The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1917-01-26
LIGHT ON SALONIKI
Pen Picture of Street Scenes In
the Quaint Greek City.
A MINGLlNG OF MANY RACES.
The Town Has Slight Italian Flavor,
and the Striking Costumes of Its
Varied Peoples Form Complete Ex-
hibton of Balkan Fashions.

anu eHo Sttih'H9 NoStuHSS OF It's
Varied Peoples Form a Complete Ex-
hbition of Balkan Fashions.
A striking picture of street life In
Saloniki, Greece is given in bulletin
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 or 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 Ia most palpa-
bic 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
Rimtni or Spezzia.
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
Yenetians 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 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 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
| hear more Of other and less familiar
| 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
| We're, slit a 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 string
of beads, preferably Of amber dam
Cling from bis hand and giving him
something to play with.
"Such an old gentleman should be ac
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 petticoat Of some
dark silk and a white bodice crossed
below her throat-a very thin bodice,
cut very low at the neck and unstilf-
ened By any such mail as western
women arm themselves with.
"Over this supersuucture 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 one side some corner
Of it being apparently tucked into q
mysterious pocket. But the crown and
glory of the old lady is her headdress
a sort of fiat frame tightly wound
about with a stamped or embroidered
handkerchief and crowned with an
oval gilt plaque set off 10y seed pearls
Whatever its color, this creation inva
riably ends III a fringed tail Of dark
green silk. $50 oruamented by a gilt OF
gold plaque of seed pearls banking
halfway down the old ladys back II
this wonderful tail she keeps her hair
of which you see not Il scrap unless a
the temples. And about her throat sh,
wears strings and strings of more seet
pearls.
She Is, this decorative this often ex
tremely handsome old lady, a mother
In Israel The old gentleman in tho
gaberdlne is her legitimate consort
while many of the moderniZed youns
people the cafe tables are their de
scendants-very many A dozen differ
ent estimates of the population ar,
given, varying according to the race o
the informant, but they all agree oil
the point that Saloniki contains not ia
from 10000 people and that more thar
half OF them are Jews
TO loiter among the booths of Sa
lonikis bazaar. to explore the bus!
squares and markets beyond it, t
stroll in the crowded street of the Var
dar or to idle among the coffee house
of its western end is to take in some
thing OF the Macedonian question.
Tall Albanians, yariously braide'
according to their tribes and wearing
white skullcaps on one ear, stall
through the crowd with that lordl
. swing of theirs. Bulgarians, less lord
ly, but no less Indifferent to the opir
Ion of the world al large, mind thei
own business in brown homespuT
Killed Greek peasants in tight whit
; trousers tasseled under the knee. boot
ed Montenegrins with hanging sleeves
lend the scene an operate air.
"Women in hats women in kerchief;
women in emhrofs1ries that you wan
. to buy off their backs and sometime
| do-women in the Turkish domino, o.
fer complete exhibition of Balka
fashions"
: |
I One OF the sublimest things In tn
! world is plain truth Rulwer