SMYRNA.
I write now from one of the most ancient cities in the world. There is a
wonderful lot of ancient history in these parts. The mind quite staggers
under the ever-accumulating load of facts and figures and legends. The
Æolians, who founded on this site the first Greek city, claimed it as the
birthplace of Homer. It was there that his poetry flourished; then,
under the successors of Alexander, it became celebrated for its schools
of science and medicine. Christianity early made its way into Smyrna,
which has enjoyed the reputation of being one of the Seven Churches of
Asia alluded to in Revelation. It was there that Polycarp suffered
martyrdom, and it is there they still show you, or profess to show you,
his tomb. Defended by the Knights of Rhodes, Smyrna fell when Timur, the
terrible Mogul, appeared before it and put all that breathed to the
sword. As it was, I felt satisfied and charmed with modern Smyrna, and
did not climb the hill behind on which stands the ruins of a castle, and
where brigands still lie in wait for the unwary traveller. Nor did I
take the train to Ephesus, a run of nearly two hours, to wander under the
hot sun and amidst the rough winds to see what remains, amidst bushes and
rocks and cornfields, of ancient Ephesus—notwithstanding the fact that
there Christian synods have been held, and that in a cave adjoining slept
those marvellous Seven Sleepers; that there stood the temple of the
goddess Diana, whose worshippers the great Apostle of the Gentiles woke
up to cry excitedly for the craft by which they lived. It is a scene of
desolation, which certainly does not repay the ordinary tourist the
trouble of a visit.
But I revelled in Smyrna—one of the brightest, cleanest, and most
prosperous cities under Turkish sway. Its white houses, chiefly hotels
and restaurants and theatres, line the bay, with dense shipping in the
forefront, while the mountains behind, up the slopes of which modern
Smyrna is gradually planting herself, act as guard and shelter. At the
time of my visit there stretched across the bay quite an imposing display
of ironclads of all nations—American, English, Italian, French—and it
made me shudder to think of them bombarding this scene of life and gaiety
and spreading terror amongst its hard-working people. A tramway runs
along the whole front of the city for about a couple of miles, and, as
you stand thinking of the wonders of modern civilization, you hear a bell
tinkle, and see half a dozen camels laden with sacks of grain striding
past, generally led by a man on a donkey. Sometimes the donkey had no
rider, and yet the patient camel followed all the same. It was intensely
amusing: the contrast between the little donkey leading and the big camel
behind. It set me thinking of the many parallel passages in modern
history—of parties, Churches, States, led by donkeys. Smyrna has an
enormous bazaar, into which it is easier to find one’s way than to get
out. It has fine mosques and handsome Greek churches. It shelters the
ships and people of all nations, but my chief delight was to watch the
string of camels as they ever came and went. Even in the narrow passages
of the bazaar there were the camels, and it was all you could do to get
out of the way of these grand animals, for such they were.
[Picture: The Gate of Persecution, near Ephesus. (From a photograph by
Fradelle and Young)]
One place that I visited much interested me. It was the Sailors’ Rest on
the quay, a fine room with a library and reading-room, where the sailors
come and go, and where they are supplied with refreshments of a
non-intoxicating character, carried on in connection with the Greek
Evangelical Alliance, founded in Smyrna in 1883. Depression in business,
and consequent poverty and other causes, such as the declining number of
British merchants who come to Smyrna, ousted, I presume, by more
enterprising rivals, and troubles in the interior, have hindered the
work, which, however, is successfully carried on. The average attendance
last year was: Sunday morning service, 83; afternoon, 59; Tuesday
prayer-meeting, 41; Gospel service at the Rest, 50. At the Sunday-school
the average attendance has been about 60. Owing to the shifting
population of Smyrna, many of the church members have become scattered in
many lands. The bitterest enemies of the work are the members of the
Orthodox Greek Church, who have no sympathy with an Evangelical Alliance
of any kind, and care not a rap for the union of the Churches. As an
illustration, take the following: ‘In 1895 it was expected that the
official permit for the building of a chapel on a site assigned by
Government would be granted to the Evangelicals. In fact, in the middle
of January permission was granted for the opening of the school, but the
local authorities, desiring to avoid any possible outbreak on the part of
‘the Orthodox,’ tried to bring about a friendly compromise. It was all
in vain, the Orthodox declaring that they would listen to no terms unless
the Evangelicals were entirely thrust out from the central quarter of the
town, and that they would never allow the chapel to be built or the site
prepared for it. Thus foiled, the Evangelicals opened their school, but
‘the Orthodox’ attacked the building with stones, defacing it almost
entirely, and quite destroying all the furniture within. The result was
that the Evangelicals had to commence their labours anew elsewhere.
After two months’ labour the ire of the Orthodox was again aroused; they
drove out the workmen, pulled down part of the walls, and finally
remained masters of the situation. It is true that fifteen of the
Orthodox were imprisoned, but the Evangelicals were advised to leave the
situation also, and to remove to some other site more acceptable to their
opponents. This advice the Evangelicals refused to accept, and, after a
long delay, by the personal efforts and goodwill of the new Turkish
Governor the building was restored. Orthodoxy seemed to be a sad
stumbling-block in the way of good work everywhere. The Sailors’ Rest at
Smyrna may be much aided by British Christians, both by presents of books
or by pecuniary contributions. During the last year it seems that 229
visits have been paid to ships, 64 bags of books sent out, 20 pledges
taken. I fear there is a good deal of drunkenness in Smyrna. Seven
thousand six hundred visits have been made in the year by sailors to the
Rest, 797 have attended the meetings, 676 Bibles, Testaments, and
portions have been given away, and many were the letters sent home by
sailors from the Rest. It seems to me that it might be kept open a
little later at night with advantage, as I find it is the fashion to keep
many of the drinking-shops open all night. The work among the Greeks has
been reviving, and it is regarded as hopeful. The meetings are well
attended, and especially so the Wednesday evening meeting in the Corner
Room at the Rest. This meeting is described as the fishing-net of the
Greek work, as many of those who became regular attendants at the other
services held in the American Chapel began at the Rest. At Smyrna our
American fellow-passengers hear the result of the Presidential contest in
America, and greatly rejoice. Their country is saved—at any rate, this
time. Local lines of steamers run from Smyrna to Messina and Beirut,
touching at all the important coast towns and at several of the islands,
at which we have a peep, such as Cos, the birthplace of Hippocrates;
Halicarnassus, where Herodotus was born, and where stood the famous
mausoleum, one of the wonders of the world; and Rhodes, far-famed. But
we may not tarry even in order to gratify such a laudable curiosity; no,
not even at Cyprus, which has prospered so much under English rule. It
is enough for us to have explored Smyrna, a city which in every way, as
regards cleanliness in the streets and the absence of abominable smells,
is a great improvement on Constantinople. It has a population of nearly
half a million, of which less than one-fourth is Moslem, and more than
half Greek. There are large Armenian and Jewish colonies, that of the
Jews, of course, being the most squalid, unhealthy and debased. The town
is governed by a municipality. Europeans are under the jurisdiction of
their consuls. Its gas lights beamed on us brilliantly as we steamed out
in the dark into the open sea. The one nuisance of Smyrna are the boys,
who go to learn English at the schools taught by the missionaries, and
these persistently pester you to be taken on as guides. The professional
guides are nuisance enough, but these boys are infinitely worse.