The Connecticut labor press., 1919-10-04

room for a person to turn around. They put in a stock of dry goods, trinkets. novelties and the like, or per haps the lighter kind of hardware. Then they get rich. Their money mul- tiplies in ways that strike the Vene- zuelans, who are inclined to take life easy, as miraculous.
 The quitting whistle means nothing to a ''TurcO." He will start a little rat hole of a shop near the market place in Caracas, for instance, and open up at dawn in order to catch the sellers of vegetables and fruits, who come into the market from the villages round about, and the sellers of fish who cross the mountains from the sea- coast in the small hours and reach Caracas at sunrise. He will remain open long after the shops of the VeneZuelans are closed and their pro prietOrs thinking of theaters and din- her parties.
 As a general rule, when a "TurcO" has accumulated a sufficient amount of money, he will close up shop, pack up his belongings and return to his native land, where the means acquired in the western world enable him to live in grand style" according to the stand ards prevailing in the home town. Once in a while, however, one of the little shOpkeepers will decide to re- main in South America and "branch out" As result some of the most important shops in Venezuela are owned by 'Turcos." Further:
 The "TurcOs" who run these big shops naturally need employees to help them, but the employees are never "Turcos," for, as I said, these people insist on being their own bosses. So the strange anomaly is presented of these keen competitors of the Venezue- Ian merchants being served by Nene- zuelan employees. Customers entering several of the principal dry goods shops of Caracas will find behind the counter a young Venezuelan clerk, who will obligingly hand down goods from the shelves, while, tucked away in a dark cubby-hole, barely visible from the front of the shop, is swarthy 'Turco" proprietor bent over his ledger, trying to figure out how soon he can return to Mount Lebanon and cut a swath among hOme-folk.
 Observe Mohammedan Forms.
 "TurcOs" are born traders and shun other forms of business. Their idea of a line of endeaVOr worthwhile is one where they have to take no chances; hence they never speculate, not even so much as to extend credit to their customers, practically all their transactions being conducted on a cash basis.
 When they close their shops they hurry to the quarters where they live in Caracas they are packed togeth- CT in one of the worst sections of the city-and take up mode of living which is not a bit different from that of their kin along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. At sunset the Mo- hammedans among them prOStrate themselves toward Mecca and recite the prayers enjOined upon them by the prophet Old MOOrS, oriental to the finger tips, in spite of their Occi- dental garb, sit at the doors of Span ish-American novels and chatter in Arabic, quite as if they were in FeZ or Algiers. Now and then a feud. started at home before they emigrated. bursts out in the Arabic purlieus of some Venezuelan city, and then news paper readers running over the police news see a wonderful collection of all run in for disturbing the peace.