Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1912-12-20
oNL vlEw OF ADRlANUpLE

IF YOU want to get away from the
world of trusts and strikes and
monopolies, away from the clan
gor of car bells and the shrieks
Of itinerant newsboys, and back
to a time when. four times a day, the
long-pronounced walls of a score of
muezzeius sound from as many min
arets; where competition is unknown
and there are no labor unions, 60 by
rail across Macedonia to Adrianople.
the strategic point in every trans
Macedonian wari
Half an hour after midnight. pro-
verbal black Turkish night, with the
crickets singing and the boys peddling
water at the stations, the east-bound
all-Macedonian express deposited me
at a station labeled Karaghatch--
somewhere this side of Constantin-
ople. undoubtedly, but how far from
my destination. the old capital of the
Ottoman empire. Adrianople. had not
the faintest idea There was a light
baggage examination, for came here
from Salonika and there Is always a
baggage examination between pro-
vinces in Turkey. and then they went
for my teskeret or internal passport
Where had come from, where had
.old the Salonika police / was bound
for. what country I hailed from. my
profession. general characteristics.
etc.. all were copied IL the feeble light
Of station lantern. while the crickets
sang on and the hours grew ever
wee'er and wee'er.
Finally, after registering the names
Of the newspapers l represented. i was
turned loose to find my way. There
were two or three ramshaclls cabs
standing about and / hired the one
whose driver seemed to have least of
the bitterness OF life written In his
face.
Over lone, dark fields and down q
pike. feebly lit by gas lamps, over a
bridge across the Martha, into which
my cicerone could have hurled the in
fidel passenger and no man been the
wiser. and up to the doors Of the Hotel
America (think of til, was taken
1t was one by the town clock when we
galloped thus into Adrianople.
By means Of a narrow door we en-
tered courtyard, surrounded by low
veranda. onto which the guest rooms
opensd. It took up another half hour
to wake the proprietor and then was
given a bed. was again in America,
withal In the heart of Turkey. at lastl
Afraid to Walk Streets.
Waking early that next morning the
prospect was not reassuring. A maze
of gray-brown roofs stretched on on
every hand. That was all. After an
in Monastir. where we had
been arrested for walking the streets,
under the plea that they mistook me
for a spy. dared not venture forth
In this city without authorized guide,
and that gentleman was not at leisure
until f1:15. beguiled the time as
does every other stranger thus put to
II in Adrianople, with Myer, the Bae-
deker Of the Balkans, attempting to
learn what we could of the city beyond
the fact of its containing branch Of
the Ottoman bank, and Austrian. as
well as Turkish. postoffices. which is
always the fact thrust first on the
traveller.
This Adrianople. the old capital Of
Turkey in Europe. lies at the junction
of the Martha. the Arda and the
Tundsche rivers. in most fertile val
ley. Now the capital of the yiiayet or
province Of the same name. Adrian
ople. has fallen from its former glory,
and. as was already aware. was made
up of narrow. crooked. badly-plastered
streets. dirty as is only Turkey In d.
cadence. withal that movement wss
now on foot for widening the main
thoroughfare. The town is built al
most entirely Of lightly constructed
shanties. with gardens and cobbbng
walks until 1t takes on the appearance