Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1886-02-13
THE SULTAN'S NEW ARMY
HOW TURKEY HAS BEEN PLACED ON
A WAR FOOTING.
A Clap Of Thunder in Clear sky--Trans-
formation of Recruits" Patriotic
Offerings" of the People--A
Railroad In Pawn.

| day afterward 5 900 men might have marched
through eastern Roumelia unopposed, and
the union OF the two provinces attempted
by Dr. Strausky and his colleagues would
have Immediately ended in a harmless,
| bloodless fiasco. But there were not 5000
soldiers who could be sent. The entire
| garrison Of Adrianople did not number
| 1000 men. The guards, 1900 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
ean assemble Against whom he is arning
| be does not know 1t might have been
| Saryia, and may be still; it may be Bulgaria,
| or Greece, or both together, or it may be
! Russia or Austria in the background But
nc means this time not to be asleep "But
| what use is it," said despairing Turk, ito
| be readyG 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, ill-clad, hungry, wretched,
most of them have been. One cavalry regi-
| ment which | saw going through the streets
might serve as 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 soes;
sometimes a boot was on one foot and a
| shoe ON the other The rags OF their outer
| garments showed Tire rags of the undercloth-
ing beneath, To-day thera are on the
| European frontier of the empire atoat 200,-
| 600 men, bearing i'll outward appearance
| small resemblance TO the half-na}.ed vaga-
| bonds that they were WHOM they arrived at
| Constantinopla How has the tra ggaa-
ton been brought about} Whore as the
| government found money to move *
| from place to place, to put clothes on t'reir
| backs and powder into their guns
Not by means of a foreign loan. With n
| debt of over 81 ,000, 100000, practically re-
| pudiated, inasmuch as for a time only a
| small fraction of the interest he's been paid,
| Turkey can borrow no money in any for
| eign market at even the most runous rates
| Not from issuing paper currency. Her
caime, or paper money of nine years ago,
| having deprecated to 800 pasters for 100
| piasters gold has since become so worthless
that it is not even quoted in 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 subterfuge
| of the interior to gain time Not from
| increased taxation. Every goat, every
sheep, every field, every apple tree, every
object from which money can be wrung,
has been 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 charity. These two resources are
the sole reliance of the Turkish government
now.
A RAILROAD PUT IN PAWN.
Putting in pawn the Cassaba railway
affords 100000 or $4,000, 900, 50, 750, 600
down and 81 ,250, 900 to be paid in February
IF the government still requires it." Part
of this sum has been expended for KIupp
cannon, part in the purchase of ammunition
in America, and part in the payment of the
Austrian Lloyd Steamship company for the
transportation of troops Upon the Rou-
melian railway have just been obtained from
Baron Hirsch $5,000,000 From the I'm
perial Ottoman bank have been drawn ST.
100000, being the accumulated 10 per cent
reserves from the salaries of the civil officers
which the government withheld at past pay
ments in paternal provision for their, not
its, days of necessity. Beyond these | am
l., 4 Al H. 1
at disposal any but its ordinary revenues.
1t does not matter much in summer, but
in winter the Turkish soldier must have
clothing At all seasons he requires
food, though marvellously little of it.
His pay need not be taken into ac-
count, as he very seldom gets any. This
whole army of 100000 men has been pro-
vided with socks, drawers fannels, boots,
trousers, coats overcoats almost entirely by
what are euphemistically called voluntary
gifts or patriotic offerings" In most cases
these gifts have been as voluntary as drops
of water from a wellsqueezed sponge. In
this labor of love all classes and conditions
of the empires subjects have been asked to
contribute. To refuse to do so when once
invited would be somewhat unwise. No
province, no city, no village has been
omitted from solicitation. 1t has not mat
tered in what form the contributions were
handed in. Little sums of money, one
article at a time, articles by the dozen, by
the thousand, it matternd not Everything
was welcome The pr esents have been as
various as the contents of the barrel donated
to some home missions y at the west The
army has resembleA some impecunious
theological student VIII I'm all the parish was
working for. The results Of this solicitation
have been astounding, not only in the
variety but in the quantity collected. New
York Sun.
- o ~ann-
AN EDITOR's TRIBUTE.-Theron p
Heater Editor, of FIT. Wayne, Ind.