The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1922-11-16


ciety, Washington, d. c.
Smyrna, captured by the Turks an,
partly burned, is one of the pa.ri
archs among the worlds famou.
cities. Some American cities nr,
proud Of their age, feeling that few
centuries entities them to distinction
In contrast to the newest oil town OF
Texas or Oklahoma where cOrnStalks
are probably still to be found aloag
Main street, BOstOn's 29Oodd years
indeed Justify a feeling of maturity,
While the four and a quarter centu-
ries that look down on Santo Domingo
entitle that first community to be
established in the New World TO its
pride Of seniority.
But both Of them are in the heyday
or youth when compared with Lon
oon. Which probably has existed for
close to nineteen hundred years. or
Rome With &c centuries behind II. II
Is when the Near East is reached.
however, that one finds cities that are
truly old. Many, like Babylon and
Th'bes, Uneven and Memphis, have
crunrbled away ages ago. but here
ana mere one comes upon a living
community whose beginnings are lost
In the haze beyond the point where
history began.
such Y gray-beard among cities Is
Smyrna. which is believed to have
been alrady long in existence at the
time of the destruction of Troy. eleven
centuries before Christ. In fact
Smyrna " set up by some persons as
q rival FOR Damascus as the Oldest
city in the world.
The original builders at Smyrna
chose theis site more happily perhaps
than they knew. The forces Of ma
turs haze been kind to the locality.
Miletus ana Ephesus were formidable |
rivals for many centuries but their
rivers finally choked their harbors
with sill aid the cities died. SMYRNA |
mad no stream Of any consequence.
and Its excellent harbor-the best in
Asia Minon--has continued to bear IFS
heavy burcen Of commerce through
the ages
Crescent City Of the East.
Smyrna tns a population close TO
that OF New Orleans, and like the
latter 1t Is Crescent City," extend
ing In a semicircle about its bay. But
while the American Crescent City is
wholly fiat, Smyrna has its rim of
nils which under the magic of Medi-
terraneaE skies and sunsets invest the
city with a beauty which detailed in
spection does not verify. It's terraced
outskirts are picturesque, but they
lack the striking quality of the ter
races OF Algiers, Hong Kong and VAL
paradise.
Like q number Of other cities of
the Near East, Smyrna is a Babel.
Even under the old Turkish empire
is population was composed Of almost
rs many Greeks as Turks-a fact
which IL not strange when II is re-
rendered that Smyrna first reached
,ityhood under Greek influence and
Greek for many centuries
'uccessively under Ionians, Macedo-
hans, Seleucids and Byzantines. The |,
dty was wholly Greek for more than
millennium; 1t was nominally Turk
sh for five hundred years. until the
reaty Of Sevres was written.
Besides Greeks and Turks. there
ave been in the population large
umbers Of Armenians and Jews and Q
esser groups Of almost every other a
ationality under heaven. Quite n d
lumber OF Europeans have been lly. a
ng In the city. and there was clean r
nd fairly attractive European quar- n
err with Its modicum of hotels and
heaters.
In some ways the Turkish quarter
as more the flavor Of old Turkey m
han present-day Constantinople. In d,
he latter the dropping of wells by S,
he women is marked: but In Smvr- n,
as streets the yelled figures from the II
arem still fit by IN all their old fo
lysteriousness. ~
noora Noted for Temples and Goats. u.
A city founded by Midas of the
,uch Of gold; overrun two centuries b,
efore Christ by far-wandering cous- in
Is OF the lrishman of today; a great Ii
nd wealthy community under Rome b,
nd Byzantium and in spite of IT'S 10
ieckered history and It's past glory. bs
nown to recent generations in the Ia
lest only because Of q long-haired or
aatl no