30 From Far-away Damascus. By Horton, George

Doesn’t she look cheerful, self-reliant and shrewd? She is no whining beggar. She is a merchant, and perfectly capable of making her own living. She comes, in fact, from a nation of traders. Damascus, in far-away Syria, is famous for its bazars and little emporiums. Doubtless this very woman’s father kept a little shop in the famous old city, and her earliest recollections are connected with the driving of sharp bargains.

A very lively city is that same Damascus, and in busy seasons its streets and bazars are crowded with people of many nationalities, and nearly everyone you meet is as picturesque and businesslike as our friend in the illustration. Great is the variety of articles that change hands: silks, gold and silver ornaments and trinkets, Persian and Turkish carpets, amber gewgaws, artistic bits of old china, cashmere shawls, coffee, tobacco, pipes and what not. Our friend has followed the dictates of early training in filling her basket. She has collar-buttons, fancy purses, breastpins, pins and needles, thread, handkerchiefs and many other articles.


The thought naturally occurs to one that business must be pretty brisk with the woman, for she doesn’t look homesick. But if our smiling merchant is not discontented, we will awake no memories to make her so. She has come to this country to make her living, and she appears to know what she is about.



Dieses Kapitel ist Teil des Buches STREET TYPES GREAT AMERICAN CITIES