The Cecil Whig., 1869-11-20
Slaughter OF the Janissaries.

On the night of June, 1856, the last re-
volt Of the Janissaries took place. They
laid out their kettles in imposing arrav for
the last time. Their ranks were speedily
reinforced by crowds of miscreants of every
hue, who fiocked from all parts of the city,
in hopes of new plumber and were led on
by the dervishes, who stirred up fanatical
spirit by declamations against the infidel
customs. They attacked the palace of their
Agha, who barely escaped with his life
They sacked his palace and that of the
Grand Vezir, and once more the city was
in their hands. Sultan Mahmoud at once
came to the seraglio from his palace at
Beshiktash, on the Bosphorus and after
ordering the whole force of Topjis from
Scutari and Tophane to rendezvous in the
seraglio grounds, he then sent demand to
the rebels to lay down their arms. His de-
mand for surrender was rejected with scorn,
and he at once settled about him the Ulema
who declared the Janissaries to be enemies
OF the true faith.
With the dawn of day on the 10th the
holy dag of the Prophet was brought out
from the Treasury, and the Sultan marched
his whole force to the Atmeidan, where
with religious service at the mosque of
Achmet, the sacred banner was unfurled,
and crowds of the faithful began to swell
the ranks of the Sultan's retainers The
Janissaries had thrown out pickets towards
the seraglio, the line reaching from the
Marmora to the Golden Horn; but this line
was speedily forced by the advance of troops
on all the principal streets, and soon all the
outlying parties fell back along the great
| Divan Vol to their barracks at the Etmei-
dan, where they commenced to fortify them
selves the Bektashee dervishes meanwhile
going about among the men to animate
| them into grea er recklessness and fanati-
cism.
The site of the barracks, and the Etmei-
dan itself, is now completely covered with
houses, but it is laid down on the maps as
about half mile from the landing wharf
of 1eni kapoo, on the Marmora side of the
| city. Upon hill commanding this place
the headquarters Of the royal troops were
| fixed near the mosque of Sultan Mahomet,
, and here new crowds of devoted Moslems
rallied to the support of the sacred stand
ard. The Topjis then closed in upon the
Etmeidan, meeting little resistance; and
soon the great square was completely sur
rounded, and artillery was posted upon
every commanding eminence, and in all the
streets debouching upon the place.
The Janissaries were drawn up in front
of their barracks awaiting attack, and
sharpshooters from the windows were keep
ing up a most calling fire upon the troops
crowded into the streets, when the Sultan
sent in one more summons to surrender
The man who bore the message was killed.
Then in an instant a hundred cannon opened
upon the rebels. Some poured canister
into the ranks marshaled on the square,
and others sent shot and shell hurtling
through the barracks. Once the Janissaries
tried to break through the circle of fire !;
but the crowds who filled every street drove
them back with fearful slaughter, and forced
them to take refuge in the barracks. Then
all the cannon concentrated upon the huge
building such fire of shell that soon the
wretches within began to cry for mercy, for
the barracks were on fire. All SO had
thousands of old men, and wives, and maid
ems cried to them for mercy in days gone
by, and they had shown no mercy. And
now there was no one to heed their cries
nor to pity them. Not for an instant did
the great cannon cease their roar-not for
moment did the muskets hush their rattle,
till the massive walls fell in, and the last
poor wretch was dead. Not one escaped
of those who had stood upon that square
to fight against sheir sovereign.
The rebellion thus terribly crushed out
in its first day, work yet remained to be
done. There were still thousands of Janis
sares scattered through the city. The
provinces also were full of them. And
when, the next day, a firman was issued
abolishing the order, its dress, its pass
words, its barracks, and its very name,
panic seized upon all who had been con-
nected with the order. They fled in all di-
rections. Pursued, hunted, outlawed, they
went through horrible tortures to remove
that fatal but too indelible mark upon the
arm which betrayed their secret. The bow
string and the cimeter were everywhere at
work. The waters Of the Bosphorus ran
thick with gashed and mutilated bodies,
and the scenes Of the capital were repeated
throughout the empire, until full 10000
men had paid the penalty of crime for their
corps. And so, among scenes of blood and
violence, falls the curtain upon the tragedy
of the Janissaries.
Near the Hippodrome in old Stamboul,
just in the edge of the mass Of ruins and
dwarfed houses which marks the path of
the great fire of 1866, is a low arched gate
way. And if by any chance you are led to
enter, you find yourself in long corridor
lined with fierce looking warriors In that
place, not hundred yards from the marble
mausoleum of the man who destroyed the
order, you stand in the presence of the
Janissaries as they were two hundred years
ago. And these effigies, with perhaps here
and there gray-haired old man with hid
eous scar upon his left arm above the elbow
who will tell you, with bated breath in
memory of the old horror, that he was once
Janissary-these are all the relics that
are left of the power that built up the Tur-
kish Empire.-H. o. DWIGHT, in Harpsr's
Magazine.
A new species of telegraph is announ-
ced. A number of females are placed In a
line, five PAGES apart and the message is
communicated in strict confidence, to the
nearest: 1t is said that in an almost in
credibly short space of time the news is