The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-06-15
ADRIANOPLE IS
 ORIENTAL CITY OF GREAT CHARM
It's Beauties Described By Aviators Who Were Re-
 cent Visitors.

! Av1atOrS Who Were Re-
 cent Visitors.
 Adrianople, Thrace. June 15.---The decadence of the two centuries, present political and economic disin- tegration, wars without end, and an uncertain future, have been unable to detroy the inenab1e charm the Turks originally gave to this city of eighty odd thousand souls. Adrian ople is still a 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, a French aviator while visiting the most beautiful of all mosques, Sinan's masterpiece here. the mosque of thousand windows but one, erected at the order of Sul- tan Selim II, in the 18th century. The first impression of the city had been one of infinite beauty. Ar irving from across the lofty Balkans in an airplane, the city had been seen with rush, place of spires. and slate domes and red roofs, planted at the intersection of three
 
 sight It had come at the end of four hour ride and it was journeys end to a tired aviator.
 Seen from a1oft, the city, surround ed by poplars at it's outer rim, it's house gardens within the city show ing green vines and flowers, it's out lying fields bare, aroused memorIes of Mardin on the mountains, Diar- bekr by the Tigris and hosts of oth- ST1trl rlx xfcT <sif a beauty, whether visited by sunshine or moonlight.
 The longer the stay in Adrianople, the more the charm of this beauty grows, a charm that is as great afoCt as aloft.
 Adrianople is a city that has the tone of country friendship about it, not unlike county seat of the south. The center of the agricultural exchange business of Eastern and Western Thrace, it is frequented by peasants and traders of Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian, Jewish and Arme- nian nationalities. 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.
 may bring forth in the way of po- litical 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 courteously and there is no glint of hostility in the eyes of the Turkish soldiers car rying their new rifles, recently dis trfbuted them by Colonel Defer Tay- ar Bey. His martial law, is admin
 itered with gentleness, though there is no doubt that the si1ken glove hides the nailed fist.
 The decadence of Adrianop1e goes at a dignified pace. There is little or none of the seething squallor and dirt and noise and poverty of Con-
 stantinople. There is none of the clamor of Constantinople's street cars and automobiles There are a few ragged beggar children who besiege | the stranger but for the most part AdrianopIe endures it's shabby gen. tiIity with pride and calm Here i there are none of the fallen houses | and dusty streets which characterize | the majority of the cities of Asia l Minor.
 Any day the city may surprise the world by tremendous massacre, but meanwhile it's life goes on as smooth 1 ly as the flow of it's rivers. | Undoubtedly the life of Adrianople l is fraught with that deep mystery | which seems to cling inevitably to | the sinful idle, sleepy Orient but of l this mystery the stranger sees only 1 the charm
 Prayers are called from the min
 arets, as of old; also the old and new l bazaars do a slender business in sell ing American and European calicoeS | and homespun cloths and Turkish ! si1ver-mounted pipes and cigarette l holders, rugs, junk, to passing peas- | ant customers; or else, when these are | lacking they swap with each other,
 after the happy manner of all the Il Orient
 Decadence seems to have heighten- | ed the beauty of the majestic old | mosque of Sultan Bayzid. The win
 dows are broken in, the locks are
 rusted in the doors, the grass is growing up between the f1agstones,
 the fountain in the court no longer
 splashes it's waters in the sunshine
 and the interior of the mosque itself
 is slowly deteriorating- Few wor- | shippers come here but on the
 drowsy Friday afternoons, the Mus
 salman's day of worship, come a de- l voted band of musicians and1 singers
 The aviator and the Associated Press l correspondent stumbled upon this
 group as they turned to go away, one
 of the red fezed band came and sa-
 luted with the 1ovable simplicity o1
 the Turk and said Allah esmaria-