Morning journal and courier., 1889-10-09

am COmin&-lntO the ORIENT
Tracks Not Familiar.
CoNsrANT1NoPLE, Sept. 1.
To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
1t is with mingled feeling of awe and ex-
pectation that one for the first time ap-
proaches Constsntinople. If he has come
across Europe, the old castles of the Rhine,
the walls and moat of Nurembure, and the
many ruins seen all along the way, have par
TALLY prepared him for the old and the his
torical; but Constantinople is more than
that; this city was old before, long before,
the castles of Germany were thought Of.
"The City of Constantine" as it is now
called in the Armenian tongue, brings up a
Thousand recollections to the student. He
seems to see, as he looks from the deck of
his steamer at its hundred minarets on it's
many hills, wave after wave of war and
siege and slaughter sweep over its old walls
and gates-even now magnificent in their
ruin; he sees the proud Xerxes attempting
to chain the rushing currents of the Bospho-
rus; he feels the earth tremble under the
tread Of the barbarians of the North as they
sweep down upon the enervated culture and
civilization of the South"
But, besides all this, he is now to get his
6rst glimpse of the Orient, the land of ia
bles, of Arabian nights and of wild fancies.
He is stepping out of the pale of western
civilization intoathe border land where all
races, all customs. all civilizations, meet.
1t Is another world to him; he hears strange
and unheard.o of languages spoken and sees
every style of dress, from the dervish with a
single, scanty, filthy cloth about his 1oins to
the dude Frenchman rigged out with all the
skill of his tailor artist.
1t is q motly crowd one meets upon the
bridge that joins the old city of Stamboul
the modern city of Pera-all q part of the
great Constantinople. There is net nation
on earth that has not its representative here
upon this bridge and each in his native
dress; the Prussian and the Greek; the Jap
and the Indian; the Chinese and the Egyp-
tian; the priest and the peasant; the Ruler
of the Faithful and the piokpocket; the en-
bassadors of all the world and the leper,
begger, thief and all jostle one another here
at ten paras q head. On one side Is the stir
and whirl of the nineteenth century, while
from the other come the odors of the mush
of the middle ages This Is the dominion of
the Sultan, where are to-day being fought
the battles between the old and the new, be.
tween learning and legend, between science
and superstition.
If one comes directly to Constantinople
without passing through Italy his first Inn
preston is that he has reached the dogs and
beggars' paradise, where all good u dogs and
beggars have been forwarded since time be-
gan to edict such works. Persons who fear
dogs and cannot endure the sight of de-
formed humanity, should by no means enter
tho arunoriuna of fheao warea Muoh avn.
pathy Is often so qaandered upon some of these
deformed specimens of man; for frequently
they deform themselves for the sake of the
gain it brings, and their name Is worth more
at the bank than is that of their benefactor
who drops coin into their cup from his fine
carriage.
But we will not spend much time in going
over the city, for we ourselves have seen it
many times before, and q Thousand tourists
have written of its wonders, its beauties and
its slums. We will turn our backs upon
this two Thousand years of history, these
more than one million Inhabitants (human,
mean; the others would carry the problem
up beyond arithmetic into higher mathemat-
ics), these minarets and fezzes and ruins,
grand old Saint Sophie, the many modern
glittering palaces, the Oriental swells, the
low mud houses, the narrow, filthy streets
we will leave all these things with which you
are already so familiar and turn our faces to-
ward the rising sun-the true Orient, about
which you have heard little or nothing; for
tourists never attempt to penetrate its mys-
teries and scientists have not yet found out
the read this way. You can depend upon it
that those who travel for pleasure do not go
east by "the Black Sea route" to beat their
own paths and make their own maps.
The route we have chosen will take US the
length of the Black Sea. Some one may
think of this sea as of not much account. I
will simply say that it is long enough to
reach from Boston to Cincinnati, Ohio; or
from Chicago to the Black Hills; or nearly
from Denver to San Francisco. It is indeed
sea, but with not an enviable name, for like
some men, when ii is excited it seems to be
stirred all through, and have seen 1t but
once when it was not aroused. Some have
suggested that the "black" belongs to its ma
ture, not it's color. Few would dispute the
point.
By consulting one of the daily papers of
Constantinople we learn that a line of
steamers ply the Black Sea ports. We
engage a state room and send our goods on
board When we came to embark few
hours later we found our steamer anchored
ont in the middle of the Golden Horn, with
no provision made for passengers to get
there. We hire one of the Thousand small
boats that are lying about for such purposes
and set out. When about to 60 up the lad
der uniformed official of the Turkish per-
suasion invites us to let him read our pass
ports We take out, with considerable -four
ish, the large formidable sheet bearing the
American eagle, that screams our name, Of
fee, age, nose, hair and all, and pass 1t over
along with another document secured in Con-
| stantinopls, that locked like Chinese puz
| zle, spatter work, birds tracks and spots or