Yeni Cami Desenli Cildi İle Dikkat Çeken Nadir Bir Seyahatname

Albert Bigelow Paine, The Lure of the Mediterranean: The Ship Dwellers: A Story of a Happy Cruise, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1921. [10], 393, [1] s, başlık s önünde 1 fotoğraf, metin dışında 7 levha (fotoğraf), metin içinde 27 resim, 22 x 14.5 cm, yayıncısının altın yaldızlı desenli bez cilinde. Türkiye de dahil olmak üzere Akdeniz havzasında geniş ölçekli bir seyahatname. Kitabın içindeki Into the Dardanelles, A City of Illustion, The Turk and Some of His Phases, Abdul Hamid Goes to Prayer, Looking Down on Yildiz, Ephesus: The City that Was başlıklı altı bölüm seyahatnamenin Türkiye bölümünü oluşturmaktadır (s 146-207). Kitaptaki karakalem resimler Thomas Fogarty tarafından yapılmıştır. Kitap gayet eğlenceli bir üslupla kaleme alınmıştır. Yazarın İstanbul’da kullanılan metal paralarla ilgili görüşleri eserin geneli hakkında bir fikir verecektir: “Most places along the Mediterranean deal in mixed moneys, but compared with Constantinople the financial problem elsewhere is simple. Here the traveller's pocket is a medley of francs, lire, crowns, piastres, drachmas, marks, and American coins of various denominations. He tries feebly to keep track of table values, but it is no use. The crafty shopkeepers, who have all the world's monetary lore at their fingertips, rob him every time they make change, and the more he tries to figure the more muddled he gets, until he actually can't calculate the coin of his own realm. As for Turkish money, in my opinion it is worth nothing whatever. It is mostly a lot of tinware and plated stuff, and, the plating is worn off, and the hieroglyphics, and it was never anything more than a lot of silly medals in the beginning. Whenever I get any of it I work it off on beggars as quickly as possible for baksheesh, and I always feel guilty, and look the other way and sing a little to forget. Nobody really knows what any of those Turkish metallic coins are supposed to be worth. One of them will pay for a shine, but then the shine isn't worth anything, either, so that is no basis of value. There is actually no legal tender in Turkey. How could there be, with a make-believe money like that ?” (s 162 vd)