The Cordova daily times., 1920-07-19

ASSOCIdtSu TTVSS J.- uG uSCduSuC0 LII
 the two centuries, present political and economic disintegration, was with out end, and an uncertain future, have been unable to destroy the in-
 effable charm the Turks originally gave to this city of eighty-odd thou sand souls. Adrianople is still holy city in faith and in appearance. Romance still abides here.
 "The Orient is the only place left to Europe where cities seen at close range are beautiful" remarked Jules Sebotin, French aviator, while visit ing the most beautiful of all mosques, Sinan's masterpiece here, the mosque of thousand windows but one, erected at the order of Sultan Eelim II, in the sixteenth century,.
 The first impression of the city had been one of infinite beauty. Arriving from across the lofty Balkans in an airplane, the city had been seen with a rush, place of spires, and slate dOmes and red roofs, planted at the l intersection of three rivers. It had been a welcomed sight It had come at the end of a four-hours ride and it was journeys end to a tired aviator. Seen from aloft, the city,, surround i ed by populars at it's outer rim, it's house gardens within the city showing green vines and flowers, it's oStly- ing fields bare, aroused memories of Mardin on the mountains, Diarbekr by the Tigris and hosts of other Turkish cities, always sleeping in beauty, whether visited by sunshine or moon light
 The longer the stay in Adrianople, l the more the charm of this beauty l grows, charm that is as great afoot as a1oft
 AdrianOple is a city that has the tone of country friendship about it, not unlike a county seat of the south. i The center of the agriculture ex- change business of Eastern and Vest ern Thrace, it is frequented by peas ants and traders of Turkish Greek, ! Bulgarian, Jewish and Armenian na- tlonalities. There is record of but one American ever having done business in the city, and he came there from Paris and bought up all the brooms. While no day knows what the next may bring forth in the way of politi- cal strife and crime, today the city preserves this tone of friendship and order. Strangers as they go along the streets, or visit the shops, are treated with kindly concern. The Turkish officers salute courteousIy and there is no glint of hostility in the eyes of the Turkish soldiers car rylng their new rifles, recently dis trlbuted them by Colonel Defer Tayar Bey. His martial law, is administered with gentleness, though there is no doubt that the silken glove hides a mailed fist
 The decadence of Adrianople goes at dignified pace. There is little or none of the seething squa1lor and dirt and noise and poverty of Constan- tinople. There is none of the c1amor of Constantinople's street cars and l automobiles. There are a few ragged 1 beggar children who besiege the stranger but for the most part Adrian ople endures it's shabby gentility with pride and calm Here there are none of the fallen houses and dusty streets which characterize the major 1ty of the cities of Asia Minor.
 Any day the city may surprise the world by tremendous massacre, but meanwhile it's life goes on as smooth ly as the flow of the rivers. Undoubtedly the life of Adrianople is fraught with that deep mystery which seems to cling inevitably to IiAC o4IiAul, 1OlC, 0ioSpy OIISIL Uut Ol this mystery the stranger sees only the charm
 Prayers are called from the minar- cites, as of old; also the old and new bazaars do slender business in sell ing American and European calicoes and homespun clothes and Turkish silver-mounted pipes and cigarette holders, rugs, junk, to passing peas ants and customers ;or else, when they are lacking, they swap with each other, after the happy manner of all the Orient.
 Decadence seems to have height ened the beauty of the majestic old mosque of Sultan Bayzid The win dows are broken in, the locks are rust