The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-06-07

The New York publishers of Colonel
Bakers interesting and timely book
about Turkey in Europe* and the Turks,
deserve praise for bringing it out almost
simultaneously with its appearance in
London, for it is one of the freshest and
most useful contributions recently made
to clear popular understanding of the
many great questions involved in the
present conflict in the East. But they
have made mistake in describing it as
a book on Turkey, which it is not, in
stead of as book on Turkey in Europe,
which it emphatically is. Colonel Baker
is not at all book maker; and as he is
at great pains to confne himself only to
stating what he knows of his own knowl-
edge or las seen with his own eyes, it is
but fair that he should be understood to
have attempted nothing but what he has
in fact undertaken to do. This is to tell
us what he has learned of the Turks and
their country in the course of about thee
years residence in European Turkey.
He does not disguise his liking for the
Turks, and particularly for the common
people of Turkey, but he is not in any
lust sense of the word "Turcophile,"
and in his discussion of all the points he
touches in regard to the administration
of the empire, and the tendencies of its
political and religious systems, he is at
least as candid and impartial as Mr.. Wal.
lace in his very valuable book about
Russia, though he obviously has made
no such general exhaustive study Of the
Turkish Empireas Mr.. Wallace has made
of the Russian Empire. What Col. Ba'
ker fails to tell us of himself in his pref
ace it may be worth while for us to tell
his readers. he is an older brother of
Col Valentine Baker and of Sir Samuel
Baker, the African traveller. The three
brothers were the sons-oddlY though it
sounds when we consider the kind of
lives they have led-of a prosperous Qua
ker mill proprietor in the west of Eng.
land, who greatly enriched himself by
his early faith In railways, and who gave
GACu Vi JuGlu dll pODblDlO dhI dubtlEN Ia
the way of education, and very comfort
able share also of this worlds goods. Col,
James Baker went many years ago to
Ceylon, where he amused himself with
sporting on a grand scale, and acquired
strong desire for Eastern life. He served
through the Crimean war and has fre
quently visited Turkey since that time.
In 1874 he travelled extensively through
Bulgaria on both sides of the Balkan,
more extensively, indeed, than any Eng.
lish traveller since Miss Irby; and two
years ago he bought farm near Salonica
and established himself upon it. He is
familiar with the language of the people
of Macedonia, has dealt with them In
daily business, and when he talks to US
about them, therefore, he gives us the
notions, not of passing wanderer who
takes mere birds eye view Of men and
things, but of an experienced and capa
BILE man of affairs who has few prejudices
and a decidedly practical hostility to
humbug and can't on all subjects. His
book brings out with much clearness the
great differences which exist in European
Turkey between the different races in
habiting the country, and which make
all general speculstions about the sympa-
thies and the aims of the population as
mass rather worse than worthless. In
Col. Bakers opinion-Which in the main
agrees with that of Miss Irby-the Bull
garians are better people than the
Greeks, and they are by no means likely
to regard the invasion of their country
by the Russians with delight Their
prosperity before the recent troubles was
so considerable and so solid that it not
unnaturally led COL Baker to doubt the
accuracy of the pictures of Turkish OPP
preston habitually painted by European
visitors, and he gives a good many facts
which 60 far to bear out his own belief
that the recent troubles were a sporadic
and exceptional result of the excitement
caused throughout European Turkey less
by the events in Bosnia and Servia than
by the way in which those events were
seized upon by Russian agents as an op.
portunity for inaaming the Turkish pop
ulations beyond the Bosniak and Serbian
frontiers. There is doubtless some truth
in this view of the matter, for the most
earnest believers in the holy mission of
Russia do not hesitate to admit that the
disintegration and destruction of the
Turkish Empire has been regarded for
ages by the Russian people as an essen
tial preliminary to the full development
of Russian civilization and Russian prog
Tess Whatever else may result from the
present war, Col. Bakers book makes it
pretty clear that the Bulgarians, at least,
must suffer fearfullv from the demorali.
cation and destruction attendant upon
the occupation of their country by con-
tending armies, and that they are likely
to lose much Of the headway which they
have been making for '1e last quarter Of
century both in materja prosperity and
in general civilization, ,l..,t ~
Col. Bakers book is discursiye in style,
and the information in which it abound
ed, although carefully and clearly put,
has not been co-ordinated ON any general
and systematic plan, so hatmany people
will be likelyywe fear, " find it rather
an eXasperating book to read Butqit
will reward the patience OF tnOBe who
care more for the substance than for the
form Of things. Whenever be describes
his own personal adventures, whether in
wandering about ConstantinopIe under
the guidance of that well known friend
Of travellers in Stambo1l, ''Far. Away. Mo.
ses," or in galloping with a good natured
zaptieh along the slopes Of the Balkan
and over the fertile plains Of Sofia, Col
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