The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-15


especially so with the Bulgarian news
papers, as the Turks are much afraid of
revolutions among the Bulgarians, and they
cut out every thing that relates to liberty,
or tends to the depreciation of the govern
ment of the Sultan. In the Sublime Porte,
the leading foreign newspapers are taken,
and l spent an hour in a large room in
which dozen clerks were busy TRANSMITTING
articles which had been published in
Europe and America upon Turkey. Every
thing that is written about the Sultan is
translated and presented to him, and while
was present noted that two of the clerks
were working on articles from New York
newspapers.
THE TURKS ARE TIE GOVERNING CLASS
in Turkey, and it is well for the country
that they are So They do not make very
good business men, and the most of the
business of the Ottoman empire is done by
the Jews, the Armenians and the Greeks.
The Turks are not accumulatiYe or indus
trious. Their fortunes when made seldom
pass through more than one generation.
The sons live high off their fathers wealth,
and if they should become bankrupt, they
look upon it as fate rather than the result
of their own extravaganza They are
soldiers and agriculturalists rather than
business men, and they prefer the govern
ment service to any other. The better
class of government officers are well paid.
The Grand Vizier, who is the Sultans
right hand man, receives ST. 800 a month
and the other cabinet ministers get from
$500 to $3.50 month. In addition to this
they have what
THEY CAN MAKE BY BRIDES,
and in all Oriental countries this bribing
or squeezing is legitimate. In China an
officer receives a salary of 81, 900 year and
is expected to make $4,000 year out of
perquisites or blackmail. doubt not it is
much the same here. 1t is certainly so to
a large extent in the collection of taxes.
The Sultan is supposed to receive one-tenth
of the crop Of every farmer in Turkey.
The districts are, however, sold out to col
lectOrS, and the collectors subdivide their
districts and resell them at auction to
others The tax gathers look at the crops
and estimate just how much their share
ought to be, and the result is that instead
of the farmer paying 10 per cent of his
crop in taxes, he has to pay about 80 per
cent. Under such conditions it is no won
der that this great Turkish empire is
poorly framed.
JUDGES IN TURKEY.
get about 1920 a month. Assessors receive |
from Sl25 to $500 per month, and common |
soldiers are supposed to grow fat on their |
board and clothes and cents a day Tur- |
key has conscript system like that of |
Germany, and all of the able bodied Mo. |
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
am told that they will soon be able to put |
IN army of 100000 trained men in the field,
and they have the best mounted cavalry
that [ have ever seen. Poorly as the men
are paid they seem to be happy, and they
have in fighting courage which other sol
Tiers have not, which comes from their i'm
Dlicit belief that they will 90 to heaven if
they die while fighting for the Sultan. It
nay be this reason that excludes non-be
levers from the military service The |
arge number of Turks who are not Mo
lammedans can not enter the army if they |
you'd. but they have, nevertheless, to pay
N exemption tax amounting to
DOLLAR AND HALF A YEAR,
yer male person, and this tax is levied on
he baby boy year old as well as on the
Id man of seventy-tive. When a poor
Armenian, Greek or jew happens to have
family Of six or eight boys his expenses
re materially increased, and the number
II these foreigners in Turkey is so large !
hat this species of tax income amounts to
SICcLU uSctl tOCdtJGE6u dDOUJ ULG Nils OF !
are barracks which look ;
Ike palaces, and which are probably built
With this tax. {
The Turkish people are, in fact, taxed to ;
cath. The extent of the taxation and the {
oor methods of collection grind the life out
f the people, and the empire is practically
If it could be properly managed '
might yet pay its debts and prosper. but {
is very doubtful whether it will do this
ba l. |
IS it is, its foreign loans amount to more
han a million dollars, and there are import
nd export duties on nearly every thing.
he foreign 4
BOSDHOLDERs CONTROL THE CUSTOMS /
nd dues, and though there is a big tariff {
n tobacco, and the tobacco trade in itself !
monopoly the Sultan never gets any of /
IS receipts. He hand over the tribute g,
rom Egypt to the bondholders without
)oking at it. and heis so surrounded by his !
reditors that he can do nothing without 1
them.
The business of Constantinople. like that r
all Oriental cities, is done in bazaars, and c
ne bazaars of this city are perhaps the q
lrgest in the world. They are all under Z
ne roof, and this roof covers acres of mar :
Ow streets which wind in and out, cross I
nd re-cross one another until in passing
trough them you lose yourself again and
gain as though in the mazes of RoSamond'S
over. The pavements of these bazaars /
re cobble stones. The streets are about i
We or six feet wide, and no carriage or l
-heeled vehicle can drive into them. 6
THE STORES ARE NARROW CELLS,
anged along the sides of the streets, with r
tide lodges or divans in front of them and a
ne merchants in turbans and gowns squat f
n rugs crOsslegged with their goods hung f
p above them and piled all around them. C
'ou can buy in these bazaars anything q
rom a Glove or a needle to pair of dia- T
lond earrings, and there are old gold
-atches by the bushel and ottar of roses g
Y the gallon. Each bazaar street has it's
wn line of merchandise upon it.
he jewellers work side by side,
lie shoemakers have street of
leir own, and the dealers in old arms and
d clothes each have their own separate {
cality. There is saddle bazaar where
l kinds gorgeous saddles are made and
I'D in cell after cell There is a spice
azaarin which the perfumes of ground
nnamon greet your nostrils There is a P
ersian bazaar where you can buy enough
Oh shawls to carpet a farm from every
ng bearded richly dressed Mohammedan
thin it, and there is bazaar where the
nest of gold embroidered curtains and
her rare articles in silk and silver are L
I'D. n
THERE ARE BAzAARs OF ALL KINDS
Id the Turkish merchants and the traders h
lat you find in them are all classes and s
xes and they come from all parts of the c
world Here is a yelled s
dy in a balloon-like silk gown from some L
lsha's harem; q black-faced eunuch with d d
hip in his hand stands beside her and h
atches her closely as she buys of hand d
me Armenian. Near her stands the h
amel or porter with n saddle on his hack u
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