War Doubles Price Of Turkish Tobacco.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 21, 1913:
P. F. King Tells of Market Conditions in Face of Increased Demand Here.
BRINGS WIFE FROM TURKEY
    American Buyer Marries a Greek in Constantinople and Comes to New York for Honeymoon.
    The Olympic brought yesterday to New York a honeymoon couple with whose romance not only Cupid, but the little Goddess Nicotia had to do. The husband is a tobacco buyer in Asiatic Turkey for an American company, and the wife is the daughter of a Greek tobacco merchant, a Turkish subject. The courtship took place in Samsoun, and the marriage in Constantinople. There wasn't any American Consul in Samsoun, and the bridegroom wanted to make sure that his bride would become an American citizen, so they crossed the Black Sea and were married under the Stars and Stripes.
    P. F. King is the bridegroom. He is going to take Mrs. King down to his old home in North Carolina to show her what a wonderful State he came from. They will go back to Samsoun soon.
    "I was where the war was going on," said Mr. King yesterday at the Imperial, "but the only battle I saw was that in the Dardanelles last December. I had been to Cavalla, where there had been fighting, and when our steamer came back we had to lie to for six hours waiting for the Greek and the Turkish fleets to finish a battle.
    "There was no fighting in the neighborhood of Samsoun, and I had no difficulty in getting about in Asia Minor. We did, however, feel the withdrawal of soldiers, the drafting of men and horses, and the shortage of supplies.
    "I was in Constantinople while the fighting was going on before the forts outside, when you could hear the cannonading.
    "The effect of the war over there has been to increase the cost of everything. The price of tobacco has doubled, and labor and everything else has gone up. It costs a lot more to live than it did a year ago.
    "There is considerable competition among tobacco buyers, and the demand from the United States for Turkish tobacco has increased.
    "About Samsoun I cover the country, about fifty miles square of it, on horseback. There are no roads as we know such. Hotel accommodations are rather primitive, but you can always find chickens and eggs, and I always carry a supply of food.
    "When I was in Constantinople, on Aug. 2 — that was the day I was married — the Turks were excited over Adrianople. The foreign Ambassadors were trying to get them to come back and not occupy the town. Mass meetings were held, and patriotism was aired. Nothing, it seems, could keep them from going, but, of course, it was a lot of trouble for nothing.
    "Through Macedonia and Thrace the country looks like a barren waste. There is every indication that the reports of outrages by the Bulgarians are true."