Wichita eagle., 1889-02-08
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Daily - Eagle
THE SULTAN'S CAPITAL.
Constantinople's Wonderful Ba-
Ears and Dirty Streets.
The Oriental Metropolis by Day and by
Night-Poverty and Laziness of the Aver
age Turk-Robbers Protected by the
Police-The Indispensable Pipe.


age Turk-Robbers Protected by the
Police-The Indispensable Pipe.
Constantinople is the brightest city by
day and the darkest by night, writes cor
respondent of the Chicago News. Soon
after night-fall the streets are deserted,
and except an occasional rafting OF car
rage over the stony streets not a sound is
heard but the stick of the Waterman strik-
ing the hour and the dismal bowling of in
Vulnerable dogs as they engage in their
nightly battles. The people keep early
hours at night and late hours in the morn
ing. At nine o'clock the city is just be-
ginning to wake from its slumoer. Con-
stantinopie is not a great city, like Paris
Rnd New York, but collection Of a hum
6red villages, each with its distinct name,
and some Of them with entirely different
manners, customs and language. Pera, Tor
instance, is inhabited almost exclusively by
Europeans-French, English, Italians and
Germans Here the language Of society IS
French STEAMBOAT, on the opposition side
of the Bosphorus, is the Turkish quarters.
In five minutes. by crossing the bridge OF
the Sulta Vorede queen Hother) you
pass from the civilization of the West to
the seml-barbarism of the East One hun
dred thousand people pass that bridge
every day, but an idea not once in ten
years. The toll, averaging five thousand
dollars day, goes to the Admiralty, and it
is badly needed. When we remember that
the Turks conquered the fairest portion of
Asia and Africa, and were the terror Of
Europe for more than thousand years,
we are astonished at their present supine
and demoraliZed condition. The only
safety of Turkey In Europe is the common
jealousy of the great powers, none of which
can allow the other to secure this splendid
prize.
The Turks are great eaters; a dinner OF
twenty courses Is common. When they are
not eating they are smoking; when they are
neither eating nor smoking they are sleep
ing. Coffee is the universal drink of the
East among all people. 1t is ground fresh
every time, and the milk and sugar are
boiled with the coffee. 1t is served in tiny
CHINA cups or quaint shape and workman
ship.
The people are miserably poor. Beggars
tnfest the streets by day and thieves by
night; and as the city is only lighted in the
European qUarter-and very poorly there
every opportunity is afforded the robbers to
ply their vocation with success and impuni-
ty. Tho salary Of the police is nominally
SIXTY dollars a month, but, as they are sell
nom paid, they exc out precarious living
by taking brides from criminals and letting
them go. The pay of the soldier is ten cents a
day, but their pay is always in arrears. A
portion Of their duty is to arrest tobacco
Bmugglers. They seize the contraband
goods, release the offenders, sell the tobac-
60 and pocket the proceeds. Bazars of
C0nstanunople are full of interest, and give
the visitor a better idea of Oriental
life than any thing else In the city, AS you
approach the region Of Eastern traffic you
are assailed in ten different languages
Greek, Armenian, Hebrew, Arabian and
Nubian. Let us enter the bazar Of
stufTs. What rich and dazzling dis
play Of goods. Carpets from Persia,
shawls from India, silks from Brous-
sa, brocades from Bagdad, scarfs
of blue and gold, so trans parent and light
that they have been compared to sunset
clouds, table covers embroid cred with ara
besGue, golden walls woven with silver
thread, robes of crimson velvet bordered
with and sprinkled all over with golden
stars, nantes of green, ermine, orange and
purple, bridal walls sparkling with silver
spangles, and the satin girdle worn by
Turkish lady, on which the eyes of no man
l.
perfumery next invites our attention. Here
are to be found those famous perfumes
with which the poetry of the East has made
as famllar-the most precious altar of
roses shut up IN velvet cases, and so costly
chat none but the rich can buy 1t. Here are
also the seragho pastiles for pertaining
kisses, and kohl for colOring the eyebrows,
henna for the finger tips, soaps that make
the skin as soft as silk, essence from sandal
wood and myrrh, pomades for the hair.
aloes TO sweeten pipes, bags Of musk and
thousand other powders and fragrant wa
terS that call up visions of fair women
breathing an atmosphere Of love and signs.
But II IS in the jewelers. bazar that our
ideas of Oriental magnifcence is realized,
aud Aladdin wonderful lamp has conjured
up n vision of unparalleled beauty, SO daz-
zhng that we rub our eyes and wonder
whether they can be real. There Is a Bra.
zillan topaz that would have delighted Nine.
Bonaparte; a diamond from Golconda,
worthy TO adorn the neck of an EN-
press; q turquoise from Macedonia, that
might might have fallen from the
scImltar of a Sultan; here are piles of
necklaces of opal and pearl, rubies of price
less value and gems Of every kind known
TO the lapidary. To refresh the eyes let US
enter the pipe bazar. Dear to the soul of
the Turk is tobacco, ''the fourth column of
the canopy of righteousness, aud every
sort Of smoking article is provided for the
indulgence of this favorite luxury; chibouks,
with stems of cherry and rosewood, amber
mouth-pieces, polished as crystal and set
with diamonds; narghiles of silver Of quaint
and curious shapes, sprinkled with gems,
and their tubes glittering with golden rings.
When Byron, who vented his poetical dis
gust at Malta, with its ''streets Of stars"
visited Constantinople he uttered no curses
''loud and Deep at the streets of stairs that
abound IN the city of the Sultan, which are
descended at the risk of ones neck and as
Cended in danger of bringing on the heart
disease Not only are the streets deep and
stony, but slippery with mud, and some Of
them reeking with filth. The Turks are the
most stupid and conservative people in the
world; they make no chang es; as their
fathers live, so live they What was good
enough for their ancestors is good enough
for them. 4 fire often benefits an Ameri-
can city, changes it as Augustus changed
Rome from wood to marble but fire in
Constantinople destroys houses which are
not rebuilt So it is no uncommon sight to
see the cbarred remains of palaces. bar
racks, mosques, etc, which were DESTROYED
by fire and allowed to remain an unsichtly
mass of ruins.
WOMEN m AMERICA.