Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-01-31

S finding that the crescent itself was invisi-
r bly, joinled together; and by heating up
the crescent in several pieces the rings he
detaehes and the puzzle was solved. To
this he referred frequently us the probable
/ late OF The Crescent, when the religious
l political and chronological rings now upon
1t, so strangely connected, and so much
more complicated by every diplomatic
touch would all fall apart, and gravitate
into condition of repose, and intelligent
separate existence. As by Il cometary
sweep he took us round the borders of the
Turkish Provinces watered by the Danube
and its tributaries and bounded on the ex.
IRENE east by the Black Sea, on the south
! by the Archipelago and Sea of Marmora,
and on the west by the Adriatic and
lonan Seas. He pronounced it land OF
great beauty, and of vast exent, its shores
indented with fine harbors, its rich valleys
, irrigated by noble streams, its grand
plalnS lntersected by mountain ranges and
ridges, pleasing to the eye and IL land
promising an abundant supply to the va
RED wants of the inhabitants. But man
had made this noble work of God the scene
OF untold miseries ard prosecutions for
centuries. That since it was conquered
four centuries ago by TurcO-Tartar hordes
from the East, it had been little else than
a battle-ground of fierce antagonism be.
tween hostile races. He gave 4 graphic
description Of the rise, decline and fall of
that grand Eastern Empire, that once ex-
tended from Carthage and Sicily 10 the
Euphrales and from the Danube to the
Catlrdcts of the Nile.
When Adrianople was male the Turk.
lsh Capital. and the son of Murad ii. be-
came the Sultan of the Turks, it was only
Il matter Of time when Consantnople
should fall. Constantine be delhroned and
the Osmrnis make his head quarters in
that queen city Of the East. The doctors
description of the siege, capture and pos
session by the Turks of Constuntinople,
was truly electrifying. Especially, the
fall Of Constantine. beheaded on the bat
tie field by the cimeter of the Turk, the
dissertation OF st. Sophia. that grand old
Cathedral in which God hal been wor-
shipped for Il thousand years and the Sit
ing down OF the Turkish Sultan upon the
throne Of the Constantines on the 20th Of
May, l453, were rendered with thrilling
effect. Then without giving us time to
get our breath, lie went on to show that
the prosperity of the Turk had DESTROYED
him. the completion of his triumph was
the inception of his decay. From The hour
when The waxing crescent waved from the
lofty minarets of Constantinople, it began
to wane. Once the horse tails of the
pashas tloated before the walls of Vienna,
and the islands Of the Mediterranean as far
AS Sicily trembled before their fleets. But
long ago Emperor Nicholas of Russia, had
applied the pseulonym of Sick Man to
Turkey, and the diagnosis was too true !;
the Sick Man had become weaker and
weaker until now great members, Ike
Egypt, Servia. and Roumania, hang to the
Old trunk by loosest ligaments, and Greece
has already fallen away. At last finan-
cal consumption had fastened upon the
Old trunk, and he would have been hope
essIy dead and buried long ago, had not
Europe, unable to come to an agreement
as to the distribution of the effects, again
and again galvanized him into life.
The lecturer then gave us some historic
"reminiscences of the great high way be.
tween the Orient and the Occident, as for
centuries before the coming of the Osman-
lis, the battle ground of nations. 1t had
been harvest-feld for tyrants and war
rior5 whence they had drawn human in
sruments for their conflicts. The Thra-
clans and Macedonians were thus used; so
the Albanians, Sclavonians and Magvars
were good material for soldiers; Philip
and Alexander Of Macedon used this rs 4
stamping ground for armies; the Romans
ruled and fought with the mighty German
ic Go,hs. Germanic, Turkish and Sclavon-
ic tribes followed each other in quick sue
cesSion, till in the fourteenth century
Turkish hordes from the Etst poured in in
such numbers that they became lords of
the land and threatened all Europe.
The realm Of the Osmanlis became so
mighty that lands in which Christianity
had been rooted for centuries fell before
him. The very cradle of Christianity and
the very grave Of the Savior were seized
by the Moslem and they contested their
possession, through the powers of the
Prophets sword, against the combined at
lacks Of all the proves aud chivalry of
We,tern Christianity. The standard of
tho Prophet was unfurled in the very heart
OF Europe, and men, women and children
in the vine-clld cities Of the Rhine trem-
bled at the very name of Turk.
The lecturer then noticed the insurrec-
tions that had taken place in the regions
OF the Baltic, the Greek Islands, Bosnia,
Servia and the Provinces of the Danube
valley to the seas, and pronounced them
beyond power TO number or describe. But
in the presence of centuries of MARTYR
dom, the Seryians, BuIgarians, Albanilns
and Roumauians had, phpnix-like, risen
from their ashes, and pressed more and
more into the foreground. Now they form
4 mosaic of natonalities and religions and
political ailinities, united in but one thing
-detestalion Of the Turk To fuse this
mass into unit and bring them into po-
lltlcal organization, is the p,ndng task of
diplomacy and the sword. To understand
the greatness of the puzzle, the cthnologv
Of the peoples was required. lie could
give this but approximately: Scrvians.
/ $4,000; Bulgarians. l,S37,u00; Greeks,
l,O49O0Oi Albanese, l,2i5.000; Rouma.
mans, 225, 900; Jews, II 200, Turks. 1905
$50. Rcligiously there were not far from
four and Il half millions Of nominal Chris
tans. OF the Mohamme,ans about two
thirds only are genuine Turks; hence in
all the provinces there are but two million,
of original Turks, against six and one.
half millions Of other nationaiities. The
presence Of the Turk was simply a curse
and blight in the Provinces, and that It
was impossible from the very nature Of
lslamism that there could be any reforms
ton. The lecturer dwelt particularly upon
the expressions of the Bnlg .risns, show
ing that the Greek and the Turk were
shoulder to shoulder in depressing the
Bulgari ms and the Sclavonians generally.
The ecclesiastical system of farming the
dioceses of Bulgaria to the Greeks, was
pronounced most ini1uitous, and the end
sought by both the Turk and tue "Tarri-
otes, as the Greek Bishops are called, was
the utter extinction of all the original Bull
gars, the Sclavs. He then passed under
review the nationality, the religion and
the struggles for liberty, of the Servians,
the Bosnilns, Herzegoyinians and Mon.
tenegrns.
OF The old Roman rule there were bu,
few remnants in the Turkish Provinces,
aside from the Roumanians. who occupy
IN extensive and growing country no.ih
of the Danube, with 4 population Of some
four and one-half millions. 1t depends