Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/72

 20 FROM THE BLACK SEA TO THE CASPIAN

situation had only been more healthful ; but even in this latter respect Batum cannot boast too much, although Russia is doing everything to make its location a thoroughly salubrious one. The city's history, like that of its displaced rival, is a long one, for near its site lay ancient Petra and still earlier Bathys. The Turks made nothing of the town while they held it, so far as one can judge by the derogatory comments upon it during their rule ; but it began to pick up at once when ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 ; and it became a growing place with a brisk business and a large export trade, so that today it shows a predominance of West over East in the composite blending brought about by its active commerce.^ By a topo- graphical paradox, the Occidental portion of its inhabitants, Russians, Armenians, and Greeks, reside mostly in the eastern quarter of the town; the Musulman portion, Turks, Tatars, and Persians, live in its western quarter.

A pleasant promenade leads through the public gardens and along the main boulevard facing the sea. The vegetation has a touch of the tropical, for palms are seen lifting their fronds among other trees, while the snow still lingers on the distant hills. The chief edifice of the city is the Russian cathedral of Alexandro-Nevsky, which harmonizes well with the Muham- madan mosques in the Eastern tinge of its architecture. In the business section, the buildings of the European banks, commer- cial houses, stores for merchandise, wine-shops, and cafes form a Western offset to the native booths and bazars, the center of Oriental life.

As in other cities of the Caucasus, there is a constant inter- mingling of races radically different ; and this very dissimilarity of nationality, creed, ideals, and political views has led at times to riotous outbreaks, and even to bloodshed. In one of these disturbances, two years before our visit, the American consul was accidentally killed by a bomb ; nor were the newspapers

1 On the noticeable improvement Im Lande der Sonne, pp. 20-26, Ber- that took place, see especially Brugsch, lin, 1886.

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