Show LETTER FROM TURKEY going 0 out ut for a farewell inspection of I 1 will take paper and pencil with me and for the readers benefit jot down such glimpses of this typical turkish town as shall come under my notice while proceeding through its narrow alleys and lanes which are the only streets the place affords but now to my task THE STREETS are from five to twelve feet wide dirty and crowded in the business quarters tte barters mats mate made from the flags of the date tree phoenix dactyl ifera are stretched from house to house across the streets furnishing during the or dog days a cool retreat highly appreciated by the numerous canines of the neighborhood oh how gingerly I 1 pick my steps in their midst in the pashas presence cresence I 1 would not walk more referentially deferentially for as sure as a fellow treads too near a growl is uttered and the others the whole tribe spring up and show their long hooked teeth and exercise their lungs most unpleasantly until some commotion down the street causes them to scamper off that wa here sits a paralytic then comes a blind man and there a leper giesin lies in the dust the vermin groveling upon them they shout for alms with truly orie oriental tal pathos and long before a gift is bestowed they begin to bless the anticipated benefactor allah make thee live forever my lord I 1 allah save thee for thou wilt give a crust unto me a dog As allah is god I 1 am a dog but thou my lord art an illustrious effendi lendi Ef we have heard of thee long before thou to this land V such lies they tell for a prospective 6 5 para half a cent further on are more alf beggars gars more dogs upon whom gad flies swarm more dirt of edthe the most pungent smell and farther on is more ali ah there he comes the lunatic half naked dishevelled dishevel led grinning and laughing in fits of fantastic glee how the lit r i SA S A i ASs ll blass tle tie boys hurrah at him bowl now A few days ago he gesticulated and shout ed madly in fearful paroxysms when this maniac is on the war path the people get out of his way yet they claim he is a saint possessed of a particularly benign spirit THE CHARSHEE OR OB MARKET is sometimes called the bazaar here caravans of camels file in noiselessly but at a hurried gait and heavily laden asses come on from another direction A came camel is a sort of gentleman he will not throw one over as he hurries hurries along if he cannot get out of the way he will stand still fur for the pedestrian to pass but a donkey will walk along resolutely and if a person stands in his way or if there is anything like a jam he merely lays back h his is ears gives the other party an emphatic look leans his body forward and presses on squeezing and rolling his victim against the wall kicks clubs or canes cannot deter him from his purpose nothing but an aairon iron pointed goad will do it so well is this understood that the merest beggar dervish singing man or lazzaroni is provided with a double pointed spear or javelin which serves serve also salso as a weapon of defense against jackals jackala coyotes of the east wolves and hyenas while tramping from town to town sometimes ills this implement serves too it is said to scare a few francs out of a lone one and unar unarmed nied traveler the charshee presents otherwise the appearance of a country fair in a village of england edgland france Franc eor or italy but everything thin has an extra flourish glitter and cental oriental appearance THE SHOPS are generally called magazin esBy the way I 1 notice that the english language contains many words taken bodily from the arabic and applied more or r less in the sense of the original for instance alchemy alkali algebra magazine ne sirop sugar these shops or magazines whether of artisans scribes or merchants are merely small rectangular chambers from four to twelve feet wide and from six to twelve feet deep the walls are of stone and the roof is of earth supported by strong beams the fronts are simply wooden barricades which are taken down or put up as often as the owner of the firm chooses to prosecute business or finds it necessary to have a siesta or nap a steam bath at the hammam a meal or smoke from the leh at home a prayer at the mosque or a shave at the barber barberis bar bels Is the floor of the sh shop is of stone three feet above the or fevel vel of the street at the front is a carpet of screeching colors and bizarre pattern the dealer squats upon this with his legs folded on a shelf stand his shoes and a slim stock of curious looking goods surrounds him red morocco shoes slippers ladies yellow goatskin pat skin boots ornamented with horsehair horse hair tassels cassels tas sels greenhowe Green home made glass jars containing drugs rhubarb orrisroot myrrh gum arable and henna lawsonia waonia la apt sp noaa the latter for rj tBt als Ss I 1 1 dyeing the fingernails finger nails nalls etc chinese lanterns and a few gaudy strips stripe s of glittering paper furnish the n sary light and sparkle at night the merchant always carries his ink 1 litand and penholder or kulum camin the belt this is carried by all educated Muss ulmen from mo morocco to china in the des muse museum um the i reader may see one brought from india by one of our mission missionaries brouet jea it t is describe as a kulum case from in dia 4 THE METAL META L WORKERS the brass workers copper silver 3 tin and blacksmiths all occupy portion of a street quarter especial i ly devoted to the plying of their respective spec lve tive trades first we will take notice of a brass founder his shop is about 7 by 10 feet in dimen dimensions in one corner is a pile of char charcoal coah opposite are some copper scraps ana ana zinc of which he throws a few bits bite into a red hot crucible which he himself has made of refractory clay 1 and finishes a molding in sea fea li of just such a pen case as alluded to toj above while a boy opposite him 5 adages most vigorously a bellow consisting of a plain goat skin two 1 wooden handles and the canon ofa discarded gun the end of which is cemented into the floor below the J smelting pot whose cover he now lifts off truly beautiful are green and white fumes which now escape from it imagine magin if you can the heat required to make this copper and zinc combine in that miniature furnace and become per fluid so he factly throws on more coals some right into the crucible crucia while the boy at the awkward bel lows pum puffs and perspires only a moment a few sparks a refulgence like sunlight and the molten metal flows with a hiss into the carefully prepared mold the other arti oloa visible in this shop are bells keys spoons brass arm bracelets and 3 rings the coppersmith Is and moe strange to tell the blacksmith ils an vils are not as large as our common 1 ten pound sledge hammer A I 1 horses