Show ISO ile aland A land of strange contrasts Is turkey in its state of transition western styles crowding out old customs creating incongruities by WILLIAM T ELLIS con constantinople stantin ople stand standing ing on the top of one of 0 the ruined towers of the which mohammed the conqueror built in 1453 when ho he laid siege to constantinople I 1 studied the strange city which lay extended before mo me as a magnificent panorama viewed from a distance constantinople la is a city of wonderful contrasts it links the present with the past before these stones were plied piled forming by the walls of the castle the nameon name of the prophet this was the capital of a christian empire and it still bears tho the name of the first christian roman emperor Empei or many traces of its ita ancient splendor abide the byzantine glories roay may still be seen been in part by the tourist who will also find evidences of the crusaders activities here where the two continents impinge U up p these blue waters have sailed throughout the centuries all kinds of craft now in sight of one are v a few turkish warships a small american gunboat gun boat the darting cliques calques of the turbaned boatmen and freighters areli aters of many nations together wi w h b cumbersome largo large native crafts with the hinged masts this gateway Is so BO important to the worlds pea i that by international agreement no warships may pass through it E european european politics are more concerned with turkish affairs than with any other single subject so the marvelous rejuvenation of the ottoman empire Is of deep interest to civilization paradoxes of progress the present stage in turkeys rapid awaking Is that of contrast the palaces along the practical ly IY all of them owned until the revolution by abdul are rather tawdry creations at best but they are aie in contrast with the miserable hovels of ahe people whose dwellings are meager beyond the western comprehension the word home as a synonym for house can scarcely be used here in turkey along the water front la Is a palace which was used by the parliament until fire gutted it not far away is a tho the present palace of the reigning sultan who is a mere shadow of the ab of his deposed brother in persed between palaces are the residences of Pas basbas bas and moro morn orless alei prosperous citizens with the latticed windows of the harols turned toward the water there is the romance of the mysterious about these flirty dirty lattices a western woman would surely keep them clean and about the ithe iron barred tunnels that lead un ider the houses to the water one cannot help speculating as to the tragedies that have bare been enacted along theve these shores the system of seclusion for women that islam ordains dai has many disadvantages one being that it requires a man to build a high wall alongside of his house bouse to keep heep his bis neighbor from overlooking Ms ibis harem schools are beginning to come to their own in turkey but the minaret still dominates the landscape and the walling cry of the muezzin five times a day Is ia a familiar sound bound to all parts of the city the coolie and the automobile that t the he old order Is passing in patent to everybody who knows how to look at things in the large people cannot have even a form of constitutional alo nal government and yet treat one section of the community as mere beasts of burden the newspaper a moving picture show the automobile and the school book are forerunners forc of the inevitable new day now that constantinople has baa reckless red autos driven through its ita narrow overcrowded streets it Is bound to have also a chariot of progress of which this la Is a symbol there Is not room on the same highway of civilization for a twenty horsepower automobile and a man struggling under tho the load of an ox constantinople stantin ople has had the latter for centuries it Is now getting the former the incredible burdens which these Ho coolies or hamala bear would seem like fiction to tho the western world frequently I 1 have seen a man car carrying crying a dozen chairs on his back another bore at one time thirty six of the big square oll ettas which tho the standard oil company has made a riot liot uncommon load I 1 saw a man with a orand grand rapids roll top desk and the office chair fastened to it on his back A packing case is one of the commonest of loads I 1 saw a coolie crossing the galata bridge with a coffin on his back now if the awald awaking ng of turkey means anything it must mean the emancipation of the corn com 0 7 V kz constantinople and its beautiful harbor mon people from these ancient burdens big hats and moslem veils the advent of the western styles involves unforeseen difficulties for an oriental people it Is easy for the turk in baggy trousers and shoes that slip blip off to sit cross legged on the floor when he dons tie trousers and patent leathers he must abandon this fashion tho the now new furniture of modern style to which turkey has become so devoted postulates home somewhat after the idea adea of europe or america the new food and tho the now new ways all are insidiously undercutting the old order the dress of the women offers perhaps the best illustration of this most moslem women N i die aie along the streets like water birds on land draped from head to hel in hideous black azars whether they are old or young homely or handsome nobody can tell this custom involves mysteries which no mere man can solve how two heavily veiled women can recognize each other on the street Is i beyond comprehension sometimes the veils are getting perilously thin in tho the case of the younger women and their wearers bearers do not hesitate to stare at their pleasure on foreign men almost lumping bumping into the ancient native a crafts of tho the are a number of new near warships of which turkey Is very proud the turk loves weapons big and little while the order for disarmament has gone out it yet remains true that in the cities as well as in the rural parts men toto tote a gun as they say in texas and carry a knife stuck into the voluminous girdle I 1 never traveled with a pistol in my belt in plain fight ur un ill I 1 went out into the interior of turkey where every man hrs bus to be his own policeman with this warlike disposition it Is in natural that the turks should be interested te in their fleet their pride in the two warships recently purchased from germany to is not knolly shared by the foreign community the latter say that there Is now on the bos chorus a new blassl catlon of warships first class second class and secondhand second hand band they tell you that th the e young turks were afraid to trust themselves to bring the ships from germany i so they 1 had german officers man them until just outside chedar da dandles nelles where they ran up the tur kish flag the german officers demanded two hundred and fifty thousand marks for their services vices and refused to haul down the turkish flag until the sum was paid rumor hasit that one of the ships broke down en route at any rate the turkish government paid the money and the ships sailed up the streaming bright new crescent flags behind them cholera rat traps and religion the cholera Is raging in constantinople at present and it affords an opportunity port unity of observing the difference between the old and the new lime la Is sprinkled in the gutters by the city but for the most part the people who so BO far as the moslem population are concerned are arrant fatalists say Xi kismet kismet smet and do not amend their unsanitary ways that modern scientific knowledge Is beginning to percolate Is shown by the lively sale of rat traps which otiest venders benders display as a sort of cholera cure explaining that the cholera germs are carried by rats confusing the t plague with cholera new turkey must go a long way before sho she finds herself standing in the equality of fellowship with the wide awake and enlightened nations of the world copyright 1911 by joseph B D bowles |