Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1921-08-24
DEBORAH BOY
OVER IN TURKEY
Continued from first page)

seen me, where the gondola was
lying about three rods off the ship
and said it was alright and that he
wished that he had been there too.
! AT Pola ! took several who had
! loseum and showed them the town
/ in general and met several acquaint-
ances Of my former visit. Saw all
my Spalato and Kastel Sucurac
friends in the day and one half hat
we lay there and talked Jugo-
/ Slay TO my hearts content with those
( who came on board on business.
There is something musical about
/ the Creation language, being near
fly all vowelS with few euIterals.
/ We sailed from the Bay of Seven
: Castles at 10 q. m. passing the
island of Corfu in the night Our
trip through the Grecian Archipagelo
was fine and the scenery pretty. We
had a full moon and fine weather
Throughout the voyage. We entered
the straits of Dardanelles at two
this afternoon, passing on the
! Asiatic side within ten miles Of the
ruins of ancient Troy. Here there
were several wrecks aground, battle
ships and transports, monuments Of
! the terrific struggle for the PENN
/ sula of Gallipoli. Above them the
! French flag was flying over the ruins
of the Fort that guarded the en-
trance of the straits. At four we
larrived at the narrowest point of
the straits with the Castle Of Asia
1 ,;,.l, -,,l L. - r..
/ ope on the left. Both have the
French flag flying over them as a
/ protectorate and both show marks
of bombardment. Little graveyards
holding the bodies of the allied dead
! who persisted in the engagement here
stand out against the barren shores
! of the straits. About the Castle of
Europe there is small cluster of
stone houses with red tile roofs, but
on the Asiatic side there is large
and enterprising appearing city with
long, wide, tree lined avenues radiat-
ling from a common point. The
place has the appearance of cleanli-
ness and prosperity with large new
buildings and mansions surrounded
with gardens. There is one mosque
and several small minarets in the
city and a few old stone towers un-
Idoubtedly of medieval construction.
| Just beyond this point were more
large ships run up on the beach.
The attempt to take the Dardanelles
surely must have been desperate,
the defense being naturally almost
sinvulnerable.
The country on both sides is well
cultivated and has large groves of
what must be fig and olive trees,
in contrast with the baroness and
stretches Of sand in the first part
of the straits.
Ito be continued at Gallipoli)
Gallipoli was such a dirty and
uninteresting place that | could find
nothing TO write about, hence the
wait until reaching Constantinople.
We arrived at three a. m. and came
on board the st. Louis at s a. m.
via Sub Chaser 96. Was assigned
20 the Pay Office, like the job al
ready, and went ashore last night.
The city seems enormous and they
say it is very easy to get lost. 1t
is built on hills and steep ones at
that. Everywhere one looks there
are mosques and groups of minarets.
Not leaving the ship until $50 p. m.
couldn't see much. Walked up
and down the main street and visited
the Y.M.C.A. and viewed things in
general. Today lam going to try
to get over to Stamboul to the ba-
zaars and the Mosque of st. Sophie
and the underground city. We sail
Wednesday to a cooler location a
few miles up the Borphorous and on
the 18th of August we sail for Pola
for dry docking. | am at last get
ting my share of cruising.
| Received mail upon coming on
board yesterday, the Public Opinion
the check book and some misceIl-
aneous letters. This place is not
Turkish, it is international. One
hears everything from French to
Russian and back again spoken.
find it easy to understand Russian
and the dialect of slavish that
learned at Spalato gets by alright
l. Well more soon. | believe that il
takes month to get mail to the
states and more to get mail back SC
Everything will be considerably ir
the past tense from now on, but ther
I'VE start east soon.
! Love,