The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-31 00:00:00

TINOPLE

It was a cold raw day last December that I went
over to Stamboul to see the Turkish mad-house.
The day was not a dry day, because there was
flitting and drifting snow ; neither was it a wet day,
unless to the feet, for the snow did not melt until it
touched the ground. It was one of those disagree•
able sort of days in which the elements seem to con-
spire how to make a man most miserable ; and I
found myself so, as I paced my steps up the steep
streets leading to the great bazaar, occasionally
rubbing the chill off my nose, and changing my
stick from the one hand to the other, in order that
each might get warmed in my pocket in turn.
I was aware that the mad-house was somewhere
in the neighbourhood of the Seraskier's palace; so
having got there, I asked the first Turk I met
which was the way to the mad-house ; he looked
at me with an air, not of astonishment, but of pa-
tronising pity, for about a second, and then walked
on without answering me. The next man I met was
an Armenian, and to him I put the same question.
He stopped and asked me what I wanted there.
I turned towards a Greek that I saw approaching.
On my stating where I wanted to go, the Greek
said that he would show me the gate. After we
had walked a few hundred yards, through several
small unfrequented-looking streets, my guide pointed
to a door in a wall, and told me that was the en-
trance to the place that I sought. I pushed up the
gate and entering found myself in a small square
formed by houses of stone, apparently uninhabited.
The centre of the square was planted with trees,
and the ground covered several inches deep with
withered leaves—altogether a most desolate-looking
place. I walked across the square to a door of the
same kind as that by which I had entered, and,
pushing it up, found himself in another square of
the same size as the first. On a short stool inside
the gate sat a cavias, or Turkish guard, armed
with his pistols and large knife, stuck into the am-
ple shawl which was wound round his middle. He
saluted me with " Sabanhus chier olsun Effin-
dim," (May your morning be happy, my dear
sir), to which I replied in due form, when he held
out his hand, and said, " Backshise." This de-
mand for a present was expected after the civility of
a salute ; so having put a twenty para piece, or
three-halfpence, into his hand, I stood a little to
reconnoitre where I was. The square was about
seventy or eighty feet from the houses on the
one side to those of the other. There were no
windows in the side from which I entered ; but the
other three sides showed each four windows, having
a strong framing of iron bars, but no glass in
them. From each of these a great chain, polished
clean, apparently from accidental friction, hung out,
and the one end of it was fastened to a ring-bolt in
the wall. At several of the windows were strangers,
looking in through the bars. The doors were all
open, and as people seemed to be going and coming
at their pleasure, I entered the first door on my
left, and found myself in a stone room about twenty
feet long and eighteen broad, having an arched
roof and a mud floor. There was one window on
the side from which I entered, and another on the
opposite side ; before each of these there was a
wooden bench raised about three inches from the
ground, upon Vie top of which was some bulky sub-
stance, covered with an old shaggy levantine capote.
There was no other furniture of any sort in the
room, and the only " symptoms of civilization" that
I could see were the two clean chains which came
through the window-bars, and seemed attached to
the lumps or masses huddled up on the wooden
benches.

