THi; EXrRESSMAN IN CONSTANTINOPI^E 



The porters, or hamals, as they are called, have strongly organized unions, entirely in 

 control of the Kurds, a fierce, untamed race, who in their lands in Asia Minor acknowledge 

 no law except that of might. These hamals, with bent backs, proceed at a stolid, animal-like 

 pace, and carry everything from crates of chickens to upright pianos. — Photos and note by 

 Mortimer J. Fox. 



near the truth. He reckons the value or 

 cost of ground, material, labor, orna- 

 ments, and church utensils at about 324,- 

 000,000 Greek drachmas of today, or 

 about $64,000,000. The common estimate 

 of the cost of Saint Peter's is 240,000,000 

 francs, or less than $48,000,000. It must 

 be remembered that no other Christian 

 church has at all approached Sancta 

 Sophia in the variety and preciousness of 

 its marbles, and, above all, in the prodigal 

 employment of silver, gold, and precious 

 stones in decoration and for the sacred 

 vessels. The expenditure for Sancta 

 Sophia was doubtless greater than for 

 any other sanctuary ever reared by a 

 Christian people to the glory of their 

 God. 



It is utterly impossible for us today to 

 picture, even faintly, what that temple 

 must have been as Justinian beheld it. 

 All that the power, the wealth, the art, 

 the skill, and the devotion of the civilized 

 world could create was there ; so it might 

 well gleam and stretch away and soar be- 

 fore his enraptured gaze. 



Since then numerous buttresses, great 

 and small, high and low, and buildings 

 of every sort have been piled around it, 

 and muffle and disfigure its form. The 

 light of many windows has been ob- 

 structed and many others have been 

 closed. Through Mussulman devotion, 

 the mosaic pictures, though preserved, 

 have been covered over, and the crosses 

 and other Christian emblems defaced. 



476 



