The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-01
CONSTANTINOPLE IS WIDEST CITY IN
 THE WORLD TODAY
Combines All the Frenzy of a New Mining Camp and a Great World
 Seaport
By Associated Press

By Associated Press
 Constantinople, July 7-Constantfno- pie now combines all the frenzy of a new mining camp and world seaport. It's the end of the trail" for all the Balkan states and everything west of Suez on the Mediterranean. Caucasian oil men, Donetz basin miners. Anatolian sheep and cattle kings, Greek war mil lionaires and Syrian merchants rush to Constantinople to pop champagne in proof of their success. Soldiers and sailors of half a doen nations swell the population and add to the cosmo- politan aspect of the streets and pleas ure resorts.
 Under allied occupation the city has become wilder place than it was under the Turks. There are no civil courts. None of the allies desire to assume responsibility for reforms other than are necessary to safeguard life. Italian, Trench and British troops CO., operate with the Turkish gendarmerie in keeping order. But everybodys job is nobody's job. Consequently Con- stantinople is a very wide-open town. Midnight closing is enforced pretty generally but until that hour there is little interference with dance halls, gambling dives and redlight districts unless murder is committed.
 Leadville and Goldfield in their dizzi- est days never offered anything wilder than certain sections of Constantine pie where jazz bands vie with Neapoli- tan orchestras and tslgane singers in their efforts to attract wayfarers into the beer tunnels and dance halls filled to overflowing with the painted women of many natiOnalities
 Half d dozen summer gardens offer vaudeville programmes which attract thousands of persons every night who seem to have far more interest in the drinks and restless crowds than in the Russian prima donnas and bare-legged dancers whose art is usually as meagre as their attire. Turks Arabs, Bedouins, Egyptians and Assayrians, gorgeously clad in native costumes, elbow their way among Cossacks and Georgians, whose uniforms are far more brilliant than their recent military achieve ments.
 Coal black French colonials. resplen- dent in red fezZes and green khaki, mingle with Sikhs and Punjabi, whose long hair and many -colored head dresses are wrapped in sombre brown. Civilians, soldiers and sailors from all parts of the world are hopelessly
 
 crowds and are so busy looking at each other that tenors from the Petrograd opera, naughty French singers from Montmarte and Austrian strong jawed ladies claim but slight attention.
 Constantinople itself is grand pageant every day. Its main thorough fare, Rue Grand Pera is more fascinat- ing than any scene which producers can ever hope to stage. Camel driv- ,a1 with charcoal, through the maze of street cars. shrieking army motor cars and carriages, piloted over the rough paving at breakneck speed by Turkish hostlers who crack their whips and shout constantly at high pitch to pe'- destrians who venture off the narrow sidewalks Turks mounted on tiny donkeys move indifferently through this maelstrom. Occasionally Turkish peasants drive a flock of sheep or tur- keys into this swirl of traffic and serene oxen draw heavy carts along at a pace so slow that drivers of military camions curse them in ten different languages.
 The narrow, crooked streets of Con- stantinople are i'll suited to motor traffic and the slowging fatalistic Turk is little inclined to change his pace. Consequently there are many accidents and the indifference with which foreign military cars are driven has done much to Intensity Turkish hatred for foreigners.