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seeing tour through the city with a valet-de-place or guide. Everything that was native to the place seemed strange to me, and as I proceeded through the narrow, tortuous and filthy alleys, I stopped among other localities in front of a little open shop where an old fat turbaned man was cooking a light flannel cake the batter for which he spread upon a bright copper surface, having a diameter of between two and three feet and heated from below. The cakes were rapidly bought up by passers by and consumed on the spot. The old cooks turban was green, which indicated that he had either been to Mecca or was a descendant of the prophet. There was scarcely anything of public or historic interest for the stranger to see in Pera, except perhaps the tomb of certain of the Sultans which were pretty specimens of oriental architecture, and we soon reached the bridge of boats communicating with Stamboul the Turkish city. The sheet of water crossed by the bridge is the Golden Horn. In Stamboul we went immediately towards the bazaars where we wandered around for about an hour. Everything in the domestic life of the city was for sale here, and a great deal of bartering was going on. There is an amount of loud talking over a purchase in the East, and at times the excitement is so great that buyer and seller seem on the point of coming to blows. This is in consequence of the seller asking more than his goods are worth and that he will eventually take, and I had been notified by those who knew, that when I should ask the price of anything in Constantinople, I must be prepared to offer one fourth of the figure mentioned. In dealings between natives the same thing is done, and seems to be considered as essential to a sale. While passing along a bazaar this wrangle is seen at its height in front of many a little booth or shop, and when the agreement has been reached the high contracting parties settle down to pipes and coffee. The half of a day being commonly thus wasted on the purchase of a piece of calico.
The bazaars of Constantinople are quite extensive, many being of masonry arched over, and every kind of vehicle is able to pass through. The only thing I bought there was a little barrel made of small cocoa nuts and consisting of three subdivisions - the central one for ink and the two end ones for sand and wafers. It was remarkably well turned on a lathe, and, after being told the price, I made an offer which was much less and walked off. Before I had gone any distance the seller caught up with me and told me I could have it. I brought this safely home with me and had it on my plantation during our civil war, among a few other mementos of travel in a trunk which was carried off by some northern naval officers who visited the country all around Charleston in their gunboats to tell the darkies that thenceforth they were free. I went several times through the bazaars and always lingered in that part where amber mouth pieces and other parts of pipes were being made. The lathes for turning the amber were very simple machines, worked by means of a bow, which caused the turning to be back and forth, and therefore the forces of cutting only occurred during the return movement of the bow. The men were all on the floor seated, the lathes being also on the floor, and the chisel, held in the right hand, was steadied on the rest with one foot, while the left hand worked the bow. It surprised me to see what nice work was made in this primitive way
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From the bazaars we went near some of the mosques, but could not enter. They are certainly beautiful creations of the architect, and, if of Turkish conception as they appear to have been, they are striking proofs that the Turk has exhibited some civilizing instincts since his occupation of one of the fairest spots in Europe, although beyond those there is no other evidence of his not being still a barbarian
There is considerable space around these four or five great mosques, so that they can be well seen. Their beauty and grandeur is enhanced by thus being able to examine them from several points of view, and I lingered near them for a considerable time. Afterwards I passed by an irregular open space called the hippodrome and saw the remains of what is known as the cisterns of a thousand and one columns, and among some obelisks and columns one that is known as the Brazen Column. It is composed of three serpents twisted spirally around each other, their size diminishing gradually from the base as far as the necks of the serpents, and their heads spreading on the sides like a tripod, composing a kind of capital. This column is very ancient and is supposed to have been brought from Delphi, where it served to bear up the famous golden tripod which the Greeks, after the battle of Plataea, found in the camp of Mardonius.
