Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-08-01
Since Italy Gets Into War
Turkey Erases Forbid
den Characters.
HAVE SIGN CENSOR
City of a Million Spent
Many Days Scraping and
Changing Placards.

Correspondence OF the Associated Press),
CONSTANTINOPLE, July 30.-The
municipal decree went forth rev
days ago that printing in Latin char-
acters on shop windows and slsns
should disappear. The order has
forthwith been obeyed. CONSTANT
nople, which used to display In It's
cosmopolitan character as many FOR
eign signs as native, is now innocent
of anything which the foreigner can
read. Whatever Inconvenience 1t in
wolves to a large and important ele-
ment, the result is great improve
ment in the looks of the streets or the
Ottoman capital. From many q
luilding have been erased, painted
over or removed the blatant Latin
crying the names of wares OF the oc-
cupants. The streets present most
unwonted appearance Of neatneSs ana
respectability.
No Turkish lettering had never been
go conspicuous to the view as the
katin lettering and Turkish, even
when written large, has picturesque
aspect which no western language can
claim.
Besides its foreign element Constan-
tinople has a large population OF
Armcnians Greeks and Jews, few OF
whom read Turkish though they
speak it, Most signs and notices are
therefore given in at least two OF these
other necessary languages as well as
I'm Turkish and some western IAN
Euages Signs in Armenian, Greek
lnd Hebrew are allowed to stay pro-
,ided they are not so displayed as to
hon1inate the Turkish letters
Much Scraping.
10 modify practically all the signs
II. a capital of over a million inhab-
itantS means vast amount OF scrap
j7g. painting out and repainting. II
ineans q whole city at work with lad-
ders, ropes and hooks, letting down
Sreat ohlong boards embellished with
the forbidden characters. Some canny
persons have simply tackled cloth
rign over the old, but such boldness
is generally backed up with Ger
man or Austrian passport. Allies must
count for something-even to the eX-
tent that signs in Gothic characters
are permissible. But this was an after
thought. The signs Of some Germans
and AustrianS are passing muster In
Latin characters, especially If the
French words for brothers" CONS
pany" or Society" have been elm
mated.
Many ShOpkeeperS nave entrely
altered their signs, but the majority
Rave contented themselves, or rather
the powers that be, with removing the
offensive Latin lettering. This often
results in an amusingly unbalanced
appearance to the shop front or to
some highly elaborate design in which
the Latin letters were an essential
part. In other cases it has simply
created a swath of blank background,
which by edict must be black or red.
Pera, the so-called European sec
ton of the Turkish capital, and Gal
alta, the commercial and financial
quarter, have been hardest hit, or
most transformed, by the new order.
Besides the large signs over the en-
frances of banks. shops and hotels and
on tho plateglass windows, all the
small but expensive shingles of the
lawyers, doctors, architects and other
professional men, have disappeared.
These were often printed only In
Latin characters as medium known
to practically everyone who could
read and write at all AS yet nothing
has taken their place.