Evening star., 1920-05-24
GOBS MAY REPEAT
SWIM OF LEANDER
Garrison on DardaneIIes
Gives Chance for Warships
to Visit Straits.

| The DardanelIes is to have a small
| and Constantinople similar garrison
to guarantee free passage to the ships
of all nations through the straits and
| the Sea of Marmora. press dispatches
state.
Even our own Mississippi or Penn
sylvania some day may rest at anchor
in this deep. swift straight thirty
seven miles in length between the
goose neck peninsula of Gallipoli and
the mainland of Turkey. or steam past
into the Sea of Marmora. and thence
TO the Bosporus for the American
jackies to oh" and 'Ah" at the
| mosques and minarets of CONSTANT
nople in the distance says a bulle-
| tin from the National Geographic So
ciety.
Mention of the Dardanelles con-
jures before the American mind the
story of a fierce and interest com
pelling fight in 1915 and 1916 and
history which trails back into dim
neurological times when Leander
| swan across it's three -fourths mile
| at Abydos every night to tell tho
same old story to Hero. who hung
| her light out to inform him she
wanted to hear it.
!
Lord Byron, not to be outdone as
a swimmer by his amorous prede-
cessor. did the Helespont in 1910.
| Though it was regarded rather
prodigious feat when these two ac-
complished it. many modern athletes
| could don their trunks and visit theiI
j lady loves and regard the effort
a part of their training to keep phys
| ically fit.
.'Xerxes. in 4S0 B. c.. having an un-
canny feeling that his thousands of
Persians were not Billingtons and
a bridgeway. which Herodotus tells
us groaned for seven days and nights
during the unloading of Asiatics or
| the soil of Europe. Alexander the
Great, about 100 years later. before
he was reduced to tears at the failure
of the world to provide him excite
| ment. tried out the thrill of Xerxes
by leading his Macedonians into Asia
! The approach by which the Amer
lean soldier and sailor will enter
Constantinople may well be lihened to
| the entrance to dwelling house
the Dardanelles being the outside or
storm door, the Sea of Marmora the
vestibule, and the Bosporus the in
ner door.
This storm door. which is about
| the width of the Hudson river. is
! commanded by the Dardanelles Castles.
built by Mohammed III in 1870. One
fort is on the European side and one
| or the Asiatic. Many guide books
published before 1914 carried this
ominous and prophetic sentence: The
castles on both sides have been lately
restored and armed with krupp guns
According to the treaty of July. 1871.
and the Paris peace of 1856. no foreign
ship of war was allowed to enter the
strait without the permission of Tur-
key, and merchant vessels only dur
ing the daytime.
Where They Start for Troy.
''On the Asiatic side short dis
tance from the fort lies the town of
| Dardanelles. which was named for
Dardanus. the NEUROLOGICAL ancestor
of the Trojan kings. Aeneas, and
hence of the Roman people. This
city of $4,000 inha bitants. situated
prettily on a fertile stretch of land.
| is the point from which most of the
| excursionists start for the plains of
| Troy, a short distance beyond. Here.
| too. ships must stop to show their pa
pers, the number of merchant vessels
lalone during a single year numbering
| more than $4,000.
| Across on the European side is
Gallipoli, or beautiful town 1t was
| the first European town to be cap
! tured by the Turks in 1857. Superbly
located on the steep projecting coast
of the Gallipoli peninsula, it com
mands a view of the Asiatic side
the plains of Troy and the broken
foothills of Mount Ida. On this mar
row peninsula in April. 1915, allied
| forces were landed in an attempt to
| pture the Dardanelles. When the
| foods drove the British soldiers from
| their trenches like rats out of holes.
| Turkish snipers on the hills above
| picked them off almost as fast as
they appeared. The campaign was
abandoned in January. 1916"