A BICYCLE IN THE EAST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2466, 2 December 1886, Page 2

A BICYCLE IN THE EAST.

> The. good folk in Khorassah were - highly interested in thei:bicy#'of Mr Thotoas Stevens, who is making a oycllng tour of the world, " Once or twice, how ever,-hewrites, "If Hound'a Persian iswhoJpdbeen toiskabad; andii'een the | railway; and the. question would arise'&B £ to .which was the greatest, Marijttj-M : ' railway; train or the bicycle. The njlaqeM wmld Scarcely conoeive of BnytrritrgHxsinj more; wonderful, that the bioyole j but the gesticulating narrator's effort to con?, vinos them, of the marvellous character of the locomotive was nothing if not amwi\ ing.; 'ltis a wonderfnl (fire' carriage) he would say,'' thatwns on an aknrah (iron rod); you put in aUsh and ob (water), and it gues <Au;'c/w, dm, spits fire and smoke, starts off) pulli I 'a long caravan of jowtgont .(waggons) with it, and goes at ; ■ ten;)" /orsaM< • an hour, Becoming interested in-the evidently very acute Russian jealousy in Khorasan ot the' British, I took some pains to raafca inquiries, and learned,- among othor things, that all along the northern fron« tier .territory, .the Persian, officers and swells have been tampered with, and gold-watched,; until they are even now more Russian than Persian," Mn fact," continues Mr Stevens, who Is a shrewd observer of men and manners as well as .an accomplished bioyolistj " after travelling exteusiyely in Khorossan, nothing is more evident to the write? than that the' Bear-.' meanß having this fine productive province sooner or later, and Naser-.ud-DinY Punch and Judy army can do little or nothing to prevent it when the time 'comes, Headed offat Herat, the Bear maynoi. unreasonably be expected to break . cover from ABkabad southward, at no.' distant day. Abu base of operation* against India, Khorassan would be little iuforior, and oertainly in many things superior, to the Herat Valley. Once in possession of Khorassan; a railroad could be pushed within a hundred miles of' Furrah, and less than four hundred of Quetta, without touching Afghan territory and through a moreorleßs fertile country all the way from Meshed."