The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-02-14
CONsTASTINOPLE DEFENCELEss.
A City that has been Bsselsed TWenty'three Times
andTaken Six Times.


Constantinople, Jan. 2.-The deiences
of Constantinople are hardly worth talk
ing about There is ridge of heights
fifteen miles to the north Of the city that
stretch over line of seventeen miles
from poinl near the Black sea to the
Sea Of Marmora. Some batteries and
other works have been erected on Them,
cannon mounted and bitches dug. Even
if they were as formidable as they ought
to be, we have no army to hold them.
Hasty levies of citizens cannot be depen-
ded on. The Russians would carry them
in any event, and would push for the
heights of Daoud Pasha and the plateau
behind Cassim Pasha, These positions
overlook all Stamboul' and from them a
plunging fire could be directed into it
that in few hours would render it un.
tenable. The Crusaders and Mohammed
II. brought the Greeks to terms by the
heavy cannonade they kept up upon
them from these commanding elevations.
Neither of them have any fortified lines
that would give the Russians trouble.
The fact thatth city cannot stand seige
is doubtless the reason why an effort is
being made to bring the Russians to a
halt by an armistice.
Constantinople has undergone more
seiges than any other city in the world,
1t has been beseiged twenty thee times
twice by the ancient Greeks, thrice by the
Roman Emperors once by the Latins,
the Persians the Avaras, the Sclaves, and
by one ofits dethroned sovereigns Mich.
ael Paleologus twice by the Bulgarians;
once by Byzantine rebels, seven times by
the Arabs; and three times by the Turks,
1t was taken but six times! by Alcbiades,
the Roman Emperors Septimius Severus,
and Constantine, the Doge DandoIa and
Count Baldwin, the Emperor Michael
Paleologus, and Mohammed II.
In 672, under Constantine H., it was
beseiged for seven years by the Arabs.
They made the surrounding country
desert, uprooting trees, leveling villages
and habitations and converting the -four
ishing environsinto waste. Then came
the Crusaders in 1904. The devastation
committed by the French and Venetian
champions of the cross exceeded even
that of the Arabs. They burned the
richest and largest quarter of the
city, and inflicted such blow on it that
it never recovered its former wealth and
prosperity. They profaned the Cathedral
Of ST. Sophia, broke into the tombs Of the
Byzantine Emperors. dragged out their
skeletons, and scattered their bones in
the streets. They fred the public libra
ries, ,ridiculed the Greek religion by decks
ing their horses with the vestments of the
clergy, and their heads with the ponti6>
cal tiaras.
Were it not for the incompatible beau>
ty and advantages Of its situation, Con.
stantinople could never have risen again
from its ashes and survived such terrible
Calamities.
What now is most to be apprehended
is that if the conditions of peace prove
very hard, and the Sultan is obliged to
cede large extent of territory to the
Russians, the partisans of the deposed
Murad may attempt revolution and the
dethronement of Abdul Hamid. 1t is
easy by methods often practised in Otto.
man history to put reigning Sultan out
of the way. His own servitors may
strangle or poison HIM, or his guards beN
tray him. There has not been an hour
since the present Sultan was on the
throne that plots have not been devised
to open the way to successor. Not
long ago thirty or more of Murad's body
servants were seized in the Palace of re.
hirigan in the dead of night and strang-
led on suspicion ofconspiring for his res>
toration to power. The court party is de-
servedly unpopular. Damat Pasha, the
brother-in-law of the Sultan, has marred
the plans of the wisest Generals; has pill
fered right and left, and obtained such
complete control of the Sultan that his
Majesty is no longer master Of himself,