The San Francisco call., 1898-07-22
WHERE STANDS THE TURK7

lNCE the war with Spain began an incessant stream of dispatches, overfowng from the - press morning and afternoon, have kept us in- formed ot the tone of public sentiment concerning Ill London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, St. Petersburg and Vienna. We have not needed for advices concerning the sentiment of Madrid. We know what all these capitals think, at least what they are saying We live and move and have our being in that knowledge We animated by the consciousness that all Europe talks ot us and there of who are prouder of that than they of May day at Manila or the Glorious Fourth at Santiago.
 To our cup of bliss there is, however, one drop lacking. There is one capital from which we have not heard and in many respects is the most mpor- tant capital in the world. It is city where the public sentiment is always unique, and where the sympahies of the people, inspired by blackeyed girls and lemonade, continually fervent and unceasngly in terested in love-making and bloodshed. We have never yet been informed of the tone of the prevailing sentiment of Constantnople-t city of the Grand Turk
 This gap in knowledge of the sympathies of the nations IS vast and portentous. Of what avail is 1t to tell what Great Britain or France or Germany Russia is likely to do to when have finished with Spain and then leave ignorant of the course the Sublime Porte has mapped out for himself and his bashibazouks? How shall we know what to do
 
 what is being plotted between drinks of cool sherbets and the dances of Crcassan girls beneath the fretted domes and gded ceilings of the council chamber of the Yildiz kiosk?
 It IS all very well to send from Europe day after day. iterated and reiterated reports of what says Kaiser William and his Grace of Salisbury and the exuberant Chamberlain, but what the American peo- pie yearn to know is, Where stands the Turk? What thinks Abdul Hamid, brother of the crescent and lord of the sanguinary scimiter3
 When reports of the opinions and possible inter ferences in the of foreign powers are being cir cuated around it absurd leave out those of Con- stantnople. The Sultan has much right to be heard and reported as any Czar, Kaiser or Prime Minister It is true there newspapers of note in his kingdom to be quoted but there many tongues and surely they have said something. It not be that the Turks have ignored us and thought only of opium and their newest wives When they had wars we talked much of them and even gave them advice printed pictures of them and wrote poetry on their deeds. For them, therefore, to pay no at tention to in would be an impote- ness of which it is impossible to believe Sultan his people would be guilty
 Clearly the Grand Turk has opinion of this war between Christian nations Did not the Chris tians stop his wars? Shall he not feel inclined to return the compliment by stopping Christian wars? If there is to be any interference will he not fight and flesh again the swords that have grown rusty since the battles with the Greeks7 Therefore 1t is time we were told where he stands; which side he sympathizes; whether his braves appaudng when they see the stars and stripes, whether he has given orders that none but red and yellow shall be brought bloom this year in the gardens of Gull
 If he is on our side all right and need have no fears about a European concert The Sultan has had experience with such things. He can teach us how to make them as futile as the attempt of man with talow legs to walk through Hades.