Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-02
STREET SCENES IN sALoNrkl.
One Hears Good Deal of Italian But You Hear More of Other and Less Familiar Languages.
Especial to The Bulletin, }

Special to The Bulletin> I Washington, D. C., Nov. 30.-A ! striking picture of street life in Sa- I loniki, Greece. is given in a war geo. graphy bulletin of the National Geo. graphic Society. compiled from q com
 munication to the Society from H. G. Dwight.
 Somebody had told me that Salon 1 iki was rather like Geroa,' writes MT. Dwight, My first impression there fore, was of disappointing ilatness. not ir the least comparable to the lofty air-the piled, bastioned, heaven scaling air-cf the Italian city. Yet Saloniki scalcs heaven, too, in her more discreet manner. And there is even something faintly Italian about her. This is most pal
 pablo or the broad quay of the water front, especially when 6 reritable row
 of fishermen from the Adriatic are
 drying nets or sails under the sea
 wall, just as they do in Venice. The
 crescent of white buildings facing the
 blue bay would not look foreign in any
 hmini or SpcZZia.
 The White Tower. which is the most conspicuous ot them, might per
 fectiy have been the work of an Ital- ian prince. Indeed a Doge of Venice
 is said to have built the first edition
 of it, and Sueiman the Magnificent
 employed Venetians for his own.
 "A splendid palace opens forid
 gates of hospitality there. A skat-
 ing rink and a cinematograph cffer
 their own exotic entertainments to the passer-oy. Cafes abound, over1owinG onto the awninged sidewalk Electric
 trans clang back and forth in proud consciousness of the fact that they ex- isted when imperial! Constantinople Was yet innocent of such rnodernities.
 These cars take you around the
 eastern roru Of the hay to the trim
 white suburb of Kalamaria, gE's'te consuls and other nota!rIes of Saloniki
 live, and where Sultan Abdul Hamid
 II spent nearly four bitter years in
 the Italian Villa. Allattini, looking out
 at the provincial capital which he and
 Nero embeilished in their day On
 the opposite horn of the crescent is
 the Latin enough park of Besh Chinar Five Plane Trees-where it is good
 to sip coffee ond listen to music in the
 cool of the day.
 And f you did not know that
 greater prize and ornament of Salorli-
 Xxi for Olympus, the true Thessalian
 Olympus of Greek legend, you might
 easily imagine it to be some write
 Alp or Apennine looming magnificent
 ly across the bay.
 Look a little closer, however, and
 this Italian appearing town has un- familiar details. The white campan-
 iii that everywhere prick up above the
 roofs of wea athered red are too slender
 and too pointed for true bell towers
 Then, as yon land at the quay you perceive that the electric cars are labeled in strange alphabets. The cafes do not look quite as they should, either.
 ] "As for the people in them, a good many would pass without question. Just slight and trim men in Italy would sit at little tables on the side walk. Just such young women, rath- CT pale and powdered as to complex. would sit beside them. And you hear a good deal of Italian. But you hear 1 more of other and less familiar lang uages. And those red feZZes are a new note. So are those more num- erous hay-colored uniforms that sat at no cafe in my Italian days "A more striking note is afforded by numerous dignified old gentlemen taking their case in their hatli-robes as it were, slit a little up the side aud tied about the waist with a gay silk girdle. Over the hath-robe they us- with yellow fur, which guards them from the cold in winter and in the
 simmer from heat. And none of them
 iS without 9 string of beads prefer
 ably of amber. dangling from his hand
 and giving him something 10 play
 with.
 Such an old gentleman should be
 accompanied by an old lady. who con- tributes what is most characteristic to the local color of Sa1oniki The foun- datfon of her costume is a petticoat of some dark silk. and white bodice crossed below her t!lroat--a very thin bodice. cut very low at the neck and paipably uns.iffened by any such mail as western women arm themselves with.
 ."Over this superstructure the old iady wears q dark satin bolero lined with fur and two striped silk aprons- one before and one behind. The lat ter is caught ur on one si6e. some cor ner of it being apparently tucked into l a mysterious pocket. But the crown | and glory of the old lady is her head l drese-a sort Of flat frame. tightly 1 wound about with stamped or em- broidered handkerchief. and crowned with an oval gilt plaque set off by seed pearls Whatever its color. this cre- ation invariably ends in a fringed tail of dark green silk. also ornanented py 2 gilt or gold plaque of seed pearls, back. In this wonderful tail sine keeps her hair, Of which you see not scrap, Unless al the temples. And about her throat she wears strings and strings of mere seed pears
 "She Is. this decorative, this often extremely handsome old lady. a moth sr in Israel. The old gentleman in the gaberdine is her. legitimate con- sort. while many of the naodernized roung people at the cafe tables are heir descendants-verv many. A lozen different estimates of the pop- l Q the race of the inforfnk-t. but they III agree on the point that Saionih contains not far from 15o,o9o people,