The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-29
SACRED DOGS OF TURKEY.
THEY ENJOY THE FREEDOM OF THE
CITY OF THE SULTAN.

Cv Warman, in Detroit Free Press
When the manager of the Hotel Bris-
tol at ConstantinOple TO whom I carried
a note Of Introduction. entered the Ameri-
can elevator and went to the very top Of
the house with me. then led me to the
rear. opened the easement, swept his arm
over the tops of the meaner houses and
said: This viii be nice quiet room for
YOU for, as you can see, the dogs can't
come here I knew not how to reply. 1
expressed myself as being satisfied, as
indeed 1 was. and he. being a German,
bowed and backed out of the room When
he had closed the door 1 sat down and
thought awhile. and wondered what on
earth he could mean by dogs? THE dogs
can't come here" No, / should say not;
for out there was a rolling sea of tile
topped houses. rent here and there by
narrow streets. Up through these riffs
came the hum of many voices, the sound
of moving feet and the rattle of carriage
wheels on the stony pavements.
For a long time 1 looked and listened,
listened and looked. but nothing of all
this noise was visible for the people, if
Deople they were moved up ana down
in the winding assures far below.
THE dogs can't come here"
Far away in front of me stretched the
uneven roofs of the many shaped houses,
and in the distance where the flag of Eng
land futtered above the British embassy
the houses dipped abruptly to the edge Of
the BOsphorus Around a bend in this
rVer-like arm of the sea, perched on a
high hill, l could see the sultans palace
and the high minarettes of the royal mos
que where the harem goes every Friday
to worship.
Down near the water edge was another
palace where the sultan's crazy Cd
brother is Gagged, and farther up, over on
the other shore cleaned the white palace
of Eugenia. Directly opposite where l
stood, beyond the Bosphorus, lay the lit
tie city of Scutari, scattered like a min
ing camp over the Asiatic hills. A long
line of ships was drifting one after an
other up through the beautiful BOSpho-
rus and out into the treacherous waters
of the Black sea. They were trading yes
sells and from the mast of each fluttered
the Union Jack. Many ships of many
countries were riding at anchor in the
Golden Horn but nowhere could be seen
the stars and stripes of America
In the two or three hours that follow
ed, which We're given up to the task of
removing the dirt and Whiskers that had
accumulated in the 1900 miles. ride from
Paris to the edge of Asia, found myself
saying over and over again, THE dogs
After dinner l drifted into the reading
room just in time to hear gentleman
who had been pointed out to me as the
bishop of Long Island, read
"A band of wild dogs has been roaming
over the southern part of Bulgaria. de,
vouring sheep, killing cattle and even at
lacking hOrsemen.
THE dogs can't come here" 1 said in
voice under q whisper, and went up to
heartily and now being weary after the
long journey, | went to bed rather early,
and the last thought | had was that the
dogs could not come there.
l fell asleep, but awoke shortly. The
room seemed stuffy. | got up and
opened the window little wider. over
in STEAMBOAT l heard a lone dog howl, and
another almost up near the palace, and
another almost under my window. Then
they began to bark here and there, and
l was reminded to what Mr.. Binder had
said and went to bed again.
/ fell asleep only to dream of dogs. Once
l awoke up feverish and frightened.
1t must be the Hungarian wine / had
for my dinner" thought. and drifted
away to dreamland. but with the unmis-
taxable noise of barking dogs coming to
me from every direction. This time I
dreamed of wolVes-whole packs of them
and woke to find it was almost true
sprang out of my bed, rushed through the
long hall to the front of the building,
opened the door and stepped out on to a
little balcony. Now the noise that filed
the street in front of us was maddening.
II there was half dog there was half
hundred directly under me, all fighting,
barking and bowling. What on earth a
hotel man could do with so many dogs
was what puzzled me.
When l awoke again it was morning.
the sun was shining and the city was
as quiet as a London Sabbath rang
for the hotel guide and when he came
in l said: Vincent Gnalo, about how
many dogs does this man own?''
He does not own any-nobody owns a
dog in Constantinople. They are sacred
dogs and they are as free as the peo-
pie
Then it all came to mean old tale 7
had heard, doubted and forgotten long
ago. After breakfast we went out and
IN front of every meat shop there We're
dogs by the dozen. In sunny places they
took up the whole sidewalk and the stream
of pedestrians filed out into the street,
walked around and left the sacred brutes
curled up sound asleep.
See" said Vincent, there are enough
Mahometans always with the procession
to mark the trail and the Christians fol-
" a ~falr
strike one of these dogs"
1t is no eXaggeration to say that the
city is divided into districts-that a dog
born in a certain street rarely leaves
it. and that each band or pack has its
leader
There appears to be a kind of aristoc-
racy among the dogs. The best looking
dogs live in Stamboul, and although a
Stamboul dog may come over to the main
town. the common ours of that locality
are never under any circumstances, al
lowed to cross the pontoon bridge that
leads to STEAMBOAT. The STEAMBOAT dogs
appear to fare better than the dogs of
any of the other localities. for there are
more Mussumans and fewer Christians
there. On the whole these sacred dogs
are the sorriest looking lot of brutes on
earth. One seldom sees a whole dog in
one place. He is usually shy foot an
eve, an ear or a few joints of tail Many
or them are so perfectly ridiculous-so
funny to look at that ones first impulse
is to say, Don't do anything till you
Until a few years ago there lived a yell
low dog down by the bridge who was an
accomplished beggar. GNhis story was
told me by an English merchant, named
Blnns, who lives there, and who had Civ
en- the four-legged beggar many a metal
lie. When a stranger approached the dog
would block his path and when the pedes-
tran stopped the DOG would lay the side
e his face on the mans foot and whine
IT the man so accosted knew what the
animal wanted and gave him a metallic or
plaster, the brace would bound away to
certain stand. leap up and place the
money on the counter or table. The old
man who kept the shop would give him
some bread, and occasionally, in order to
mold his customer, a bit of dried meat or
some shredded bread dipped in oil. Plenty
81 people will insist on your believing this
story, for the dog spent all his life there
and died begging
The winter is the happy season for the
sacred dog. Food and water are plentiful
{len, but through the hot, dry summer
Ile suffers greatly for the want of both
III Is an interesting fact that while these
Door brutes actually die. many of Them
or thirst, a case Of hydrophobia has new
dog