Tashkent

the capital of Russian Turkestan. The ordinary reader is so apt to picture all Turkestan as a dreary waste of rock and sand that it is worth while to form an adequate picture of this city and the region in which it is situated.

Tashkent is very near the geographical center of Asia. It is situated near a branch of the Sir Daria, the Jaxartes of the ancients. This river and its affluents supply water for a population of 3,000,000 prosperous people. The city came into the hands of the Russians about 1865. The population is about 180,000, of whom about 12,000 are Russians.

The city is divided into old Tashkent and new Tashkent, the latter being the Russian quarter. It looks much like a Russian city. A stream from the mountains thirty miles away provides the city with an abundance of water. Numerous canals carry it to all parts of the city.

The houses are built of adobe. They are covered with plaster and are decorated with kalsomine in bright colors. Pink and blue are favored tints. The roofs are made of poplar rafters thatched with reeds. Each house is surrounded by a garden enclosed by a wall. The gardens and the canals take up so much room that the streets are oftentimes reduced to mere paths completely embowered with overhanging foliage.

Travelers describe the city as clean. In this respect the people and the streets have a Japanese aspect. There are no beggars. The citizens are not highly educated but all children are taught to write and to read the native literature. There are said to be nearly 5,000 shops for the sale of goods. The city is so distant from and no attempt is made to display merchandise or curios to tempt the stranger. The men wear skull caps and coats of silk or cotton woven in all the colors of the rainbow. The women go about after the Mohammedan custom with their heads so wrapped up that their features are indistinguishable.

Tashkent is the terminus of a branch of the Trans-Caspian Railway which was built into the country by the Russians. The old walls are now in ruins. The principal public building are large mosques, a central bazaar or fair, several colleges, and a few old temples. The Russian quarter is quite modern. The streets are broad and well kept. There are electric lights, trolley lines, a public library, a museum, and an arsenal.

The surrounding population is employed in raising rice, cotton, and corn. The citizens are engaged largely in weaving cotton and silk goods, in tanning leather, and in manufacturing articles of leather and felt. There is an extensive trade with the surrounding region and with Russia.

The following account of the antique flouring mills of Tashkent is from the pen of William E. curtis, who traveled recently in that region:

The native city is intersected by hundreds of canals and streams which water beautiful gardens, and looking from a height it would seem that ancient Tashkent was buried under foliage. More than half the houses are concealed by the boughs of trees, and in wandering about the narrow. Crooked streets we frequently came to a rushing stream with trees leaning over the waters. Odd old flourmills are found everywhere with rude wheels that are turned by the force of the water. From the axles of these wheels large wooden teeth project and, as they are turned, huge beams drop from one tooth to another. This causes them to teeter, and being swung on a pivot in the middle, the farther end, which is shod with iron, keeps dropping incessantly into a square mortar and pulverizes the wheat or other grain which has been placed there.