The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25

one ideal one ambition--to end his days in the skin of an ofioiai. Ths duties of an official consist In doing nothing. or almost nothing. for Turkish bureau is a temple of idle ness. The Ottoman funetionary will make the unfortunate man who has to deal with him come time after time, to extract from him little bakehIck, or perhaps from more honorable mo- lives as. for instance to save himself the trouble of writing a letter or looking up q register. Of course there are among these officials men who are industrious and painstaking, but 1t is only the strongest will that can resist the enervatins atmosphere of Q Tur- kish ministerial department.
 When one has any business with the head ok an office. 1t is we'll to remen1- Der that he will wake out of his apathy only if bakehich is mentioned Then wnar q changei Hc shows at once energy, activity even rapidity. But if no reference is made to bakchich. he VIII listen to his solicitor with tn, air or man who Is half asleep. If m good humor he will offer a cga- rette, a cup of coffee. smile. but busi- ness will not advance an inch. I have been thirty.eight times q cou ted them like pcarls) to the Mini7try of Public Works to know in what depart tfent I could find somo information about q mining concession. It takes about eight months to obtain a reply about an affair of day: a year or two Tor nomination. and then one must go every day; for payment-it IS better not to talk aprut that. To obtain concession. there is no limit of time--people have waited twenty years.
 In addition to iaziness there is inaccuracy; the present Turkish on cial Is naturally inaccurate and habit and conceit made him more so. This perhaps is due to the way in whic1 Turkey measures time. Twelve o'clock Tn the day corresponds with sunset that is to say. whatever hour inc sun sets. t must always be twelve. Con sequeHtly the hours change always. getting later the first half of the year and earlier in the last, which cernIeis everybody to put his watch to daily torture. So no one in Turkey can flat ter himself that he has the exact time: the most strict of Englishmen soon loses his national punctuaItty. so when two Turks make an appointment tt Is within the limit of hais an hour or an hour, and even then thay dsu't generally arrive till after the time agreed on, each one calculating on the utmost possible delay on tho part of
 
 Consequently the state employees are not bound down by very severe dis- eipline; no ono expects thern to arrive at their office at any particular time especially as the majority of them go hardly at all As for the most in- dustrious. they appear for two or rhree hours in the afternoon only and ra'h- CT late: In tho morning. state offices are usually closed. Besides this. work days nre rather scarce for the race of officials. Friday is the Sabbath aY the Mohanmedans; Sunday ia the Hay af- ter a feast day.. and one does not do much then; Sunday the Greeks and Arr nenians remain. like good Christians. at home. and the Mohammedans gsDer- ally initiate so good an exaUpie; Mon ,iav Is again the morrow feast day: Wednesday there is a meeting of the Council of Ministers. and few emnloy- ees go then to the Ministry. With re- liRious festivals added in. IL ia easy to understand that out of the three hund- red and sixty-five days of the year there are not many left to Uoaeesrate 10 the Interests of the 0ttornan Em- pire.
 To be just. however. thera is a small number. a very small number. uf men who not only work regularly every day. but even carry their work home with them. Naturally. am not speak '