The Washington herald., 1908-01-05
COMICAL RED FEz
First Thing Which In
presses Visitor.
FROM "THE RUIN OF EMPIRES
City of the "sicI< Man." Ding
Through Dead Mems Bones, bee
Hive, Humming with Men Of Many
Races and Many PurpOses-Ro-
nance with Modern Appliances.

Constantinople, Jan. 4-The first I'M
preston is that of a heaG-dress; the
whole population in the crowded streets
wearing exactly similar hats-the com
ical red fez, which symbolizes loyalty to
the Turkish rule.
The second is of the almost complete
absence of women in the streets. This
swarming, hurrying multitude which
streams continuously over the old wooden
bridge flung across the Golden Horn
and gives all the town the appearance OF
! a restless antheap, is made up almost
entirely Of men in various clothes and
red hats
And the third is of confusiOn-a con-
fusion which is full of picturesque ele-
ments. and TO the tolerant mind not I'M
pleasing. Drivers, uttering weird cries.
force their vehicles through the solid
mob of pedestrians; here traffic is de-
Ilayed by three men rolling an enormous
barrel up the hill: here swing by line
Of donkeys bearing panniers of bricks,
! humping against the passers-by; hers.
lagain. men lunge into the chaos bearing
bedsteads or pieces of machinery slung
or long flexible poles.
Narrow, Winding Streets.
The whole is pent up in mar
row. winding streets, with tall houses.
which almost shut out the sky,
paved with cobblestones. which cut the
feet and render the noise intolerable.
And around all are the brown ours which
seem the most congruous inhabitants OF
the hive, which are always almost being
run over or trod on, but which always
escape to make the night tuneful with
their dolorous hOwlngs when the sound
of the human traffic has died away.
It is a cosmopolitan city, with 10000
Greeks, as many Jews and Armenlans'
with the Turk dominant, but now scarce
w distinguishable in his sOmber European
garb from the races which he controls
IL is difficult TO identify these stout,
smiling persons. or shabby, good natuned
soldiers. with the race which held Chris
tendon in terror for so many centuries
Visit the little Museum of the Janis
saries. AZ the side OF the Hippodrome,
and you will pass back again from these
hybrid descendants to the genuine
Asiatic conqueror.
Here Is the Old East.
For here is the East as it was for so
long seen in nightmare by a terrified
Europe. Waxwork figures dressed in
fantastic garments. arrogant. Indifferent,
cruel. In these images OF old mysterious
men, with their dwarfs and eunuehs and
lighting followers, there is the revived
sense of something remote and hostile,
the product Of an alien world The in
auence of a city which is made out Of the
ruin of empires where the very fOunda-
tions of each new house are dug through
dead mems bones, has transformed in so
short a time this violent. dominant race
: into that sick Man" around whose bed
2 side to-day the nations are gathered In
, furtive lust for his inheritance
The city is full Of rumor. These Euro
% peanized, twentieth-century crowds which
shamble through the narrow streets or
sit inscrutaRle at the doors of their little
houses are enduring one Of the most
7 amazing systems of government which
= the world has even seen.
Romance with Modern Appliances
It is the later Roman empire equipped
2 with all the resources of modern sci
e ence: the Louis XI of romance armed
with the telegraph and the Mauser rife
= In that modest villa of Yildiz, with its
pleasant park set high above the Bos-
phorus, they are listening at the end OF
, wires which stretch to SalOnica and Bag
: dad The whole enormous disarray OF the
Turkish empire. ruling ten races and re-
ligions, is concentrated here in the hands
@ Of one man; in the eyes OF some, hall
] @H-. r.FFe half ma.
+ MAC; to all. wholly despotic and trium
phant His direct nominees, sent fortf
, from the palace, reign over the distant
: provinces, but they can never cut The
\ Lcontrolling wire, his spies go out tC
q watch his governors. and his spies L
n watch his spies Tales are told of the re
suit Of this system which would be in
: credible If they were not authentic. /
= is not a Turkish dcspotism II is ma
q chine which enlists men of talent wh'
& will accept its conditions from all races
II there are Greeks. Albanians, Arabs, ant
n Syrians even in the highest places.
f. Scent Danger from Afar.
e The censorship scents danger from afaT
} and when in doubt destroys. A TuTl
!. publishes an encyclopaedia from whicl
) all reference to Turkish affairs is sedu
r lously removed. The second edition
q suddenly confiscated He inquiries tn
# reason. What of this" he is told +'Yo
r., describe here a tribe in Central ASH
e which worships a tree When the tTe
d does not give them what they desire the
d cut il down. Do you think we don
know what you mean by the tribe an
IS the tree? A" The River Martha is sup
l. posed to be included in the ambitions 0
= a greater Bulgaria. Certain translation
1t are expunged from a Bulgarian hym
Ia book. Among others, Shall We Gathe
s at the River?" ''You think us FOOLS"
ID the explanation DO you think we ar
" so stupid as not TO see that this 'beaut
b. full 'shinin' river at which your chi
c. dren are being taught to gather is tn
Id Maritza?"
ct a Typical Instance.
e The governor of Pera sends TO a mel
q" chant (an English subjecD demand fC
ct GiOO. The merchant asks why he shoul
al pay. He receives answer that the amour
TT has now gone up to f700 and that if /
le refuses he will be killed.
e. Mr.. Wells pictures a whole populatio
u waiting for change, good or i'll, "whe
a the Sleeper wakes" The East is waitin
- for change when the Sultan dies" It
ed to be heard everywhere; in Bulgaria,
Constsntnople, at Salonica. In Mace
donla. It is the inevitable end of despot
government. No one knows who the ne
Sultan will be. No one knows what
o. will be. There may be plot and advel
v tGre feFmenting in those crowded Gil
y lanes which seem so incuTiouS and tTal
:, quill There may be-as in so many sim
lar utocracies-provincial risings at Il
1rnnnnant of change There are rIInn