55. Today in 1920s Turkey: 1 February 1926 (Beware of the Trolley Gang!)
Türkçe
Seyyah: Ne güzel memleket… Halbuki, bize, İstanbul’un sokaklarında her gün birçok adamlar kesilir demişlerdi!
Tercüman: İhtimal size tramvay kumpanyasını anlatmışlardır!English
Tourist: What a great country… And yet, they told us that every day many people get cut on the streets of Istanbul!
Translator/guide: They probably told you about the trolley gang!
Comments:
This cartoon satirizes recurring news concerning trolley accidents and congestion in Istanbul during a time when the tourism industry is also gathering speed. Sadly, increased urbanization and the availability of (relatively) high-speed, modern transportation options often resulted in fatal clashes between pedestrians and machines. Such was the danger of walking the streets of Turkey’s most populous city that word spread to an international audience of would-be tourists. Here, we see the news that “many people get cut in the streets of Istanbul” has traveled far and wide. While “cutting” is a practice often attributed to gangs or thugs, the stout translator/guide reveals to the elderly tourists that the “cutting” is carried out by a gang of mass transportation vehicles rather than human thugs. Indeed, the word used to describe the trolley “antagonists” is kumpanya which means both “gang” and “company.” Thus, the tour guide’s claim works both figuratively and literally as such unfortunate events could be attributed to the transportation company’s lax or irresponsible safety practices. When it comes to dangerous or deadly machines like trolleys, the consequences of carelessness are not that different from premeditated, deliberate acts of violence.
Traffic in 1920s was as fast-evolving as it was fast-moving in the streets of urban Istanbul. As such, transportation-related news was a common occurrence in the press of those days. Examples of stories dealing with issues of traffic, pedestrian safety, and new/old modes of transport abound in many of the world’s newspapers, especially those based in large cities. A recent trolley accident in Istanbul served as the inspiration of another cartoon (here) and may, in fact, be the same accident referenced in the current cartoon published two weeks later.
Originally published at https://steemit.com on February 2, 2019.
