The Washington times., 1903-05-31
Constantd1ople, a City Of IN
paralLeEed SquaLor = The
Turk, a Child Economical
y, Half Way Back to the
Stone Age.
.Saltan' Habit of Suspicion
Grogus With Age and NogU
AmounfS to a Mental Dis
ease-An Easy Prey for
BLackmaflers.

DLdCRDIdtLSFS.
~iIo
re- CONSTANTINOPLE, May 30.-When.
the other day, in the British house OF
commons. Premier Balfour declared the
Turk is hopeless" he expressed the
opinion of everyone who has resided here
even for a short time. The Turk, by
great efforts, may for an interval keep
the Macedonian question this side of
war, but he will never settle it. 1t is
useless to expect MIN to do SO.
The Turk presents a serious spectacle
of arrested racial development. Except
for few trimmings supplied him against
his VIII by foreigners, he is Just where
he was in the year 1000. He absolutely
lacks capacity for business. whether In
his own affairs or in the management of
his country. Economically he is a child
half way back TO the Stone Age Were
he not frst-elass fighting man he
would have been crowded out of Europe
a century ago
A City of Squalor.
No better monument could be found
Of Constantinople. Here is a city and
suburbs with a population five times
larger than that of Rome and half a
million larger than that of Chicago, with
situation absolutely unequaled for nat
ural advantages. BY land IT is the meet
ing place of two continents; by water
the meeting place OF two seas. AT one
time the largest city in the world 1t
might easily become so again. Yet I'M
der the Turk it is the most squalid and
backward town in Europe.
There is not one clean or well-paved
street; there is not an electric car;
there is no telephone. no electric light
There is one good dock built by foreign
ers, but not a single modern appliance
for handling freight, in spite of the i'm
mense commerce which persists through
all obstacles. Running out of the city
is one one-track railroad. with one
through train a day and an extra trair
three times week. The mail service Ii
SO bad that foreign governments have
their own postofices here and the tele
graph censorship is so yexatious tina
messages are rarely sent
LUX produces Little.
One reason the country is so poor L
that except in agriculture the Turf
produces nothing himself. Money leave
the country much faster than it enters
IL TO buy almost every article of dali,
use from English and German manu-
facturers- The bazaars of STEAMBOAT ar,
full OF pots and kettles, cloth and furni
ture made in Birmingham and Darn
stadt. Rugs are about the only articI,
still made in the Ottoman empire. TIL,
Turkish shop itself is usually Mttl,
hole in the wall. with the entire stool
not worth more than $50. 1t is exacth
the kind of shop that existed every
where throughout Europe in the four
teenth century.
The only fine buildings in the city
except few built by foreigners. are
mosques and palaces That anythin.
should be well built merely for com
mereial reasons is beyond Turkish com
prehension- 1t is equally remote from
his ideas that his government should b,
run on business lines
Revenue by Extortion.
He gets revenue by extortion, office b,
bribery and removes his opponents by
Imprisonment or assassination Tn,
modern Turkish Official is a polite per
son In European clothes, who repeated
~ tell the powers he is going to reform
But he never has and he never will, AM
It is more because OF incaDacity thar
cussedness that he does not
The habit OF suspicion. always acute
has been growing upon the Sultan will
age, until now it amounts TO a sort o
mental disease. Some twenty years ag,
gypsy prophesied that he would be as
sassinated and he still firmly believe
1t. but the longer he cheats fate. m
more eagerly he plays the game agaius
destiny.
Secret Service His Hobby.
Secret service" especially in time
like the present, is bis special mania
Not long ago he was spending $40, 600
week on this branch OF his government
which in a country like this will bu
tremendous amount of spying an
lying. He has one spy watch anothc
and a third watch the second, and $
on The bulk OF the reports from thes
Enen Is malignant rubbish. but the
Keep Abdul Hamid in fever of sus
picion and leave no official safe IN hi
confidence. Great ministers trembIe /
his presence. never knowing what som
panic Of terror may lead him TO do.
One effect OF the Sulran's fears Is {
make him an easy prey for blackmail
ers. Recently French gutter journals
here wrote a series Of articles abusin
the Sultan personally. These article
were sent to a man on Paris newspa
per who was told to hold them unit
further orders Then the Frenchma
who had written them informed the pa