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
ell by Mr.. A. {. Baker and Son
Harry on Their Foreign
Trip.
CONTINUED from first pagel

ces. Before one can enter a Mohome-
dan Mosque he must either wear his
own rubbers or put on slippers over
his shoes so as not to desecrate these
hallowed halls. No christian dog en-
ters in his shoes; he can go in stock
ing feet, which the writer did often
where no slippers were to be had
We put on some large slippers over
our shoes and showed them over their
beautiful rugs. These rugs are said
to be of the finest in the world. There
was fine glass in the windows, high
dome $50 feet above the floor with
much interesting work, large num-
Der of priests were teaching from the
Alcoran, Chat book the writer read
when sixteen, much of it to his
amusement and little to hois instruc-
tion,) putting on an air of the SUI
pernatural, while the ignorant mob
fall on their knees and ask of them
things that no mortal has been given
power to grant.
We pass out, leaving our slippers,
and paying our Bakshea, and as we
emerge into Gods sunlight, with only
the canopy of heaven over us we
seem nearer that great creator of all
than in these dungeons built at the
sacrifice of thousands of lives and
leaving but little in their wake but
poverty. We saw no key inside that
opened another world to us.
We are driven to another Mosque
This the second largest though to all
appearance much larger, by name
the Mosque of Ahmed 1st. We DOM
ed our slippers again, saw the same
damp cold surroundings with beauti-
full rugs filled with the fungi of past
ages; we have seen sufficient of this.
We go to the museum, one of the
great repositories of relics of past
ages, these beautiful carvings in mar
BILE and granite where imagination
and skill with tools has wrought
beauty out of raw material.
Here we see the twenty-six beauti-
full Sarcophagi found in the royal
tombs of Sydon. A little farther the
beautiful carved Sarcophagi of Alex
ander the Great, beautiful piece of
marble with sculptor work on the
outside that must have required the
most painstaking care and the most
trained mind.
One could ramble through this
museum for weeks and gain informa-
ton that to the average would be of
great intellectual value
We are driven to the Bazars. In
fact, the great effort in all these ex-
cursions seems to be mercenary, and
as the owners of these bazars give a
commission on all goods sold through
the efforts of the emissaries of excur-
sion companies they make special eff
fort that one shall have an opportu-
nifty to visit these trading places. We
are first shown through the rug de-
partment where are displayed all
kinds of rugs at much higher prices
than one can buy them in our home
cities. One man in the party pays
81 10000 for rug to give to his
New York club; it might have been
worth half that, but his money is
easy. We tell our guide we must
go where there is something of inter
est, that we have not come out on a
trading excursion.
He is smoother than we and sue
ceeds in getting away from us and
we are unable tc find either him or
our company, so with one friend that
was out for other purposes than be-
ing taken in we walked three miles
to the bridge across the Golden Horn
get team to our ship, tired and dis,
gusted.
In the afternoon with two other
gentlemen we get team, and after
through an Interpreter, fully having
had it explained where we desired to
go and fully having him explain we
did not wish to visit these same Ba-
Ears, we were driven out into the
city. First we were to visit the
American embassy. We found very
fine old place with fine location
From the back, looking out onto a
beautiful park and below the golden
horn. Our great surprise was that
our Ambassador should not have a
valet that spoke the language of our
own country, but our cards finally
brought the necessary information
and we again took to our carriage
Soon we could see that our driver
was heading for these same bazars
and he would drive there and there
we sat while he used every effort to
get us in, but failing after about two
hours, finally drove us to Stair street,
that street better known than any
other in the Orient, and here we left
him to see the city without such com
mission hunting nuisances.
Stair street is wonderful panor'