The last place visited on this first day was the Seraglio or Palace of the Sultans. It is an enclosure occupying a point of land lying between the Golden Horn and Sea of Marmara, and contains a heterogeneous collection of detached houses, not one of which deserves the name of palace. The recent Sultans have not lived there, but have occupied regular palaces which lie near the water of the Bosphorous, on the Peru side of the Golden Horn, so that the Seraglio proper has a deserted look, and much of the interior has a decayed appearance. It reminded one of an encampment or temporary abode, and in that respect is in keeping with the belief of the Turks that they are only in Europe for a limited time. The only place within worthy of mention is a small one storied wooden building which contains a collection of arms such as were used during the conquering portion of the history of the nation, and many figures with faces of wood dressed in the flowing robes and turbans which were the national costumes before the change made in this century for a single breasted dark European coat and the red fez. Those dresses must have been made the processions that accompanied the Sultans in their public displays very picturesque and magnificent. As I stood near Seraglio point there was a French steamer arrived that day from Sebastopol with invalided soldiers. There were many with typhoid fever, and I walked among them at the landing as they lay in their camp cots, awaiting their turn to be removed to some hospital. This sight made an impression upon me, for it was a peep behind the scenes. It was not a view of the front of war, but a look through the back door. At Seraglio point is the place where so many unfortunate women have been drowned by men of the Sultan tied in a bag. Having thoroughly explored the enclosure, for strangers were then permitted to go almost everywhere, I returned to the hotel for dinner.
At that meal I was placed alongside of a gentlemen who I could easily see was a civilian. After a few words introductory, he asked the usual question whether I was English. Upon replying then that I was American
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he put the same question that M Boudouris had done at Athens, and when I replied that I was not from New York, he asked whether I was from South Carolina. This seemed quite remarkable to me, but he explained afterwards that he lived in Malta, and that he had there met a few years before a Mr Davis, who had spent several years in Asiatic Turkey not far from Constantinople where he superintended a cotton plantation for the Sultan. He was from South Carolina and had returned to Charleston in 1849 where he was well known, and he had brought back with him several of the Turkish domestic animals - such as water buffaloes, brahmin cattle, sheep goats, etc. He was commonly known on his return as Turkey Davis, and was not a man highly considered. He remained some time in Charleston and then moved away My neighbor at the dinner table was named Arrowsmith, and we made several trips together in and around the city. There was some little general conversation among those seated at our end of the table, and in my ignorance of military matters then I could not understand why there were so many civilians who never touched a musket who were attached to an army. I did not realize that an army had to be fed in some way, and that the quartermaster’s department, which attended to the supply of horses, wagons, clothing, etc, required as many clerks and employe's as the commissary, which feeds the men. The British army too, as compared with the French, employed a vast number of civilians. Several of these clerks were at the hotel and they were a nice pleasant set. The only officer with whom I had a chance of a few words was a Captain Conolly of one of the regiments of Light Cavalry. He had been in the Balaclava charge where he had lost two brothers. He seemed willing enough to talk, but I knew so little of what war was that I was unable to engage his attention, and he was more interested in conversing with others near by.
Mr Arrowsmith was interested in flour mills, and I visited several with him which were owned by different pashas who were favorites of the Sultan, and who made a handsome profit by the investment, as the industry was said to be a monopoly exclusively in the Sultan’s hands. I also went with him to the British Embassy but waited outside until he had finished his business. I hoped I would see the celebrated Sir Stratford de Redcliffe, who was the English war Ambassador, and who in his turn, when the Russian Menshikoff was away, would bully the weak Sultan Abdul Medjid into acquiescence in the demands of England. But I did not see him. Another place that we visited together was the English army hospital at Scutari on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. It had been a Turkish Barrack for soldiers, and had required a large outlay to be in condition to receive the sick.
England had been so long at peace in Europe after the battle of Waterloo that this war with Russia found her very unprepared, and especially so with no new methods, such as improved artillery and small arms, as also facilities for land transportation, and new ideas in the naval service. The wars in India during that period had not brought forward any
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young men who could be entrusted with command, and the most available general who could be selected to place at the head of their army was Lord Raglan, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars. The other Division generals under him were also old men or younger men who had only seen service in wars against semi civilized or savage nations. It was easy enough to transport her little army of 30.000 men to the Crimea, for she had all the necessary shipping, but when it was once there, all the machinery for furnishing it with the many things that are required for the active prosecution of a war was found to be rusty and not in working condition.
