Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1918 — New City of Old World [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New City of Old World

DESSA, the Russian seaport, f B captured by the Germans not W J long ago, has been widely known as an important center of shipping and commerce, but its Interest does not lie so much In Its great docked harbor, its fine churches and public buildings, its factories or Its size—it had half a million people at the beginning of the war —as in the fact that a century and a quarter ago there was none of these in existence. New York, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia are cities almost ancient In comparison with Odessa. Odessa is a sort of Chicago or Kansas City of Europe—a “new town,” in the language of the West. Just as there wfere Indian trading posts where Chicago and Kansas City had their beginnings, so there was a wretched little Turkish village on the future site of Odessa in the time of Catherine the Great of Russia. Russia saw the possibilities of a port on the Black sea and reached out and took it, with little or no protest, for Hdjl Bey, as the Turkish village was called, was not worth quarreling about. Catherine founded Odessa by rescript in 1794 and the “booming” of the new city began. Grain Built the City. - The Russian built their town on the plateau which forms a terrace from 100 to 150 feet above the water front. Today a great staircase, which is one of the wonders of Odessa, leads up in broken flights from the harbor to the city proper. Located at the northwest angle of the Black sea, midway between the estuaries of the great Dnieper and Dniester rivers, Odessa was the natural commercial outlet for the vast stretches of grainproducing valleys beyond and Its growth was like that of the Western trade centers in America. The English ships found their way there to load their holds with grain, and exporting, as the years went by, grew steadily

in volume for a number of years. The Crimean war Interrupted English trade wltli Russia, but when th® conflict was over the British traders returned to Odessa. It was at this period that they were forced to divide the trade with Germany, for German shippers had seized the opportunity to gain a foothold in the port. The war offers just now an odd parallel of that war of trade waged 60 years ago. It may be of significance to recall that the ultimate result of the Anglo-German contest for Russia’s Odessa trade was that the Jews gained absolute control of the exporting business of the city. Bloody Revolution In 1905. In 1905 Odessa was the scene of a violent revolution. The Russian navy mutinied and trained the big guns of the warship In the harbor on the city. The disorders were quelled, by the czar’s military forces, but not before there was bloodshed and suffering which centered the world’s attention on the city. Odessa before the war was proud of its beautiful parks and boulevards. The refuge of many French nobles In the time of the French revolution, the streets are evidence of the fact, for they bear names reminiscent of royalty of France. The main thoroughfare, however, Is the Street of the Transfiguration, which begirt at the magnificent cathedral*»nd ends at the gate of the consecrated ground of the Orthodox Greek cemetery. The popularlon is largely Tartar, on which has been grafted Slav, Teuton, Norse, Finnish and Lettish stock, but at the beginning of the war it was said to be still Tartar In the main. Catacombs extending under the rich city and its beautiful suburbs through various periods of Odessa’s career have housed the miserably poor, and at times the underground inhabitants have numbered as many as 35,000.

Harbor of Odessa.

Scene on One of the Odessa Quays.