Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-08
ODDITIES OF T|FL|S
Georgians Are a Handsome
and Picturesque Race.
SHOP GOODS ARE INFERIOR
Many Splendid Dwellings of
Armenians and Russians.
TARTARSARE ALWAYS IN DEBT
Corpses Carried Through Streets in
Open Cofins-Filth Abounds
in Slums.
SHOP GOODS ARE INFERIOR
TARTARsARE ALWAYS IN DEBT
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

Chicago Record Herald.
TIFLIS, Caucasus, June 5, 1910
The more We see of both the men and
women Of Georgia the better We under
stand the reputation they have among
the beauties of nature.
You could not find finer looking lot
Of men in any city in the world imam
you meet on the streets of Tiflis. The
women have all the charms they have
been credited with, although it is said
that they become fat early in life from
Incidence and sweetmeats.
Perhaps dress has a good deal to do
with setting off the shape and the fea-
lures of the men. / have heard that
fine feathers make fine birds. No ma
tional costume is more stately or adds to
the stature and the pose Of wearer-
Perhaps the housekeeping heroes of ro-
nance and tragedy which We are con-
tinually meeting on the sidewalk would
not look so we'll in an ordinary suit Of
store clothes But we can at least give
them the credit of wearing their an
cestral garments with dramatic effect
Georgian Dandy spendthrift.
A certain Georgian dandy patronizes
the Hotel dLondres. where We are stop
ping, some say. to excess. 1t was re-
marked the other evening that as long as
he continued to spend his money so
freely here the bustling little German
lady who keeps the house will never fail
to make an annual profit.
He is said to be rich, and is a prince,
of course. The gossips report tnat he has
had quarrel with his brother. and, as
the two are partners, he is spending the
money of the firm more freely than Is
prudent.
But that is neither here nor there. We
only ask the privilege OF admiring his
clothes and his poses. We are not re.
sponsble for his moral behavior and
would continue to admire him even II
his reputation was twice as bad as it Is.
He wears a different coat and diff
ferent dagger and a different shakko
every day They always match. He has
coats of white, blue. red. gray, brown
and a mixed color like Irish homespun.
The tunic that he wears under them
is always of color to make a striking
contrast. When his overcoat is red the
tunic will be white, and when the over
coat is white the tunic will be red
He must have large armory OF dag
gers and pistols. He seldom wears the
same ones twice We like those wit
plain ivory handles the best. He is
moving picture unlike anything you see
out siue of Georgia.
A Respectble Prince.
And then we have another prince with
good reputation-one Of the best men
in the province-a man Of great wealth
and eminent respectability. Prince Maya
loft, his name is. is stopping at the hotel
with his two little sons. The boys wear
tn national dress with the same dignity
and grace that their father does.
And we must not forget the Paderewski
hair, which is quite fashionable among
gentlemen of literary and musical taste
l do not know how they make it stick
out as they do, but l have seen heads
that bushel basket would not cover.
1t is fine hair, too, not coarse and rough
and vulgar. You see such bushy heads
upon real, live, ordinary men frequently
upon the streets, with the hair bullying
out below shakos of lamb skin like the
curls of the Circassian beauty in the side
show of the circus.
The archbishop or patriarch who pre-
sides here at Tifis Is as handsome and
venerable an ecclesiastic as can be mag
ined.
Some of the priests make themselves
up to look like the Savior wearing their
hair long and their beard trimmed as He
is represented to look in the pictures.
They are said to be rather illiterate, how
ever. No educational qualifications are
required for ordination.
men go into the priesthood. l do not
think that all of them are lazy. / have
seen many who look like men of energy
and brains and devotion.
Many Languages Used.
Almost every store has three or four
signs in different languages-Kussian,
Armenian, Georgian, Persian and Tar
tar, and German also over in the
colony which makes the signboards
look very odd. Armenian and Georgian
lettering is different from Russian, but
they are quite similar to each other.
The shops are unattractive. There are
one or two large department stores filled
with modern goods, but in the bazaarS
and native shops there is little worth
buying The native goods are rudely
made, although sometimes of artistic
design.
Rug shops are innumerable Some Of
them in the Persian quarter have large
variety of goods, but the quality is in
ferior and prices are high.
Friends explain that we ought to be
patient and wait for the dealer to come
down; because a Persian. like all ORR
entails, never expects the buyer to pay his
first price. But life is too short TO bag
gle over such bargains, particularly as
we can get better goods of the same
kind in the shops of Chicago and Wash
ington at prices quite as low as are
charged here.
We have been offered Persian rugs at
prices higher than l have seen paid again
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