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Show The peisianfiulf On the Shores of the Persian Gulf. THERE Is .a bit of seashore of such vital Importance to our world today that thitherward is directed the anxious gaze of all the leaders of the nations. It figures prominently as one of the questions ques-tions Involved In the great war, is the of prehistoric man in Europe. Southern South-ern Arabia holds the remains of what seems a very early and quite unknown civilization. Excavation may add a new and revolutionary page to the history his-tory of culture. Large parts of Arabia have never tenitory of nn important campaign, and was, In fact, one of the prime factors fac-tors in the causation of the war. It has been a region of high importance since the first morning of our civilization, civili-zation, rich alike In history and fable j probably the cradle of western culture, the playground of many empires gone (and perhaps of others yet to come), whose undulating sands and hills hold the ruins of sixty centuries. It is a haunt of tranceful dreams and Infinite fascination, a latitude which can lay most plausible claim to the consideration considera-tion of all of us. And yet. In our time of knowledge, ' these const lands, famous for ages, are scarcely known no more probably than they were to the curious Greeks of Herodotus' time or to the Chaldeans who studied the stnrs and the sea a dozen centuries earlier assuredly no more than they were to the geographers geogra-phers of Barrdao or he merchants of Ispahan In the ua s of the goWT"Tia- , r,,nn nl PtiEiiklH writes ProVOT Hliril- been explored by the outsider, some not even by the Arabs themselves, It would seem. The natives will tell you that certain sections are impassable. Some of this may he -" i trifle of reserve, for wIU desert meretvawn have been kr-r-spread horriflt reports 11S V g characteristics of this ,.V tbe S-tbat the very air is gJctTon or that t away F'-.''Xmen from the rM.i .Ahlovius J.laden caravans. jMace and Rum. Ifcs a ruggec and fefeta ra fnlnM tutraSfl be-forgottenMflJ He Sliiraz amiBJ romantic glory. iiH as Arnby itself. T.uJ )V1"'" :,usly cnouL'll he IS imiiiisti mse'Lng freed and left to earn his own living, which virtually consigns him to a lingering death. Across the Straits of Ormuz, oppo-! oppo-! site the tip of the Pirate coast, Is the once great trading city of Ormuz, now n ruin, showing evidences of vanished magnificence. Western travelers who visited the city In the days of Its splen- I dor five hundred years ago used ex-travugant ex-travugant language In describing the wealth and luxury which prevailed mere. But Ormuz after undergoing spectacular ups and downs finally decayed de-cayed and fell Into dust, and Is now nn object for the philosophic ruminations rumina-tions of the tourist, a cadaver for the dissecting picks and shovels of the There are tew ports and Mil' Interior iM rind fractions irilifl are sites and Cities imlmj tourists, all been drui ed Into L western world by the iH poetS in their laller-da.vB A I lli" narrow nort hern Persian gull lies the anebfl the I 'lialdeans. 1 1 is her.' lied rivers, the Euphrates J grls, unite and flow tR " On the Tigris is Tho Kulf- ( of the Arabian N"-'1'"' tl,t cll-v ' Babylon are ne'1,s- 1 ht' n"118 of ' rivers rmV "'r '",1,n""s i tho 1 side, on, n",st Parallel. On every 1 , file snnds, or more often be- I them, are the decayed remnants i f days which stir the Imagination of he dullest. Persia, Chulden, Arabia II clustered about the gulf and tho I nurlsi I'ound ilieiu not. 1 nelli In the New Tori; World. The Persian Per-sian gulf lies brooding with the ages. Around Its ancient waters are set the luster-shorn crown Jewels of Islam. It Is a solitude of obscure wonders awaiting await-ing exploration. The Persian gulf Is a lnndloeked body of water of oblong shape lying between Arabia and Persia. It Is about five hundred miles long by nn average of two hundred miles wide, extending from northwest to southeast. Its outlet out-let to the Indian ocean, the Strults of Ormuz, Is less than three hundred ndles from the outpost frontier of India, In-dia, so that a power Controlling tie-gulf, tie-gulf, say by holding a fortress at the tip of the Pirate coast, the Arubian Hide of tho narrow strait, would have nn Immediate sally port for excursions against the empire of the east. Indeed, with proper railroad facilities 'n Asl-ntlc Asl-ntlc Turkey, the Persian gulf becomes the logical route to India. So It Is not astonishing that when the heavy spectudes of German scholarship schol-arship formed an nlllance with kaiser-llch kaiser-llch inustachlos the Idea of the North-Sea-to-Perslan-gnlf railroad cropped up Immediately and showed extreme pertinacity. per-tinacity. The center of equilibrium In the Orient lies In tho control of the Persian gulf. As in the Days of the Prophet. To one side Is Persia, to the other Arnidu, with crumbled Babylon looking look-ing down from the north. Where U-fnlrer U-fnlrer setting for the romancer? "j 0, the low, sandy and f(ai)iddi l(ing , shorn lie the provineosof we8J Oman, ll,1 Hasa und t i,.Qj((iaWTfTrvviih thai precious WflTrylnii'wii as Ihe Pirate coast. , Here the various touches of modern culture tire perfectly unknown. The Arab holds forth much as he did when the prophet was raising the first ructions ruc-tions of the tslamitlc storm. And iho Arab Is a person of wide and deserved reputation, On this coasl he Is seen in bis mosl characteristic guises nnd also lii roles comparatively unknown to the outside world. Cdltiels, sand storms and the desert are the usual sellings for the burnoused follower of the prophet, Bui Oh tho Persian gulf coast the Arab has become an expert sailor and pilule. lie follows bolb of these worthy avocations with nil the guile trndlllomil of his breed nnd often ii is guile quite fantastic to ihe occidental mind, The coast has long been a refuge for outlawed characters from western T I I e y JbjjSjJjJSajlmlil ' III III" jt gJH mi MM .mini. n , B 1 1 H pi K VJ in BL i |