The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1886-01-30
THE SULTAN'S NEW ARMY
HOW TURKEY HAS BEEN PLACED ON
A WAR FOOTING.
A Clap of Thunder in a Clear Sky-Trans-
formation of Recruits" Patriotic
Offerings" of the People-A
Railroad in Pawn.

The ROumaliote revolution came like
clap of thunder in a clear sky. Turkey was
astounded and aghast. That day Or the
day afsarWard ), 900 men might have marched
through eastern Roun.elia unopposed, and
the union Of the two provinces attempted
by DR.. Strausky and his colleagues would
have Immediately ended in harmless,
bloodless fiasco. But there were not :, goo
soldiers who could be sent The entire
garrison of Adrianople did not number
1000 men. The guards, $1,000 strong, that
encamp around the imperial residence Of
Yildiz Kiosk could spare none from their
ranks, without detriment of the higher duty
of protecting the sultan's sacred person.
The Turk seldom shuts his stable door
against thieves till after the horse has been
stolen The horse gone, he fastens and pad
locks it very tight. The ounce of prevention
having been wanting, he is straining every
nerve to get together hundred pounds Of
cure in the shape of as large an army as he
can assemble. Against whom he is arming
he does not know 1t might have been
Servia, and may be still; it may be Bulgaria,
or Greece, Or both together, or it may be
Russia or Austria in the background But
he means this time not to be asleep. "But
what use is it." said despairing Turk, ITO
be ready When we are ready nothing
ever happens"
VETERANS AND RAW RECRUITS.
For almost three months veteran soldiers
and raw recruits have been pouring through
the city. Dirty, illclad, hungry, wretched,
most of them have been. One cavalry regi-
ment which | saw going through the streets
might serve an example. They were dis
mounted and were leading their horses
Their dress, or rather the absence of it, was
the picture of wretchedness. Coats were
without sleeves, boots were without soles;
sometimes boot was on one foot and
SHOE ON the other. The rags of their outer
garments showed the rags of the undercloth-
ing beneath. To-day there are on the
European frontier Of the empire about aOO,-
go men, bearing in outward appearance
small resemblance to the half-naked vaga-
bonds that they We're when they arrived at
CoIstantinopie. How has the transforms.
ton been brought about, Where has tho
government found money to move them
from place to place, to put clothes on their
backs, and powder into their guns2
no. b. means of a foreign loan With a
, debt Of over 81 DOC, 900 ,oo0 practically re-
! pu :iatad, inasmuch as for time only
small fraction of the interest has been paid,
! Turkey can borrow no money i'll any for
eign market at even the most r1linous rates
Not from issuing paper currency. Her
caime, Or PAPER money of nine years ago.
/; having depreciated to 500 piasters for 100
piasters gold, has since become so worthless
| that it IS not even quoted III the exchange
Hence it would be hopeless to issue more
Not from; her former most desperate resort
of granting harales, Or promises to pay,
upon the treasury. These, never in favor
at the capital, were a worn-out subtarfuge
of the interior to gain time. Not from
incl easel taxation. Every goat, every
Sheep, every field, every apple tree, every
object from which money can be wrung,
has lcea taxed already to its utmost limit.
In some localities the taxes have been paid
two years, three years, even five years in
advance.
TO an impoverished household where ex-
penses must be greater than its receipts and
whose credit is utterly gone there, there
remain but two resources These are, the
disposal by pawn or sale Of possessions left
from more prosperous days, and an appeal
to public chai ity. These two resources are
the sole reliance Of the Turkish government