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Show 1 OLDER SilNAJIONS Bagdad, City of Romance, Now Transformed Trans-formed The New Era in Turkey Is Making Over the Home of "The Arabian Nights" Tales By WILLIAM T. ELLIS. Bagdad, Turkey All that is romantic ro-mantic and oriental is embodied in the name Bagdad. Over thiscity once ruled Haroun er Raschld, the caliph of the Immortal "Arabian Nights." Here Persia and India meet with Arabia Ara-bia and Syria and Turkey proper, while a handful of foreigners represent repre-sent the western trade and ideas that are so rapidly conquering the East. A few of the old buildings, dating back to the time of the caliphs, remain, re-main, but they are rapidly making way for more modern structures. The narrow streets, and the changeless bazars are still here but they are changing. It is now possible to ride in a carriage from one end of Bagdad Bag-dad to the other, If one knows the streets; and this would have been Impossible Im-possible In the days when Haroun and his grand vizier prowled about the narrow and tortuous and mysterious mysteri-ous highways. A new Haroun is on the scene, and making changes so rapidly that the Arabs who come to town after an interval in-terval of only a year, rub their eyes and cry in amazement, "Ma'sh Allah!" The most obvious of the transformations being wrought by Nazlm Pasha, the new Vali, or governor, gover-nor, Is the driving of a modern highway high-way straight through the center of the city. The dust of demolition fills the air, for nothing stands before the march of progress. Legal technicalities technicali-ties may not preserve a man's home. If it Is on the line of the new highways. high-ways. Nazim Pasha has autocratic authority. author-ity. He refused to accept the post until un-til he was given a tree hand over all the affairs of the city and the desert round about. His word is law. He has control over the revenues and over the army. He was authorized to make his own terms with the Arabs and all the tribes have "come in" and promised to be good. I can testify to the quiet and good order which now prevail In this famously turbulent re gion. After traversing a considerable portion of the desert I can report that no violence was offered, nor Hid I hear aught else than that everything 13 quiet though how long even the strong hand of Nazim Pasha can keep It so is a matter of conjecture, for the Arab is a restless and lawless person per-son by nature. Making an Army Overnight. The rag-tag and bobtail which used to pass for an army in Bagdad has been caricatured times without number. num-ber. The men were literally in rags. They went barefooted. They were mostly without weapons.. Ill-fed, ill-paid, ill-paid, ill-treated, they made more trouble trou-ble than they quelled. Now almost overnight, Nazim Pasha has changed all this. He has organized an entirely new army, with progressive Young Turk officers and foreign drill-masters. He has made in Bagdad the uniforms which all of them now wear, and he has equipped every man with a modern rifle. He is also taking the weapons out of the hands of the people peo-ple generally, so that only the representatives repre-sentatives of the law shall be armed The soldiers are becoming "smart" in appearance and discipline. Their setting-up exercises are as rigorous as those of the German army. There is need. For no one knows when the fires that are forever smouldering smoul-dering In the desert may break forth Into flame, and the revolt in the Yemen may spread any day to this region. As it is, some inter-tribal fighting has to be winked at. A despot must have at hand means to execute his decrees. The terror that now fills the lawless at mention of Nazim Pasha's name may not be allowed to diminish. A benevolent despot is the new governor. He is resolved to bring In law and order, and to establish the western civilization. It used to be that robberies and attacks upon pedestrians pedes-trians were of nightly occurrence in the city. Last month there were only tour cases of robbery and the culprits were arrested. When I spoke to Nazim Pasha of the regret that the world will feel over the loss of the ancient Bagdad, with its romantic memories, he asked me how 1 would like to see Philadelphia adhere to the customs of hundreds of years ago, all for the sake of being picturesque. There are few travelers that get to this out-of-the,-way corner of the earth, but those that come a few years hence, on the Bagdad railway, will find the bazars gilded, the streets named and the houses numbered, and a policeman standing under the electric elec-tric light at the corner to ask the business of every amateur Raschld. American Strays In Bagdad. There Is no native-born American citizen cit-izen in Bagdad, and only