San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-04-13
COnstantinOple.

People are always saying that the in
side of Constantinople dispels the illu-
sions which the view of it from the sea
or the neighboring hills has produced.
But those who say SO, if they are not
merely repeating the commonplaces of
their guide-book, can have no eye for
the picturesque. l grant that the inte-
rior is very dirty and irregular, and
tumble-down, that smells offend the
nose, and loud harsh cries the ear. But
then, it is so wonderfully strange and
curious and complex, full Of such bits of
color, such varieties of human life, such
far-reaching associations from the past,
that whatever an inhabitant may desire,
visitor at least would not willingly see
any thing improved or cleared away.
The streets IRE crooked and narrow,
climbing up steep hills, or winding
along the bays of the shore, some
times lined with open booths in which
stolid old Turks sit cross-legged Sleep
lily smoking, sometimes among piles
of gorgeous fruit, which even to behold
is a feast, while sometimes they
are hemmed in by high windowless
walls and crossed by heavy arches,
places where you think robbers must be
lurking. Then, again, you emerge from
one of these gloomy cavities upon an
open space-there are no squares, but
irregular open spaces-ana see such o
group of gaily painted houses, with
walnut or plane trees growing around
them, as one finds on the Bay of Napless
Or you come to a side street, and, look
ing down the vista, catch a glimpse OF
a garden full of luxuriant vines and
rosy pomegranates, and beyond it the
bright blue waves dancing in the sun
light. Now and then one finds some
grand old place Of Roman ruin-an
arch or cistern, or the foundations OF
some forgotten church, whose solidity
mocks the fiimsy modern houses that
surround it-and is carried back in
thought thousand years, to the time
when those courses of fine masonry were
laid by the best architects of Europe.
Not that there are many considera-
BILE ruins, for in this respect
Constantinople contrasts markedly
with her Italian rival. The
reason of this is doubtless to be sought
not merely in the superior grandeur OF
Roman buildings, but also in the fact
that while in Rome the old city on and
around the Palatine, Aventine, and Coz
liam hills was deserted in The Middle
Ages for the flats of the Campus Mar
thus, the site of the ancient city has here
been continuously inhabited, each age
constructing its dwellings out OF the ma
terials which former ages had left. In
another point, too, one is struck by the
contrast between these ruins and those
of Rome. Constantinople has absolute
" nothing to show from Pagan times
Though Byzantium was nearly as old as
Rome, the city of Constantine is the
true creation of the first Christian EN-
peror, and possesses not relic OF pa
ganism, except the twisted serpents
from Delphi and an Egyptian obelisk
planted near them in the hippodrome.-
Mac Aillan's Magazine.
CoRs BREAD pint yellow Indian
meal, 1 pint -four, through which thor
ouehly mix 1 tablespoonful lard,
4 tablespoonful sugar-or moe,
according to taste-2 eggs, l pint
sour milk or buttermiIk, in which has
been stirred / teaspoonful soda previ-
ously dissolved in little water. Bake