New-York tribune., 1889-10-20
LIFE IN ASIA MINOR.
SOME GLIMPSES OF A TYPICAL TURKISH
COUNTRY TOWN
fFRoE = REGULAR CORRESPONDENT oF THE rRBUNE.l
Amnsia. Asia Minor. Aug. 20.

/
| miles long and ten or fifteen miles wide, and
about two thousand feet above the sea. We had
| tojled across this plain, now bare and sunburnt
! for two hours until the brown of the shorn fields
| had become as weaSisOme as the desert sand, IN
spite of the great stacks of grain on every side
which told Of its fertility. Then, as we reached
| the mountain wall at the further side of the
plain. it's rocky fanks were parted before us.
giving entrance to a sharply sloping gorge.
moment more and the bster1ng desert without
WAS forgotten, for we were in very paradise
/ of green Such is the entrance to Amasla from
| the northwest For six miles the road lies
| through orchards and vineyards and cottOntelds,
winding along beside the little river which sup
! plies their irrigation canals, ever plungng deeper
and deeper below the towering rocks which press
! upon the gardens on either side. Then we round
a projecting point Of rock, and Amasa lies before
| us, closely packed mass Of brown walls ana
| redtiled roofs, in the very bottom of the narrow
rift between the precipitous walls of rock. The
broad stream of the Yeshil Irmak the Iris of
! Strabo divides the city in two long, narrow
sections. Just before we entered the city its
rapid waters met those of the smaller river
by whose banks we had been travelling and the
two went oil TO the eastward through another
narrow and winding gorge to find their way by
tOrtuous route to the Black Sea-
Amasia was the capital of the kings of Pontus,
and the Gibraltar of Mithrdates, though he
never knew it by that name AS you sit under
the trees in the courtyard of the great mosque
built by Bajazet before he was Gagged by Tanner
lane you look across the river to a mass of gray
rock, mile long, which rises sharply thousand
feet above the city, and see the crumbling ruins
OF the ancient fortihcations yet clinging to It's
crags. Behind YOU, hardly more than half
mile away is another similar pile OF rock hemming
in the city, and forming the mightiest city wall
that ever was seen. On your left couple OF
miles away toward the road by which we arrived,
a wedge-shaped rocky promontory overhangs the
! junction of the two rivers, and forms one Of
the buttresses Of support TO the great White
Mountain, whose grizzled crest delights the eve
in every landscape for thirty miles around
The site is peculiar; an ideal site for city of
the olden tme and inspiring in the grandeur
of its natural surroundings.
But Of the city as IL now is, the less said
the better. 1t is typical Turkish town. It's
houses are built of tho sun-dried brick which
forms the facile resource of town and village
architects in all these regions It's streets are
narrow, rough alleys winding between brown
walls that are unpierced for windows within
reach of the ground, and it's industries are the
slow and plodding industries that doubtless
occupied the people in the days when Strabo
played hopscOtch before his mothers door or
ished from the piers of the stone bridge over the
IriS. An unexpected modern industry which we
encountered here was that of the ce-cream pedler.
With two pals swathed in bandages hung from
pole laId his shoulder he wandered through
the market place in search OF custom, which he
found when he found us He had two sizes
of dishes to serve as the measure OF his sales
We told him TO give the larger size. 1t will
not be easy TO forget the awe-struclI tone in
which he almost demonstrated, by saying, But
that will cost two cents" We told him to go
ahead, regardless of expense and ne heaped full
the saucer taken from under some large tea-cup;
and, we ate the really delicious compound,
resolved TO recommend TO young men to HE
them TO Amasia during the courting period The
moderate price asked is, however, probably due
| TO the fact that in Amasia any young man who
should offer TO treat a girl TO ice-cIeam, or who
should in any other way publicly indicate an
| interest in her before marrying her. would prob
ably be communicated and ostracized at once.
Amasia lives by the transport trade-its streets
being always full OF caravans going and coming
along the high road from Amenia-and by its
own industries of fruit, silk and -four production
Its silk factories are modelled on those of France
its -four mills arc carried on by Germans. From
its other lines Of work may form an idea of
the capacities Of It's people. In the carrying
trade there is a large demand for wagons, and
the fayorite style for general work Of the farm
and the caravan is the two-wheeled buffalo cart,
manufactured land especially and constantly
repaired in all this region These carts have not
| a particle Of ircn about them except the tires
| Of the wheels The wagon builders take two
| poles about twelve feet long and lay them side
| by side At one end the two poles fastened
| together by wooden pegs and at the other they
| are spaced apart by wooden stretcher little
| more than two feet long. The small end of the
! triangle thus formed is the tongue to which the
! long straight bar that answers for yoke Is
! lashed by stout thong of rawhide. The broad
end of the triangle is the body of the cart, and
! is filled by a net work Of rope. About three and
a half feet from the broad end of the triangle
crescent-shaped block Of wood is nailed on to
the under side Of each pole, the concave surface
resting on the axle, which is held III its place by
! Guide pins driven into the blocks. The axle is
! a log of wood six inches in diameter which is care
! fully rounded in grove under each of the blocks.
! The rest Of the surface of the axle is roughly
| be,yn into shape: but the ends squared and
| fitted into the centre of the solid disks which
form the wheels Wheels and aAlc revove to-
pether like car wheels, and rs they reyolve they
| give forth unearthly groans Sad shrielIs which
| onliyen the mountain sides as the caravan moves
| along. Here you have the farmers cart evolved
| in Northern Asia Minor, from the original type
| of the two-whcelcd chariot of the Phrygan war
riors 1t will carry about fifteen bushels Of wheat
IN sacks, and fetches its owner. when used in
the carrying trade, much as thirty-fve ccnts
a day for himself, his two buhalOeS and the repairs
of his long journey TO the coast. The great gref
Of the carter is the behavior Of his two solid
whrcl-dislls They object 10 wet and dry weather
alike and the carter tries to preserve a medium
oy bathing them in every stream 10 which he comes
and by sheltering them from the sun at every
malt under the abundant folds Of his coarse brown
nvcrcoat.
The small fruit raisers Of AmaSa hnve another
| mechnnical industry Of about the same grade