Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-15
Life Along the BosphoruS---Gar
dens Blossom with Jasmine.
Groves of Pine Echo with the Night
ingale's Song : Turkish Pic
nies-Tambourine Chants.
A Turkish Romeo Beneath Juliets Latticed
Balcony What the Pleasure Lover
Can See in Turkey.
Copyrighted, 1890, by the author. ]

/ Well IL Is DuIit HOOlf VI iHdTpIoJ suO"S
white, with balustrades and columns
graceful and elegant. A row of cor
morants sits on the roof, moveless, like
a cresting; bright-winged birds fiji
| through the shrubbery, and doves coo
and futter tamely about the windows.
The gates are freshly gilded, and, though
delicate as fillgree, are strong
| and we'll locked. AS we float
| along you may hear hints
| (not from me, dear reader) of a high
born prisoner held in regal state within
| and whispers that it is the abode of q
| remnant of an aged harem entailed for
maintenance on the present sultan since
the death of his father. Having once
belonged to royalty, the wives must live
in perpetual wldowhood, monuments
sacred to the memory of the dead and
gone father of the king of kings of the
world. Let US not inquire too closely
questioning is impertinent.
Fishermen cast their nets from q kind
of cage upheld on beams of wood buoyed
on gourds or corks. In wailing cadence
and swell they answer each other across
wide spaces sometimes with broken time
and long intervals; weird notes making
strange effects on ear and fancy-a vague
reminder of the ancient Greek chorus; a
strain well calculated to raise the ghosts
of heroes who sailed the Propontis in the
dateless years before the Odyssey was
written.
Look at the White castle, founded no
one knows when or by whom-a grim
fortress famous in war, whose tragedies
many a minstrel has harped and many a
troubadour sung TO the drumming of his
two-srringed guitar. In its horrid
drngeens Christian prisoners have Ian
guiE Ed, and through its morrow win
l67s the captive has stretched his skinny
shands, praying for help, and has worn
away slow years, till his poor heart
broke, waiting for the ransom which
mi hit never be paid.
On ruinous tower the silent stork lays
her eggs and broods her young-a sacred
bird, which makes every winter the pill
grimage to Mecca; and her nest, though
left empty on a chimney, secures the
owner of the house against fire and pestl-
lence.
Spectral forms hover about these hoarv
turrets, and mysterious voices blend with
the sounding sea as deep calleth unto
deep. Here Persian armies in barbaric
pomp marched over their pontoon bridge
to invade Europe; here Crusaders crossed
into Asia. aud here, type of our higher
civilization, the underlying cable joins
the two continents, making the shortest
route to India.
One poetic tradition softens the rugged
front of the battlemenLed walls of the
White castle. 1t is of the son of ANU
rath, who first planted the Crescent on
st. Sophia, and over the CITY of the Holy
Trinity proclaimed the oneness of God
AT the White castle he met by accident
and loved at once, and with his whole
heart, a Grecian princess of trauscendent
loveliness, a near klnswoman of the
Emperor Constantine. When the city
of Constantinople fell she was taken
prisoner and kept in honor and safety till
order was restored; then the conqueror,
Mohammed Second, sent for the fascin-
ating Giaour, and thus runs
the ancient chronicle: HHe took
in her projections such delight and
contentment. as that in short time
he had changed state with her, she be-
coming the mistress and commander of
so great conqueror; and he in nothing
more delighted than in dong her the
greatest honor and rvice he could. All
the day he spent with her in discourse;
all time spent In her company seemed to
him short, and without her nothing
pleased; his fierce nature was now by
her well tanned, and his wonted cara of
arms quite neglected. Mars sic pt IN
Venus lap, aud now the soldiers might
go play. -
A reedy little stream called Sweet
Waters of Asia empties into the Bospho-
rus; its margin is bordered with syca-
mores, chestnut and oak trees, and over
looked by the exquisite kiosk OF the
mother of Sultan Abdul Medjid-a
gentle, smiling, landscape in q sunny
atmosphere of peace. Yet it is never
safe to go without shawIs, for the land
of citron and vine has its cold shoulder,
anas like a spoiled favorite, sometimes
szIdenly turns 1t on her lovers.
q The sexes do not mingle in picnics.
Carpets are spread on the grass, and
women and children, in dresses gaudy as
tulip beds, eat sweets and loll on cush-
ions of down, in simple enjoyment OF
earth, sea and sky. The ladies have
their black guardsman, called bolt of the
door, keeper of the lilies, watchman of
the hyacinths, etc. The whip of him
popotamus hide in his hand is the sign of
his Office, and its lash is ready for him
who gazes too curiously at the paradise
eyes, or trles to peer under the misty
white wells.
Sellers of melons, fruit, cakes, move
about crying their wares, and slaves are
in waiting who are such only in name.
They are part of the household, free at
the end of seven years, and eligible tol
any position More than half the mar
riages in Turkey are with slaves.
The men, who are comparatively few,
Eoke, browse and take their pleasure |
solemnly. A tiny cup of coffee, slipped |
drop by drop, will last through hours. |
Here and there a solitary under the sad |
Expresses ponders the deep mysteries,
the ninety-nine beautiful |
names of Allah, and dreams of the ros g.
door of paradise that shuts in the golden |
pleasure fields kept for the faithful.
In some out-of-the-way place under a |
plane tree, may be seen group. rev.
erened as pat iarchs, enjoying the story
teller. One tale consumes the whole |
day, the listener sitting motionless in |
wrapped attention OrientaIs revel in |
account of buried treasure, and the |
poorer the reciter the richer the mine, |
the deeper the enchanted cavern when
Jars of inestimable jewels and bass 81
I'D are locked up under the spell of /
wizard or evil genii. Sinbad, Aladdin, |
the never ending Arabian Night stories |
are familiar and charming to them.
n