The Washington herald., 1911-10-08

Many Americans, hearing for the first |
time that in some respects no people
are more likable than the Turks, Will
find 1t hard TO reconcile this view with
the stories they have heard of their
cruel and bloodthirsty nature. 1t is but
natural that all should ask: How is 1t
possible that they should be kind and
gentle when they commit such barbaric
deeds?"
The Turk in private life is kind and
gentle, but let his religious fanaticism
be aroused and he will slay in cold
blood women and the children on their
breasts. He will, in a rebellion, burn
down homes and shoot the inhabitants
as they try to run to safety. There are
Bulgar!ans and Armenians living to-
day who have gone through scenes OF
untold terror. Naturally they do not
love the Turk. And yet, Englishmen
and Americans who live among them
come to feel a real affection for them.
You may meet pasha day who may
captivate you by his kindness and win
ming personality and the very next day
he may have a prisoner tortured to
death with absolute unfeeling.
The explanation is that the Turk still
he holds life and suffering as of little
importance. This Indifference to physi
cal pain is characteristic of the East.
Why? The Orient still is in the dark
ages. Human suffering means little TO
them. They have not yet cultivated
sensitiveness to it. Numerous forms of
torture still exist there, terrible in their
simplicity At Samarkand, the legendary
city of Mira Shaffy. 1t has been the
custom to throw criminals from a high
| tower in the center OF the city. An
| other form of execution was that of
drawing them over roughly paved streets
behind swift horses. Still more inter
esting" a death awaited political Of
| tenders There is a deep pit in that
city, full of loathsome vermin. and a
victim thrown to them is eaten up grad
| ually.
And it was no better in Constantinople
itself Many a fine young man of pro-
gressive ideas found his last bed on
| the bottom of the Bosphorus after be-
| ing strangled with thin silken cords. In
| the face of all this, how can II be be-
lieved that the Turk is kind and even
gentle? This is a thing for the psy-
| biologists to solve. There Is a saying
| Scratch a Russian and you will find a
Tartar and so beneath the gentle man.
| ner and kind heart of every Turk lie
volcanic possibilities of religious fanat-
icism.
Terrible massacres took place in Persia
on account of religious fanaticism
against the Babis. The same barbarous
treatement was accorded the Armenians
by Abdul Hamid and his advisers. Whole
villages were cut to pieces, men, women,
and children. The wounded were piled
upon brushwood soaked in kerosene and
burned alive. While the Turks were re-
sponsible for these outrages, they did
not participate in them actively. The
bloody work was done by the Kurds a
tribe much more savage and uncivilized
than the Turks. Some of the Turks even
sheltered their Armenian neighbors. The
responsibility rests upon the shoulders
Of the sultan and his ministers.
In other directions 1t is interesting to
trace the medieval character of the Turk
ish civilization. In religion 1t Is distinctly
medieval. Islam is still a religion of au-
thority. The voice of the priest is all
powerful He rules his ignorant followers
through their ignorance. The KoranSis
written in old Arabic and cannot be un-
Iderstood even by those who know how to
read modern Arabic. 1t has not yet been
translated into Turkish. When II is read
in the mosques, 1t is read in the original
Arabic, which conveys no meaning to the
Turkish peasant. The clergy, alone DOS
sessing the key to the Scriptures, have
unlimited power to interpret them as they
wish, and the complaint of educated Mo-
lhammedans Is that the clergy have dis
torted the teachings of the prophet.
But there is a movement on foot to
get back through the mass of priestly
interpr citations tc the Koran itself A
Protestant wave is sweeping over Islam,
and secretly and very cautiously trans
lation of the Holy Scripture of the Mo-
hamsnedans Is being prepared into mod
ern Turkish. The grip of the clergy is
waning the dervishes are holding less
sway in proportion as the people are be-
coming educated.
In education also Turkey Is still in the
Middle Ages. Its system is scholastic.
The whole trend Of studies Is religious.