The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-02-18
The Dogs of C0nstantinople.

Iallude to the lOS,O00 homeless dogs
whose domicie is the streets of this city.
They are said to be the descendants,
degenerate, no doubt, of the numerous
packs Of wolves that once. probably be-
fore the taking of Constantinople by
Mahmoud, roamed about on either shore
of the Bosphorus, in which the immu-
nifty they now enjoy, begun, from fear,
has now its source in affection. One of
the former sultans, Abdul Medjid, whose
subjects were not 80 down-trodden as
the Turks of to-day, nearly created a
revolution by ordering the annihilation
of all the street dogs by POISON. AS
they in those days were four or five times
more numerous than now, this sweep
ing edict caused such a furious mur-
muring among the population, who love
dearly their four-footed compatriots,
that it was rescinded, not, however, be-
fore many thousand ours had bitten the
dust. Another Padishah, Abdul Aziz,
had given or rather sold. to a French
capitalist. concession of all the dogs in
Constantinople and suburbs. The price
paid for the concession was l20, 600
francs. The capitalists intention was
to kill all the animals. skin them, and
tan their hides for glove.making, the
rest going for fertiliziug purposes.
Elaborate preparations were made for
their slaug ghter, the flaying of the
bodies. and storage of the skins. How
ever, the first two emissaries Of death.
who, armed with meat-balls, clubs and
sacks, stole upon an unsuSpectlng cur
and promptly sent his soul to the canine
purgatory, were perceived. A young
Turkish lad discovered them Mt their
deadly occupation, rushed horror
stricken to all the neighbors, and raised
their ire by relating what he had seen.
They sailed out En-, r'lGsSe, armed with
tools, utensils, ETC., snatched up in
haste, and surrounded the terrified dog
catchers, caught red-handed, with the
still quivering corpse of their victim
half thrust in the sack. An explana-
tion was rather difficult. A fierce
breeze of threats passed through the
crowd, the hands of those nearest
the culprits had begun to clutch and
thump them, and they would certainly
have met the same fate as De Flesselles
with the Hotel de Vile mob in l7s9,
when he was hanged, torn to pieces,
and his head impaled on pike:
Luckily, at this critical moment q patrol
passed, all this scene having been Mt
night, heard the disturbance, dashed in
and rescued the couple of prisoners, not
before their bleeding faces and lacer-
ated clothes testified to the warmth OF
the mob's feelings. The failure of these
various attempts induced the humane
Aziz to Try another plan to decimation.
He founded hospital for dogs: Num-
berless admissions were granted at first
to diseased, crippled and superanuated
ours, whose case was properly endorsed,
and when the public mind became ac-
customcd to the sight of the ambulance
loaded with dogs passing through the
streets, general "haul" was made.
Without distinction of age. color, OF
state of health. the patients were trun
died off to the "hospital." Ere long it
became patent, by the large number of
burials, that the "hospital must
be one for incurables. Suspicion was
awakened by passer seeing one of the
doctors "kick recaleitrant "patient !"
out of the ambulance, and this ingenious
contrivance was found out, like, the
others and stop put to the massacre.
Like the Terror" although its reign
was of short duration, the "hospital "
caused the death of many thousands.
This was the last scheme invented to
thin out the canine population. Since
then, that is, for some fifteen years, the
dogs have had calm era OF prosperity,
ruffled. only by such passing events as
the arrival of the 10000 refugees in 1873,
when 80 many of these quadrupeds fell
under the sacriicial knife, and glad
dened the hearts of Bulgars and Rou-
meliotes in the shape of unctuous ka-
hobs and greasy "pillai:" In the
Turkish quarters, and indeed every
where, they are treated kindly enough,
but the charitable and good-natured o.
manli goes further and rations 4 number
of them, great or small, according TO his
means. His four-footcd dependents
know the hour of breakfast and dinner
and swarm. on the doorsteps at the ap-
pointed hour with regularity beyond
all praise. Bones and s!ops are set be-
fore them and disappear into their ca
pacious outlets in inverse order to that
name, few crunches of their massive
molars sufficing to reduce the most solid
part of sleeps anatomy to digestible
powder. In Pera, the European quarter,
their presence is tolerated on account OF
the work they do as scavengers.-CoTTe-
spo1,de,,ce PhiLGdelphtn TELEGRAPH.