As I turned to retrace my steps, both of these
bundles moved, and in piteous accents begged a few
paras to buy tobacco. 1 was horror-struck at the
sight. They bad scarcely any clothes on them, at
least not nearly enough to cover their nakedness,
and round their neck was an immense iron collar,
to which one of the links of the chain before no-
ticed was riveted, so as to form the padlock : bed
they had none, nor covering of any sort but their
worn-out ragged clothes and an old capote, which
served them for blanket, coverlid, &c:, while the
only place they had to sleep, or sit, or stand upon,
was the wooden bench, raised about three inches
above the cold damp mud floor. From this they
could not stir, as I observed the length of their chain
only allowed them to approach its limits, or, in
other words, it was just long enough to enable them
to turn themselves round. Both individuals were
in exactly the same position, but placed at different
windows, through which the wind and drifting snow
were freely entering. So much misery I had never
before seen ; the sight chilled mefar more than the cold
day, and I hastily retreated to the next room, which
had three windows in it, but in every other respect the
same as the former. Here also I found three mi-
serable wretches chained to their uncomfortable
benches. One by one I visited all the twelve cham-
bers. They differed in nothing save in the number
of windows, some having two, and others three,
while almost at every one of them lay a human
being, chained, with a heavy iron collar, and at
least 561 b. of chain attached to it. In no instance
did I find more individuals in a room than win-
dows : in fact, the rule seemed to be, one prisoner
to one window ; yet in some of the chambers there
was occasionally a window to be found, with the
empty wooden bench before it, and the clean chain
hanging through the bars, ready to be riveted to the
first unfortunate wretch the Pacha or Sultan might
send. The entire number of inmates was 27. They
were all Turks : some of them were merry, and con-
tinued singing a wild incomprehensible chaunt ;
others were the most woeful pictures of despair.
Some scolded the visitors for coming to look at
them ; others thanked them for the visit. Many
of them gazed with a look of stupor ; but there
were none of them had the appearance of being
either constitutionally insane or idiots. If insanity
was inside the building at all, I think the treat-
ment that the inmates were under was enough to
have produced it ; and my only surprise was, that
human nature could exist under such an accumu-
lation of hardships ; for it would have defied the
most ingenious cruelty to have put these beings in
positions of greater misery. Yet although exposed
to all the rigour of the weather, without a curtain to
shade them from the drifting snow, they appeared
for the most part careless of its severity ; there was,
however, one poor creature, who, naked, with the ex-
ception of his capote, or great-coat, thrown over him,
was resting on his knees on his hard couch, bending
his head over a few pieces of inanimate charcoal that
he had by some means or another gathered toge-
ther, and endeavouring to imagine that it was a
fire. I stood for a few minutes ; it was heart-rend-
ing to see how the poor creature wrung his cold and
clammy fingers over the black mass, in the vain
hopes of warming them. After he had done this a
short time he observed me looking at him, and
asked me for some tobacco. I put some down on
his bench, lifted his pipe, filled it, and having
struck fire, put a piece of lighted tinder in it. This
movement of mine altered every feature of his face ;
his body ceased to shiver ; he drew his limbs toge-
ther in the Turkish fashion, sat down, completely
covering himself with his capote, and waited quietly
until I gave him the lighted pipe. I endeavoured
to enter into conversation with him ; but all he
would say was, " Shukuc Allah" (thank God) ;
and when I parted from him he appeared to be one
of the most happy beings in the world.
I entered into conversation with several of the in-
mates, and found some of them could talk sensibly
enough; others did not know what they were saying,
but such as condescended to speak addressed me by
the name of Captan, which proved that they had
discrimination enough to find out that I was a
Frank, although dressed in a Turkish fashion ; and
almost universally, on turning away, they would
ask a few paras to buy tobacco ; the most of them
had a chibook or Turkish pipe—but that was the
only article of comfort in any of the cells.
One of these poor men deserves particular notice
on account of his treatment, being different from
all the others. On approachin.g one of the doors,
I found it fastened with a padlock ; and the win-
dow had a matting of reeds before it. I was about
to pass on, when some Turkish boys called out
something that I did not understand, and the cur-
tain was drawn aside, when there stood a dervish
chained by a heavy chain, which came down from
the roof of his prison, and was fastened to a heavy
iron collar round his neck. The chain would not
allow him to sit down, nor to move more than a few
inches from where he stood. What the meaning of
this was I know not, and I could aot find any one there
that could give me the least information. I asked the
guard at the gate if he was kept in that position day
and night ? but he answered me " Bilmes" (he does
not know.) On some words passing between th'
Dervish and the boys, spoken in a dialect I did not

SlR,—The report of the Sub-Committee of Archi-
tects upon the designs of their professional brethren,
having for some time been before the public, allow me
through the medium of your valuable journal to remark
upon the reading of the whole matter, and although it
may not appear strictly literal, still the real interpreta-
tion of the affair is apparent, for however beautiful the
38 designs may be, (after culling the beauties of the
whole), the adjudicators think that they can produce a
certai❑ something better ; I would give them every
credit for the first part of their design, but the produc-
tion we must leave for the present, observing that there
never vi as a more flagrant proposal for artistic piracy
more coolly promulgated. In justice, therefore, to com-
peting architects, I ask is this to be tolerated? Are
appointed judges thus to be allowed to enter an arena
over which they had presided, and in the full power of
an architectural triumvirate to clear the course, and
walk over for the prize ? Will the merchants and
bankers, the representatives of the trade and commerce
of the first city of the universe, in the erection of their
Hall of Assembly, submit to have this stigma attached to
them ? I should have considered it the province of any
Committee to protect those whom they solicited for
designs, and not let their intrinsic beauties be ransacked
at will as belonging to nobody, because an incognita
had been maintained, nor even allow the genius of many
minds to be laid at the feet of the arbiters of taste, and
give them the opportnnity of pluming themselves (like
the jackdaw in the fable) with mere borrowed adorn-
ments, and well feather their nests with the proceeds.
Of the decision I will only say, that on inquiry I find
the first premium awarded to a late clerk of the
attached architect of the Gresham Committee, and
Mercer's Company, the third premium* to the partner
and brother of one of the adjudicators, and the fifth
place to another clerk of the attached architect.
I am Sir, your obedient servant,
A MERCHANT.
Cornhill, Oct. 29, 1839.

The Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall-Mall was
built under their joint superintendence.