The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1920-01-22
PAGE EIGHT

{ PAGE EIGHT
Another Letter From Miss Triple.
The uncertainty Of mail from the
orient is evidenced by the following
letter from Miss Triple, which was
written last March when she was on
the way to Constantinople. Two later
letters have been received but none
have come from her since she went to
her dangerous post at Sivas-far IN
the interior of Armenia.
Prinkipo, Princess Islands,
Sea of Marmora, Turkey.
Dearest People: My diary tells me
that my first letter ended March 3.
On this morning we were only mile
from the snow-capped mountains of
Greece. The day was cold and the sea
the toughest I have ever seen it. We
put on our raincoats and staid on deck
a great part of the day battling with
the wind.
We were passing all day the old
Greek places one has studied about in
school days,-Island of Cerigo, Island
of Andres, the main land of Enbola,
the Sporades Islands,-saw Mt. St.
Elias rising majcstically snow capped.
But, joy of joys! The next day /
gazed upon Mt. Olympus. It is beau
tiful-not only high but broad and
big. I could we'll see how the old
Greeks looked upon it as the home OF
Jove. ,..
An extract from my diary, Satur-
day, March q: Upon going up on deck
I found we were in the harbor Of
Salonika. The city lay to my right
and across the narrow bay rose snow
clad Olympus. The sun was high
when we cast anchor in this most
beautiful of bays. Unable to leave the
ship until our officials could make ar
rangements, we had hours in which
to study the walled city.
This place was the scene of both
land and naval engagements in the
year of 1917. A Greek army came
down between the hills back of Olym-
pus and attacked the Turkish city and
captured it. Here it was that the
English-who helped the Creeks
had such terrible loses, being caught
in the barbed wire, surrounded and
killed like rats. They could get no
water for days and many became in
sane. From the deck of the ship the
city is beautiful. It lies on steep
sidehill. The houses are every pastel
shade possible, with here and there
beautiful spiral-like white minarets
rising high above them. High on top
is the old walled city with its great
tower-like prison at one corner. Part
of the city was burned and the count
less fire sufferers are in great camps
which one can plainly see on the out
lying hills. have read of golden seas,
but never had I seen one before. To
the west as far as the eye could reach
was the most beautiful gold with
streaks Of green.
An hour later ten of US hired boat
commanded by two evil looking
Greeks and made for the nearest pier
my first eastern city with it's
throngs of strange eastern people,
dirty, noisy, full of color, and so on,
but oh, so thrilling! I never saw
horses driven so rapidly. Poor beasts,
how my heart aches for them! Such
cruel faces one did see and such
motley array of races-Greek, French,
English, American, Bulgarian, Turk
ish, etc. The Italian soldiers. are most
picturesque with their great black
cooked hats. We went up the narrow
cobblestoned streets and viewed with
greatest interest these strange people.
Another extract from my diary: Am
longing to get pictures of all this.
The unit Of which I am head is called
the "Tippling Unit" A picture was
taken Of it facing Salonika, with
Olympus at our backs. Am I alive?
A little monkey, several birds and
many cats are now passengers on our
boat. Greek fruit vendors row up in
boats and sell their produce.
Four of us left our group today and
wandered by ourselves. We were told
to be careful and not go too far from
the main streets. There are such
quaint houses with little screened
balconies overhanging the streets. We
passed through the arch of Triumph
called the Arch of Constantine. The
children especially interested me
children of every nationality. I saw
Turks, Greeks, French, Italians, Chi
nese, English, BulgarianS, Morroccans,
Hlndus, negroes, Arabs and others.
We visited school and found it in a
most deplorable condition-the man
teacher slovenly and crude We passed
almost up to the walled CITY. saw