The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-08-11

{, ,ll;:]|{ AZ I; !
Marvellous Wave Of New National
Life Sweeping Around the Earth
Condemnation Of Races and ReIig-
ion in Turkey.
Rv WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
Constantinople. Turkey awoke |
with scream. The recent history of
the new regime in this country was
quite unintelligible to the western
world. The popular shrilling of Lib
erty!" "Justice!" Equality" Fra
ternity!" resounded throughout civil
lization. Mullahs and Armenian
priests, green-turbaned descendants of
the Prophet and Protestant Christians
fell on one another's necks indiscrlm-
inately in a delirium Of rejoicing. 1t
was the intoxication Of the wine of
civilization. The ancient, long-suffer
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 one 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 resourceful-
ness Of the most tyrannous ruler of
modern history was used to keep out
all 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 we'll as
newspapers and books, were censored
by officials more alert than intelli-
gent. They required that any book
which mentioned Turkish history
should call defeat "retrograde ad-
vance," After censoring some bibles,
one of the multitudinous stories cur.
rent has it, the functionary querul-
ously enquired, "Who is this man
Paul, who Is writing to those Gala
tians?"
Government was by assassination
and massacre. The dagger was at
the back of every person of force or
initiative or progressiveness The
emaciated 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 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: "All 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 that an incredibly
large number of spies-more than four
thousand one reliable statement has
tin 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
Shevket, the commander-in-chief of
the Turkish army, is now filled with
these documents, which were seized
along with less dangerous weapons
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 land
foreigner. In such reign the finger
of suspicion inevitably points every
where. Perhaps most unsettling are
the sinister charges which one hears
against men connected with the for
eign legations 1t would not be pleas
| ant for Americans or Britons to feel
that persons, even of minor position,
supposed to represent their interests
in Constantinople, had really been in
| the pay of Abdul Hamfd.
| A National Serio.Comedy.
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 Hamid Sleep
ing in one Of the multitudinous rooms
| of that junkshop called Yildiz Palace
after he had said he would sleep in
others, lulled to rest by the cheapest
type Of sentimental and melodramatic
French novels, dreaming over plots
against his life, practising with a
| multitude of revolvers (more than
three thousand were found after he
had been dethroned), his palace a
wonderful house of fear, his eunuchs
possessing greater prestige and power
than the nations foremost statesmen,
the army and civil officials all parts
of a malign machine, for which the
poor overwhelmed people had to pay,
pay. pay-is there anywhere in his
tory an equal chapter to this? Tur.
Fey knew a reign of terror; Abdul
Hamid represented reversion to bar
barism, and to the basest primitive in
stincts. eouinned With untold woa,th