Quite impossible to restrain laughter

The troupe is generally of native talent, and the advantage of hearing a tragedy as rendered by a native troupe is that it is quite impossible to restrain laughter during the proceedings. Some of the plays are comic, and of these such as deal with commercial knavery are often really good. But love, blood, deep laid plots on the part of the hero against the peace of the villain are the necessary staples of the Turkish stage. One of the play-bills will give an impression of the interminable nature of these entertainments:

“ The Ottoman Theatre will be open to the public on the evening of Wednesday, that is to say, the night of Thursday next. The celebrated troop of M. Dikran, the Armenian, will play. English acrobats will perform feats hitherto seen in no other part of the world. There will be an operetta of ten acts, with songs by actresses. There will also be a pantomime of three acts. The performance on this occasion being for the benefit of the public, no tickets will be required.” The slight uncertainty which appears respecting the day of this performance arises from the fact that the Mohammedan day begins at sunset, so that Wednesday evening coincides with the beginning of the night of Thursday. The theatre is one of the institutions which Turks have derived from contact with the West guided istanbul tour.

It is hardly necessary to say that the place is crowded with both men and women at every performance. With all its defects the Turkish theatre is a power. The capital cities of some of the provinces of the empire receive from it their sole effective impression of what the Western world is. The poorest of the native companies and the worst of their plays are taken to cities of the interior and put on the boards. Then the local papers will congratulate the people that Brousa or Adrianople, or Konia, as the case may be, is assuming the characteristics of a European city, for a theatre has now been established.

Sweet Waters

Visitors at Constantinople rarely fail to visit the Sweet Waters, or Geuk Sou, and remember the beautiful little river and the multitude of boats and the masses of people enjoying themselves on the grass. Such expeditions to places where natural beauty is the chief attraction form another favourite recreation of the people of the city. Rarely do we find a people more truly lovers of nature—of fine scenery, of pure air and gurgling water, of the songs of birds, and of the colour-songs which earth sends out in the form of trees and gay flowers. These little expeditions which the people make are the only recreations in which the family is found enjoying itself as a unit.

Under magnificent plane trees, or in cool groves of oak and chestnut the people place themselves by families upon mats furnished by the ubiquitous coffee-shop man. On these mats, spread upon the ground within sight of some stream, or of the sea, the Turk will sit for hours, finding great delight in the pure air, the gracious foliage, the music of unwonted birds, and the prattle of his women and his children. To an American, “ refreshments ” may imply drinks that exhilarate, or at the very least that have “ fizz ” in them, and food of substantial quality.

The Turk who is out for a picnic, has for his refreshment water from some favourite spring, (of which the brand is as carefully tested as though it were champagne) and coffee. For food he has bread and cheese or olives or dried fish, and fruit. A water-pipe (narguileh), and cigarettes which he makes himself fill out the list of his requirements at such a place. His whole excitement is in the beauty of nature and in the dress and the manners of assembled human-kind. As the day wears away the men will mingle more together, chatting or singing love-ditties with evident delight in their own vocal powers. The women meanwhile wander sedately over neighbouring hillsides to gather flowers, while the children frolic in herds upon the grass. The end of the day finds the whole family quite as thoroughly refreshed by their outing as if they had spent the day in circus or drinking house, or in amusements like those that delight the heart of the Coney Islander.