The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-01
THE DEVILS CURRENT"
WHERE THE TURK BROWNS HIS
VICTIMS IN TIE DARK WATERS.

VICTIMS IN TIE DARK WATERS.
Horrible Night Murders which Have
Sent Untold Men and Women To
Death-OTending Harem wives
Wrapped in Sacks and Beaten
with Oars as They Rise Struggling
to the Surface.
From the New York World.
Along Europe's most terrible stream,
the Bosphorus, dark deep and swift from
the Black Sea past the gilded minarets
of Constantinople there is one dread
ribbon through its entire length 5nowa
as the Devils Current" With iDcon-
ceivable rapidity the water rushes madlv
/ down to the Mediterranean leaving far
behind, as a king of racers distances lis
feetest runners the flying currents Oh
/ either side. Reddened with tragedJ. this
ribbon of water has long been the scene
/ of the most dastardly, cowar IL and
always silent crimes of the world. 1t
has been the pet Of successive sCltaps
the shifty stage of Turkeys hloodiest
dramas.
The Golden Horn that famous. broad
bosomed harbor of the nearby Orient
divides Constantinope, or Istamboul, as
the Greek chrch calls the historic
| metropolis, into two sections. two
bridges of iron bind toge'ner the two
halves of the sultans town. To the
northeast is Pera, the foe lgn quarter,
the city, as good Mussulmdls term Z;
of the Franks. Across the Horn is Mos
Tendon, properly Stamboul, and on the
great rounded point where Horn ard Bos-
phorus meet are the many pliaces Of his
majesty, the Padishah Abdul Hamid sui
tan, among them his seraSlio of white
and gold, that vast harem at which the
entire civilized world looks askant. Most
| prominent of all, survival of the old
| Church of Byzantium, though now Ma
hornets temple the golden minarets CT
the mosque of st. Sophia. visible far
away on the Bosphorus, glit.e" at even
tide from the rays of the setting sun.
Seraglio Point on whose shores Horn
| and Posphorus mingle their waters, is
! but few rods distant from the 'DeVilS
! 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 muffled oars
/ pulled by black-garbed servants bent on
! their masters cruel bidding. Here crimes
! of a horror that it is hard to picture have
| been perpetrated unwitnessed. Plash!
/ down in the deep, dark waters, struggling
/ but Voiceless unwept, uncofined and I'M
sung, form after form has gone to death
because of the caprice or hatred of the
| fretful, dark-eyed man in the palace on
| the hight.
More corpses of men and women this
| grim current has borne upon its breast
than any other stream in all the regions
| of the globe, as a Watery cemetery of
slaughtered innocence has been its his
tory. All who have sank into its tide of
| death will never be known, but the
| CHASTITY whms of the commander of the
faithful have thrown to it dainty women
| valiant soldiers, ardent statesmen and
| youths whose only fault was that they
| loved their country too we'll In the en-
brace of this cold current has been sti-
| fled forever a large share of Turkeys pa
| triotism, ability and womanly loneliness
Abdul Hamid, though he seems from his
presence to be the most relentless of all
the sultans, is but following in the foot
steps of the Padishahs that have been
going on silently. stealthily, fiendishly
for centuries. But Abdul Hamid his
hands already stained with the blood of
Armenians and other lawless acts COM
mitted in his domain, put the final touch
which has aroused the whole civilized
world, when by his express orders within
the past month he deliberately drowned
like dogs score of brilliant and patrl-
otto youths whose one aim was the bet
terment of their country, and who be-
lOnged to that fearless, thoughtful, earn
est band. the Young Turkish party.
Though the Mussulman pOtentate now
cringes feverishly at the feet of all the
| powers of the old world, asking pardon
for his inquiues and promising lavish re-
the past few years wholesale sacrifices to
the Devils Current have been going on
with the virulence of seventy years ago.
when, with one fell swoop, the Janizaries
We're wiped off the face of the earth. That
was a crime some details of which have
gone down to history.
Down by the waters edge, along the
sea wall of the old city, and on the beach
below the palace terraces. the little gate
or door, with its arched top from which
the Janizaries were thrown one by one
after they had been bowstrung by order
of the the reigning Padishah is still to
| be seen. When the Janizaries were sent to
| their death a gun doomed forth each
| body was cast into the Bosphorus, sig
mailing to the imperial despot that ven
| geance had been wreaked on his enemies.
! The little door has been the scene, be-
side, of many a harem romance and the
| rite. The novelist, Marion Crawford,
tells the oft-repeated story in a single
sapient sentence. Tradition he re-
I marks. says that through that narrow
I water gate more than one rebellious
1 beauty of the harem was carried out,
sewn in weighted sack. that her soul
4 might expiate her folly and her body
I feed the fish of the BosphOrus."
It is impossible even to estimate the
number OF frail fair ones that have met
| this awful death, for the harem of the
[ Moslem autOcrat is a sealed book to the
| outer world. What goes on behind its
| eVer-closed doors, what has gone on for
4 generations past will never be told.
! Fifteen hundred inmates make up the ha-
/ rem of the sultan, and il is remarkable
/ cruited at an enormous rate, slave girls
/ being continually brought from all parts
of the Turkish dominions, particularly
4 Georgia. Children are also secured, TAX
| en- in al tender age and placed under
/ the charge of women of experience TO
be trained in manners, music and dane
| ing and fitted for the position of harem
| faVorites What becomes of the older
| inmates in many cases may be readily
/ surmised
a harem is a little world, in fact, by
/ itself Its constitution is peculiar aud
I known by few. Into four classes the
I women and girls are divided. At the
I head stand the Kadines Who are more
I o. less legitimate wives. though never
( OF cially espoused. IL should be rcmcm-
I hered that IL Is not the custom Tor The
/ Turkish sultan 10 marry, though ln-
| sts noes OF padishahs having done SO are
/ NJ On. ~ LI.Inl.N