Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1920-01-09

found quarters, which if not all that
could be wished for, were better than
the street.
We remained two weeks in Con-
stantinople, so we had time to some
what explore this wonderful interest
ing old city, with its many beautiful
its fine museums, it's towers
and walls and palaces, its columns,
and arches and other memorials,
some Of which go back hundreds of
years before the time of Christ. And
besides this it has busy, active mod
ern life, the streets crowded with
people all the time. 1t looks queer
to see a great crowd of men, mostly
in modern clothes, except that each
one wears on his head bright red
stiff cap with a black silk tassel-a
fez, it is called. The views around
Constantinople are considered some Of
the most beautiful in the world, and
certainly they are as beautiful as any
thing have ever seen. We visited
the famous Robert College, situated
high on the hills overlooking the
Bosphorus. Robert College trains
young men of all nationalities in
that part of the East and is thought
ito have done more for the country
than almost all other agencies put to-
gether for the up lift of the country.
We saw also the beautiful American
College, which is doing the same
work for the women.
After two weeks we got>passage on
a Greek boat and steamed through
the placid Sea of Marmora, through
the Hellespont, down through the
Dardanelles, seeing where some of
the firece fighting went on, down the
coast of Asia Minor, stopping one day
at Smyrna, and so to Piraes, which
is the port of Athens. Here we were
Iquarantined three days, because
there were cases of plague in Con-
santinople when we left there.
We had expected to remain in
Athens only few days, but when we
arrived we heard of the dock strike
and that no boats were going to
America, and no one could tell when
any would be leaving. This was dis
couragtng, but there was nothing to
do but wait, and we were glad that
if the delay had to occur, that we
had reached such a delightful place
as Athens in which to stay. We
were detained there a month, and so
had ample time to see the wonderful
and beautiful buildings, monuments,
and other reminders of the long his
tory of this classic place. We re-
freshed our school time knowledge of
Greek history, sculpture, and litera-
ture, and learned a great deal we
never knew before. On Sunday
went to the Greek Evangelical
Church, and it seemed wonderful to
hear PauFs sermon read in Ian
guage that is almost identical with
that in which~he himself delivered
it, and not very far from the very
place in which it was given.
Atlast we heard our boat was real
ly coming, so we took passage in a
small boat that brought us through
the blue Aegean sea, through the
Corinthian canal, which is really
fine big ditch, through the Corinthian
gulf, that has the bIuest water ever
saw, and'is walled in by the even
more blue Green mountains, to Pa
tras, on the, western shores of Greece.
On the 9th of Dec. we sailed from
there on the President Wilson, now
being run by the Italian government.
We should have come directly to
this country, but because Of the d:f-
ficulty in getting coal we had T.. go
first to Naples. Here had the OPP
porturity tc SCI Polup"ii, the old city
that was b.,.:i =. tho Eruption Of MI
Vesuvius, and all knowledge of it
lost for many years, and that has now
been uncovered again. We touched
also at Palermo, on the island of
Sicily, and we were four days at Gil
braltar. Though we were not allow
ed to go near any of the Notifications
there, and had to show our passports
and get a permit even to enter the
city, we found much to interest us in
the clean attractive, flower bright
little English city itself, with lis
beautiful views out over the water
and its shops filled with all sorts of
lovely things from many parts of the
world.
We were ten days crossing from
there. and though we got pretty tired
of living on macaroni and things
drenched in olive oil, and though We
met two big storms and one smaller
one, and had to fight seasickness most
of the time, we managed to live
through it all and landed in New
York Dec. 20, one day less than three
months from the time we left Tabriz.