The Alaska daily empire., 1915-08-18
CONsFANTINOPLE
 AND MYTHOLOGY


 AND MYTHOLOGY
 'In the word 'Constantinople' there is Che blended magic of mytholic TO- nance. history and poetry" writes Edwin A. Crosvenor in the National Geographic. It is the synonim of the fusion of races and the clash of creeds More than any other capital of mankind it is cosmopolitan in it's present and it's past. From the nat ural advantages of it's site 1t is the queen city of the earth, seated upon a throne"
 Constantinople has been at once the great hope and great despair of many an ambitious ruler, it has been the climax of many a frustrated hope and it has been called "The empire of the world" The resident population of the city just before 1t became one of the objective points of the war was but little less than one million. Like the audience that listened to St. Pet CT on the day of the Pentecost, there are "of every nation under heay- en-"
 To say that there are 45O,OOO Mus sulmans. 225.OOO Creeks 165,Oo0 Ar menians 50.OOO Jews and 6O,0OO mem bers of less numerous subjects of for eign natonalities is to give only an appropriate and faint idea of the mot ley best who sleep each night in the capital of the sultan. The endless variety of the facial type, of personal attire. and of individual demeanor, and the jargon of languages in some gesticulating crowd afford more exact and more distinct details than any ta- ble of statistics however elaborate and dry
 In the polyglot multitude, he who speaks but a couple of languages is considered ignorant and is often help less. The common handbills and no- tices are usually printed in four. The sign over a cobbler's shop may be painted in the languages Of six differ ent nations. and the cobbler on his stool inside may in his daily talk vio- late the rules of grammar in dozen more. Stnl the resident who is pos sessed of four languages will almost always be comfortable and at ease.
 "The only disappointing thing at Constantinople is the climate. Only rarely does it correspond to the city's natural loyeliness. Constantly 1t contraducts those conceptions where in imagination picturesthe East "The land of cedar and vine where the flow CTS ever bloom" Some days in April or May or June seem absolute periec- tion and leave nothing for full safety to dream of or wish for. october or November is sometimes beautiful, and scattered through the year are many pleasant days; but, taking the twelve months through, few localities possess climate more capricious and unkind. The experience of one year forms a small basis for calculation of the next. The heat of the summer is often main tained at high temperature for months. and meanwhile no rain mois- ened the baked and cracking ground and the night is hardly less parching than the day Snow sometimes falls in winter. but the ground rarely freez- les. becoming instead mass of hes i've mud which is rendered still more disagreeable by incessant rains. The damp and clammy winter never in- visorates like the sharper season of New England.
 "The dome of Sancto Sophia is n degrees north of the equator and 2S degrees 59 minutes east of Greenwich. It is remarkable that SO many cities of the first importance are situated in the same great parallel. That nar. row belt. hardly more than 90 miles in breadth. which encircles the globe between 42 degrees 20 minutes and 41 degrees 90 minutes in north lati- tude. includes Constantitnople Rome, the Eternal City. Madrid, the political and literary capital aof Spain and on this side of the ocean the two metrop- olises. unrivaled in the Western Hem isphere New York and Chicago. A person proceeding directly from the Court House Square in Chicago would ascend the slopes of the Palestine Hill in Rome. One travelling directly east from New York City Hall for dis tance of 5.622 miles would pass through the southern suburbs of Con- stantinople
 "The seven hills. which were to Con- stantine and the Cohorts the admired reminder of the older Rome. may still be distinctly traced. Though the topography has been vastly modified since SSO. though frightfully devastat- ing fires have caused the city to be rebuilt from it's foundations on an av- craze of once every fifty years-that is more than thirty times since it became an imperial capital-though the valleys have been partially filled and the crests. never more than 300 feet in height, have been worn away, yet the seven proud hills are there. They are at once distinct elevations and great ridges which everywhere blend at their tops. It is not every where easy to distinguish the valleys between the first second and third hills, since there man has almost modi- fled nature.
 Few cities have eQualley Constan- tinople in importance. None in an- cient or modern times have exceeded 1t in dramatic interest. During the centuries of the Middle Ages it was the foremost city of the world, sur passing every other in populousness