Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1921-02-10
WISCONSIN BOY
TELLS. OF WORK
IN NEAR EAST
Gives Graphic Description OF
Refugees Privations In
Letters Home.
(From The Milwaukee JournaD .

(fTOm Inc milwaukee JQuf0al).
Jimmie Van Toor, former service
man, recently took service with Near
East Relief, leaving Milwaukee in the
early fall, arriving on Nov. IS in Con.
stantinople. He has written an "al-
most diary" Of all that has happened
to him since he left. Under date of
Nov. IS, he wrote to his mother, Mrs.
G. C. Van Toor, $50 Forty-ninth street,
Milwaukee, as follows:
"Constantinople is still filthy, dirty
and more crowded than ever. The
crowds on the sidewalks, oVerflowing
into the streets, are always interest
ing and cosmopolitan officers, sol
diers and sailors in English, Scotch,
French, Italian uniforms, Russians in
weird combinations of what is left of
their clothes and uniforms; women,
French or Russian, dolled up like
Paris; beggars, Greek priests, refugees
in rags, Turks with fezzes, Red Cross
nurses, Chinese, Singalese, Hindoos,
negroes, the lame, the halt and the
blind and the wealthy, the fashionable
and the arrogant all mixed up in one
grand hodge podge. Then, every little
while, some Greek or French or Indian
troops tramping by.
! "The dinky street cars are running,
damned to the guards and street lights
are on, now and then, at night Boys
sweep the streets, Italian, French and
British soldiers are traffic cops, and
I'll Of iohf
on the beat pounding his stick along
the pavement, to warn burglars, sup
pose, and give 'em chance to get
away. Then, the stores, shops, stalls
of all kinds, fruit stands, bazaars and
bawkers, all in great variety Of funny
places, and displays Of goods (some
carry their stores on their heads or
/ backs). The hawkers with the weird
est and loudest cries in the world
! (frOm 5 a. m. to ! a. M, it seems)-
these are running in full blast. So, On
the whole, the town looks much buster
and normal than when l was here be-
! fore (while in service) though not
much cleaner Trees are still green
! and the sun is bright and warm during
the day. The water and views are
! lovely as you come into the harbor or
sail up the Bosphorus.
Constantinople Crowded.
when we arrived here on Saturday,
they told us we might go out on Mon
day to the Caucasus, so we got busy
right away and spent the afternoon,
hut No ho1
Stamboul the old part of the city. It
was lots of fun.
Sunday morning followed a crowd
into the old Russian embassy yard.
Here l saw posters of sale of refugee
goods, SO kept on going. The crowd
went past the sale and up into the
chapel, where found myself with EN-
Between the incense, perfume and bum
air (not window open and crowd
damned in-all stand for two hours),
| was nearly asphyxiated, but stuck it
| out. The music was great-just voices
beautifully trained, and no organ
Some of the people were fairly we'll
dressed Gall the women seemed to
have hung onto their earrings, some
very Handsomely, but many were in old
sweaters and coats, and the men, many
of em, wore old American army coats.
donated by the United States, l sup.
pose. Among them seemed to be many
high class Russians. All claim to be
descended from grand dukes or
princes, at least, l believe-but these
really did look very refined, and you
couldn't help feeling sorry for 'em. The
priest, with long, greasy hair and
beard, and in gorgeous embroidered
robe and /jeweled, inter, evidently was
talking of their troubles, as nearly
everyone wept, even the assisting
priests, and often people dropped to
their knees on the floor, crossing them
selves times without number The poor
things all looked as though they had
suffered and were still very sad.
Then, in the afternoon, our gang
went out to Constantinople's college,
an American girls school on the Bos-
phorus, for tea.
'The Constantinople headquarters
and transients, such as we, live in
three houses here, all of them two or
three rooms wide and then up in the
air, six or seven stories, SO one mostly
climbs stairs. The bedrooms are cell
like, but there is fairly decent living
room and dining room in ours. It's
! fine to get American meals once more
eats are very good. Armenian serv-
ants, who talk English, do the work.
! It's nice way for those stationed here
to live, for hotels would be impossible
prices are fierce Most of the Near
East Relief people are good scouts.
too; not at all like the missionary type
we had pictured en- route.
! BoIshevist Rumors Current.
"Just now, things are much upset.
You probably have much more news
than we, on Wrangel's surrender. Thir-
ty-three thousand refugees were on
our ships coming down here, though
they will probably be sent elsewhere