The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1920-08-06
TURKISH CAPITAL
LIKE BOOM TOWN
East And West In Strange
Mixture Under Allied
Occupation

Constantinople, July z. Con-
stantinople now combines all the
frenzy of a new mining camp and
world seaport. Its "the end of the
trail" for all the Balkan states and
everything west of Suez on the Medi-
terranean. Caucasian oil men. Dom
etz Basin miners, Anatolian sheep and
cattle kings, Greek war millionaires
and Syrian merchants rush to Con-
stantinople to pop campaign in proof
of their success. Soldiers and sail
ors of half a dozen nations swell the
population ard add to the cosmopoli-
tan aspect of the streets and pleasure
resorts.
Under allied occupation the city
has become a wilder place than it was
under the Turks There are no civil
courts. None of the allies desire to
assume responsibility for reforms 9TH
err than are necessary to safeguard
life. Italian, French and British
troops cooperate with the Turkish
lgendarmerie in keeping order. But ev-
erybody's job is nobody's job. Con-
sequently Constantinople 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 Il
committed.
Leadville and Goldfield in their dir
ziest days never offered anything
wilder than certain sections of Con-
stantinople, where jazz bands vie
with Neapolitan orchestras and tsig-
ane singers in their efforts to attract
wayfarers into the beer tunnels and
dance halls filled to OVERLOOKING with
the painted women of many nationa-
lities.
Half a dozen summer gardens Of
fer vaudeville programs, which at
tract thousands of persons every
night who seem to have far more in
terest in the drinks and restless
crowds than in the Russian prima
donnas and bare-legged dancers.
whose art is usually as meager as
their attire. Turks, Arabs, Bedou-
ins, Egyptians and Assyrians, george
ously clad in native costumes, elbow
their way among Cossacks and Georg-
ians, whose uniforms are far more
brilliant than their recent military
achievements.
Coal-black French colonials, re
splendent in red fezzes and green
khaki, mingle with Sikhs and Pun
jabi. whose long hair and many-col-
ored headdresses are wrapped in SOM
bre brown. Civilians, soldiers and
sailors from all parts of the world
are hopelessly pumbled together in
Constantinople crowds and are so bu-
sy looking at each other that tenors
from the Petrograd opera. naughty
French singers from Montmartre and
Austrian strengthened ladies claim
but slight attention.
Constantinople itself is a grand
pageant every day. It's main thoro-
fare, Rue Grand Pera, is more fasci-
mating than any scene which produc-
ers can ever hope to stage. Camel
drivers lead their patient trains, bur-
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 pedestrians. who venture off
the narrow sidewalks. Turks mount
ed on tiny donkeys move Indifferent
ly thru this maelstrom. Occasionally
Turkish peasants drive a flock OF
sheep or turkeys into this whirl 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
ConstantinOple are ill-suited to mo-
tor traffic and the slow-going fatalis-'
! tic Turk is little inclined to change
his pace. Consequently there are ma
ny accidents and the Indifference
with which foreign military cars are
driven has done much to intensity
Turkish hatred of foreigners.