The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-20

/ Tor the explosive OutDurst OF MARTY
which I was sure would follow, but my
| effort fell with dull sickening thud,
and George gave no sign other than a
| panied, reproachful look as much as to
say there were some things too cruel to be
borne even by the most lowly of guides
| at least without a large increase in
emolument. George was Greek Levantine
and an individual of such varied abilities
that thought had a right to expect a
few well regulated mirthful ebullitiOns at
my brilliant scintillations of wit, in view
OF the extra amounts of money which he
managed to extract from me
each day under various original
pretexts that did great credit to his
inventive faculties. He may not have
known a real side-splitting, button-burst-
ing joke when he met it out land |
'sheepishly" admit was deficient in that
regard), but as financier he was mag
nifieent success, and would have made an
excellent bank cashier with Canadian ten
| denotes However, he had his virtues as
well as his faults, and most valiantly pro-
tected me from the Vaccinations of others,
permitting no one to rob me but HIM
self.
Constantinople may be said to be the
| quletest and yet IN another sense the
noisiest of places The lack of the numer-
| Gus vehicles and usual noises of large Eu-
ropean cities is most striking, and yet the
never-ending cries of the numberless
/ itinerant street-venders in a measure
largely make up for it. The water seller,
with his clinking cups and goat or pig
skin of water, is one of the loud
est and most persistent among
them. BY 10 O'Clock at night
the streets are almost deserted by human
beings. with the exception of the watch
men, who go about hammering on the
ground with their iron-pointed stats In
token that all is well, yet the increasing
bowls of the dogs that throng the thor
| oughfares after dark is so continuous that
there is little hope of sleep for the nervous
new arrival. There are thousands upon
thousands of these wol6sh-looking ours in
Constantinople, and they are all of the
same breed or species. They belong to no
particular person, but run wild in the
! street, taking care of themselves. They
are treated as almost sacred by the
| inhabitants, and / never saw dog
| kicked or misused by any one. The
! Mohammedan is always kind to animals,
and it is especially noticeable in this in
| stance, as these dogs lie about the streets
| in the dav-time so numerOuslv that it is
| difficult to avoid walking over them. On
one occasion / counted twenty-five of
/ them asleep on one short block, and that
is probably not an unfair average OF the
/ whole city. l was at first in constant
/ dread OF stepping on one and being Bit
ten, but soon found that despite their
/ looks they were not at all vicious, and was
/ told that hydrOphobiawas unknown among
/ them. They wander about the streets all
/ night long. bowling and fighting with
I each other, and woe to the strange canine
4 that ventures into new bailiwick alone,
! for he is Immediately set upon and torn
! to pieces as an interloper. Notwithstand-
1 ing these various unpleasant features they
certainly serve a good purpose, as
/ COnstantinople, like most eastern cities,
/ has no system OF sewerage or street clean
ing, and were it not that these scavengers
keep the streets free of refuse and garbage
the place would hardly be inhabitable.
The beggars of Constantinople are very
nearly as numerous as the dogs and more
| importunate, and "Backsheesh Efendi"
"a gift sir"), "Um Para Effendi" "a
! para gentleman, are constant appeals.
'Efendi'' is a title indicating superior or
gentleman in position, and ''paras" are
| small Turkish coins. Forty ''paras" make
one ''piastre," which is the Turkish stand
ard of value, equalling five cents Ameri-
can money. and the "medfidieh" or
twenty piastre pieces are about the same
| in size and value as one silver dollar.
The money changers are fixed institutions
| of Constantinople, and sit about in public
places, with little stands in front of them,
from which they make change, for slight
| commission. Professional scribes also
| locate themselves about the streets in the
same way, making a livelihood by doing
fine written" for those unable to do it for
! themselves. Viewed from our standpoint,
the Mussulman does everything back
ward, and he follows the rule in the
matter OF his queer-looking writing
which he does from right to left, instead of
| from left to right, as with us. He also
measures his time by an entirely different
standard, his month beginning with
/ the new moon and his day beginning
at sunset instead of midnight, making
/ some six hours difference in time, il be-
! ing but o'clock Mohammedan reckoning
/ when it is 10 according to our method of
| calculation. There is very little differ
/ ence between Turkish as written and
| Turkish as printed, and the same may be
/ said of Arabic. Constantinople has sew
eral newspapers published in the native
/ language, and the one which ] forwarded
/ to The SENTINEL for the benefit of the ex-
/ change fiend, gives an example of their
/ peculiarly constructed characters. I'M
/ derstand that it has been alleged that nv
/ Enclosure was not a Constantinople pro-
/ duction at all, and that L was merely at
/ tempting to palm off a specimen OF j.
/ Kankakee Martins writing on an unsus-
! pecting public as original Turkish. This
/ is a weak invention of the opposition
/ which, | trust, had no effect on the cleo
ton. Mr.. Martins Nebraska hieroglyph-
! les may closely resemble a Chinese wash
| bill or the inscription on the Egyptian
pyramids, but there are some charges
against which even poor Turk should be
/ defended.
Having finally exhausted the attractions
! of the Turkish capital, boarded a steamer
/ of the Egyptian line and sailed away
! toward the Egean sea and the shores of
Asia Minor. Our list of cabin passengers
] was made up of representatives of various
natiOnalities, and / counted seven different
languages being spoken at once while
/ seated at the dinner-table. Our steerage
passengers were still more mixed up
lot, and as / strolled about among them 1
thought l never beheld such a motley
gathering. As usual with orientals, they
| all carried their own mats or bedding and
/ their own well-filled water jars, so essential
to Mohammedans. They slept about in
discriminately on the open deck, spread
ing out a mat on the floor and rolling