Newspaper Page Text
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Airplane View of Constantinople.
(Prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington, D. C.)
Few places in the world have exer
cised such a power of attraction for
travelers as Constantinople, or have
had such widespread reputation for be
ing picturesque.
The severe, classic art of Athens is
not found here; nor the dignity of
Rome; nor the exciting, sullen spirit
that permeates Peking. It is not gay
like Paris, nor learned like Berlin. An
archeologist would he better pleased
with Egypt. But tills is the place be
fore which Gautier, Byron, Loti, De
Aniids and Lamartine wept nnd
swooned with delight before they sat
down to till hooks with ecstatic praises.
But practical modernity lias left its
mark everywhere.
Already there are on nil sides the
changes due to western influence —
trams, electric lights, telephones and a
new safe bridge.
Constantinople’s geographical posi
tion lias made her sanguinary history,
for she controls a high road of com
merce between Asia and Europe, and
Nature herself planned the ports. The
city is divided into three separated
quarters, Stamboul and Pera-Galata lie
on the European side, the Golden Horn
between them, and Scutari squats on
the Asiatic side, across the Bosporus.
Elko outstretched arms, the two straits
come uii from the Sea of Marmora to
the south.
Galata and Pern are the European
quarter, opposite Stamboul, where the
representatives of foreign powers have
long maintained their embassies and
homes. Once the suburbs of Stamboul,
this part of the city was known as
Justiniannpolls until the Genoese made
it Into an Italian town and fortified it
with walls and many towers, one of
which, the Galata Fire Tower, still
stands, a lofty lookout station from
which fires are reported and signals
flashed to ships after dark.
Nowadays I’era’s crooked streets
are alive with allied soldiers, refugees,
relief workers, adventurers, peddlers,
beggars, and a few tourists. Pass
ports, unless one lias business, are dif
ficult to get, and tourists are rarely
seen.
The American residents number
about four hundred, the largest colony
between Rome and Manila. There is
but little social life, and the only
places of amusement are the cafes and
restaurants, with their adjoining caba
rets and moving-picture screens.
Galata Bridge Its Keynote.
While the Galata bridge between the
European quarter and Stamboul still
lives up to its tradition of having every
nationality in the world cross it at
least once an hour, it lacks some of
its old charm, because of the Turkish
people's renunciation of color. The
men for the most part have adopted
the European business suit, with
which they wear a red fez, and the
women's costumes are usually of black.
What the Itialto bridge is to Venice,
the Pont Neuf to Paris, the West
minster to London, so is the Galata
bridge to Constantinople—the keynote
to the city.
A constant stream of polyglot peo
ples flows across the Golden Horn:
Russian refugees, in pajamacoats
tucked Into trousers grown too large;
Armenian and Greek merchants and
refugees; British, French and Italian
army ami navy officers; American sail
ors; Chinese, Japanese and Persian
merchants; the last of the outmoded
eunuchs; dervishes in brown, with
cone-shaped hats; Cretans In baggy
trousers and embroidered vests; Greek
priests with black chiffon veils
streaming from their hats; Immals
(porters) with roomfuls of furniture
on their backs; Arabs In yellow bur
nooses ; maimed and diseased beggars;
Mohammedan priests in plr.k or green
robes; black troops in red caps ana
sashes; Jewish guides; American re
lief workers; Hindustani guards in
twisted turbans and scarlet capes; an
occasional woman gypsy in baggy
trousers; Levantine tradesmen; Al
banian peasants in embroidered white
leggings; Hawailnns, Filipinos, and a
few drummers from “points west of
Chicago”—all these pass back and
fortli In the course of a day.
The taxes were recently doubled on
the bridge, and the eight Turkish col
lectors were ordered to make the Turk
ish women, previously exempt, pay for
the privilege of crossing the Golden
Horn. The women, however, indig
nantly refused, and at both ends of the
bridge a constant conflict went on be
tween protesting oflicinls and the wom
en, who slipped by with exclamations
of anger.
The collectors did not have the
temerity to lay hands on these toll
evaders, because Turkish women were
for so long a time the exclusive prop
erty of their husbands that custom
still forbids a man detaining a woman
by force in any sort of public., argu
ment.
