The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-12

shops no bigger than hat box or spread on the cobbled pavement.
 Ut is huge place, all roofed in and a town in itself. with many streets. There is the dry goods street. the rug street, the jewellers street, the fur section, etc, ad in finitum-certainly the originating idea of the department store.
 Tt is vaulted and arched, in gray plaster decorated in fanta Stic bright blue designs just as only al. oriental could conceive. and the suh never ! penetrates, except in feeble rays 1 from the openings in the top of the 1 roof. so it's always cloudy and dark. But what a treasure-here! Every thing can be found there. Erm.ne. pearls or broken lamp chimneys. and 1 l simply love it. Knowing me, you can imagine how I revel in looking through it and how I long for riches to buy everything that I see. I've picked up several beautiful rugs the latest a Shieray in blue and gold, 50 lovely that l can hardly wait for the house I'm going to have to put it in some day. They are cheap for us. comparatively with American money. and I hope to get many before we leave (whenever that will beD m | accommodating, also, a collection or miniatures that seem to me the mos, appealing art I've ever had. and some wonderful old candle sticks. one pair a yard high. all handmade, that cost the ridiculous sum of S4. The ln- scription on them in Turkish letters tells that they were once in a mos que, or tomb house. religious prop erty that cannot be sold, l suppose they were stolen, because all stolen property is taken to the bazaar, where the law can't interefere
 T also acquired a stunning scarf of Russian sable, not from the bazaar, however. skins of brown silky fur. that I never could have hoped to pos sess in the states.
 Homes Scarce.
 "So you see there are some com pensations for being half way around the globe from home and friends. The only fly in my ointment is that havn't been able to find an apart tment of my own The houses here are miserable places. without eleva- tors heat or water, and after wear ling my legs out climbing steps look ling at them, I decided l was very lucky to get in clean rooms with kind motherly old Austrian, who treats me as her own child
 We are on the fifth floor and must walk up, but I'm used to it now and don't mind. though when we first ar rived I wouldn't go out for two weeks for dread of those hundred steps. All tmy silver and the few housekeeping materials I had l left at home, be- cause on a jaunt like this, one doesn't want to be hampered any more than possible and since the company sends its people about at moments not'ce there's no such thing as settling down permanently in foreign port.
 we've been here nine months lnow. and there's no telling when we may be snatched up and sent to Lon don or Paris, or some of the other offices. Captain says he wants five years experience on this side, so IL will be a long time until I see you again unless you think it is time to start your travels abroad. con stantinople should never be lett otI a tour-one sees the whole world here. much of it ugly life, neverthe- less and most of it is too beaut'fui for words. There's the Morlnora, TOT instance, pale and calm. Silver r1p Ipling to the purple hills of Asia Ano there's the Bosphorus, dark and surs- ine inst now under the May sky Sapphire colored with its banks pink with Judas trees.
 q spend hours at the window or my little living room. gazing across the boat covered golden horn al Stamboul with it's mosques and mn arets silhouetted against the sky Soft and ephemeral like fairy th'ns that must surely banish tonight It million of twinkling lights dancing in the dark mirror of the water ana the long bridge like the gleaming way into some enchanted land. Reai- lily, it's superb, and no one who mas ! ever lived here can ever forget tue i charm of scenes that gets into the | heart and stays there. I'm quite sure I'll sigh for it some day when I'm in more civilized places. Cap titan is the same sweet companion to my joys that always found him, and there are no sorrows these oays- Our cup holds only happiness.
 "The only thing I'd ask is that | could see my family and friends oc- casionally, for while our new ac- ouaintances never take the place of old ones, we do go about bit sociai- iy at the Embassy dances and at the homes of the few congenial Ameri-