Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Social life and customs
The United States High Commissioner and his wife give every season
a series of entertainments to which they ask in turn the different
nations represented in Constantinople. This solves very diplomatically
the always ticklish problem of bringing inadvertently together
representatives of nations who are not on good terms. The receptions
given at the American Embassy are always most enjoyable and I can say
without exaggeration that among all the foreign representatives it is
the American High Commissioner and his wife who are the most liked--and
liked indiscriminately by all--in Constantinople. Whenever they give an
entertainment to which the Turkish society is invited the drawing-rooms
of the Embassy are filled to full capacity as all the Turks who are
asked want to show their appreciation by coming to the party. The
company is always the most representative gathering that one can see
in Constantinople. At one of the “thé dansants” they gave recently
there were, besides all the Turkish Government officials, not less than
four Imperial Princes and three Princesses. It surely is a sign of the
times and proof of the emancipation of Turkish women to see at a large
reception a Turkish Princess, a niece or cousin of the reigning Calif,
freely talking to strangers.
It is always at the American Embassy that one sees the largest
collection of Turkish ladies. Americans are very much liked by the
Turks and many of the younger Turkish generation have been educated
at Robert College or at the Constantinople College, the two American
educational institutions of Constantinople where young men and young
women are educated according to an American program. It was at one
of the teas given at the American Embassy that we met one of the
principals of Robert College, and he and his wife having asked us to
tea the following week and having promised to take us through the
college we were delighted to accept their invitation.
XI
ROBERT COLLEGE
Robert College is situated at the most picturesque spot on the
Bosphorus. It dominates the narrowest part of the waterway and its many
buildings are on a hill, above the very place which was selected by the
Turks nearly six centuries ago as the strategic spot to build their
first fort for the conquest of Constantinople. The ruins of the old
fort are still there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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