The traditional sacredness that sur*
rounds the person of a Turkish woman
had a curious result during the war,
for the Turks did not dare to search
one of them, even though it wns known
that she carried unlawful messages In
her garments.
On both sides of the bridge are docks
for small steamers that take com
muters back and forth between the
Golden Horn and Scutari, the 15 sta
tions of tlie Bosporus, and the Princes
islands. At rush hours these efficiently
operated boats are as packed as a New
York ferry.
Stamboul Is Really Turkish.
If anything of the real Turkey Is to
be seen, Pera must be abandoned foi
Stamboul. In this ancient city, which
was Byzantium and New Rome, the
mosques, coffee houses, turbehs
(domed tombs) and fountains remind
one, even in their dilapidation, of the
city’s past (lays of greatness.
Although the houses are nenrly all
constructed of wood, they are never
painted, for the Turks have a theory
that if their property looks prosperous
their taxes will be increased. So the
window lattices crumble and fall, the
boards sag, the shingles warp, and
nothing is repaired.
The population is inactive and looks
discouraged. Men sit in cafes and talk
about the hard times. Old graybeards
sit on the sidewalks and smoke nargi
lehs. The letter-writer has a stand
near the centrally located mosques,
and still makes an excellent living
from the Turks, few of whom can read
or write.
A group of dervishes, who, like the
city, have declined in picturesqueness,
pass slowly up the streets. Hamals,
the native expressmen, stagger along,
crying, “Make way 1” As in the old
days, kabobjees slice off strips of roast
ing meat to tempt the appetites of the
passersby.
As In Pera, Russian refugees have
been everywhere, selling flowers, kew
ple dolls, oil paintings of Constantino
ple, cakes and trinkets, books and
newspapers printed in Russian. They
slept in the open streets and on th
steps of the mosque. They loafed,
begged, worked when they could find
a job, and sometimes sobbed with hun
ger.
These Days.
The fellow who wrote “Mother, May
I Go Out to Swim?” lived In a day
when mother was occasionally consult
ed. These days it’s almost impossible
to ask mother anything. She isn’t ai
Lome. —Richmond Times-Disnatch.
THE DAN I ELS VILLE MONITOR, DANIELSVILLE, GEORGIA.
Lovelorn French
Girls Form Club
Despairing of Achieving Wedded
Bliss They Unite to Accom
plish Their Purpose.
FIND COMPETITION IS KEEN
Wearing of Green Ribbon Is Sign Girl
is Quite Serious and Wants to
Get Married—Must Obey
the Rules.
Paris. —Among the hundreds of thou
sands of surplus women in France, a
small group of Paris midinettes have
formed a marriage club. Their insignia
is a small bit of green ribbon on the
coat, so that any man seeing a girl
decorated in this way knows right
away that she is quite serious and
wants to get married.
The marriage competition is keen
among the girls, and tlie lonely ones
have taken to this form of advertise
ment to settle down in life and have a
chance to leave the sweatshops. Due
to the facilities of life in Paris there
are numbers of bachelors, many of
whom would like to get married, only
up to now they never seemed to meet
tlie right sort of girl.
Fear to Make Break.
Serious girls have hitherto met at
tractive young men on their way to
work, and have seen others daily where
they lunch, but they have never dared
allow the men to speak to them, nor
flirt with the men, because they were
afraid of being taken for something
they were not. Tlie girls never could
tell the intentions of the men, and the
men always suspected women who no
ticed them. Now ail tills has been
changed.
The man who wants to get married
wears a bit of green in liis buttonhole,
but he must not take advantage of this
by going up and accosting the first
girl he meets with a similar bit of St.
Patrick’s color. According to tlie un
written laws of the club, he must wait
until he has seen some girl member a
number of timfs. Then, if their daily
paths cross, hi can finger his bit of
ribbon in a suggestive manner. If she
New Plan to Prevent Forest Fires
Fire tool boxes, containing tools sufficient to equip five, ten and twenty
five men or more, are placed on a pack mule and stationed throughout the na
tional forests by the United States forest service to fight forest fires. This
photograph shows a ranger and a mule loaded with a fire box which is to be
placed in a strategic position.
Oldham
They appreciate the big hearts of the Americans who have sent them relief these Armenian orphans parading
on the grounds of the Near East I'.e'ief orphanage at Jabail, Syria, about twenty-five miles north of Beirut.
approves of him she will smile, and
then he can Introduce himself.
