Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1911-08-18
C6eHAkING
Marvellous Wave Of New National
Life Sweeping Around the Earth
CongIomeratjon Of Races and ReIig-
Ion in Turkey.
BY WILLIAM =, ELLIs.

~ - S~As AOSNAS AA~~
che new regime in this country was
quite unintelligible to the western
world. The popular shrilling of Lib
'erty!" "Justice!" Equality" Fra
ternfty!" resounded throughout civil
Rization. Mullahs and Armenian
priests, green-turbaned descendants OF
the Prophet and Protestant Christians
fell on one another's necks indiscr1m-
inately in a deIiriurA Of rejoicing. It
was the intoxication Of the wine OF
civilization. The ancient, l~ongsuder-
ing and sadly used Ottoman empire
was beside itself with Joy. The trans
formation of Turkey into a constitu-
tional government will probably be
ranked as a of the great events Of
the new century.
The reason for all this Is that the
nations sleep had been a nightmare.
America has never developed a very
deep or intelligent interest in Turkey.
Consuls have for years hammered
away on the neglected trade oppor-
tunities here, and missionaries have
talked of the social and religious con-
ditions Of the empire. Even in the
safety of the free west nobody dared
say that Abdul Hamid was several
degrees worse than the ogres of the
fairy tales. Up to the year 1908 Tur-
key was more benighted than China.
New ideas and popular rights had
more opportunity in the celestial king
dom than in this nation which be-
strides the two continents of Europe
and Asia. The cunning r~esourceful-
ness Of the most tyrannous ruler of
modern history was used to keep out
AL that makes for enlightenment.
The Dark Days of Turkey.
Everybody whom one meets on the
streets Of Constantinople knows from
personal experience the horrors of the
old regime. Nobody was allowed to
study true maps or read real history.
Nobody was permitted to travel
abroad. Private letters, as well as
newspapers and books, were censored
by officials more alert than intelIi-
gent. They required that any book
which mentioned Turkish history
should cali a defeat a "retrograde ad-
vance," After censoring some bibles,
one Of the m~ultitudinous stories cur
rent has it, the functionary querul-
tously enQuired, "Who is this man
Paul, who is writing to those Gala
hians?"
Government was by assassination
and massacre. The dagger was at
the back Of every person Of force or
initiative or progressiveness. The
annotated and trembling body of that
~archcoward and tyrant Abdul Hamid
could have bathed for months in the
innocent blood Of the half million peo-
pie whom 1t Is estimated he had put
to death. Nobody knew whose turn
would be next. ~Covetousness, revenge,
Jealousy and, above all, fear conspired
to point the assassin's dagger. There
was a world OF significance in the re-
mark made to me by an old resident
of the empire as we rode up the
Bosphorus last week: "AlI the big
palaces within sight belonged to Abdul
Hamid." Nobody was allowed to pros
per greatly except the Sultan.
Revelations of the Spy System.
1t Is now known hat an incredibly
large number Of spies-more than four
Thousand one reliable statement has
!it-in all walks of life made daily re-
ports to this monarch of fear-bitten
mind. A large room in the war office,
next to that occupied by Mahmoud
fShevket, the Commander-in-chief of
the Turkish army, is now filed with
these documents, which were seized
along with less dangerous
and great stores Of treasure in Yildiz
palace.
A trusted committee is perusing the
documents, although the counsel OF
many was that they should be burned
unopened. 1t has leaked out that they
implicate high and low, native and
foreigner. In such a reign the finger
of suspicion inevitably points every
where. Perhaps most unsettling are
h sinister charges which one hears
against men connected with the for
eign legations. 1t would not be pleas
ant for Americans or Br1tons to feel
that persons, I'VE of minor position,
supposed to represent their interests
in Constantinople, had really been in
the pay of Abdul Hamid.
A National Serio-Conledy,
The dark ages have no story to
equal this one which Is to this day a
favorite theme Of conversation wher-
ever people meet. Abdul HamYd sleep
ing in one Of the multitudinous rooms
of that junkshop called Y1ldiz Palace
latter he had said he would sleep in
Others, luiled to rest by the cheapest
type Of sensational and melo-dramatic
French novels, dreaming over plots
against his life, practising with a
multitude Of r%evolvers (more than
three thousand were found after he
had been dethroned), his palace a
wonderful house Of fear, his eunuch3
possessing greater prestige and power
than the nations foremost statesmen,
h army and civil officials all parts
OF a fnalfgn machine, for which the
poor ove~rburdened people had to pay,