Ogden Daily Standard | 1919-04-19 | Page 2 | Saloniki the Melting Pot of All Humanity

SALONIKI THE MELTING POT OF ALLHUMANITY SALONIKI. March 15 (Correspondence (Correspond-ence of The Associated Press.) The American visitor finds here an extraordinary extra-ordinary mixture of races, tongues, beliefs be-liefs and customs. Salonikl is literally liter-ally a melting-pot of humanity. So other city in the world, unless it be one of the great American centers, is so thoroughly cosmopolitan. Greeks, Mongols. Turks. Slavs. Teutons. Italians Ital-ians and Europeans mingle and each understands the language of the other. The market place is a babel of tonqii' The lowliest street peddler speaks at least four languages. Rut these diverse races associate together only for business purposes. In their religious beliefs, aspira Mons and sentiments a great gulf separates them. Each has- a different ideal and a distinct viewpoint of life. In Macedonia Mace-donia all religions are tolerated. 8a-lonikl. 8a-lonikl. or Thessalonlca, as it was, called in early times, is snid to have' been the door by which Christianiu entered Europe Indeed, devout residents resi-dents relate with pride that it was, here the Apostle Paul, after having evangelized Syria and Asia Minor. I came to preach the gospel lo the un- belieeis of Macedonia. The money-changer has been a fix- , lure in Salouiki from time Immemorial. , During the war he reaped a rich harvest har-vest on the fluctuating value of the I currency of the war-affected countries. I The American dollar was the only cu.- rency thai he could not buy at a profit It resisted all the vicissitudes and varying fortunes of the war and held ( steadily at 100 cents, when all ihe other money of the world was flue tuatlng. Saloniki is essentially a Jewish city, I for there are more than 100,000 Jewq who make their homes here. They ; control the bulk of the business About SO per cent of them are Spanish He-1 He-1 brews, whose ancestors were driven ;fiom Spain by Ferdinand and Isnbeila I in the fifteenth century To indicate I the wide diversity of other races, however, how-ever, it la sufficient only to say lhat there aro five' Greek newspapers, seven Spanish-Hebrew, four French, 'three Serbian, one Turkish and one i English The lone English newspaper is published by the British army for the use of its men in the Levant. If the Apostle Paul could come to Saloniki today, ho probably would preach to the Thessalonians a gospel I of cleanliness as well as of piety, for! dirt Beema to be nn inseparable . r i j of Ihe city and of the people. Hygienic and sanitary methods, as the ollie ! military authorities soon learned are woefully primitive. During the allied 'occupation thousands of British.! French, Italian and Serbian soldiers 1 succumbed to malaria, tjphoid and other diseases arising from lack of) drainage and sanitation. Through all , the centuries, plagues and epidemics! have visited the city and carried off thousands of its inhabitants Being on the principal thoroughfare from Asia Into Europe, Saloniki has heen ! the means of spreading Asiatic cho!-1 era to the towns washed by th Afedl-l terranean. The city Itself has suffered I great losses of life through this L;re;ii' Ktonrgta 1