The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-12-01

the privilege Of crossing the Golden
Horn. The women, however, indig-
nantly refused, and at both ends of the
bridge 4 constant conflict went on be-
tween protesting officials and the wom-
en-, who slipped by with eXclamations
Of anger.
The collectors did not have the
temerity TO lay hands on these toll
evaders, because Turkish women were
for so long a time the exclusive prop
erty of their husbands that custom
still forbids a man OBTAINING a woman
by force in any sort Of public argu-
ment.
The traditional sacrednesS that sur
rounds the person Of a Turkish wOman
had a curious result during the war.
for the Turks did not dare TO search
one Of them, even though it was known
that she carried unlawful messages in
her garments.
On both sides of the bridge are docks
for small steamers that take COM
muters back and forth between the
Golden Horn and Scutari, the ID sta
tons Of the BospOrus, and the Princes
islands. At rush hours these efficiently
operated boats are as packed as a New
York ferry.
StambouI Is Really Turkish.
If anything of the real Turkey is to
be seen, Pera must be abandoned for
Stamboul. In this ancient city, which
was ByZantium and New Rome, the
mosques, coffee houses, turbehs
(domed tombs) and fountains remind
one, even In their dilapidation, of the
city's past days of greatness.
Although the houses are nearly all
constructed of wood, they are never
painted, for the Turks have a theory
that If their property looks prosperous
their taxes will be increased. SO the
window l~attices crumble and fail, the
boards sag, the shingles warp, and
nothing is repaired.
The population is inactive and looks
discouraged. Men sit in cafes and talk
about the hard times. Old graybeards
sit on the sidewalks and smoke nargi-
lehs. The letter-writer has Il stand
near the centrally located mosques.
and still makes an excellent living
from the Turks, few Of whom can read
or write.
A group Of dervishes, who, like the
city, have declined in pictureSqueness,
pass slowly up the streets. HamalS,
the native eXpressmen, stagger along,
crying, make way" AS in the old
days, kabobjees SLICE off strips of roast
ing meat to tempt the appetites of the
passerSby.
AS in Pera, Russian refugees have
been everywhere, selling flowers, kew
pie. dolls, oil paintings of Constantine
Pile, cakes and trinkets, books and
newspapers printed in Russian. They
slept in the open streets and on the
steps of the mosque. They loafed,
begged, worked when they could find
a job, and sometimes sobbed with hun.
ger.
Burned Houses Not Rebuilt.
The devastating fires that have
ever been working toward the destruc-
ton of Constantipopie caused the city
to be built anew every so years, until
q law was passed prohibiting the con-
structiOn Of wooden houses on the site
OF burned ones; in fact, it was provid-
ed that no houses at all should be built
until the city government planned new
streets.
Nothing has been done about the
planning, however, and the result is
that O%ne-fOurth of Stamboul-mOre
than $4,000 houses, burned during the
past twelve years-still lies in ashes.
Scutari, too, has vast ruined sections.
So has Pera, on a much smaller scale.
The publisher Of The Orient, the only
American newspaper In Stambeul,
says that the fires have caused the
housing situation to become acute and
the rents to mount enormously. In fact,
1t costs more to live in Constantinople
today than in any other city in the
world, not excepting New York. The
city is especially crowded now with
refugees and foreigners, who add 30
per cent to the population, which, nc
cording to estimated figures, now to-
tails 2,25O,0OO.
This overcr0wded condition will
grow worse until some one starts to
rebuild the ruined areas. AS Stamboul
has stood since 300 Il. c., ii would be n
crime against science to rebuild with
out scientific supervision of the digging
and a systematic exploration of the
site by psychologists. 4