The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-07-28

4
possible. Visit the proper functuarS
| then, always a person of immense dig
| nifty LET me see, Mr.. Brown" turn
| ing over the leaves of a ponderous
! book "ah, l see. You haven't paid
your tax for two, three, yes, five years
| Well, when you pay up We'll give you
| the permit to repair your house, They
| have a street cleaning tax in CONSTANT
nople; why, who can say? Perhaps
| they actually do clean the streets, al
| though the present writer discovered nc
J evidence of the fact during his stay.
At any rate the offices of one of the
| great tourist agencies were moved to
! new quarters about a year ago. Hard
! ly were they comfortably settled before
| around came a bill for no less than
nine years back street cleaning taxes
They were due, of course, from the for
mer tenant, but if the new one had not
been an English company and able to
invoke the assistance of a powerful
ambassador, it would have been forced
| to pay.
So it is too, with little affairs of the
police court. A young fellow of bibu-
louS tendencies was unlueky enough to
become involved in a street row one
night long ago, so he confesses with
some amusement, and was promptly
hailed to Galata Serai by some of the
omnipresent policemen. Name and adj
dress duly recorded was let go. Two
years later he received a bill for fifty
piastres.
Whats this about"'
'FTbat iS VOIr fine -
What fine? l owe you nothing. Get
out"
but, yes, Effendim do you not re-
member that fight two years ago by the
Palais du Crystal?' And he had to set
tie. Fancy what shock the new di-
plomacy of the United States must be
to officials grown rusty in temporizing
after this fashion.
One night l was awakened by shouts
in the street far below the windows of
my room in the hotel. The sky over
the Golden Horn reflected the brilliant
blood-red of a fire of no mean impor-
lance. When / leaned out a seething
mass of flame became visible a mile or
so away. Thirty houses burned that
night, but two thousand have been
street came the rattle and rush of fire
apparatus. One team of horses was awk-
wardly managed and collided with the
corner of the house. While the by
ISLANDERS attempted to disengage the
wheels, ran past, silently and swiftly
with surer foot, three separate parties
of six and eight men each, carrying
fire pumps slung from poles reaching
from shoulder to shoulder. Like ghosts
they seemed in the shadows of the
street, lighted only by the ruby glare
from the sky and the rude lanterns car
ried by a runner in advance. These
men, outstripping the regular fire brig
ade in their smooth, even-footed run,
We're the private fire fighters Upon
their arrival they calmly sit down to
rest and be hired by excited tenants
from buildings burning or threatened,
and they drive close bargain, too,
amid the cracking of the flames. Some
time before this there had been quite
large fire, involving about three hun
bred dwellings. For a while it looked
as though the valuable property be-
longing to the grandmother of my
Greek friend Demetriadi would have to
go. Demetriadi and his brother-in-law
appealed to a company of these men,
who were composedly smoking their
cigarettes waiting for an engagement.
Come, get to work here! How much
do you want?"
Fifty pounds at least, Effendim.
Fifty pounds! You're mad! Give
you ten. NO? Well Sect And Deme-
triadi and his relative grasped revolt
vers, and at pistols muzzle persuaded
the independent beggars to put their
pump into operation, afterWard paying
what they thought fair.
A few nights after the first fire an
other occurred only few hundred feet
away from my hotel, Three houses
only this time
II knew that they would go soon,"
said another English friend, the repre-
sentative of one of the principal ENG
ish insurance companies. why?
Well, don't you see, they were the only
wooden buildings left on the street.
But an ignorant policeman got him
self into trouble that night He caught
.hree men re1-handed, actually with
.orches in ther hands setting fire to
hese buildings, and he was stupid
enough to listen to no explanation and
% insist ON locking them up in Galata
SERIAL The next morning they were
discharged, perhaps with apologies and
he policeman was taken to one side
md got certain instructions for his flu
ure guidance The government will
insist, it is said, that the burned build
ngs be replaced by stone ones in pur-
,uance of its policy, of rebuilding the
,ity.
While on the subject of fires, it Is
curious fact If true, as asserted by my
liends in Constantinople, that insur-
london and the field an unusually prof
table one to the companies Granting |
hat fire protection is inadequate and |
rude and that serious fires are COM
non, they yet assert that when placed |
~ intelligent agents, familiar with To- |
al conditions, the business is profitable |
n spite of the low rates created by the |
among the British and |
herman and other continental COM
,anies
AS one approaches Constantinople for !
he first time he is quite sure to look
onward to the custom house inspection
With some anxiety. Hearsay and the I
.uidebooks have combined to lead him
0 anticipate that his copy of the latest |
french novel as well as the Testament
estling beside it in his bag, in fact. !