The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-29
CONTINUED From Last Sunday.)
Asia Minor.

advice of friends and others finally Dre-
vailed against our natural inclinations
to go. I VIII give their reasons for
what they arc worth. In the first place.
The landing AT Joppa is said to be the
most hazardous OF any at Oriental
PORTS. comprising all the difficulties
hereinbefore described of landing i'm
small boats. which i'm this case have to
traverse bOisteroUs sea. Then, the
railroad runs through a desolate and
arid country. Jerusalem and other
cities of Palestine are squalid and dir
". The places of Biblical interest are
Uncertain as to location, and, therefore,
unsatisfactory, possessing no intrinsic
merits scenically. A deVout Christian,
one who is never incredulous. may APP
proach the sacred precincts with Ven
GRAFTON, his heart rejoicing with great
gladness. But to others not possessed
of religious zeal and imagination, the
hills are bleak the plains dusty, the
people unattractive and the possibility
Of historical Identification long since
vanished.
I express no opinion as to the justice
of the above, since so much depends
upon the digestion, as we'll as the men,
tai attitude of the traveller. In any
event we were destined to get a
glimpse of Asia Minor
Stop at Smyrna.
The habitusl route of our steamer
provides for a stop at Smyrna. This
port is of considerable Importance, con-
tanning about 100000 population. occu
pies commanding site, and along its
docks are some modern, tWo-story
buildings. Yet, as we were hurried
through the vile little streets winding
m and among tdWdry shops and OdOr-
ferrous markets. | could not help think
ing the larger the city, the greater the
abOmination. hunchback Levantine
had imposed himself upon us as a
guide, contrary to our protests but we
could not prevent his riding with the
driver. who did not object. Under his
direction the horses. whipped and har-
ried, whirled us up the rising ground of
the foothills seen from the bay. This
was agreeable in the matter of purer
air. otherwise. to what end? After a
half-hour drive along the canyon road,
beside a purling stream. with no OBJ
jective in sight, inquiry developed the
fact that the guide was taking us to
mirabile dictu.-the new dam and res
ervoir for SmyTna's water supplyl Well,
this incident expressed Smyrna and
some other things: No fine palaces, no
iridescent fountains. no supreme
works of either God or man; just
mediocre reservoir, with which a poor
was about to astonish the unbelievers
from the west. There are innumerable
bazars, but the goods are inferior: the
shopkeepers whether Jew, Mohamme-
dan or Gentle. oily, unclean and repel-
lent. There was no regret when the
anchor was weighed. only one recon-
pense that it had been dropped-we
had, t least. set foot on Asiatic soil
and thus had trod four of the five great
continents of the world.
Visit to ConstantinopIe.
Our arrival in Turkey was iIl-timed.
Coming so recently from the hot Wea-
Their of Upper Egypt into the March
storms of the continent. we found a
degree of moist cold that CONCEALED
the blood" 'froze the marrow i'm our
bones,' and performed all the other
frappe stunts known 10 romance; but
II could not chill the grim determine
ton with which we set about seeing
Constantinople in the briefest possible
time. This unfavOrable weather at
this season had been rather antici-
pated. 1t is no Turkish secret and we
had been well advised, but our plans
could not take heed. The passage
through the Dardaneiles had been made
in early morning, and il required all of
a stormy day to cross the Sea of Mar
sunshine lighted up the long row of Of
fetal buildings and palaces along
Seraglio Point. Our passports duly
scanned, our baggage fabricated on its
difficult way through The custom house,
we were rapidly driven across the far
famed Galata bridge to the only
steam-heated hotel i'm Pera; where a
good dinner dissolved some chunks of
gloom, but could not conceal the noise
..N rot -. H.
panes. Notwithstanding the darkness
as We climbed Pera IS hills that even
ing, the dim gas lights enabled US to
see through the carriage windows those
celebrated "pariah dogs" shiVering in
the doOrways. wet and bedra ggled on
the walks, and looking at US with pit
sous eyes. They live and increase be-
cause the Koran forbids the lestruc-
ton OF life uselessly. First-seen oh
jects Of every visitor, he exhausts the
vocabulary of fitting adjectives TO por-
tray their abject misery. If you ever
felt the affection OF a real dog that
revealed in the sunshine OF your appro-
baton. you need to know no more than
that these yellow beasts are homeless
vagabonds, with seldom a kind word or
a loving hand TO caress, or even chas-
tise
An Ambitious Guide.
PeTa and Galata, the modern, being
separated by the Golden Horn from
STEAMBOAT, the ancient, we recross the
Galata bridge the next morning, for
our dreary round of mOnotonous
mosques. We passed Turkish troops.
making THEN weekly review inside the
palace garden walls, near the dainty
Yildiz KiosQue, where the sultan now
exclusively attends worship. These SOL
diers are handsome. if surly. fellows
strong. tall and straight. They marched
Wen with shoulders well thrown back;
their uniforms respondent, their mill
tary bands on foot and horseback.
playing good music We stopped long
CROUCH for the guide 10 inform us that
the present sultan is literally a sick
man. and that when he dies. there is
a chance for a row over his successor,
Who, under the Ottoman law, should be
his brother. The latter is a reformer.
and the reactionaries want the sultan's
son, who might be depended upon to
pursue his fathers policy of non-action
and repression. The guide complained
that it is almost impossible to get any
reliable information about the sultan
or his household in Constantinople We
also. were I'm some doubt about the
credibility Of statements made by the
guide. He certainly is an intelligent
chap. and his discourse was often en-