Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-01-08
The Fall of an Empire.

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ID The Fall of an Empire.
From day to day, the cable brings
us news which indicates that the
Turkish Empire in Europe is totter-
ing to it's fall. Even now the Turk re-
tains his hold on Constantinople and
the territory adjacent to the Bosphor-
us solely through the jealously OF the
powers who hope to inherit the do
minions of the Sultan. The bloodless
revolution by which the union Of Bull
garia and Eastern Roumelia has been
effected is proof positive that Turkey
has lost the power of self-protection.
England, influenced by self-interest,
and the other great powers, animated
by their boundless jealousy of each
other, may conspire to retain the
Sultan in possession OF Constantine
pie; but it is beyond the power of d.
plomacy to do more than temporize on
the Eastern question, and statesman
ship cannot hope to resist the swift
currents of the time
K It is not very long since the Sublime
Porte, in q or isis like the present,
would have shown spirit and resources
more worthy Of the defendants of
the conquering race which bore the
victorious Crescent to the gates of
Vienna There would then have been
no disgraceful story Of armies existing
only on paper, and OF sorely needed
treasure stolen by Ministers OF War.
In those days Turkey would not have
written cringing diplomatic notes to
foreign powers, but would have risen
equal to the crisis and would have
dealt swift, unerring blows. Those
days are past, never to return.
Moslem Empire is assuredly one
of the strongest in the annals
of the world. Mohomet, dreaming
dreams and swayed by strange
fantasies in the solitudes of the Ara
bian deserts, evolved from his inner
consciousness a religion whose tenets
appealed with resistless force to the
deepest passions of the Oriental ma
ture. His small band of faithful con-
verts were the nucleus of q sect which
ere long grew into conquering armies,
that relentlessly used the sword to
compel nations to accept the tenets OF
the prophet. For a time it seemed
doubtful whether Europe was to be
Christian or Moslem, but John Sobi-
eski finally arrested the onward march
of the Crescent at Vienna, and the
Spaniards, after six centuries of inces-
SAINT struggle, freed their country from
the Moor. It is now. 43O years since
the Turks took Constantinople; it
is only POP years since they
were defeated before Vienna. . What
changes the intervening years have
seen Europe! In that time England
has risen from little island to be the
most widely extended and, in many
respects, the most powerful empire
OF which we have any record. Germa-
ny, from being q group of petty and
independent states, has grown to be a
colossus of military strength and a
torch-bearer of civilization; France
has passed through vicissitudes OF for
tune which make all the fairy tales OF
romance seem tame by comparison;
Spain has fallen from her proud pre-
eminence; Italy, for many g. year
helpless in the depths of degradation,
is once more, thanks to the
superhurnan exertions and self-sac-
rifice OF her sons, taking her
place among the nations. Yet
another change, more ominous than
all others for the Turk. have these in
tervening centuries seen; the change by
which Russia has been metamorphosed
from barbarous and unrecognized
nation into most powerful and dam
gerous member of the European fam.
lily. Russia has the strength of agiant
and the viii to use it like giant. Rus
STA is resolved to have Constantinople,
cost what it may. In the policy Of
such despotism, years count for
nothing. Russia believes that all
things come to those who wait, and
there are, therefore, no limits to her
patience. .s i
Meanwhile the whole Balkan
peninsula is aglow with the in
stincts Of nationality, and the doom ].
Of alien rule is sealed. The
Turk may be kept in Constantinople
for many years to come, in the capac-
ity Of g care-taker, but that will be the
boundary Of his province in Europe. 1
This race Of carpet baggers'' will have
to 60. And it must be confessed that
the fall Of the Turkish Empire lacks
to the destruction Of other empires
which though they haveconqueredt the
world, hays also civilized it and be-
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