Holds First Meeting.
The club had its first meeting the
other dr.y In the crowded neighorhood
between the city hall and the Bastille,
but the members failed to reach any
agreement on how to get married. One
suggestion seemed to carry weight.
That was to give a number to every
holder of the green ribbon, but they
have to prove themselves worthy of
this and pass a medical examination.
Then if a man’s affections turn to some
attractive damsel, such as XYZ-2189,
he can go to the club nnd fill a form
professing his affections and giving a
full account of himself, which will be
submitted to the girl he has decided
on. It is predicted that this sugges
tion will not prevail, for it is too slow
and complicated for Cupid. But there
will lie frequent dances and excursions,
so that the young people will have an
opportunity of knowing each other
well.
They say the men will have a good
Pranks Played
by Mark’s Fall
Fluctuating Exchange Rate
Sometimes Works to Advan
tage of German People.
MINER NOW MULTIMILLIONAIRE
St. Louis Man Leaves Brother In Ger
many $30,000, and Long Hunt for
Beneficiary Multiplies
Fortune.
Berlin. —Freakish pranks played by
the fluctuating exchange rate are writ
ing a colorful chapter in the life of
Germans. While the low value of the
mark In most cases is spelling grief, It
sometimes works to advantage of the
native.
time, due to the natural surplus of
women in France, which the war has
accentuated.
CUBIST ART “OUTCUBED”
Latest Movement in Painting Seeks
to Express Life and Soul in
Geometrio Lines.
Paris. —“Geometric art,’’ anew
movement In painting which seeks to
express life and soul in geometrical
lines instead of In the soft strokes of
the conventional school strikes a star
tling note in the fifteenth autumn
salon, which held its “varnishing day"
recently.
Artists of ten nationalities have
hung in the exhibition more than fifty
“line pictures," which make the fol
lowers of cubism seem hopelessly con
ventional. Tlie contributors to the
new idea are enthusiastic over its
possibilities, believing their movement
will eventually contribute anew
school of art.
Geometrism treats of conventional
subjects, such as nudes, landscapes
and interiors, but employs carefully
worked-out lines according to the
rules of geometry. Tlie pictures are
said to have a keen appeal for mathe
maticians.
This has been demonstrated in the
case of Selrnar Meyrowdtz, a Berlin or
chestra leader, who regrets that he did
not receive a heavier fine than was
meted out to him last summer for at
tempting to take cigarettes across the
Czech border. Meyrowltz was motor
ing to Marienbad and, having a num
ber of acquaintances there, he went
well supplied with cigarettes, which
he purposed to distribute as gifts. His
impression that the frontier customs
control had grown lax was dispelled
when the Czech customs authorities
fined him 10,000 marks.
Cut Fine in Half.
Repeated pleas for clemency failed
Meyrowitz, even after he had pictured
the sorry straits of the intellectuals of
nowadays. Finally, however, the
Czechs decided to cut the fine in half,
and Meyrowitz has now received a
check for more than 446 kronen, the re
ht-hrtng uccording to the
rate of exchange at the time sentence
was pronounced. Four hundred and
forty-six kronen today are equivalent
to nearly 60,000 marks.
A Bochum miner named Bagenski,
living in humble circumstances and the
father of six children, became a multi
millionaire in marks over night through
a legacy of $30,000 received from the
estate of his brother, a St. Louis hotel
owner. The brother went to the United
States some thirty years ago and had
been believed dead many years. The
miner, after his brother’s death, had
changed his place of residence, and
during the time he was being sought
that the bequest could be given him
its value computed in marks meantime
had multiplied many times.
Inherits Millions.
A young woman habitue of one of
Berlin’s dancing pltrces has fallen heir
to 70,000,000 marks left her by an aged
American who died of heart disease
while visiting Germany. The old man
met the girl casually in the dance hall
several days prior to his death. Busi
ness called him to Westphalia. He be
came ill while making the journey. The
girl was informed and reached his
bedside just before the end. A few
days later a notary delivered her a
sealed portfolio which her acquaint
ance had willed her because she had
brightened his last days on earth. It
contained jewelry, $15,000 and consid
erable other foreign currency, the
mark value footing up 70,000,000.