The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-11-03

There are about 5000 police in Cnnstan :
tinople, but they are so badly organized
and managed that they are OF little or no
use. The people seldom think of call
ing upon them for aid and even if they
did the solitary gendarme would not
think of venturing into place of danger
until he had been reinforced by numbers
of his comrades.
Years ago the Cons tanrtople police
man was picturesque and that is about
all. Until a mparativeiy short time
ag, it was not thought necessary to police
the city in daytime except near the great
bazaars, where rows between buyer and
seller sometimes occurred In those days
the police always walked about at night
in threes and fours. Even although
armed with a long gun and sword. a
single policeman would not endanger
himself by doing patrol duty unaccom-
panied. Later an alleged improvement
was made, when little stations were
erected in different sections OF the city
at intervals of every half mile or so.
When help was needed some one had to
run to one of these stations and if there
was any danger OF attack the officer sum-
moned would wait for reinforcements be-
fore going to the scene of action. AT
asleep in the station.
The young sultan fully appreciates the
utter worthlessness of the system which
he gives to his subjects. lie has no faith
in it. The CoDstantinople policeman Is
not tolerated about the palace. Instead
he has two regiments of soldiers station
ed there to guard bin. One of these is
composed of blacl, Nupians and the other
of white Albanians. They regard each
other with all the Intensity Of racial hat
l l. NIL, 70, l. ~,
for the surest promotion OF his own safe
ty. This in itself is q Inc commentary
upon the police system Of Conrtanti
nope.
But while the police are an abomin-
able lot, the prisons of Constanunople
and of all Turkey, for that matter. are
infinitely worse. The principal prisons
of the empire are located at Adriano pie
and at Erzoum. At Constantinople there
are five prisons, all of them small affairs.
the most posing being situated on the
Placed Hippodrome. 1t was in the latter
that many of the arrested Armenians
. captured during the recent riots were
placed, and few OF them may be there
still, although the chances OF any of
Jhem being alive now are exceedingly
remote.
The prison system Of Turkey is dis
grace to the civilized nations of the
world The sufferings pictured by Hugo
of Jean Vatican as galley slave were
thrills of paradise compared with the
cruel agonies inflicted upon the Turkish
criminal. The compassion OF the uni
verse is scarcely broGd enough to en-
shroud the sUfierings of single prisoner
with sym pathy. 1t is claimed by Turk
ish officials that the abuses when existed
in their prisons some fifty years ago have
been rectIfed. This may be the case with
ordinary prisoners, but it is not probable
that it applies to the Armenians. who
are now the targets Of the demnoiacal
rage of the nation. 1t has been conclu-
sivelv proven that horrible tortures wnere
inflicted upon the few prisoners taken
during the massacre in the assound dis
trict in August and September of 1884
That these tortures were repeated upon
the Constantinople Armenans is more
than probable.
The prisons are all simply places OF
detention where prisoners or convcts can
be Kept more or less securely. No at
tempt is ever made to reform II criminal.
There Is no such thing al a reformatory
institution in all Turkey. Asiatic or
European.
In the provinces the prisons are even
worse than in the large cities. Sexes
are kept partially separated IN theory,
but il woman convict be young or pref
y, she is usually sought after in a man