IN TH15 HAKUOK UF COA STAx\Xii\Oi'I.lC 



11. G. i) wight 



Constantinople is a city of mosques and minarets, and the harbor there without them would 

 be like the harbor of New York without the skyscrapers of Manhattan 



deners, do efficient work ; but they are 

 two slow and too averse from learning 

 new ways to suit most European masters. 

 Their tradition is that of the rest of 

 Asia, where many servants make up a 

 household, each capable of doing only 

 one thing. 



Turkish women never serve in Chris- 

 tian houses, unless as occasional char- 

 women or washerwomen. Greek and 

 Armenian women, on the other hand, are 

 the mainstay of the Constantinople house- 

 keeper ; even Turks often employ them. 

 The Greeks are the smartest and the most 

 efficient, though they are perhaps too 

 quick-witted to be perfectly reliable. The 

 Armenians are neither so quick nor so 

 presentable, and I doubt if they are any 

 more honest. I do not mean, however, 

 to imply that the Levantine is necessarily 

 more uncertain than his western brother. 



Croats are a common addition to the 

 menfolk of an establishment, whether as 

 cooks, footmen, gardeners, or doorkeep- 

 ers — Croats or Montenegrins, who, as 

 every one knows, are Serbs under other 

 names. It is as doorkeepers that this 



gentry chiefly shine, lending the dignity 

 of their stature and of their handsome 

 costume to every door of any standing. 

 Every Christian door — that is, for the 

 Turks — employs Albanians for the same 

 service. And no servant is more faith- 

 ful, whether as doorkeeper, groom, gar- 

 dener, or shepherd ; but they are a proud 

 and sensitive race and you must treat 

 them with due consideration of their 

 honor. In fact, the whole relation of 

 master and man is a more human one in 

 Constantinople than it is likely to be in 

 the West. 



POI.YGLOT 01^ TRADES ME;N 



Housekeeping in Constantinople is a 

 polyglot affair, but not so polyglot as it 

 sounds. It can usually be conducted in 

 Turkish or Greek. Some gifted persons 

 are able to order a dinner in Armenian, 

 while a few fortunate ones need only the 

 French with which they came. This lan- 

 guage, or a flat variety of it, which after 

 Paris reminds one of corked champagne, 

 is spoken by more people in Constantino- 

 ple, I fancy, than any other single tongue. 



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