The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-12-10
HEROES OF a "BOLY, WAR.

II in the succeeding days, the sultan
Of Turkey should walk over TO mos
que in Constantinople, pick up a green
cloth. turn toward Mecca, shake the
green rag and utter a few words Of
gibberish. this world would be plunged
into an awful war, from which only
the western hemisphere would be
! wholly exempt,
This is what those dear excitable
men, the foreign correspondents, tell
u.s. Nothing of the kind will happen,
but the foreign correspondents are al
ways interesting, even in their fakes.
Just now they are foretelling holy
war"
That green cloth is the mantle of
Mahomet, preserved in a mosque in
Constantinople When the sultan ut
tiers words proclaiming war and shakes
this green mantle in the direction Of
Mecca. il is a command to Mohamme
dams everywhere to fall on Christians
and butcher them, or else relinquish all
hope of paradise.
w
followers of Mahomet number at the
lowest calculation 200O00,0O0, some
idea may be gained Of what general
religious outbreak against Christianity
among them would mean. There are
100000 in Egypt, vast numbers in the
colonies of southeastern Austria, at
least 100000 in India and 10000 900
more in other British colonies. The
Arabian Mohammedans regard Abdul
Hamid as usurper, on the ground that
he is not an Arab and that caliph
should be an Arab. But they would
not fail to respond to his declaration
of ''holy" war in defense of the faith
embodied in the koran. Just now the
Chinese Mohammedans are in rebellion
against the Manchus, and it would not
need much additional encouragement
to induce them to make way with the
Christian traders and missionaries and
to attack the Christians of the Greek
church on the borders of the south
western provinces of the Chinese en-
pire The sultan is the recognized
head of the whole Moslem world, save
Persia and Morocco, where the head
of the faithful is Ali, son-in-law of
Mohammed.
To begin with, there would be out
breaks in the southern Russian pro-
vinces and those of east Austria. The
Algerians and Tunisians are violent
Mohammedans and would make
trouble for the French in those two
African states. England would be
confronted with uprisings in Egypt and
India. All Turkey would be in an up
roar at once. The fate of Christian
missionaries to the southwest and
southeast of the Sea of Marmora would
be sealed. Bloodshed would follow in
all quarters of the east.
Great Britain would suffer imme-
diately from an enormous shrinkage |
in the value Of the Turkish bonds, most |
of which are held in London. Ger |
commercial relations with Tur-
key would be seriously prejudiced If |
not permanently injured. The Turks |
are magnlhcent lighters at any time. |
Their constitutions seem to endure IA |
tigue and hardship as well as the hard |
lest Teuton veteran. In a holy war |
valor would be supplanted by !
fanaticism, and the sultan's forces |
would be a formidable array.
OF course the powers would win in
the end. The struggle would not be
a long one, SO far as Abdul Hamid is
His declaration of a holy
war would mean his own deposition;
but, in the meantime, and afterward,
what? In the meantime, one of the
bloodiest wars of history, and after
ward the revival of the rivalries of the
powers in sharper form than ever.