The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-01-17
YOUNG TURKS HAVE
TRANSFORMED CITY
Consannope Has Made More Progress the Last Five Years
Than in Centuries Ottoman Empire Trembling
Fearful of Loss of the CITY,

Dwight for the National Geographic
Society
Before the revolution Of 1908, Con-
stantinople was a survival of the NJ
teenth century without electric lights.
telephones. trolley cars, fire-brigades.
theaters or woman suffrage At first
this was because the Ottoman cap
ital was allowed to remain remote
piece Of Asia transplAnted into Eu-
rope. I'm later years IL was go because
OF the will of one mantle ex-Suitan
Aod-ul-Hamid II. This sultan. Mr..
Dwight conJectureS firmly believed
that dynomo had something to do
with dynamite, and therefore would
have none OF them.
A Transformed City.
The Young Turk uprising in 1905
transformed tho city. and according
TO Mr.. Dwight, Constantinople has
changed more in the last FIVE wears
than in the goo years before them
Dynamos hum there now. electric cars
chatter through the streets. telephones
are in use. streets have been paved
and widened; motor traffic plies upon
them, and there 10 even talk OF =
the tinge of the Orient still saturates
Its life. Constantinopie of today. the
writer says. lis neither modern nor
mediaevil not wholly Asiatic. nor yet
wholly European: rather. II Is . con.
fusing mixture OF the old and the new,
Of the East and the West.
The great city, the writer continues.
is an Instrumentation of villages rather
than an expressive whole. 1t does
not asstmilate the people who come
to dwell In 1t. but each tribe ana
race lives in a section apart, speaking
its own languages, wearing its native
tracts. and adhereing strongly to Its
native customs How the stranger
viii live in Constantnople il dcpen-
dent upon the circumstances Of his
nationality All visitors. however.
must share somewhat In Its eastern.
atmosphere. In this connection, Mr..
Dwight explains:
Unnamed Streets.
The stranger shall not be ama1sd
when he discovers that his street
has no name and his house no mum.
Der, for the real syatem on which the
addresses of ConstantinopIe are or
ganized Is that Of quarters /, for
one, live In such and such village
OF Bosphorus. in the quarter of Candle
Goes Not Out. Find that quarter
and someone In 1t will be able to fnd
me, IL he feel so disposed.
Practically all OF the work OF the
.,
kind of work is done chiefly by men
from certain country So it is that
the men who sell ice-cream in the
streets are Albanians, from the region
of Uskub; that the layers OF pave
ments are Mohammedan Albanians OF
the South. that the railroad nayyiel
are Christian Albanians from the same
region, that bath men are Turks
from Siyas: that street porters are
kurds or Asia Minor Turks. accord
ing to the kind OF load they carry.
that most boatmen are from the Black
Sea Coast, and so indefinitely
There is plenty Of time in the OF.
toman capital; in fact, a prodigan.
ty Of this element Of life--for the
city religfously, regardiessly follows
four calendars. Time has no money
currency there; is has no Relationships
at all, according to Mr.. Dwight, to tina
material world. the world of daily
bread and economic endeavor The
Turks of Constantinople prefer to- rs>
gard / 2 o'clock as falling at sunset.
Stultitia. a play which has had
much publ sity, Is to be put upon tho
stage by Harry Won Tilzer. Its au-
thor IL anonymous, but 1t Is limited
II is written by someone very well
acquainted with the Government,
Like the English play which a few
seasons ago startled England by its
portrayal III the dangers OF an un-
suspected in, aston. this play show. a
nroblematic foe wagtng war upon the
United States and exposes the latter's
one feature being
the losing fight waged by the Presi-
dent with Congress for the strength
ening of the national defenses. Tha