Shortly after the commencement of the siege of Sebastopol when the winter weather was being felt and letters reached England describing the wretched state of inefficiency in which all the departments of the army were, especially the hospital department, in its want of supplies and proper attendance for the sick, a lady named Florence Nightingale offered her services to go to Constantinople with a corps of trained nurses and assist in organising there a proper military hospital service. Her services were gladly accepted as well as those of Soyer a distinguished cook who offered to teach the use of improved cooking stoves as well as the preparation of delicacies for the sick and convalescent.
The French, owing to their being better prepared for a great war by their experience in Algeria, had taken possession of almost every Turkish public building in the capital as soon as they arrived, as they well knew how necessary they would all be for the various requirements of such a war, and when their allies, the English, woke up to the importance of similarly providing themselves with at least hospital accommodations, the only building that was available was the one already mentioned at Scutari.
Since that time there have been vast improvements in all the little accessories which make it possible now for life to be even enjoyable in a desert. The most important of these are all the canned eatables which have become so common, and in America the various patented stoves and furnaces for warming interiors are endless. In the England however of 1854 there were very few of these, and the army men were old fashioned in their notions. They did not wish to be instructed by a woman, and they antagonised Soyer the cook; so that these worthy people found it no easy matter to produce practical results. The hospital as we saw it seemed to be well organised. There were a number of different rooms and wards with beds in them for the reception of the sick, but at the time there were but few of these, and there was a good library containing light reading for the convalescent. The cooking arrangements were defective, and when we examined that department the men complained that there was want of system in not attending beforehand to the details which the improved cooking arrangements required. There was trouble that day on account of a short supply of fire wood already cut up into short lengths for the stoves. We did not see Miss Nightingale, as she had left the day before for the Crimea, but there can be no doubt that her services and those of the other trained nurses had been invaluable. What she accomplished the English public has never forgotten and she still lives respected and admired by everyone
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Shortly after my arrival in Constantinople the flagship Royal Albert anchored in the Bosphorus with Admiral Lyons on board. My letter of introduction was at hand but I concluded not to present it in person, and simply mailed it, as I thought the Admiral might like to hear from his old friend Mr Hill. I was very anxious to visit the Crimea and having a letter to the American Minister from Mr Mason of Va who was Minister in Paris, I called upon him one day to ask that he would put one in the way of obtaining a permit for the trip, civilians not being allowed on board the quartermaster steamers unless supplied with such. This gentleman assisted me very earnestly from the undertaking, and referred me to a friend present who had just returned, for a description of the discomforts and inconveniences of the journey. I therefore abandoned the idea of going, which I have always regretted as I could easily have found quarters for a couple of nights with some one of the numerous settlers who lived in little wooden houses at a safe distance from shot and shell. The siege of Sebastopol was practically over then - Dec 1855, - the southern half of the city having been taken by the French after the celebrated assault of the Malakoff tower in the previous September.
It was possible to do a great many things in Turkey during that war which had been very difficult to accomplish before. One of these was to visit the interior of the Mosque of St Sophia, but the allies have made the Sultan’s government understand that the restrictions against strangers should be abandoned, and therefore there was no difficulty whatever in entering when I reached the building with a guide. The natives upon entering one of their sacred edifices leave their slippers at the door and go in without them. This custom is said to have originated in the fact that the interiors of all houses are liable to be soiled if any one enters with the same shoes which have passed through the mud of the streets. It was only necessary then for strangers to reach the entrance with india rubber shoes on, which being left near the door, the wearer could then proceed with his ordinary boots or shoes, and not be obliged to remove them also. St Sophia is interesting historically from having been built originally as a Christian church. This was accomplished in the reign of the Emperor Justinian, many years before the Turks took the city, and after these last were in full possession, the customary minarets were added, from which the faithful are called to prayers, and the building dedicated to the worship of God and his “true” prophet Mahomet. The shape of the mosque is that of a Greek cross and the interior is destitute of ornament. The Mosaics which adorned the walls when it was a church have been covered over with white wash and can no longer be discerned, so that there is nothing particularly attractive inside except the great size and the architectural feat of having built a solid roof (of stone I think) over such a large area as the floor is. I looked at the interior from a gallery at one end and saw a few worshippers on the floor at some distance from where I was who were apparently praying in a slow singing undertone. Near them was a