The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-01
HOW BARGAINING
IS DONE IN BAGDAD
Fascinating Bazars of This An
Gent City
IN THE FAR EAST
Argument Seems a Dissipation With
the Old Shopkecper and He VIII
Talk for Hours for an
Extra Plastic

Mrs. Fred simpich, wife of the American
Consul at Bagdad, in the San Francisco
Chronicle.
If Market street cars gave transfers to
Bagdad and an alert San Francisco wom-
an could step off, shopping bag in hand,
some fine morning and suddenly find her.
self In the midst of Bagdad's ancient
bazars-Oh, my, what joyl l had such
luck; and. excepting one or two wander
ing missionaries, l am the only American
woman, l believe, who has ever lived in
Bagdad. True. 1 didn't come all the way
on street car transfer, but l did find
myself, after two months travel, in nnys-
ferrous old Bagdad and ever since the
bazars have held me in their thrall.
And these vast mystic marts flourish
today just as they did in the long ago,
when Marco Polo did his holiday shopping
here, and sent gold woven shawls home
to dark-eyed damsels in the land of spa
ghetti. And this same Mark P. was. no
mere mad tourist, rushing through the
east for new sensations and scenery He
was the real, original bargain hunter.
and says in his travels that he found the
Bagdad bazars the bargain hunters par
adise"
And SO they seem to me today. l know
Tokio's marvellous markets. the famous
walled city of Shanghai Pipe street. ;,
In Pekin has pried money loose from me,
and Bombay's offerings have taken toll.
But to Bagdad's bazars l hand the palm.
To enter Is to come out penniless. There
Is so much to buy, and each tempting
bargain seems dirt cheap Think of hand
hammered finger bowls at 10 piastres III
cents each, and all solid brass; or long,
full ostrich plumes selling for s125-the
kind you pay Market street milliners 800
for. OF course, these here are gray with
desert dust and look droopy and whipped
out, just as they were when snatched
from the tail of the feet-footed fowl, who
was probably glad to get away with only
the loss of her tail feathers. But cleaning
and dyeing primp them up as we see them
when sold for Is and 20 times the local
price. So it is. with silks-they sell here
for one-third of home prices. And all
these, with never a fire" or clearance"
sign to remind one of special sales or any
of the bargain hunting scrambles we
know at home.
shops OF the Arabian Nights
They're doing business in the same old
way In Bagdad. just as they did in the
days of the Arabian Nights, when Har-
ouner- Raschid and his favorite wife. 70
beida, strolled out together for a merry
evening in the coffee houses. The shops
had just as many wonders. No lady
killing foor-walkers, no moving stair
ways or "Pompeian room Injuries greet
the buyers of wares in the Bagdad ba-
Ears; here are no super-civilized seduc-
lions of the Yankee department store
type. But all around passes a moving
picture show of quaint and curious in
terest Alexander the Great, Herodotus
and all the early kings of Babylon were
familiar figures in. the bazars of these
early Mesopotamian towns. One can al
most imagine old Nebuchadnezzar saunt-
ering up to a corner cigar stand in Bag
dad, carelessly playing the B. C. slot ma
chine and asking innocently for election
news from the Pharaoh campaigns In
Egypt. King Solomon, wise as he was,
is reputed to have spent lot of money
foolishly in Bagdad buying knicknacks
for the capricious Queen of Sheba
The streets are bare ten feet wide, mud
cakes laid on mats and poles, too, shut
out the awful soul-destroying heat of
summer-sometimes 125 or 100 Fahrenheit.
Along each side are the stalls or
booths. At night they lock them up.
with doors made of nail-studded slabs,
fastened with ponderous locks and keys
a foot long.
In galleries leading off from the main
aisle work the artisans and craftsmen.
Here are over 800 shoemakers, hammering
away on red and blue-leathered boots.
Beyond are the fancy belt makers and
then fez merchant Though more fezes
are now made In AUSTRIA. Then we
reach the booth of those who vend spears.
swords and other cutlery of the battle
field. And every one we meet wears the
red shoes, the toes turned up like the
bow of an Indian canoe. This next mer-
chant sells "Abbas"-the long, flowing,
graceful cloaks which all Bagdaddies like
to wear. And here are camels' trappings.
all red and respondent with bead and
shell work.
They Love to Argue
In bargaining one is struck with the pc
culiar temperament of the Arab merchant.
Argument seems q dissipation with him;
he will talk longer and louder for an ex-
ira piastre than Baxter street Jew. and
not just for the piastre, but for the sheer
joy of driving a bargain. man selling
an old, moth-eaten and ind-broken
camel, worth probably s4S7, will spend as
much energy, use up as much talk and
fling out as many beautiful descriptive
adjectives as the auctioneer a little fur
Their along who Is asking bids for an Arab
horse worth $1,000
And all around the strife for life keeps
UP.
A boy of Is selling sweets, made from
date juice. and pistache nuts, and screams
in shrill voice the merits of his sticky,
fly-catching mess.
A Persian pilgrim. stranded far from
that dear Teheran, Is offering for sale a
beautiful antique rug, worth 800 on Fifth
avenue: he asks 30 medjidies-$26. l have
relieved his distress, and shall place the
Persian rug among my souvenirs of this
sojourn in Bagdad. With it I have a
tear-bottle, which ! myself picked up
among the sandy wind-blown ruins
Of ancient Babylon. Mourners cried into
these bottles and buried them in the
grave with the body of the departed. And
have red seal, with a lion-like crea-
ture engraved on it. which was found
at Niffer, where the University of Penn
sylvania once had an excavating party. !
shall make ring of my find.
Silversmths are clever here, as all over
the east. These at ,Bagdad keep shop in
small, narrow recesses, so built that in
case of-riots or invasions of the town
they can quickly lock up shop and leave
their wares safe from harm. They made
me q dozen coffee spoons. with coins for
bowls, all silver, for $40.
100 MILES OF CREPE PAPER