Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/45

 between East and West know well the pousse cafe effect of such Asiatic-European towns, which take on the composite complexion of the elements that make up the mixture, though the blend is never quite complete. The Turkish capital aptly illustrates the truth of this statement, even if the European tinge tends more and more to predominate over the Oriental tone.

Yet there is something irresistibly attractive about such cities — something easy-going, something truly cosmopolitan. In Constantinople the tourist in white flannels and soft cap, or in frock coat and top hat, passes quite as unnoticed among the motley-colored crowd as does the native with fez, baggy trousers, heel-less slippers, and slipshod gait. No more surprise is shown at, and no more attention is paid to, the latest accepted import of Western civilization than is evinced at the oldest remnant of Eastern custom that has lingered on, caught up in the eddying current of modern progress.

In respect to its location Constantinople occupies one of the most favored and picturesque situations in the world. The Bosporus, the Golden Horn, and the Sea of Marmora unite in giving to it all the maritime advantages that easy access by water can bestow ; and nature has lavishly lent of her beauty to adorn its site at every point. The general topography and the arrangement of the town are easy to grasp. Stambul, the city proper, occupies the jutting peninsula between the Sea of Marmora and the Golden Horn, or practically the position of ancient Byzantium. Galata, lying northward and eastward beyond the golden inlet, and rising toward the hillside, forms a suburban quarter ; whilst Pera, crowning the height above it, stands out as the more European quarter of the town. In the distance to the east, across the Bosporus, lies the old city of Scutari in Asia Minor. This is the Asiatic section of Con- stantinople, and its site corresponds to the ancient Chrysop- olis, or 'Golden City,' although Scutari now is a center of modern education, fostered by the American College for Girls, just as Robert College, on the European side of the Bosporus,

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