Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1917-04-19
LIGHT ON SALON|K|
Pen Picture of Street Scenes In
the Quaint Greek City. .,
A MINGLING OF MANY RACES.
The Town Has a Slight Italian Flavor,
and the Striking Costumes of Its
Varied Peoples Form a Complete Ex-
hibition Of Balkan Fashions.

of the National Geographic society
compiled from a communication to the
| society from II. G. Dwight.
Somebody had told me that Saloniki
was rather like Genoa" writes Mr..
Dwight. my first impression, there
fore, was of a disappointing fatness
not in the least comparable to the lofty
| air-the piled, Fashioned, heaven seal
ing air-of the Italian city. Yet Salo-
niki scales heaven, too, in her more
| discreet manner.
And there Is even something family
Italian about her. This Is most palpa-
BILE on the broad quay Of the water
front, especially when a veritable row
of fishermen from the Adriatic are dry.
ing nets or sails under the sea wall.
just as they do In Venice. The cres-
cent of white buildings facing the blue
bay would not look foreign in any
Rimini or Spezzia.
1.-THE White tower, which is the most
conspicuous of them, might perfectly
have been the work of an Italian
prince. Indeed, a doge of Venice is
said. to have built the first edition of it,
and Suleiman the Magnificent employed
Venetians for his own.
Look a little closer, however, and
this Italian appearing town has unfa-
miliar details. The white campanili
that everywhere prick up above the
roofs Of weathered red are too slender
and too pointed for true bell towers.
Then, as you land at the quay you
perceive that the electric cars are la
beled in strange a%lphabets. The cafes
do not look quite as they should either.
CAS- for the people in them, a good
many would pass without question.
Just such slight and trim young men
in Italy would sit at little tables on
the sidewalk. Just such young women.
rather pale and powdered as to COM
plexion, rather dusky as to eyes and
hair, would sit beside them. And you
hear a good deal Of Italian. But you
languages. And those red feZzes are
another note.
"a more striking note is afforded by
numerous dignified old gentlemen TAX
ing their ease in their bathrobes, as it
were, slit q little up the side and tied
about the waist with a gay silk girdle.
Over the bathrobe they usually wear a
long, open coat lined with yellow fur,
which guards them from the cold in
winter and in the summer from heat.
And none of them is without a string
of beads, preferably of amber, dam
Cling from his hand and giving him
something to play with.
Such an old gentleman should be &C.
companied by an old lady, who contrib
utes what is most characteristic to the
local color of Saloniki. The foundation
of her costume is a p%etticoat Of some
dark silk and a white bodice crossed
below her throat-a very thin bodice,
cut very low at the neck and unstiff-
ened by any such mail as western
women arm themselves with.
over this superstructure the old
lady wears a dark satin bolero lined
with fur and two striped silk aprons,
one before and one behind. The latter
Is caught up on Ole side, some corner
of it being apparently tucked into a
mysterious pocket. But the crown and
glory of the old lacy is her headdress,
a sort Of fat frame tightly wound
about with a stamyed or embroidered
handkerchief and crowned with an
oval gilt plaque set off by seed pearls.
Whatever its color. this creation inva-
riably ends in a fI.nged tail of dark
green silk, also ~orna:nented by a gilt or
gold plaque of SEED pearls banking
halfway down the cid lady's back. In
this wonderful tail che keeps her hair,
of which you see not a scrap unless at
the temples. And about her throat she
wears strings and strings of more seed
pearls.
"She is, this decorative, this often ex-
tremely handsome old lady, a mother
in Israel. The old gentleman in the
gaberdine is her legitimate consort.
while many of the moderniZed young
people at the cafe tables are their de.
scendants-very many. A dozen differ.
ent estimates Of the population are
given, varying according to the race of
the informant, but they all agree on
the point that Salontki contains not far
from 10000 people and that more than
half of them are Jews.
ITO loiter among the booths of Sa.
lonikis bazaar, to explore the busy
squares and markets beyond it. tc
stroll in the crowded street of the Var
dar or to idle among the coffee houses
Of its western end is to take in some.
thing Of the Macedonian question.
Tall Albanians, v~ariously braided
according to their tribes and wearing
white skullcaps on one ear, stalk
through the crowd with that lordly
swing of theirs. Bulgarians, less lord.
ly, but no less Indifferent to the opin
ion Of the world at large, mind theil
own business in brown homespun
Killed Greek peasants in tight white
trousers tasseled under the knee, boot
ed Montenegrins with hanging sleeves
lend the scene an operatic air.
Women in hats, women in kerchiefs
women in embroideries that you wan
to buy OF their backs-and sometimes