It is a point of great importance to modern Russia. It forms, to
begin with, the end of the great military road across the mountains
which, in spite of the railways, is still the quickest way to Europe
for an army as well as for travelers, and all the mails come over
it by express coaches. From Tiflis a railway runs to Kars, a strong
frontier on the Persian frontier.
Tiflis has been much developed under the Russian Government. In
the modern section of the city the streets are wide and paved and
lighted by electricity and the stores are large and handsome while
electric railways run in all directions. In the older parts of the
city, however, the houses remain as they were built centuries ago,
divided out into the many quarters devoted to the residences of the
many races and nationalities that compose the population of Tiflis.
Between most of them is bitter enmity and prejudice, even among those
of the two great religious faiths, Christians and Mohammedans. It
is this diversity of interests, which extends throughout all the
section down into Persia, which has so complicated the situation
on this front. For not only are the two military forces fighting
here, but wherever governmental authority is momentarily relaxed,
there these mutual animosities flare up into active expression and
the most barbarous features of warfare take place, such as the
massacres of the Armenians by the Mohammedans.
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