The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-04-21
WHOLE NO. 152

it is now the condition of Turkey is
that of boiling pot, full of stirred
up, heterogeneous race-elements. with
the government for lid to keep them
down. One rising up and then an
other and striking against the cover,
and the pot will keep on boiling and
before long the government lid will
be lifted violently off and thrown
over and the land will be filled with
smoke and steam and it is feared that
nothing will be left but ashes and
desolation, and poor, disappointed
England raking about among the
embers to find her lost money. But
as l was saying, if England had
pursued a different policy this rich
man of Marash might have lived in a
different house, and not been taxed to
death by the government for it nor
beaten to death by robbers. But as
it now is, a man cannot surround him
self with any of the comforts of life
without making himself a mark for
the unbounded avarice of the tax
gatherer. A man buys a watch, for
instance, nothing extravagant, silver
one with leather string, and the
news gets up and travels on wings all
through Turkey, and when the next
tax-bill comes in, he finds that they
have doubled up on his house, on his
land, on his camel and donkey and
that $40 watch has cost him SIoo for
the privilege of carrying it for one
year. He begins to think that civili-
zation is luxury he can't afford to
indulge in and so sells his watch, or
gives it away if he can find any body
venturesome enough or wealthy
enough to take it and relapses into
barbarism. And precisely so with
every improvement which man at
tempts to make in his house, in the
clothing of his family, in farm imple-
ments, getting steel plow instead of
a crooked stick, down to washing
himself with piece of soap, the
government has its eye on him and
he's got to suffer for it. And not
having that Anglo-Saxon obstinacy
which we enjoy under such circum-
stances which would compel us to
wash with piece of soap if it killed
US, they succumb easily and 60 with
out, and Of course there is no posi-
BILE advancement in such a condition
of things, with such a government.
For instance, again, to show the ar
bitrary oppressiveness of the govern
ment, in another way. Here is tax
collector, publican exactly like the
publican of the Bible under the Ro-
man rule, speculator, who advances
SO much to the government for the
privilege of farming out the taxes of
a certain region, and reimburses him
self with enormous profit out of the
people. His share of all that is
raised as we'll as Of personal property
and real estate is one-tenth. And the
law is that no man shall put a sickle
to his harvest, it shall stand untouched
subject to heavy penalty until the
tax-collector has taken his share.
Well, the field of wheat is all ready
to be harvested, the owner sends
word to the tax-collector, III am GO
ing to harvest my wheat, be kind
enough to come and take your tenth"
The tax collector says, ~ am busy
to day, | cant come" The farmer
waits few days and sends again.
Cant come, too busy" And so he
keeps putting him oft and all the
time tn ripe wheat is spelling before
his eyes and he not able to lift hand
TO it. He says to himself, | shall
loose my whole crop at this rate and
at list he goes 10 the tax. collector and
says, "Here if you will have the
goodness to come and take your por-
ton, | will give you fourth or a
third" or in desperate cases 81 will
give YOU half of the whole crop,
only let me save the rest" BY sim
gular coincidence the tax collector is
all ready and the wheat is harvested
and all over one-tenth goes into the
publicans pocket. And this tithng