The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-07-26
AMERICANS STIR
LETHARC|C TURKS
Constantinople Becomes Cosmo.
poIitan City With Ending
of War.
NOW RUNNING With ENERGY
American Soldiers, Red Cross, Y. M.
C. A. and American Business Men
Now Throng city-CaIl II ain
vasion of Wealth."

Constantinople. - Americans make
Constantinople hum with their energy,
business methods and way of "going
ahead" that makes ever the old Turk,
Indifferent as he is to all that passes
around him, lift an eyelash in mild
surprise. American soldiers, Red
Cross, Y. M. G. A, American bust
ness men, American-made machinery,
food, clothing, merchandise of every
sort and kind are now in this most
dirty, casual and ancient city. The
Turks, when they talk about it at all,
call it "The Invasion of Wealth"
The Prussians have gone; the Ger
man invasion is over. But, besides
this American invasion, is the Rus
sian invasion, which the Turk, when
he talks about 1t at all, calls, owing
to its contrast with the American
species, "The Invasion of Poverty"
Russians, Too, Abound.
Every day the orderly, prosperous
businesslike, keen-eyed American
grows more numerous, buster, better
at home in this most fascinating old
city on the Golden Horn, the most
wonderful city that eve was, with
its mingling of the races, It's white
marble palaces, It's noise, dust, and
its seal of the Orient.
Every day more and more Rus
SLAMS, poor, ragged, disordered, idle,
"devil-may-care," hungry and pleas
u~re-loving. flock here from the bolshe-
visits, escaping by way of the Golden
Horn from Odessa. At Stamboul, at
more or less Americanized Pera, at
Chiclin and other suburbs, Russians
abound.
And what a contrastl The Ameri-
cans, clean-shaven every day, method
ical, wideawake to all around the Rus
slams, dirty, unkempt, possessed with
the one idea, to amuse themselves,
They gamble every night in the bells
of Pera, throwing down sheaves of ru'
bles In notes of a thousand, two and
five thousand, which they feverishly
change at the rate of six cents per ru'
BILE instead of the N nominal 81
cents.
American ways and energy have
even penetrated into the Turkish
homes. Many Turkish women now q
about with uncovered faces "becaus'
the American women do it." and a few
are taking an active part in politics
holding meetings at the famous Hip
podrome to agitate for woman suf
3 frage, quoting the leaders o
: the suffrage movement in farawa.
. America which they have seel
r and whose language they do not know
Public order is good throughout tn
" city. Patrols of Italians and Turk
see to that. At crossroads English pc
: licemen regulate that curiously intri
cate Eastern traffic with the sam
8 calm they showed a few months ag'
$ at Piccadilly Circus.
n Prices Are High.
a Americans find life dearer here thai
i'm New York. A cab, drawn by a
emaciated horse, SIS for a shor
n course; a cup of Turkish coffee, 5
a cents, about the size of a thimble.
9 One furnished costs 500
4 month, but no extra charge is mad
lOT lDe NuiiOuD MINIS VI p0So Nh@h -
fest it. White bread can be had at 8
cents per pound; American flour
very popular in consequence.
Except for the women who have Ill:
. carded their wells, nobody seems [
care about politics; the great thing
2 business-business for Greek, Armen
II an and Israelite-and each and a
l. l..u.oa.c xptxh tho Arnar
;. cans. There is a market for ever,
= thing that grows or makes. And II
70 Turk, who does no business, bl
: smokes his cigarette, sips coffee an
= lets others toll for him, is ready
- pay the price. For he is by no meal
SO poor as he gives his neighbors, ii
- and near, to understand.