shoe is simply an oval plate i of swedish iron which is suase hammered cold to fit the horse borse remaining of course a plate with a large hole punched in the centre and and eight smaller ones tot for nails the silversmiths ture primitive jewelry and filigree work and the backbone of is at present will you believe W it american coal oil c cand and these they tinker and work over in to plates cups dipper shades reflectors palls etc etc in fact they thea display an ingenuity in the use of old tin eans cans so BO greatly like that daf of the in our w western es tern min ip ing camps that I 1 will refer to this the turks a little further on in a separ geldson ate paragraph showing their demir semir ea r Y chinese origin and habits j THE WOOD WORKERS here we come to a row of esbai lish ments where wooden shoes amx arft manufactured the principal toon J employed is the adze thew the wood benm shoes of this country are far from adiv dembling sem bling the dutch or french and still less the old country A wooden shoe here is simply a sole three fourths of an inch thick into which are mortised morti sed two cleats or brackets which raise the sole three four or six aix inches off the floor the leader may better understand by being told that these shoes look like diminutive footstools fitted with a stra strap to hold them to the foot some or of these stilts footstool sor shoes for fine trade are inlaid fancifully with ivory precious wood silver and pieces of lookingglass looking glass the common shoes are manufactured from the wood of the plantain musaga radha rad leca ica and of the acacia mimosa the better sort from noru tze of which were made the coffins be of the egyptians some of which successfully resisted decomposition several thousand years the next row we reach small cradles palls dippers mugs and round boxes like our cheese cases are am manufactured from veneer or exceedingly thin hoards boards of t the he male mulberry tree morus and the paper mulberry browson enoa ifera here too are made those small fig boxes we often see in america soon a hot iron will brand them myr nast quality further on trunks chests wood wooden en spoons ladles forks and cabinet cabi net work are manufactured and be smeared with rough mineral paints of the loudest colors imaginable grotesquely illus oriental lore ore A little further a wood turner like all oriental mechanics is using both bands and both feet while at work with a bow in one hand he turns with one foot he controls the bak block or stick he be Is working while the other hand and foot guide the ch chisel isel professions except the lower order of shoe makers who manufacture moorish boots and ja lippers pers of yellow green and rw red the shoemakers of turkey make the most ex exquisite q visite elegant and serviceable goods far ahead of the average in paris london or new york the weavers employ the most primitive methods the looms are rickety structures 0 of st sticks acks ropes an and rocks A number an aber of apprentices comb the warp war wind skeins and rebind broken twines the work turned out to is more durable than sumptuous the bakers make sour dough from a meal of barley or wheat as coarse as shorts borto this is patted into cakes ow one foot in diameter and one quarter of an inch thick the dough being quite wet the oven a small one suite heated when w hen sufficiently warm warin the baker takes one cake after another and hurriedly slaps them up against the roof of the oven when these cakes are done they peel the ovens ce ceiling u g and are taken out by the baker who immediately dape up another in its place the barbers necessarily come in for a large lage share of notice in a country where the edans and as well not only shave abe be fate but occasionally even the whole bale head every hair hai r theresita there si sits ts arab sheikh not a hair r n his limo AMA nor on his face except his eye Ih aft fOwe he holds under his china chin a brass braes WA 1 inclining his bald awhile a boy on a ladder pours AV 4 water on it ardathe barber washes off the lather when not otherwise engaged he be gets off long verbose sentences expounding the unknowable mysteries connected with his patients ailments for he is also doctor dentist pedicure and charmer on the walls around him are long and short razors primitive surgical instruments lancets lancers lanc ets forceps and looking glasses THE TURKS the reader who could imagine a mexican or south american town inhabited by would realize the aspect of the turkish city only this would lack viz twenty or more towers called minarets mina shaped exactly like a new candle in its candlestick from which the guerrin calls the faithful to prayer the majority of the turks and tartars here shave their heads leaving I 1 a tuft or cue on the scalp this I 1 ha habit it was either imposed or imported by the conquerors of this land asia minor who came from turkestan Turk estan a vast territory stretching from the caspian to mongolia and china however it is allowable to shave the head quite clean as the fez skullcap skull cap has a black silk tassel which represents the missing tuft of hair by a curious proxy pure turks are semi chinese their history proves it settling here they mingled with the conquered when falling short of women they either bought or stole wives from the who being blue eyed naturally somewhat modified the hard mongolian features and dark eyes of the turks and their tartar kinsmen the form a great part of the inhabitants of turkey from the nomadic asiatic tribes from which they descended they have inherited a civilization closely related to that of our china towns calm and imperturbable natures and like the chinese a strong attachment for time honored customs a dislike for innovations and the encroachments encroach ments of western civilization considering themselves like the celestials Celesti als of china the most favored of allah the turkish language although now agglutinative because of the incorporation of arabic and persian within it points strongly to a monosyllabic origin and grammatical arrangement harmonizing mon izing closely with the languages of the far east at 9 10 and 11 years of age both moslems and christians are betrothed tro thed the nuptials however occur only in years I 1 quote a few prices for five cents in you may buy either 16 eggs 40 cucumbers 50 apricots four quarts of milk three lbs ibs of bread li lbs ibs of meat or a 9 meal composed half of pastry and half of meat bread etc missionary matters are pro progressing 9 ress a little a very little but even in this we rejoice C U L P S just as I 1 finished this bro edgar simmons and elder smart arrived they are well the ottoman government took from them every book pamphlet memento photograph souvenir and scrap of printed matter they had turkey july ath 1889 |