New-York tribune., 1867-05-27
TIE GRAND TURK LN PIPLS

Of the Grand Turk TO the French Exhibition.
though what St. Louis, could he anticipate his
resurrection, would say or think Of such 0
guest, the reader must imagine for himself
The student of history will remember that there
waa = time when it tool, unCOmmOnly good luck
and hard fighting to prevent tho missionaries
of Mohammed from converting all France, after
their own peculiar and fOrcible fashion. to the
Moslem faith and it is highly probable that
Frcnclmcn would have adapted themselves to
the new religion with all their natural grace
and accustomed picty. When Napoleon as-
sumed the turban and issued the most
orthodox Mohammedan bulletins, nobody IN
Paris was astOnishcd and nobody but the poor
nuns aggrieved it simply seemed cunning
and q proper thing to do-a bit of policy to be
applauded like the fatal persecution OF one
none or the imprisonment of another. But the
Turkish monarch, though he bring with him
regiment of doctors learned in the faith, need
not expect, and probably will not desire, to
make any French converts now, except possibly
among the ladies of the gay capital with
taste for shawls and a passion for plasters.
This however, to the Sultan, will be matter
of little consequence for he has the credit OF
d
known that he wears breeches and drinks WINE
like born and unregenerated Frank. a cos
mopolitan in his vices, there is no reason why
he should not take kindly to Paris; and II the
Archbishop would, by hook or by crook, manage
to convert him to Christianity, with reason
able allowance of wives,) what superb spec
tacle his baptism with the Emperor for god
father would be to gamin and gyisette, to say
nothing of the Taptures OF the religious nobility
and of the piOus operators OF the B0urse.
Strong meat is for men; but the diluted fath
of France would be just the thing for novice.
The world, we fear, in this age of steam, is
to be thoroughly freed from its most venerable
illusions and if we go on at our present pace,
reducing all mankind to one pattern, there VIII
soon he hardly a foreign bugaboo left to keep
the nursery in order For centuries after the
Crusadcs, and al most down to the present time,
Turk was the wonder of story-books All his
peculiarities of dress and demcanOr were so
pcrsistenty exaggerated, that he became a
monster in the Western mind about as 1abu-
lous IA phenix or a griffin HIS truculence
passed into proycrb. He was famous tor his
beard. and his beard was popularity supposed
TO be blue. When hc captured city, he muir
dcred all the men, ravished all the women,
and enslovcd all the children. Like the wicked
and unbcleying Jews, he ate no pork; ana,
like nobody but himself, he drank no VINE.
He WAS hated in Spain long after the clash oi
his cymbals and the flash of his cmetar
had subsided; he was hated IN Germany
with religious fcrvor; and all the North
en nations, compenSating by IN active
imagination for what they lacked IN
knowledge. persisted in ranking him with an
thropophagi, gorgons, and chimeras Ihe niue
boys in Paris will expect to see fit and royal
representative of mysterious race nut lhey
might as we'll 20 to the Garden OF Plants III
search of dOdO OF dragon. They VIII only
see a dissipatcd- looking gentleman, possibly III
a red cap, without any harem, without any
ianizaries, in uneXceptionable boots, and win
the coat and panaloons of the period. There
are more Turks in France than there are IN
Turkey and Alexandra Dumas, or, perhaps, NJ
de Lamartine, can give sight seekers better
specimen of oriental habits and manners than
the royal parsonage who arrives directly from
the Golden Gate.
That the Sultan is coming to France at all,
proves not only that he is no longer much or
a curiosity, but that the old Turkish character,
with its indomitabe pride, its nice exclusive
ness, and its indiscrimmate bigotry, has ceased
10 exist. "The sick man." like other invalids,
has lost his pluck. He has been bullied by
French, by Engiish, by Russian, and ny Aus
tiian ambassadors, unri, he well enough under
stands that he lives by siue,ante, and owes
his throne to the jealousies of monarchS who
NAV end by dividing HIM The prestige OF the
Porte is gone, and he comes TO Paris with only
the shadow of Il great name He submits To a
forced familiarity. He loses the advantage OF
that impressive isolation which has Sc
cured for 80 many Eastern princes the
doatrous devotion of then supplemented sub
iccts He will be run after, he will be stared ar,
he will have his share of WHAT'S and huzzas.
but he will leave Paris with nothing left but
the dignity of a Dutch Duke, without the ma
nimonial value which. when all else is lost the
Princes of PumpernicAel retain. This comes OF
drinking wine, of playing upon the piano-forte,
and of wearing tail-coat. This comes of con-
sorting with iniidels. Ii news OF this degeneracy
could be conveyed TO Paradise, with what
wrath would the great shade of Mohammed
look down upon his degenerate son, and how
extremely mortified would all the houris be mt
the intelligence! When the Prophet went dOr
the first time 20 Heaven he saw there the
angel of the cocks, 50 large that, his feet
standing upon the first Heaven, his head
reached up to the second, u distance
"of five hundred days journey The
business of this remarkable fowl was tO crow
loud enough every morning To wake all the
terrestrial roosters that they in their turn
might summon the faithful TO prayer If this
bit of theological onithology be still IN flesh
and feather, we fear that his pipe is put ont,
anL tLnt hn will nm lnnmrr " ln salnintinn 10