| and Armenia partly carved from Rus-
sian. partly from Turkish lands.
within the Caucasus itself there are
still many strange tribes. Most hand
their neighbors the Imeretians. The
Gurians and Swans. the khevsurs,
Tushes and Abkhasians. the kabards.
the Ossetians. Lesghians. Tchetchens
| and Tatars-all are huddlcd in a re-
gion SO lacking in roads or modern COM
! munications that each tribe is as isolat-
! ed as though it possessed continent OF
it's own. ,r,
Those Who Left Deepest Impress. -
THE people who have left the deepest
impress the Caucasus. althougn =
most of them emigrated to Turkey in
! a., ,.s
! The lovelineSS of their women forms the
, lure of countless harem tales and the
daring of the men furnishes the con- -
trast 20 the hourI-IIke charm Of the Cir--r
cassian ma idens who made harems-
popular, not only along the beautiful
Bosporus, but in romantic literature as
| we'll
THE Tcherkess gave to the Caucasus
and the fancy dress ball the Tcherkeska.
the familiar skirted costume of the war
.I4 l,tH ruvs0
grandee. 1t is the original opera bouffe
uniform. with narrow waist and far
ing skirts above soft boots without
| heels.
This costume also is distinguished
by eighteen cartridge cases ranged
across the chest which is made i'm
lposing not only by this perambulant /.
ammunition dump. but also by the-.f
fact that the upper portion Of thes
touter garment is left unfastened %
that the dark shirt below shows wild
Ier and wider toward the top.
| Formerly. real cartridges gave a.,
truly martial aspect to the dress, inss :
which straight sword worn dag
ionally across the front and another
ijust sharp suspended from the side.
were almost the only visible weapons
iuntil the automatic revolver came into
fashion. -
| But comparative wealth and peaceS
overlook the Georgians and the 9TH.
er town dwellers who were the strik-.T
ing dress and gradually these car-h
tridges were changed for decoratives
of ebony at one end and ivory at thet
other. 6
| Could Vary Color scheme. -
Thus the Caucasian Beau Brummel
could vary the color scheme by REL
versing the decorations so that
white costume would be trimmed in
black from cartridge case to daggersi
nd d1yl- frh l.n ncl. ha or ~
livened by ivory cartridges and ivory
handled daggers hanging from a.,
/ shining silver belt. Il
| "MoGernity has gone ever fartheraE
! One of these cartridge cases now isd
| sometimes used for "A fountain PEN
and the ultra fastidious dandy some
times has hollow decorations in whose
solid gold shell is concealed rich per-
! fume for the mustache.
| The North Caucasus is not distin-
guished solely by legendary lore and
! fancy dress manhood. The broad-s
| fields which sweep gently up toward
the slopes produce some Of Russia'ss
most abundant grain crops and FORM
an important field for the sale and
use of modern agricultural machinery.
"A little deeper among the foothills
hundreds of thousands Of sheep roam
the slopes. climbing toward the eter-
nal snowfelds and l25-mile glacier,
! in summer. returning to the valleyo'I
Of the Kuban and the Terek when
the colo OF winter sweeps through
the few passes that pierce the long
mountain barrier.
sheltered among the hills and Of
fering wonderful mountain views Of
the main ridge of the Caucasus, which
reaches height three times that of-
Mount Washington. lie the North Cau-s.
caSus mineral baths at Pyatigorsk
and Kislovodsk. whose popularity
among the wealthy was second only,
to that of the winter resorts Of theE
Crimea.
Famous "Nnrznn" Spring. ia
"At Kislovodsk is the famous Mar
zan' spring. with a flow of half Q
million gallons day. in whose ener-5
vescent waters bathing was cheap. ALL
though the water when bottled COM
manded high price in Europeanl
cities and even in Persia and Siberia.iy
The Circassians called this sparkling
lcarbonic water the drink of heroes
North Caucasia. or Cis-Caucasia.
a bounds in oil, although it is only
at Maikop and Grozny that any ioWs
is found to compare with the world'
famed petroleum fields at Baku. When
the revolution unseated the EnglisH?
managers at GroZny, thousands or
barrels of oil were flooding the coun-
tryside while the workmen sought to
imprison their managers as guar
antee that their self-raised wages
would be forthcoming.
$50 much has been written about
Georgia. Armenia and the Azerbaijan
republic south of the mountain from
tier that few realize that just north
of the historic rock wall between Eu-
rope and Asia there lies one of the