The Parker post., 1914-06-20

/ I'M KY IL clA1, t11S N1AbAAC A41<1S 10 q
| MR region but little known to
| W W. Americans. Each season scores
of ''trippers" get as far as
Damascus, touch at scorching Alden S
sandswept coast, or soufry by train
ACROSS upper India on the beaten path
around the world" They swarm
into Constantinople, too, and overflow
down the shores of the Mediterranean,
seeking the levantine delights Of
Smyrna, Beirut and holy Jerusalem.
! But Bagdad, Babylon and historic
:Ninevah-in fact the whole Of Turkish
Arabia and most of Persia-is still
| terra incognita to even the most hard
ened globetrotters. Few travellers,
indeed, aside from those who are
| forced by duty to make the arduous
! trip, ever penetrate this isolate though
interesting region.
Shut Off from the outside world by
burning deserts and the hostile Per
sian gulf the middle East-the birth
| place of nations-refeots TO this day
/ the simple, primitive life of centuries
ago, uninfuenced by modern men
| About Bagdad the desert Arabs live
as in Abraham's nomad age, observ-
| ing the same rites and customs de-
, scribed in the Old Testament.
| Now the average American knows
in general way that Mesopotam1a
Persia and Afghanistan are some
where off in the scrambled geography
Of southern Asia. But let him be sud
denly told to proceed, say to Bagdad,
Heheran or Kabul-and he probably
wouldn't know just which way to
start 1t was so with me-when l
was ordered to Bagdad, writes Fred
erick Sfmpich in Los Angeles Times.
On the Map.
1t took the tourist agency almost
week to route" me. The ticket ven
der at the desk-so often an omnis-
cient person, goaded to sullen silence
by myriads of fatuous questions, hon
estly admitted his ignorance when
named my destination.
"Ehere is Bagdad?" he pleaded, in
a voice that spoke his shame.
proudly showed him, on the map
but did not tell him how long I had
hunted for it myself in my
room with an atlas of the world! Be
tween us we discovered that freight
for Bagdad and Persia is sent through
the Suez-mostly via Bombay-and
then across the Persian gulf and up
the winding Tigris.
So 1t was my ticket read via Ma
pies, Alden, Colombo Bombay, Maskat,
Bassorah, etc. But to the very last
the agent was dubious. He was loath
to admit that Bagdad was really
town, and not a cigarette, a dead hero,
or a strange disease. His last words
were, eff you ever get there. let me
know"
At Naples the company's agent ex-
changed my ticket for another bigger
than the drst-a sort Of poster effect
printed in four languages. and on
which Bagdad was spelled with an n
In the middle. And by the time the
Lutzow had slipped through the Suez.
and over Pharaoh's bones in the Red
sea and down past "OLd Alden, bumped
above was a marked man on board.
I was known as that man who Is
going to Bagdad"
At Colombo a Portuguese sailor got
glimpse Of my trunk. with ''Bagdad"
painted on it's end. He crossed himself
nervously, and hurried into a drink
| ing place run by Malay. Later, at
the Gale Face hotel. Singalese man
garbed in woman's clothes, selling In
dian sapphires made in Paris, told me
| his brother had saved rupees II years
that he might visit Bagdad. He had
changed his mind at last, however,
and bought q moving picture show.
Here in Colombo, Bagdad seemed
fully as far away as it had in New
York. But 1 owned a ticket-which
| said l might ride all the way-and
three days out OF Colombo landed in
| reeking, :miIdewed Bombay, the mar
ket-place Of the East.
was glad when the red-faoed
clark" Of the British-India Steamship
company's office cautiously admitted,
with frugal use Of words, that a steam
er would sail up the gulf next morn
ing From the reluctant way be let
the information slip, felt that must
be robbing the firm of an important
secret. The clerk was not sure at
| what hour the Kola would sail: l
could find out at the doc1-'Reaf1y,
you know, you Americans are deuced
inquisitive!" Finally coaxed him to
the counter and induced him to sell
me a ticket.
On the Kola's unsecured decks