New Britain herald., 1928-08-10
RAILS WILL TAME
 W|LDS 0F RUSSIA
Eastern Section Of Country to
 Be Improved

Washington, Aug. lo.-tP)-The Soviet government apparently las decided to win its wild east with railroads.
 By 1880. the National Geographic Society says, steel rails will bridge a thousand miles of semi | Vrt linking Russian Turkestan to Si- bera.
 Frun.e formerly Pishpek) and Semipalatinsk, termini of the pro- jected railroad, are strange names to American ears. Yet Americans should be able to understand Tur- kestan better than any other peo- pie, for the winning of the Land of the Seven Rivers" is much like the winning of Americas own West
 kirxhiz instead of Comanches, | snow-capped Tien Shan instead of | the Rockies, salt lake Balkhash in stead of Great Salt Lake, tigers and partners instead Of mountain lions, | deer instead of buffalo, yurts in-
  of United States army scouts. ko- doki instead of land agents-the same pioneer story in different words. Substitute St. Louis for Frunze. Alma Alta formerly Verni) for Omaha, kopal for Cheyenne, Sergiopol for Ogden. SelA pala- tinsk for Reno, and Novo Sibirsk fformoriy NoEo NiI-oIaavSl-N San Francisco, and one has an idea what this new railroad means to Central Asia. One town already has moved 50 miles, bag tand bag gage, homes. post office and tavern, to be on the railroad.
 When the old Russian govern ment opened the fertile valleys of eastern Russian Turkestan to colo nization few years before the world war. in poured land-hungry peasants from European Russia. Some high officer would command, Plant 20 villages in this valley this year." and no sooner had the engineers laid out the streets than the stream of covered wagons from the west would wind into the new domain. Turf houses and trees houses can be dated by the growth of their windbreaks, so the Russian colonists dwellings are as old as their waving poplars are tall.
 Central Asia is no dreary exile prison, although Dostoievsly, the author was condemned to Semi palatinsh and Trotsky to Alma Ata, For thousands of Russians it is land of hope. They expect the new railroad, which will pass along the foothills of the Tien Shan and then turn north around the east end of Lake Balkhash, to do for them what transcontinental trains did for the United States. A railroad will en- able them to send out wheat. bar ley. rye, rice and apples from their irrigated farms and wool and nut ton from their illimitable pastures.
 Like the Indian, the kirghiz fades before the eolonists because he will net settle down in one place with hts wives. Many of the nomads who still insist on passing from the lonlands to the uplands as the sea sons change have been forced over the border into Chinese Turkestan. They live in demountable felt huts called yurts and reckon their wealth in horses, oxen, goats and sheep. Nominally Mohammedan, the kirghiz wear turbans, but the women never attach vcils to their bulky white headdresses.
 Central Asia has developed a great interest in the New World, probably because il has more in common with the Americans than with Europe. Erect Cossack, fat faced peasant, swarthy kirghiz and the yellow Chinese Mohamme- dan gather in stuffy halls to see movies of the American wild west And the article which gives officers guarding against Chinese snug glers the most trouble is Havana cigars