Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-22
CITY OF THE SULTAN.
Mary J. Holmes Writes Entertain-
ingly of Her Visit to 1t.
DOGS RATE AS NECESSARY EVILS
How the Turkish Beauties Cast Sleeps
Eyes Over Their Wells.
ABDUL HANDS, LIFE OF ANXIETY
WRITTEN FOR THE D1sPATcH.j

|
1t had been raining for two or three days,
| and when at last we anchored in the Bos-
phorus a white mist lay so thicklv on the
hills around us that we could see but little
OF the city, except its hundreds OF minarets
rising like masts against the gray sky, and
its tall cypress trees which mark the graves
of the dead. As large ships cannot come
very near the shore, we were landed in
small boats, and were soon picking our way
through what seemed to be a narrow lane,
but was in fact a street, the dirtiest and
mnddiest ever saw, with narrow sidewalks
and tumble-down houses, which might have
been standing when Constantine rebuilt the
city in A. D. 1923.
But once out of the lane we were on a
broader, wider street, which wound up the
hill to our hotel, from which an hour
later we started with our guide,
George, to explore the town. Cross
ing the Golden Horn on the long
bridge which was swarming with p eople,
whose strange, Oriental costumes would
have looked oddly enough to US if we had not
just come from Cairo, we found ourselves in
Stamboul, the Oldest part of Constantinople,
and more interesting to strangers than Gal
alta or Pera, where the hotels are situated
and the buildings more modern. Here in
Stamboul you plunge at once into laby-
rlnth of dark, winding, dirty streets, many
of them without name and apparently
leading nowhere in particular, so abruptly
do they turn and so completely do they
seem in the distance to be closed up by the
houses, of which a writer has aptly said
that they were dropped down any where
and the people left to get round them as
they could.
A CITY FULL OF DOGS.
The streets are crowded with a motley
mass of people, Turks and Greeks, Syrians
and Egyptians. and dogs-300, 900 of them,
we were teid, and they are on the increase
every year. No one owns them; no one pets
them, although many feed them, and you
will often see them prowling around
pile OF refuse thrown out for their benefit,
or lying in the middle of the street and on
the sidewalks, where you step over them
and around them and sometimes on them
with impunity. Tor they are very good ma
tured and quiet, except after nightfall when
their privacy is intruded upon by one of
their kind. These dogs live in wards, and
as the Englishman's house is his castle, so a
Turkish dogs ward is his fortress, and woe
to the canine found near it at night, and woe
to the tired tourist when a battle between
the invader and invaded is going on. I
have heard such a battle and know whereof
I write
Leaving the dogs, of which I counted
nearly 700 in one drive, our first visit was
to the old Seraglio, which stands upon
high triangular point overlooking the sea
he t1rSt oh anta~
the harbor and the last as you sail away. It
was built by Mohammed H., and is shut in
by lofty walls and gates, and with its suites
OF apartments. its mosques and gardens and
tall Expresses all thrown together without
the least idea of harmony or order, it covers
space nearly three miles in circumference.
MYSTERIES OF THE HAREM.
Here the old Sultans kept their court or
harem, which we were told sometimes con-
sisted of several hundred wives, a goodly
number for one man to manage, and it is
not strange that his own private palace was
outside the gates, where he could flee for
quiet and safety when the domestic cyclones
which must often have ensued, were at their
height Sometimes, it was whispered, when
a wife was very refractory, or he was tired
of her, she was sewed up in canvas and
quietly dropped over the wall into the |
waters below, which tell no tales of the |
death struggles they have witnessed, or the |
dying means they have smothered.
Occasionally a better late, as some |
might think, await the Iair rebel, |
who was bestowed upon one of the Sultan's |
officers, either as reward of merit or pun
ishment, it mattered little which to the i'm
perious man whose word was life or death
to so many thousands. But the harem is
20 longer in the Seraglio; for when the
palace was burned it was removed, and is
now across the Golden Horn in the modern
part of the city. Here the present Sultan,
Abdul Hamid, leads a life of nervous dread
and fear, second only to that of the Gear of
Russia. Warned by the fate of his prede-
,essor, Abdul Assiz, who was murdered in
MS magnificent palace on the shore OF the
he is in constant expectation
hat a like calamity will some day befail
him, and 80 he secludes himself as far as
possible from the public. and when ON Fri
lay, the Mohammedan Sunday, he goes, as
ne is compelled to do il he would avoid an
nsurrection, to the Mosque, just across the
treet, he is
GUARDED BY 1000 SOLDIERS,
'ach one Of whom he looks upon as posi-
,le assassin. On these occasions there is a
,reat deal of ceremony and show, and the
he Sultan is very plainly dressed in black,
With cheap red fez upon his head, while
lis dark eyes, which look as if sleep were
Unknown 10 them, wander nervously over
he shouting multitude, from which he
Drinks in tear, only breathing freely when
lie is safe within the walls of his palace.
Past this palace our party attem pied to
Talk, but was ordered back by an official
With fierce gestures, whose meaning we
ould not mistake, and so we contented our
elves with going down side street where
re could look at the building, but not
peak aloud of it or its pitiable, cowardly
OCCUPANT, for when we asked some questions,
lsing the Sultan's name, we were promptly
ushed by our guide, who spoke only in
1hispers, with furrive glance in all direc-
ions. What he feared do not know, but
ever we were glad for the religion
ounded on peace, good will to men, it was
hen we stood that sunny afternoon, not
ar from the Sultan's handsome palace, and
bought of all the superstition and distrust
-hich cluster around the Musselman's
nth.
AT BEAUTIFUL ST. SOPHIA.
The mosque OF St. Sophia, which stands
ear the old Seraglio, is, perhaps, the most
building in Constantinople. 1t
in the form Of Greek cross, and the CEN
al dome is $50 feet above the floor, and