The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-01-24

Graded. ever since Arab invaders
broke the communication between
Sancta Sophia and the Russian
church in the ninth century.
Over Century Old.
1.-THE only un-American thinss
about Odessa Mark Twain said, are
the cut Of its droshkis and the stu
pendous girth Of their drivers. the
city is modern, new, and moro Euro
pean or American than other city IN
the Tsar's empire, with the excep-
ton OF Petrograd. Odessa has only
recently passed Its 1onth year, yet, at
the outbreak of the war, 1t was rank
ed by but three other cities In the
empire for size and commercial I'M
portance-Petrograd. Moscow and
Warsaw. A few huts Of mud and
reeds and a Turkish fort were all that
marked the site, when Catherine the
Great commanded a cit? here. In
1902, eight years after the founda-
tion, 1t numbered 5000 Greeks. ltal-
1ans. Russians and Altanians. 1t en-
loved, however, unusual imperial pat
ronage, for strateglcal reasons; even
the Emperor Paul, who delighted to
make vain all that owed its title TO
his mother, continued to favor the
young town. A statue OF Catherine,
the Tsarina. represented trampling
the Turkish flag under foot, stands
on one Of the fine squares. Today,
the city, wealthy and important
among world ports, houses more than
half million people.
1.-THE city lies on semi-circular
bay, about midway between the
mouths OF the great Russian rivers,
Dnlester and Dnieper., 1t is 1017
miles south. southwest from Moscow
by rail and 610 miles south from
Kief. varna, the nearest Bulgarian
port and one recently bombarded BY
the Russians, lies 200 miles across
the Black sea to the southwest.
In a Dreary Steppe.
Odessa is builded in the midst OF
dreary steppe. 1t is regularly laid
out in broad street, faced with SUB
stantial modern buildings. and wears
its commercial prosperity patent to
the most casual visitor. its port Is
equipped with six good harbors-the
quarantine harbor, coal harbor, pc
troleum harbor, new harbor, 'prac-
teal harbor, and the harbor Of the
Russian Company for Navigation and
Commerce, the principal shipping
company Of the port. The freezing
of the harbors and the bay interrupts
navigation for an average OF sixteen
days each year.
"Novorossia, or New Russia, which
includes the governments OF Bessar-
abba and Kherson, has its Intellectual
and commercial capital at Odessa.
The social capital is also there, and
the
Life OF the Metropolis
has been described as much more
gay than the life of Paris or Vienna.
The nights in the odessa Of pre-war
days were giddy and irresponsible,
the avenues filled with people and
ablaze with cafes until early morn
ing hours. The merrymaking OF
Odessa did not really begin in the
cafe chantants until midnight, when
it's gaities lasted until between three
and five in the morning.
There was dark side to the pic
ture, the usual one to contrast with
the bright in every great city. A
miserable army OF poor, whose rank
was largely filled by the tides Of
transient labor that washed the
greatest trading city Of Southern
Russia, lived from hand to mouth on
stray crumbs Of the places prosper
ity. The number Of the very poor
was estimated at $4,000, and many
OF them lived in the extensive cata-
combs beneath the city, which were
formed by the quarrying of sand
stone for building"