Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1907 — WHOLETOWNWIPEDOUT [ARTICLE]

WHOLETOWNWIPEDOUT

Fifteen Thousand Persons Perish in Awful Landslide. . * _ V ... ONLY TWO SUKVIYE. Terrible Disaster in Bokhara, Province of Russian Turkestan. PEOPLE BtTBIED BT MOUNTAIN. Horror Follows Recent Sorlaa of Severe Earthquakes. The whole of the town of Karatagh, in Bokhara, Russian Turkestan, has been destroyed and the entire population, numbering about 15,000, was buried by a tremendous mountain elide following the recent earthquake there. It Is declared that scarcely a score of the people have survived, and that their sufferings are pitiable. One report Is to the effect that the Governor of Karatagh and his mother are the only survivors. The slide was caused by the recent severe earthquakes In the mountains. Karatagh Is situated In a narrow valley, with precipitous mountains towering above It Although landslides are frequent in that legion, following earthquakes, the people remained In the town, and when the Immeasurable weight of rock crushed down upon them they were caught in a trap. The entire town, It Is said, is buried from view. Hundreds were jsntombed in their homes. The cold is severe and adds greatly to the suffering of the few survivors. The mountaineers hurried to the scene and are caring for the living, but owing to the danger of further rock slips it is impossible to attempt to reach those buried in the ruins. Bokhara, or, as it is sometimes called, Turkestan, lies high up in the mountainous regions of Asia, with Russian Turkestan to the north and 'Afghanistan on the south. It is a dreary expanse of arid plains, bordered and intersected by mountains. Its population is estimated at 1,500,000, not including the wandering hordes that eke out a scanty living on the plains and in the narrow valleys. In summer the heat is intense and the winters are long imii Bpypre Earthquakes nrn fro. quent The country is famous for its horses and the breeding of shawl goats furnishes a means of livelihood to many of Its people. In recent years the Transcaspian Railway has Improved the industrial condition of the country, which for ages depended on camel caravans to carry its produce to outside markets .and bring back the firearms, the powder and the few other necessaries of life in that wild country. Although a region of poverty now, Bokhara was the seat of powerful rulers in the middle ages. The people still retain their courage, but little else of their former greatness. Tashkend, from which news of the Karatagh disaster was sent, is an important commercial town in Asiatic Russia and the capital of Russian Turkestan.