The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-22

ed the people as IL lney were 50
me-" att grown troublesome to
t. -" Here is a powerful
,, .s. " free people. Give no.
of wealth grown to he
as . power in the State. and
ne at last corruption,
.ruelties. A wicked aris-
be seen TO be .ome wan
history shows all
: ages. There is nothing
lat eternal vigilance is
... .. liberty'-its only sure
a.. and that morality is the
trt a of sound, just, equal govern
menI.
Some year or two since, 7 read ex-
tracts from an English writer on the
subject of the canteen in European
armies. He said that the drink habit
was strong in the British army. In
| France it also abounded, but not so
much as among the English soldiers.
In Germany it was extreme. But
when he entered Turkey he found
] different conditions. He said that So
briefly universally prevailed among
Turkish soldiers. This astonished
him. While in the countries that had
a large proportion OF Christians in the
| outward appearance there was great
| drinking in the armies, and yet in a
country in which Mohammed was
Worshipped, there was an army of
| sober men who did not drink the fiery
/ fluid. How is this?
There is now a book out by an
American woman, / suppose, Lucy NJ.
j. Garrett. with the title, Turkish
Life in Town and Country" From it
learn that SO far from Turkey in
Europe being homogeneous people,
| that it is composed of the most hete
| rogeneous population, which is sur
! prise to me and must be to many
readers. From a notice of the book in
/ the New York Saturday Review | take
an illuminating passage which tells of
the variety of peoples in Turkey that
! will not or can not amalgamate. 1t
says:
Here are the original Osmanlis
who rule almost a dozen different
races the most marked being the
| Kurds, Circassians, Albanians, Greeks
! VlachS, Armenians, Jews, and Bulga-
! rians. Not only has Europe sent its
representatives to Turkey, but the
further East has contributed it's quota
1t is u country, then, where assimila-
ton has become impossible. Hates and
enmities have been engendeTed. For
the last 500 years the Ottoman Turk
has tried to keep within the bonds of
a united empire swarms of diverse peo-
pie AS it is, the Turkish element
forms but "a small proportion of the
population of European Turkey. The
wonder then is how the Turkish still
holds the upper hand. Lucy NJ. j.
i Garnett, in Turkish Life in Town
and Country" writes:
pride of race is excessive in the
Turks, and the habit of domination
has been developed by their position
as a ruling people surrounded by sub
iect nationalities. AS a nation, they
display an oyerweening sense of their
superiority to the subject races, haV-
ing no interests or aspirations in COM
| mon with them, never acquiring their
language or attempting to understand
their manners and customs, which
they may be said to regard generally
with a somewhat contemptuous toll
| GRAFTON"
There is something of a Reign of
Terror, it may be supposed, growing
out Of the conditions. Liberty of
| speech is al a discount, and there is a
| great constraint ruling in every de-
| automatically. politically and in
ventively. The moral life embracing
honesty is marked and sweeping. [
| quote again, from the Saturday Re-
| view:
THE Turk is truthful, and can be
| trusted. The lady writes that during
her long residence in Turkey she can
not recall single burglary. Then
temperance pervades all classes, and
more particularly these processing the
creed of Islam. Charity is universal"
| The traveller reports most faVora-
bly, OF the widely prevailing honesty
and sobriety OF the peasantry. Chris
tan nations are evidently far behind
them in this very important particular,
/ and they we'll might learn lessons just
| here. Miss Garnett writes that Phys
| ically a Turkish peasant is well built,
| healthy and owing no doubt to his
| habitual abstemousness, possessed of
| remarkable powers of endurance"
| The harem prevails among the
| Turks, and all Turks marry young.
and a wife is bought for the SON. IT
is stated that the Circassians furnish
/ the harems. Miss Garnet says of
the way the women amuSe themselves
that weddings and other family fes-
tivals, promenading, driving, shop
i ping, and going to the public ham
man or Turkish bath, are the chief
out-of-door amusements Of Mohamme-
| dan women. A man, be it observed,
never under any circumstances, goes
abroad in company with the women of
| his household
But while honesty and Sobriety pre-
vail the old brigandage spirit sur
| wives, and it seems to be a regular
/ calling in many districts in Turkey"
| The Government winks at this rapa-
city and violence and nothing is done
to suppress the brigandage. The au-
| thor writes that "Moslems and Chris
| tians all carry on brigandage. Some
| tunes all kinds of nationaiities belong
| to the same band. The accomplices of
| these rascals are to be found in most
of the towns and villages" With the
practice of polygamy and of brigand-
age the Turk is not a desirable neigh
Dor, and in some of his dealings he
merits the strong words of the great
| Gladstone that were applied to him
"the unspeakable Turk
Did you ever hear of the great
earthquake and tidal wave at the city
of Lisbon, in Portugal? 1t was the
greatest calamity that ever befeH q
city in modern times. The earth
quake occurred in 1855, on November
LIST. There has come down to us a
most graphic, elaborate, splendidly de-
scriptive account of it written, by an
English merchant who was in the fated
city and sal all the horrors that befell