The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-08-10
BY WILLIAM T, ELLIS.

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 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-
dittons 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 a defeat "retrograde ad-
vance," After censoring some bibles
one Of the multitudinous stories cur
rent has it, the functionary querul-
ously enquired, "Whs 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 q world of significance in the re-
mark made to me by an old resident
OF the empire a. 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 tho 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 filed 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 and
foreigner. In such reign the finger
OF suspicion inevitably points every
where. Perhaps most unsettling are
tho 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 Hamid.
A National serlo-c 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 sensational and melo.dramatic
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 nalign machine, for which the |
poor 1verburdened people had to pay,
pay, pay-is there anywhere in his. |
tory an equa! chapter to this? Tur-
Eey knew A reign Of terror; Abdul
Hamid represented a reversion to bar
sArism, and to the basest primitive in.
f1actA equipped With untold wealth