The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-05-19
"THE TRIBUTE Of CHILDREN

"TnE TRIBUTE Of CHILDREN"
lam going to tell you, young people,
something about a once famous body of |
men called the Janissaries. You may
pronounce the word as if spelled Yam :
issaries.
A few hundred years ago, when the
nations of Europe were more given to
fighting than they are now (though |
they seem in this day TO like it pretty |
welD, the most celebrated soldiers in
the world were the Janissaries. At
that time armies were not drilled as
thoroughly as they are to-day, but so
well disciplined, so fierce, and SO sue
cessful were the Janissaries that their |
name became terror throughout Eu-
rope.
Who these soldiers were is curious
troops, but they were not Turks by |
birth, and that is why the story is asad
one. The Turks came from Asia into
Europe about six hundred years ago.
They conquered the southeastern part
of Europe, which is called Turkey, and
little by little, by dreadful fighting,
they got possession of Greece, and sew
eral States north of it. Finally they
took the beautiful city of Constantine
pie, which the Christians so long and
so gallantly defended. The Turks
brought with them a religion, cos
tune and a government different from
any the people in Europe had been &C.
customed to. They were Mohamme-
dams, while the people of the conquered
countries were Christians. You can
easily believe that the Christian people
did not love the race that had robbed
them of their country and their free
dom, nor did they submit very willingly
to their fate.
Now the Turkish Government took q
very cunning and cruel way to increase
the strength of its own army, and weak
en- the people they were conquering. It
took from the Christian people every
year one thousand of their brightest
boys to train them for the Turkish
army. This is called in history "the
tribute of children" Some historians
say that all the boys over seven years
of age "who promised any excellence
in mind or body" were captured by the
Turks; but probably the "annual tax of
one thousand children is a more re-
liable statement. As this "tribute of
children was kept up for over three
hundred years, not less than 3OO,O
noble Christian children were torn
from their homes, and their strength
turned against their own people. The
delicate and deformed and dull were
not taken, for the Turkish Government
wanted to make body Of soldiers the
finest in size and strength and courage
the world had ever seen; and, besides,
the puny and dull boys would never be
of much service to the Christians; so it
was very safe to leave them with their
own people.
Can you think of a meaner way of
gaining victories than to kidnap the
finest children of conquered race, so
there should be no grand, strong men
among them, and then to make these
boys, when grown to men, fight against
their own flesh and blood? l do not
think history records anything more
base.
How glad a Christian mother must
have been if her boy was pale and puny,
or her children were all girls! DO you
not believe that parents sometimes hid
Turkish officers were about, or taught
them to look sick or silly? l have new
er read in any books that they did do
so, but do not doubt it myself. Yet it
is said that so much care was given to
the training of these bright boys, and
such honors sometimes conferred upon
them by the Government, that the very
poor people were sometimes willing
their sons should go away from them
forever to enter the service of the
Turks. It seems to me it must have
been dreadful poverty and ignorance
| that could have made Christian mothers
willing to give up their sons to the enc
my of their country and their religion.
These boys were taken from their
homes so young they soon forgot kim
dred and country, the religion, and
even the language of their fathers.
They were usually carried to some por-
ton of Asia Minor, where they were
trained severely to abstinence and en-
durance of all kinds, to fit them for
service. Those who proved greatly
superior in mind were fitted for places
of trust in the Government-some were
made pages in the Sultan's palace-but
those who were strong and large of
stature were trained for war. And it
was these Christian boys who consti-
tuted the celebrated Janissaries, and
won such great victories for the Turk
ish Nation for three hundred years,
that its influence and power was felt
and dreaded throughout the civilized
world.
It was the first instance of a "stand-
ing army in Europe. Charles VII, of
France, is usually considered the orig
inator of the "standing army" per-
haps because the Turks were not con-
sidered a European Nation; but the
Janissaries were in existence century
before Charles time. They were Or
| ganized in 1929, and Charles was not
crowned until 1922.
The Janissaries fought in many i'm
portant battles and sieges in the fif-
| teenth and sixteenth centuries. They
figured in the sieges of the Islands Of
Rhodes and Crete and Malta, and at the
famous battle of Lepanto, which you
will read about when you are older.
They wore, even in fighting, flowing
robes and white caps with black
plumes, and fought with cimeters. We
can believe their flowing robes were
somewhat announcement in battle, espe-
cially at the siege of Malta, where they
had to scale high parapets of rocks.
The Janissaries were in the height of
their splendid fame during the reign of
the Sultan Solyman the Magnificent, in
the seventeenth century. After time
this celebrated corps lost its superiority.
The "tribute of children had, after
three hundred years, gradually ceased,
and the force was kept up by volunteers
of any kind. The Janissaries became
corrupt and insuborcinate, and, instead
of making conquests for Turkey, they
often turned upon their masters, and
became more terrible to the Sultans
than to the Nations around. They de.
posed Sultans, and murdered Sultans,
and made new ones, and Turkey was
cursed by the very troops of which she
had once been SO proud.
Mahmoud H., who was fierce and