The crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1877-1878, 1878-02-07
A FATED CITY.
Horrors Of n Holy War - ReiOicings
of Christian Residents-A New
Departure for the Turkish WOm-

Correspondence Philadelphia Press.
Constantinoplc has undergone more
sieges than any other city in the world. 1t
has been besieged twenty.threc times, twice
by the ancient Greeks; thrice by the Ro.
man emperors, once by the Latins, the Per.
SLAMS, the Avares, the Sclaves, and by one
of its dethroned sovereigns, Michael Paleo,
lOgne, twice by the Bulgarians, once by
Byzantine rebels; seven times by Arabs,
and three times by the Turks. Out OF all
these sieges il was taken but six times; by
Alcibiades, the Roman Emperor Septimus,
Severus and Constantine, the Doge Dando-
10 and Count Baldwin, the Emperor Mi.
chael Paleologue and Mahomet II. 1t
cost Scverus siege of three years to take
it, and the Bayzantincs surrendered only
when they were so reduced by famine that
they could fight no longer. According to
Dion Cassius this blood thirsty Roman
conqucrer put the whole population to the
sword, and burned the city to the ground
Constantine the Great raised Constantine.
pie from its ashes, made it the capital of
the Roman empire, and plundered all the
cities Of Greece Of works of art to embcl.
lish it, In G72, under Constantine H., it
was besicged for seven years by the Arabs
In that time they made the surrounding
country desert, uprooting trees, leveling
villages and habitatiOns, and converting the
ilourishing envirOns into a perfect waste
Next came the Crusaders 1904 The de.
vastation 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 ii that ii never re-
covered its former wealth and prosperity.
They prolaned the Cathedral Of st. Sophia
with infamous orgies, putting prostitute
on the throne of the Patriarch, breaking in
10 the tombs of the Byzantine cmperors
dragging out their skeletons, and scatter
ing their bones in the streets. The fired
the public! libraries, ridculed the Greek re.
ligiOn by decking their horses with the
vestments of the clergy, and their heads
with the pontitical taras, No wonder that
to this day these sacrilcgious proceedings
of the Latin Catholics are so vividly re
mcmbercd blythe orthodox Greeks, and that
their aversion to the Roman church is so
great, Vile Hardouln, the chronicler,
says the spoils the Crusaders gathered at
ConStanlinople were equal to the riches of
all the cities of Europe at that time. The
butChery of 10000 Jews and others at the
taking Of Jesusalem by the Crusaders, and
the sack of Rome in 1927 by the Constable
de Bourbon, atrocious as they were, did
not equal the dreadful scenes enacted by
the Crusaders at Constantinople. Even
the Turks when in 1853 they captured the
city, were infinitely less cruel Like the
Crusaders, however they made sad havoc
with its literary treasures.
Were it not for the incompatible beauty
and advantage of its situation Constantine
pie could never have risen again from her
ashes and survived such terrible calamitics
If it should now be taken after siege by
the Russians, or they should occupy it in
any way, there is no fear of such horrors
being repeated. As for the Christian cle.
mcnt Of its population, it will welcome
them with open arms, and the Turks, re
gardlng their success as the decree of
Allah, will bow to it in spirit of rcsigna-
ton. When the Russians, under Diebitsch,
entered Adrianople in 1929 the large Turk
ish population of that city remained. The
Russians established such good order that
everything went on swimmingly; the
peasants Hooked in from all sides to sell
meats, fruits, and other supplies; the re.
ligious practices Of the Turks were respect
cd; no one was allowed to be maltreatcd,
and there was justice for ALL The contrast
between the state OF things and the inse.
curity and lawlessness under Ottoman rule
conciliated the Turkish residents to their
N,gfn,;tn ANIL ,rl
them to regret their departure. What we
have most feared here is that in the ex-
tremity of its peril, the government might
bring out the Sanyak Sherlf the holy stand
ard Of the prophet, and summon the whole
Moslem population to arms. Such an nappeal
can not be disobeycd by the true believers
on pain of having all their relations with
society sundered- wives de iposo fac
to divOrced-debts owing TO them canCell
ed-all hopes of the Mohammedan heaven,
its houris and blissful enjoyments, bligh-
ted. The war under such circumstances
becomes holy war, and religious fanati.
cism is kindled to fever heat. No Chris.
tian's life would be safe Constantinope
at such time is not a safe place to live in
for Christians. Their lives are at the mer-
cy of the Mussulmans.
One Of the strange things that has come
to pass in this war is the participation of
Turkish women in care of the wounded.
At Adrianoplc, and elsewhere in the hospi-
tails organized by the foreign relief associa-
ton, for the first time in the history of the
country, Turkish women have abandoned
their habits of scclusion, shaken off their
prejudiccs against association with Gia-
ours, and have freely mingled with the
world. Many of them are now rendering
good service as nurses, cooks, and attend.
ants in the hospitals. The surgeons speak
highly oftheir gentleness, their readiness
in performance of delicate duties, and the
English volunteer lady nurses and the
French Sisters of Charity praise their vii,
ling disposition and natural intelligence.
Some of the Ulemas doubt the propriety of
their action, but the number of wounded is
so great, and the sufferings so excrucia-
ting, that they admitthe times are so out
of joint that the circumstances palliate
this departure from ancient customs. OF
course, the Yashmak is not given up. As
hardly any Of the foreign aid speak Tur-
kish, the assistance of Turkish women is
the more valuable. This looks like the be-
ginning of new era for women in Tur-
key. 1t is not the first time that war has
broken down longestablished usage and
changed social systems.