FIRST TURKISH RAILWAY.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 340, 22 January 1861, Page 3

FIRST TURKISH RAILWAY.

OPENING OF THE DANUBE AND BLACK SEA LINE. At ten o'clock this morning, October 4th, Etheni Pasha, the commissioner sent to represent his Majesty the Sultan on the occasion, arrived at the station, where there was a train in readiness to convey his Excellency and suite and all invited to be present at the opening of the line from Kustendjie to Tchernavoda. Before getting into the carriage the Imperial Commissioner addressed the crowd assembled to witness the departure of the train. He stated that he had, in conjunction with the Council of Public Works, inspected the line on the previous day; that, although the stations and other necessary buildings were not yet finished, the work had nevertheless been so well and satisfactorily executed as to warrant the declaration, which he had much pleasure in making, that the line was now formally placed at the disposition of the public.

A prayer was then offered up by an imaum in attendance for the purpose, at the conclusion of which a general rush was made for the carriages. Far from displaying any reluctance to intrust their lives to the discretion of the snorting and apparently restless monster about to convey us over 40 miles of country at an unheard of pace, and with whose nature and instincts they were so little acquainted, the people were with difficulty restrained from taking forcible possession of the train.

A part of the ceremony yet remained to be performed. Before the engine started two luckless sheep were dragged forward, and underwent ihe process of having their throats cut, one on each of the rails over which the engine would pass. The blood of these first victims to rapid locomotion had an ugly appearance as it lay sprinkled over th; line. It tended, nevertheless, to reassure s^ine of the Pasha's attendants, who did not seem to partake of the general eagerness to possess themselves of their seals. On the strength of this propitiatory offering they composed their countenances and hoped for the best, though one might see that their faith was sorely tried by the

effort.

We stopped for some minutes at Medjidieh, a large village, rather more than half way along the line, which the recent Tartar immigration has increased, in appearance, at least, to the proportions of a town. Here large numbers of people were assembled to witness our arrival, and a strange and motley assemblage it looked. The distinctive features and costumes of the different races—Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians, and several varieties ot Tartars, among whom many of the women wore large rings in their noses—might be noted at a glance ; nor did the discharging of the carriages detract from the effect. There were naval, military, consular, or other uniforms of almost every nation of Europe to be seen on the platform.

What struck me, too, at first sight, was the number of Englishmen wearing the uniforms of officers in the army. One could almost have imagined the Crimean war to have broken out anew. I took to inquiring, and the illusion vanished. The gentlemen were no more officers in her Majesty's army than I am. With the exception of Major Stokes, of the Engineers, one of our Danubian Commissioners, not one of the martial looking personages that had caught my eye was, as far as I could ascertain, entitled to the uniform he wore. The conceit is a harmless one in Turkey, and, no doubt, the gentlemen in question would manifest far too much for their characters to sport their red coats and striped trousers, on the platform of the Paddington or Eqstonsqqare sjatipn.

On arriving at Tphernayoda we found a luncheon prepared in one of the corn warehouses newly built by the company on the bank of the Danube. These warehouses, handsomely built of stone, are three in

number, of which one alone is as yet nearly finished. They are of uniform size and contain three floors apiece. When completed they will be capable of containing altogether 80,000 quaners oF wheat, the greater portion may be shot directly into the company's trucks in a very short space of time. This desideratum is, of course, effected by means of trams, on which the trucks run right under the centres of the various compartments of the granary. Luncheon over, the party immediately returned to Kustendjie, where an excellent dinner was provided by Mr. Missirie, of the Hotel d'Angleterre, Pera, at the New Railway Hotel, in the garden of which a shed had been erected, and decorated for the purpose. More than 100 persons sat down to table without the slightest crowding or inconvenience. The health of his Imperial Majesty the Sultan was proposed by Mr. Price, and that of her Majesty the Queen by Ethem Pasha. After a number of other toasts usual on such occasions the company separated, all highly pleased with the events of the day. Ethem Pasha over and over again expressed his gratification at what he had seen, and his hope that ere long undertakings of a similar nature would be similarly commenced and conducted in the Turkish Empire.