. The rulers of the Mediterranean. , and no onepays the least attention to them. They mightbe lamp-posts or minarets, for all the notice theyreceive. I can imagine no fate or torture soawful as to be ill in Constantinople and to haveto lie helpless and listen to the street cries, to thetin horns of the men who run ahead of the street-cars^which incidentally gives you an idea of thespeed of these cars — and to the snarling andbarking of the thousands of street dogs. There are three or four intensely interestingceremonies and many show-places in Constanti-nople which are unlike anything of the s
. The rulers of the Mediterranean. , and no onepays the least attention to them. They mightbe lamp-posts or minarets, for all the notice theyreceive. I can imagine no fate or torture soawful as to be ill in Constantinople and to haveto lie helpless and listen to the street cries, to thetin horns of the men who run ahead of the street-cars^which incidentally gives you an idea of thespeed of these cars — and to the snarling andbarking of the thousands of street dogs. There are three or four intensely interestingceremonies and many show-places in Constanti-nople which are unlike anything of the same sortin any other city. Apart from these and thebazars, which are very wonderful, there is nothingin the city itself which makes even the Orientalseek it in preference to his own mountains orplains or native village. Constantinople, so faras its population is to be considered, is standingstill. It impresses you as stagnant before yourstatistical friend or the oldest member of thediplomatic corps or the oldest inhabitant tells. CONSTANTINOPLE 2H you that it is so. You can very well imaginethe Franks finding a long residence in Cairo pos-sible, or in pretty little Athens, where the boule-vards and the classics are so strangely jumbled,but one cannot understand a mans settling downin Constantinople. Where there are no womenthere can be no court, and the few rich Greekresidents and still fewer of the pashas and thediplomats make the society of the city. Eventhese last find it far from gay, for it so happensthat the ambassadors are all either bachelors,widowers, or the husbands of invalid wives, andthe result is a society which depends largely on avery smart club for its amusement. In the win-ter-time, when the snow and rain sweep over thethree hills, and the solitary street of Galata is afoot deep in slush and mud, and the china stovesradiate a candle-like heat in a room built to let inall the air possible, I can imagine few less desira-ble places than the capital of the Ottom
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherharper, bookyear189
