New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-14
Nrur InLIS IN TIRhEI.

The instincts of the East have not changed
since the days of Ahasucrus. The fantastic
horde tnat has swarmed to the defense OF
Islam has set Constantinope to dreaming OF
her ancient spleudOrs, when all ChrlstcndOm
was in league against her, when the Haps-
burgs paid tribute to her, when Hungary WAS
oyelrun and Vienna besieged, and Kara Musta-
pha was mapping ont second Ottoman En-
pre in the heart of Europe. The heritage Of
the Turk is a tropical fondness for high
colors, barbaric love OF display, pima
faith in Drawn and the sword, and an III
satiable thirst for blood. This is striking
w illustrated by the street scenes which
our ConstantinOple correspondent has de-
scribed so well in the letters which we
have been publishing this week. When crack
REGIMENT of the Sultan's guards, marching with
military precision, and armed with Winchester
rifles. passes through the streets the populace
make no sign but when troop OF Asatlcs,
clad in striped cotton tdttcrs, and brand
shing broadswords and fint-iock pistols goes
by, the popular heart Is touched, and all the
crones mutter, "lhese are the men to drink
the Russian blood y The volunteers and con
scripts are struggling into the city from the
ends of the Empire; blue-eyed Circassans
arIayed in green cloaks and white caps
frnged with Astrachan fur. and armed
with cimeters and daggers; kiirds IN Grim
son and blue, with long lanccs qulyering
like reeds over their muslin mantles ;
Zeibcks in saffron jackets and huge fez caps
with long swords thrust through their girdes
Arabs in blue tunics and scarlet faclngs, with
straight-stOcked fnt-locks strapped to their
II 1pl
cuards from Cappadocia and Mesop otamia,
from Aieppo, Bagdad and Yemen; from the
mountains, the deserts and the pyramids,
marching under crimson banners emblazoned
with the crescent and star The glamour Of
this glittering pageant fires the Imagination
of these Oyergr0wn children of the East
As they stand and watch the warriors
of Mohammed the COnqueror and Soliman
the Magnificent seem to be coming to the
front to battle for the Crescent. Their
hearts 90 back to the old days when armies
did not fight a mile apart and when heads
were chopped off at arms length. Yet is the
| Mussuman wise in his generation. lie loves
| the old ways, but accepts tie logic OF the new
! inventions. He strips the Aslatic recruits OF
their old -fashioned muskets and clumsy swords,
and arms them with breech-loaders and six
! teen-shooters He orders monster Krupp for
the walls of his Capital, and the heaviest
| Prussian ordnance for the Notifications of
| Sbumla He sends to America for Yankee
rifles to England for tuIreted monitors, and to
| Fiume for submarine tOrped0es Frederick the
| Great once said that the Russians and the
| Turks resembled ga number of one-eyed men
thrashing number of blind ones" The Turk
instinctiyely prefers hand-to-hand warfare and
| short-range massacre to the modern system of
strategical combinations and long-range opera
tions. He thinks that time is wasted and muscle
spared in Nineteenth Century warfare. But he
is very careful to provide himself with all the
improved machinery of war.
Nor has the Porte stopped there. 1t has i'm
ported something besides American rifles and
Krupp guns: it has introduced the machinery
of legislation. In government as In warfare
the Pashas cling instnctivey to their tIadi-
tonal policy. 1t was Soman who set his sue
cessors the example of staying away from the
Council of Ministers and leaving the civil adj
ministration entirely in their hands, and to this
day there is "A ring of Pashas and favorites in
the Palace. 1t is three hundred years since O
Sultan attended divan on horseback, or mill
tary council The Government is dynastic
despotism in the hands of single family,
and LOYALTY to the line of Gilman il
a cardinal doctrine of the Turks political
creed. So long as the garrison is faithful to
him the Sultan is secure, but as soon as the