The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-03-28

These are two interesting dates in the
history of Constantinople, which was
originally captured by the Turkish Sultan,
Mahomet II. in May, 1883, after q siege OF
ffty-three days. Its walls, which were
some sixteen miles in circuit, were
manned by only four or Ave thousand de-
Tenders. In consequence of the hostility
existing between the Eastern and Latin
Churches, western C~hristendom did not
greatly interest itself in the fate of the
imperial city. The last of the Caesars,
Constantine Palaolagus, for q wonder,
cid exhibit a really Roman courage during
the siege, and his corse wasyfnally found,
after the capture, under n heap Of SHIN.
The population of the city was miscel-
laneous-contemptible in spirit and grossly
superstitious. A report was in circulation
that the great metropolitan Church Of St.
Sophia would be the scene of an angelic
Intervention in behalf of the people Of TIE
Christian capital hence it was crowded
by a dense throng of the first families, who
wished to take advantage of the divine
Intervention to save themselves FROM
Turkish rapacity and outrage. But there
was no celestial aid extended, and the
Turkish conquerors, on bursting into the
church, found beauty and booty in album
dance. Gibbon, in describing the scene,
says: AS the Turks encountered no re-
sistance their bloodless hands were
employed in selecting ard securing the
multitude Of their prisoners. Youth
beauty, and The appearance of wealth,
attracted their choice, and the right OF
property was decided among themselves
by n prior seizure, by personal strength.
and by the authority of command. In the
space of an hou the male captives We're
bound with cords, the females with their
girdles; senators, slaves, p~relates, nobl,
maids, whose faces had been invisible to
the sun and their nearest kindred, We're
bound and driven in strings through the
streets. Sultan Matsnoud gave the city
up to his soldiers to sack" But Gibbon
says that the Mahommedans did not treat
the city any worse than the Latin Crusa.
ders had done.
At the entry of Sultan Mahmoud, the
disorder and rapine ceased. He rode in
triumph through the gate of st. Romanus.
As he entered the great metropolitan
church of st. Sophia, he observed n soldier
breaking the marble pavement, and he slew
him in token that he had reserved thr
public buildings for himself. When b.
entered the gorgeous palace OF Constantine
and his successors, struck by its desolatiol
h. reclaimed quoting a Persian poet
Ia spider has wove his web in the i'm
perl". palace, and the owl hath sung hci
Na''t song OH the towers of Afrasiab.
The capture Of Constantinople by thu
TURK occurred thirty mine years befor
the discovery Of America by Columbus.
1t was the era of the Reformation and of
Faust and Gutenberg, the inventors OF
printing Thus, while a dense cloud of
Soy THAN barbarism and fanaticism was
SCI !'rg down over the towers of STEAMBOAT
ant tliens-over all the Eastern Empire,
ovI' .'rIece and its isles and Western Asia.
tn, original seats of civilization and reli.
gium the era of the Renaissance was
dawning on Western and South western
Europe. Reason, awakened by the study
OF Greek philosophy and thought in Italy,
began to be felt as a force once more in
hnm1n affairs, breaking the double night
OF 'Enorancc and superstition, called tnu
Mode Ages, or Ages of Faith. The Turk
has. through his entire occupancy of Con.
stantinople, for four centuries and a quar-
ter. remained the same injurious, sensual,
stalwart semi, barbarian and manslayer. At
length the year of his surrender of the
incompatible situation on the contiguou,
shores of Europe and Asia, which he ha.
occupied so long and to SO little purpose
has apparently arrived. Let him go, ant
let him not stand upon the order of his
going, so that ere long the vast burial
grounds at Scutari, 30 e~loquently described
by Anastasius, may be the only trace of his
brutal domination in Southeastern Europe.