Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-12-03

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety' Washington, D. CO.
Sivas and Kaisariye, back country
cities of Turkey, gave the traveller a
rich conception of early Turkish
glories as well as an excellent insight
into the Turkey of today outside the
maelstrom Of politics. A trip in by
the Black sea port Of Samsun leaves
Angora well to the west and confines
the entire journey to the less often
visited regions of Anatolia.
Though rather battered and insig-
nit1cant at first sight, Samsun still
boasts a commercial Importance
which was already established when
Its ancient site was known as Amisus
and the district as Paphlagonia. 1t is
the receiving port for the camel
trains which are constantly moving
northward or southwark across the
800 miles Of naked country lying be-
tween the Black sea and the Eu-
pirates.
Off for the interior over wretched
roads, one passes field after field of
tobacco, for what has elsewhere
earned the pseudonym, weed" is the
smokers ambroSia if 1t comes from
Samsun. The Greek or Armenian to-
bacco grower plOws his field with the
metal-tipped crooked stick" of his
ancestors; then sets out his plants in
burrows a foot apart, choosing some
sheltered valley into which the winter
rains have washed rich soil.
Daily from mid-July onward he
picks the maturing leaves, of which
the finest are the topmost on the
stalk. The gathered leaves are
stretched parallel across wooden dry
ing frames. At night the frames are
suspended over a well, the leaves thus
absorbing sufficient moisture to pre-
vent cracking.
The execrable highway climbs out
Of the tobacco country over mountain
ridges and through almost treeless
plains. But from time to time fertile
regions appear. To jog along for ten
hours over a monotonously treeless
plain, then suddenly to spy some
white town tucked in a crease of the
valley, it's minarets lifting from
among green meadows and luxuriant
poplar groves-such is typical of
travel in wide Anatolia, with it's I'M
expected GASES of charm.
Mosques of Sivas.
Ever since one of the later Ar
menian kings retreated before the
westward sweep Of the Seljuk Turks
by bartering his province for Sivas,
that city has been preponderantly Ar
menian in population, refuge for
this Christian people flying from the
Moslem terror. Nine hundred years
have passed, yet today Sivas is still
refuge, sought by those Armenian
girls who have escaped from the Mos
lem harems into which they were
forced during the war.
Though the Seljuk emperors of
Rum-that is, Anatolia-have been
dust for seven centuries, their glory
still lives in those magnificent
mosques and mosque colleges which
are found in half dozen Anatolian
towns, and In the vast crumbling
khans which dot the surrounding
plains.
To walk through the shoddy streets
of Sivas and come suddenly upon
some tremendous stone temple carved
over in style which has at once
a Gothic vigor, lacelike delicacy,
and the luxuriance Of an orchid is a
breathless experience. Here are por-
tails suggestive Of stalactite caverns,
designs evolved from the forms of
beasts, birds, lily-pads and six-pointed
stars, and arabesques so cunning that
the eye can scarcely grasp the bal
anced completely Of their interviewer
lines.
The massive walls inclose a paved
courtyard, from under whose arched
corridors peer the cell-like windows
behind which divinity students once
pored over their Korans.
The whole is a thing of barbaric
magnlfcence, compared with which
the Turkish mosque down the street
Is a mere whitewashed conventional
tty.
Not to the Ottoman Turks, but to
their predecessors, the Seljuks, must
one turn for a glimpse of Islam's
early glories.
OF all the worlds great monuments,
the Seljuk mosques are today, per-
haps, the most neglectedSand forlorn.
One Of them has become a grain de-
Dot, another a shelter for beggars,
third a prison. The doorkeeper-
and seldom there is one-ean only tell
you. "Mosque-very old-long time
xvo1r fhr0nnh Soma