one naturalized, natural-ized, a dentist. The consulate is vacant, except for a very efficient vice-consul, Mr. James Levack, a Briton. But he is called to stand sponsor for various wanderers who claim the protection of the American flag. The latest is a man who is soldiering in a missionary hospital, claiming to be both the Messiah and an American citizen. The latter claim has been proved bogus, so the consulate is relieved of him. Various persons "working" their way around the world on a wager get to Bagdad. One Canadian undertook to go around the world on roller-skates, and he asked the consulates to sign his papers attesting his presence. But when it was suggested that he give a roller-skating exhibition, as a means of raising money, instead of begging it outright, he naively confessed that he had left his roller skates behind, several months before, but that he expected ex-pected to get another pair before he reached Canada. A Frenchman was "walking" around the world, and he left the raft that was bearing him to Bagdad, a few miles above the city, that he might enter on foot; but he was never heard of again. The troubles of the consuls are various. var-ious. Their business is to answer all proper inquiries from enterprising nationals who would extend the country's coun-try's trade Into remote parts. As the "ultima thule" of civilization, Bagdad is chosen by many of these inquirers, whose knowledge is not always equal to their spirit of enterprise. One American manufacturer wanted to introduce in-troduce the garter business into Bagdad; Bag-dad; but the people do not use hose. Another was keen on making a market mar-ket for American bathroom fixtures; but there are probably not a dozen modern bathrooms in all the Turkish empire, outside of Constantlnovla, with its few modern hotels. For agricultural machinery; for a strong, simple oil-engine pump, to take the place of the antiquated water-lifts, water-lifts, for irrigation purposes; for a windmill that will work and stand rough usage; for tools and simple' articles of household convenience, America may find a market here, in exchange for the oriental rugs, hides, wool and dates which Bagdad ships to America in large quantities. Successive American consuls have resigned this post because unable to live on the salary, which is less than a fifth of what the British resident gets. The post is a hard one from the climatic standpoint. In summer the people live underground in "serdabs," which are nothing less than furnished cellars, where the punkah flaps to agitate agi-tate the oppressive heat. The German invasion has made the little company of less than half a hundred Britons work hard ft their not very princely livelihoods, so that there is comparatively compara-tively little diversion to this exile. One of the Interesting places In Bagdad is the antiquated Jewish synagogue, syna-gogue, which is so old 'that the rabbis do not know its age. It looks It. And it is not a magnificent ruin, but a squalid, dirty old place, littered with torn matting and rugs, with a more respectable court adjoining In which some of the rabbis live. The meanest of synagogues in America Is liner than this. And it Is probably destined des-tined to be succeeded by a better, for the chief rabbi told me with pride of the success of the young Jews who have gone to America, and of the Increased In-creased prosperity that Is coming to the Bagdad Jews. He says that he does not believe in a colonization of the Jews in Palestine or Mesopotamia; Mesopota-mia; let them go to America or Great The British Consulate at Bagdad. Britain, the real promised land. He also told me that two thousand of the young men of his community are learning to speak English, for that Is to be the language of their new life. None the less, the Jews in France have helped to build two large schools for the boys and girls of their faith in this city, and the school buildings are the finest in Bagdad. The Jews In Bagdad have been very poor, and a people Buffering affliction. They have been in ignorance, igno-rance, in consequence, and even the rabbis are not very learned. I had a conference with several as to the identity of the Jews up and down Mesopotamia, who must number several sev-eral thousand, if not millions. There are from sixty to a hundred thousand in Bagdad alone. The old men agreed that all the twelve tribes, from both the early captivities of the children of Israel, have remained to this day in these regions where they were once taken captive. There are also great numbers across the border In Persia. Thus the mystery of the "lost ten tribes" ceases to be a mystery; the Jews are still here, and now sharing in the new awakening of this oldest corner of the world. (Copyright, 1911. by Joseph B. Bowles.) |