Photo by H. G. Dwight 

 A BUTCHE;r in CONSTANTINOPLE 



i'lioto in- Jvmiiia (r. Cumiiiings 



chicke;ns en route to market : Constantinople 



Often as many as 150,000 persons, of every race and of every 

 region, clad in every kind of human garment, and representing 

 every gradation of human rank, traverse the Galata bridge in a 

 single day. _ There are no rules of the road. Carriage, beast, 

 and pedestrian mix up in a hopeless jumble, the latter plunging 

 into a tumultuous living mass, dodging hither and thither, stop- 

 ping nov^ and rushing on again, and finally, as though by a 

 miracle, emerging unharmed at the other end. 



the habits of Constanti- 

 nople are known to have 

 been formed before the 

 Turks arrived there ; but 

 it is also connected with 

 an ancient guild system, 

 which has not yet quite 

 transformed itself into 

 the trade-unionism of the 

 day. All the industries 

 of the city used to be 

 organized into guilds. 

 The members of each 

 were drawn from one 

 race or district, and were 

 divided into categories of 

 masters and apprentices 

 under a chief called a 

 kehaya. The heads of 

 the more powerful guilds 

 were high official per- 

 sonages. 



This insured the guilds 

 certain privileges and 

 immunities, in return for 

 which they were com- 

 pelled to contribute gen- 

 erously to the expenses 

 of war — and incidentally 

 to those of the kehaya. 

 A remnant of this cus- 

 tom exists today among- 

 the lightermen of the 

 harbor and the custom- 

 house porters, who are 

 required to give the gov- 

 ernment the use of so 

 many boats and so many- 

 men on so many days a 

 month. The continuance 

 of this mutual relation is 

 doubtless one reason why 

 these two guilds are still 

 able to resist foreign 

 competition and modern 

 industrial methods. The 

 others are but a shadow 

 of what they were, and 

 with them are disappear- 

 ing many picturesque 

 customs. The lighter- 

 men and the porters, 

 however, absolutely con- 

 trol the port of Constan- 

 tinople. 



532 



