Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-09-22
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
AROUv ODESSA

Odessa, where newspaper dis
patches say the flag of rebellion
against the Moscow bolshevist
regime is haunting its colors. will
for the winter season." says a bull
letin of the National Geographic So
ciety from its Washington, ID. c.,
headquarters.
"One popularity of this important
port on the Black Sea as well as
OF other Russian cities, is that dur
ing the first frosty days of the fall
the hotels and private houses put up
their double doors and windows and
thereafter &c through the entire
winter without once opening an aper-
ture unless it proves necessary to
come in or go out of the house.
Some say that the inhabitants even
go so far as to stop up all the
cracks with cotton batting. To
American and English fresh-air
fends an elegant reception in Odessa
during the winter session is not an
unadultered pleasure.
Wear Overcoats in Summer
THE Odessans have another pecu-
liarity which strikes the average
comfort-loving American as the
tacme of q~ueerness. The men, particu-
larly the army officers. wear their
winter overcoats all during the gum
mer season regardless of how hot it
gets. 1t is hard to imagine a dash
ing captain of the cavalry equipped
in the outfit which he is supposed to
wear into the frozen north, pronle-
nading down the main boulevard
with a charming young girl clad in
a dainty summer frock.
The gay city,-for it has the
reputation of being one of the mad
dest for pleasure on the whole con-
tinent-has its pathos. 1t is one of
the main embarkation points for the
thousands of Russian pilgrims who
each yea leave their country for
| the Holy Land. Many of them, cid
men and old women who never ex-
| pect to see their native land again,
and know that they are probably on
their last earthly journey, have
marched on foot hundreds of miles
to Odessa.
Real Homes are Few
But mad-cap and merry the city
usually is to all outward appear
ances. In it's streets, which are we'll
paved and nearly always shaded
with long lines of trees, the people
laugh and lunch in the most light
hearted fashion. Few of them have
real homes. They live in apartments
attached to their places of business.
Behind a hardware store, a bakery
or a s~hoeshop, or adjoining the Of
fees of a lawyer or an insurance
agent you will find the rooms in
which his family is living, and the
public restaurant is the family dining
room.
"One-third Of Odessa's 100000 m
habitants are Jews, and their lnitia-
tive and business acumen have
earned for them the most RESPONSE
BILE places in most of the industrial
enterprises in the city, as well as
the prejudice of the native Russians.
But SO irresponsible have the young
er men among their own country
men become of their indulgence in
gambling and dissipation of all kinds
that Russian peasants prefer to do
their business through the Jew.
Night is Filled With Music
when evening drops her cloak
over the city, the night is filled with
music, and the cares that infested
the day, if there ever were any,
steal away like the Arabs in the
poem. The farmer from the Middle
West or the manufacturer from New
England would be inclined to -von-
der IL these night jewellers ever did
any work, so late into the night do
they laugh, talk and play, but by
early forenoon business is hummilg
in the marts of men, as 1T does in
any other big city.
"About twenty years ago Odessa
shipped out yearly through the Black
Sea nearly three million tons of
grain or about one-fourth of that
exported from Russia, but she failed
to keep apace with invention in her
freight-handling machinery and ye-
Gently Nikolaief, Kherson and Ros-
tof-on-the-Don have been sapping
the influx of produce which was the
l%ife-blood of the city. Sebastopol,
too, has been one of the factors in
the defeat of Odessa. The haroor
of the former city is M of the best
on the Black Sea, and has the ad-
vantage that it never freezes, while
that of Odessa is ice-clogged for two
or three weeks every winter.
Odessa Is n of the newest towns
OF any importance in the former
Russian Empire. In 1910, accord
ing to the first census taken, its pop
ulation was 5000. But it Is located
or a bay near the northeast curve
OF the Black Sea, not far from the
mouths of the Dnieper and the
Dniester Rivers, and it grew rapidly,
When Turkey coded this area to Rus
STA, Catherine the Great decided
that she would develop the little
Turkish fortress called Khodjabey
into a mighty city which would
prove an important Russian base
near the hated Constantinople. So
Odessa had its beginnings"