The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-05-20

cloudy throughout the day, but cleared up
beautifully about In the evening.
THERMOMETER SATURDAY: 6 A. NJ, :58 /;
. Ash 8s noon. 6sss 6ess a t.y ge 8siss
NJ, B5; midnight. 56.
E,ssescs.ing Letter from Professor
Harris.
Correspondence Of the Richmond Dispatch.]
SEA OF MARMORA.
Travel iE the Turkish Empire has it's
special difficulties. OF the two necessal'ies,
time and money, it is extremely difficult to
keep any iustaccount. An example Will Illus
trate. The exact date OF this writing is by
my watch and diary $3.50 p. NJ. OF April "a,
1878, but the clocks Of Constantinople point
to 1:25. and the counting-house calendars
show either Apr. 13, 1878, or Akhir %,
1894. Two hours ago it was yesterday, for
the Moslem day begins with the Muezzn's
sunset call to prayer. The months also
differ from ours, and the year is counted
sometimes from the kChristian era; some
times from the Higira. reached the land
ing before 1915 this morning, and found
myself half minute too late for the Bos-
phorus boat. advertised to start at 3:15. The
confusion in money is still worse. Coins
from all the rest OF the world are in cir
culation here. The ordinary unit for
transactions with boatmen. donkey-boys,
guides, and shop-keepers, is the piastTe,
and this may be either coin or paper. The
coin is either silver or bronze, and each OF
these last has two or more kinds differing
in the amount Of adulteration. So that OF
the six or eight sorts OF piastres no two are
exactly equal, and no one seems to bear any
fixed ratio 10 the money OF other nations.
One man in giving you change will count
five piastres to franc; another on whom
you attempt to pass them off will insist that
it takes eight or ten Of them to be worth
franc, or probably that they are not current
at all. It's positive fact chat even the beg
gars in one city will sometimes decline to re-
ceive money that is current in another. The
para also is in common use. 1T Is the Tor
tieth part of piastre, or say from one
twentiGEsto one tenth Of cent. We used
to talk about Confederate shinplasters, but
here we find an inconvertible paper cur
rency in denominations as low as ten paras,
or about one quarter of cent.
TURK VS.. RUSS.
Thdt Turkey has been wofully misgoy-
erned no one can doubt. Her dominion
embraces two OF the finest grain-groWlng
plains in the world, and includes varieties
of soil and climate adapted to the produc-
ton Of everything that grows on the earth;
vet there is everywhere poverty, neglect,
and dilapidation-nanifest tokens OF the
cruel oppression anR greedy corruption Of
her horde OF officers. Her. capital has with
out doubt the very best situation for splen-
did city that can be found on the face OF the
globe. It has been adorned by the building
of q hundred mosques and score Of pail
aces, but it has no light, no water.supplY,
no drainage, no sidewalks, and only three
OF four streets worthy OF the name. But
in spite OF all that can be said against
the unspeakable Turk" the world is
full OF slanders),. turn away from bis
territory with higher estimate OF MS
character as man than when entered 1t
six weeks ago. During the Turco-Russian
war, unlike the Dispatch, sympathlzed
with the weaker party. The event has not
changed nv feelings. Victri1 causo dis
pjQcuit, sed victa Catoni." Since we have
seen the Turk sitting calmly in his home,
and the imperious Russ clanking his sabre
along the streets OF Stamboul, the recollec-
tions OF other days have stirred my heart to
4 sympathy vet more profound. Unit to
rule either in Asia or in Europe, the Turk
is vet, in my humble judgment, better
man than his conqueror. He is sloth1ub
they say; and so he is; but, though he
neelects his own business, he does not med
die with that Of other people. His sloth is
not the child OF vice, but the legitimate oh-
spring of his religion. Over and over
again we have been forcibly reminded
OF the pilot on the Ganges, VINO,
when his boat had run aground,
took out his pipe and pouch, sat down, ana
calmly said: ss Brothers, the lines OF fate
cannot be oblterated. Let us have smoke"
They say the Turk oppresses Christians,
and so he does, but the Christian communi-
ties are by all confession the most prosper
Gus in the Empire. He is terribly fanatical
and will not brook the slightest interference
with his religion; the time was when he
propagated it with the sword, but now he
tolerates all other forms Of worship. The
Russian is still intolerant and meddler in
other mems matters. He has waged fierce
war in the name OF Christianity, but really
for the sake Of conquest. He is now
proudly paradiDg the streets of Constantl-
NOBLE, not with bodies OF armed men, but
in the persons OF hundreds Of fne-looking
officers, lavishing his roubles in the bazaars
and coquetting especially with the bishops
OF the Armenian Church. For the sake OF
civilization and Of Christian truth let us
deyoutly hope that the sceptre OF these fair
regions may not descend from the hands OF
stolid fanatic to those OF an artful hypo-
critic.
CoNsTANTINoPLE.
We saw the Queen City OF the East un-
der very unfayorable circumstances. The
ordinary Dopulation is but little over mil