The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-01

had not before suspected. AS soon as
the ship had started the new inmates
withdrew to their quarters, and were
seen no more until we were in Constan-
tinople.
An interesting incident in our pass
age from Salonica was a pause for the
custom house visitation in the Darda-
nelles, which this time occupied per-
haps two hours. 1t was varied by the
arrival of the habitual boatload of fam
somewhere in that neighborhood, and
is not only fantastic, but ugly. Yet ev-
erybody buys a specimen and carries
it home as evidence of having been
there. There is some display of mill
tary life at the Dardanelles; but wheth-
er the snowy forts are really formid-
able we could not tell, and did not
care much. 1t was far more engaging
to the mind to gaze over the broad
plain that lies toward the site of an
cient Troy and to imagine the ships
and the fighters and the scenes that
were gathered there in the days of
Achilles and Agamemnon.
CONSTANTINOPLE.
We reached Constantinople the next
morning, and, instead of being an
chored out in the middle of the har-
Dor, as had happened to us on for
mer visits, we saw our ship tied to the
wharf and were able to walk ashore
down an ordinary gangway. We had
the day before us, and put it. in first by
a visit to the Bazaar, which we found
sadly modernized. The roof, which
used to extend over the narrow and
crooked passageways which ramify
through it like streets, was gone, and
an air of novelty and cleanliness had
succeeded the dirty and picturesque
antiquity which we had seen there in
former times, Our old friends, the deal
ers in carpets and bric-a- -brac, were
still there, however, and the coffee
which they served was quite as en-
chanting as ever. Why is II that
Turkish coffee is so much better than
all others? 1t is a kind of potential
istic and transcendental preparation
that other lands do not know and very
poorly initiate.
From the Bazaar we drove to st. So
phia, the most noble, most impressive,
and most religious of religious
structures, superior, 1 think, in its
effect upon the soul to every other
sible to pass under its high
arches or to cross its wide pavements
without emotions of reverence and
alteration. In one place, a little dis
tance from each other, were assembled
groups of students, all sitting upon
the floor with the Koran in their hands,
listening to the loud reading and ex-
position of their two professors who
OIL
sacred book, and then pause to explain
and comment. The reading was appar-
emily in Arabic, and l thought that
the exposition was also in that Ian
guage but in this l may have been
mistaken. The only point that 1 was
quite sure of was that neither of the
two schools seemed TO be interfered
with by the other, although the in
struction in each was audible to the
students Of the other as we'll as to the
strangers who stood around.
From st. Sophia we drove to the
museum Of antiquities at Seragio
Point. This is an institution which has
existed more than forty years. but it
is only I'M the last ten years that 1t has
risen into serios importance. Now, the
law is that all objects of antiquity un-
earthed in any part of the Turkish en-
pire must be brought here for preserva-
tion and exhibition, and an experienced
antiquarian can spend a day profitably
in examining the collection long since
assembled.
GREEK ART.
But II was not until 1887 that the
| great discovery was made at Sldon.
which has raised the museum TO high
| distinction among the famous eollec-