Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-05-13
VISIT TO SULTAN'S
PALACE IN TURKEY
Is Beautiful Place Surrounded by
Park Six Miles Long and About
Mile Wide.
OLD SULTAN CONFINED
WITHIN PALACE GROUNDS
Many Other Places of Interest Visit.
ed by Mr.. A. c. Baker and Son
Harry on Their Foreign
Trip.

The black sea receives all the
water from a vast area and all this
is discharged through the Bosphor-
us into the sea of Marmora. The
Bosphorus is about half a mile wide
and very deep and flows almost
south On the west side in Europe
is Constantinople and across is Sou
tari in Asia. Extending back
through Constantinople about five
miles is a bay that is termed the
golden horn. 1t is very deep and
makes one of the best of harbors
on the south side of the golden horn
is Stamboul and the north are
Galata and Pera The entire loca.
tion being one of the finest in the
world, as the control of this narrow
strait must have a great influence OF
all that country whose commerce
passes through it.
Our ship, after taking on the Tur
kish officials, steams up this strait
We have, as we pass by the Euro
pean side, explained to us many pla
ces of interest We inquire about
that beautiful new building that II
fast nearing completion and are tolt
it is the new ladies school that il
being erected as partner in re-
deeming these people, as Roberts
college has the masculine gender
We are told that John D. Rockefeller
had just given $500,00O.00 toward:
its endowment. We may kicl
Rockefeller, but money placed as hi
has this, will return thousand folt
and / ask no questions from whence
it came. We pass Roberts college
with the American flag at full mas
above its. lofty steeple and its stu
dents Justify cheering us as we pass
A large number of the students hat
secured boats and steamed out t,
give us closer greeting.
A little farther up we pass th
harems of the Sutton, immense lonl
buildings near the strait. Let M
here explain what is bringing abO,.
the great change in Turkey. TIL
women Of these harems are largel
not Turks, but white women, larg
number of them the beautiful Cir
cassian women from up around tn
Caspian sea, others from the whit
women of lower Europe. AS the chill
dren of these women grow to man
hood the influence of these white wo
men get them into Roberts colleg
and from these have come the youn
Turk as he is now spoken of. From
this new ladies college will com
forth that character of woman tha
will emancipate the woman from he
present degraded harem condition.
Just back from the Sulton's harer
is his beautiful palace, surrounde
by a park six miles long and abou
a mile wide; to the north is the sum
mer home of the Shah of Persia.
Our ship turns around near tn
Black sea and we take in the Asiati
side as we return. Here is the pa
ace of the old Sutton where he ha
been confined with his harem sine
he was deposed years since. A guar
is seen keeping watch that he ma
not go outside of the palace grounds
1T would mean sure death to get out
side these bounds, but to the averag
mortal it would be no punishmer
to be able to live within such beat
tiful precinct.
Just below is the summer home {
the Khedive of Egypt. All along o
the high bluffs are seen beautifl
homes of the wealthy of all nations
The one thing that impresses on
is the amount of wooden building
Z Before in all the foreign places W
have been the buildings are of &C
ment or stone, but here more tina
half are of wood. This accounts fo
the terrible fires that have swept thi
city. This lumber comes from tn
immense forests up along the DaI
ube in upper what was Turkey befor
the last war.
We anchor close by where the Bos
phorus and golden horn connec
Quite early on Monday morning W
take the team to drive through tn
interesting portion of the city. Firs
we visit the Mosque of st. Sophia
This great building, once a christia
church, but now a Mahomeda
(Contjnued nm mage Ql