The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1895-11-27

Consuls estimate the loss of property as
a result of the Biarbekir riots alone at
8, 10000.
General alarm still continues here, de-
spite reassuring reports from the prov
inces, and the wealthy Armenians sleep
at the hotels in preference TO remaining az
their own houses.
Along Europe's most terrible stream,
the Bosphorus, flowing dark. deep and
swift from the Black sea past the gilded
minarets of Constantinople, there Is one
dread ribbon through its entire length
known as the Devils Current" With
inconceivable ia; idity the water rushos
madly down TO the Mediterranean, leav-
ing far behind. as king Of racers dis
tauces his Gee;est runners, the flying
currents on either side. Reddened with
tragedy this ribbon Of water has long
been the scene of the ost dastardly,m
cowardly and always silent crimes of the
world. II has been the pet of successive
sultans, the shifting stage of Turkeys
bloOdiest dramas.
The Golden Horn, that famous, broad
bosomed harbor of the nearby orient,
divides ConstaniinOple, Istamboul, as
the Greek church called the historic me-
tropolis, into two sections. Two bridges
of iron bind together the two halves of
the sultan's town. 70 the northeast is
Pera. the foreign quarter, the city, as
good Mussumans term il, of the Franks.
Across the horn is Moslemdom, properly
Stamboul, and on the great rounded point
where Horn and BOsphoroas meet are the
many palaces of his majesty, the padishah
Abdul Hamid, sultan, among them his
seraglio of white and gold, that vast
harem at which the erlirc civilized world
looks askance. Most prominent of all,
survival of the old Church of Byzantium.
though now Mahomet's temple, the gold
EN- minarets of the Mosque of St. Sophia,
visible far away on the BosphoroLs, gilt
ter at eventide from the rays of the set
ting sun.
Seraglio Point, on whose shores Horn
and Bosphorous mingle their waters, Is
but a few rods distant from the "Devifs
Current" which at this point nears the
land, as if by some dread design. In the
dead of night, its waters lit only by the
pale stars, time and again swift, long
black caiques have glided out with muif-
led oars pulled by black gar5ed servants
bent on their masters cruel bidding.
Here crimes of horror that is hard TO
picture have been perpetrated unwitness-
ed. Plash, down in the deep, dark waters,
struggling. but voiceless, unwept, uncof-
fined and unsung, form after form has
gone to death because of the caprice or
hatred of the fretful, dark-eyed man in
the palace on the height.
| More corpses of men and women this
grim current has borne upon its breast
than any other stream in all the re-
gions ofthe globe. As a watery ceme-
terry of slaughtered innocence has been
its history. All who have sunk into its
tide Of death will never be known, but
the ghastly whims of the commander
Ofthe faithful have thrown to it dainty
women, valiant soldiers, ardent states
men and youths whose only fault was
that they loved their country too well.
In the embrace of this cold current has
been stified forever large share of
Turkeys patriotism, ability and won-
anly lOveliness.
Abdul Hamid, though ne seems from
his presence to be the most relentless
of all the sultans, Is but following in
the footsteps of the padishahs that have
gone before him. These crimes have
been going on silently, s:ealthily, fiend-
ishly for centuries. But Abdul Hamid,
his hands already stained with the blood
Of Armenians and other lawless acts conn
mitted in his domain, put the final touch
which has aroused the whole civilized
world, when by his express orders with
| in the past month he deliberately
drowned like dogs score of brilliant
and patriotic youths whose one aim was
the ba;tcrment of their country, and who
belonged To that fearless, thoughtful, ear
nest band, the Young Turkish party.
Though the Mussulman potentate now
cringes feverishly at the feet of all the
powers of the Old World, asking par
don for his iniquities and promising
lavish reforms, there is little question
that during the past few years wholesale
sacrifices 10 the Devils Current hare
been going on with the virulence of
30 years ago, when, with one fell swoop,
the Janizaries were wiped Off the face
of the earth. That was a crime some
details of which have gone down to his
| tory.