Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-26
Special Correspondence O

SAMSOCN, Turkey, May "a, 1910.
The first town of Importance. sailing
| eastward from Constantinope. along the
southern coast OF the
SvAAAeAeAoA Black sea, is the ancient
Cen%ar city of Samsoun, founded
by the Greeks more than
three thousand years ago and always Of
consequence commercially. 1t has a splen-
did location. sloping gradually upward
from the sea, but. like many people, as
well as towns does not fulfill the expecta-
tions excited by it's appearance from
distance. There us a big hospital for
soldiers upon slightly eminence back
of the town: there are several minarets;
the five domes Of Greek church glisten
in the sun; several imposing business
blocks and residences line up well along
the seashore, and give a brave appear
ance to the place. but when you land
you are disappointed to find the streets
narrow and dirty, with mixture OF
smells arising from unknown sources,
wretched pavements and mangey dogs
lying around in the sun scratching them
selves in way that is more suggestive
than comfortable. Scratching is some
times contagious.
But the narrow streets are interesting
and the market place, with circular
fountain and an ancient mosque, oners
one of the quaintest and most, picturesque
oriental scenes you could imagine. In the
foreground butter dealer in' an inde-
scribable costume of more colors than
Joseph could possibly have had In his
coat was ladling greasy-looking stun
from a great tub with a wooden spoon,
and on his scales he used stones for
weights. The vegetables and oranges are
fine. Onions and garlic could be felt In
the air. both in the raw material and In
the finished form of orders. Turks are
low to tn
soups made of grain are the chief ar
ticles of their diet. We are told that
Samsoun is great place for apples. so
much so that the bears come down In
town when the fruit is ripe and rob the
orchards. We tried some of the apples
which the peasants sell by weight IN
the market place. and found them dry
and tasteless. but don't think they were
to blame. No apples are good in May.
X X
There is cafe every few yards on
every street, where it seemed as II the
entire male population
" u"eiVuS were slipping coffee and
Cofae smoking cigarettes. We
saw a few narghilas-
those long-tubed water pipes which are
associated with cross-legged Turks-in
Constantinople, but haven't found one
anywhere else. l suppose they are out of
style, for all the Turks that We have
met were smoking cigarettes instead.
They ship large quantities Of lie
orice root from Samsoun. 1t grows
wild in the mountains. Those who
as the value. might be considerably
improved by cultivation. but such
thing has never been attempted on a
large scale. The sheep upon the noun
mt ct Sol. 49, f<vr
the ships and the cattle that we see
grazing in large herds add many hides.
but tobacco is the chief article of ex-
port from Samsoun. and a boy who
voluntarily attached himself to our
party and followed us along. chatter
ing as he went. told us that large
establishment surrounded by a high
wall was kept by some Americans.
How a Turkish lad. who presumably
had never been out Of his native place.
could have identified us as Americans
is remarkable. for in oriental countries
even in China and Japan. the natives
are never able to distinguish between
Uncle Sam and John Bull; but. never
theless,. we acted on the welcome infor-
nation that three fellow countrymen
were living in Samsoun, and soon found
that his statement was two-thirds true.
P. E. King of Concord. N. c., and
W. p. Johnson Of Davidson, in the same
state. represent the American Tobacco
Company here, assisted by Edgar Clark
of Liverpool.
The Tobacco Trust has had an agency
here for three years. purely for the
purpose Of buying cigarette material.'
and in 1907 its agents shipped ZOO;
in 1908 they shipped $685., 900. and In
1909 they shipped $4,000 in tobacco
from this port alone. There are several
other buyers for the American market,
but they come and go with the season.
Mr.. King and his associates remain
here the year around. and have COM
Portable abode in a big house half way
up the hill back Of the town.
The tobacco produced around Sam
SCUM is light in color and of fine flavor.
especially suited for Gig
0dMSouA arettes. There is a great
Tohooco difference in the quality
according to the care and
cultivation. and the agents of the trust
have persuaded a few Of the farmers
to improve their methods and imple-
ments They tell me that twice the
present crop might be produced from
the same area If half the care and
skill was expended upon it that the
Cuban planters give to their tobacco.
Samsoun expects to be the north
ern terminus of one of the railways
which have been authorized by the Turk
ish parliament. and which a syndicate
composed Of G. Z. Converse. president
Of the Brooklyn Trust Company; Laid
law Brothers. bankers in New York:
Macarthur Brothers, contractors of New
York and Chicago. and Frank Arming-
ton and w. 3. Moore of Brooklyn has
offered to build. Admiral Chester of
our navy and his two sons. representing
the syndicate. are in Constantinople
trying to get the concession, as / wrote
you the other day.
If you will look on your map you will
notice that Asia Minor is that part of
Turkey which projects into the Mediter-
ranean on the Asiatic side, an almost
square peninsula. about 300 miles each
way. 1t is bounded on the north by
the Black sea, on the east by Armenia
and Kurdstan. on the south by Syria
and the Mediterranean and on the west
by the Aegean sea. The western por-
ton of Asia Minor is called Antolia.
1t is densely settled with Turkish farm
ers. who cultivate the ground in
primitive. awkward way, but do not
realize more than half the value OF
their labor. First because of their
primitive tools and instruments and