Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-15


who has charge of the newspaper press of
the Empire, and who is to a large extent
connected with the interior, told me that
the Government was now encouraging the
newspaper, and that the day would come
when each city in the Turkish Empire
would have its daily paper.
There are a number OF daily papers in
Constantinople. Some in English. some in
French and some in Turkey. The Persiann
have paper. The Greeks have their organs
and there are also newspapers for the He
brews and the Armenians.
A missionary press publishes Bulgarian
newspaper, but understand that with all
these papers the censorship of the press is
very strict and that the greater part of the
articles published nre read over by the
Government officers before they are permit
ted to be printed. This is especially so with
the Bulgarian newspapers, as the Turks are
much afraid OF revolutions among the Bull
garians and they cut out everything that re-
lates to liberty or tends to the depreciation
of the government OF the Sultan. In.the Sub
lime Porte the leading foreign newspapers
are taken and l spent an hour in a large
room in which a dozen clerks were busy
translating articles which had been pub
llshed in Europe and America upon Tur-
KEY. Everything that was written about the
Sultan is translated and presented to him,
and while 1 was present L noted thas two OF
the clerks were working on articles from
New York newspapers.
SOME OF THE SALARIES.
Judges in Turkey get about $500 mouth.
Assessors receive from S125 TO 5000 per
month, and common soldiers are supposed
to grow fat on their board and clothes and 3
cents day. Turkey has conscript system
like that of Germany, and all of the able
bodied Mohammedan population receive a
fair amount of military training. The
Turks make magnificent soldiers, and those
l see here at Constantinople are as finely
formed and as well built men as you will
find anywhere. 1 am told that they will
soon be able to put. an army of 800, 600
best mounted cavalry that 1 have
ever seen. Poorly as the men are
paid, they seem to be happy, and they
have in fighting a courage which other
soldiers have not, which comes from their
implicit belief that they will go to heaven
ii they die while fighting for the Sultan.
1t may be this reason that excludes nom
believers from the military service. The
large number of Turks who are not Moham-
medans cannot enter the army if they
would, but they nave nevertheless to nav
an exemption tax amounting to 81 80 wear
per male person, and this tax levied on the
baby boy 1 year old as we'll as on the man
of 80. When a poor Armenian, Greek or
Hebrew happens to have a family of six or
eight boys his expenses are materially in
creased, and the number of these foreigners
in Turkey is so large that this species of
tax income amounts to great deal. Scat
tered about the hills of Constantinople are
barracks which look like palaces, and
which are probably built with this tax.
TAXED TO DEATH.
The Turkish people are in fact, taxed to
death. The extent of the taxation and the
poor methods OF its collection grind the life
out of the people, and the Empire is practi-
cally bankrupt. If it could be properly
managed it might yet pay its debts and
prosper, but it is very doubtful. whether it
will do this under the present government
and people. Asitis, its foreign loans amount
to more than 81 600, 900, and there are import
and export duties on nearly everything,
The foreign bond holders control the Gus
toms and dues, and though there is a big
tariff on tobacco, and the tobacco trade in
itself is monopoly, the Sultan never gets
any OF its receipts. He hands over the trib-
ute from Egypt to the bond holders without
looking at it, and he is so surrounded bv his
creditors that he can do nothing without
consulting with them.
The business of Constantinople, like that
of all oriental cities, is done in bazaars. and
the bazaars Of this city are perhaps the
largest in the world. They are all under
one roof, and this roof covers acres of mar
row streets which wind in and out. cross
and re-cross one another until in passing
through them you lose yourself again and
again as though in the mazes of Rosamond's
bower. The pavement of these bazaars are
cobble stones. The streets are about five
or six feet wide and no carriage or wheeled
vehicle can drive into them. The stores are
narrow cells, ranged along the sides of the
streets, with wide ledges or divans in front
of them, and the merchants in turbans and
gowns squat on rugs cross-legged with their
goods hung up above them and piled all
around them. You can buy in these bazaars
anything from a Glove or a needle to pair
of diamong earrings, and there are old gold
watches by the bushel, and ottar of roses by
the gallon. Each bazaar street has its own
line of merchandise upon it. The jewellers
work side by side, the shoemakers have a
street of their own, and the dealers in old
arms and old clothes each have their own
separate locality.
ALL KINDS OF BAZAARS.
There is saddle bazaar where all kinds of
gorgeous saddles are made and sold in cell
after cell. There is a spice bazaar in which
the perfumes of ground cinnamon greets
your nostrils. There is a Persian bazaar
where you can buy enough rich shawls to
carpet farm from every long bearded,
richly dressed Mohammedan within it, and
there is bazaar where the finest of gold
embroidered curtains ana other rare articles |
in silk and silver are sold. There are
bazaars Of all kinds and the Turkish |
merchant and the traders that you find in |
them are ofall classes a9a sexes and they come
Here is a yelled lady in a balloon-Iike silk
gown from some Pasha's' harem, a black
faced eunuch with whip in his hand
stands beside her and watches her
closely as she buys of hand
some Armenian. Near her stands the
hamel or porter with mis- saddle on his back.
ready to carry away for her anything she
may buy. though its weight be 500 pounds.