Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-02-04
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Turkey a congion'cration of Races ard Religions That Eaffies Attempts to Predict It's Future-The Great Greek Boycott.
By WILLIAM T. CLLI5.

Constantinople-- pleasant sensation of sitting upon q shoulder ilfg volcano may be enjoyed by any one who attempts to understand the Turkish situation. This great empire is made up of diverse and conflicting clements without any adequate afnal gamating agencies at work upon them, such as makes the creation of the American type the wonder of students here.
 Almost every ona in Turkey con- fesses allegiance to some cause or body higher than the government it. self. Patriotism is sEbordinated to nationalism. Men are Turks or Greeks or Armenians or Jews or Syrians or Arabs first-and Ottomans afterwards. Such congeries of dissimilar races is nowhere else closely gathered into one empire. I fail to see how they can ever possibly fuse. Each of these peoples is proud of it's own past and intolerant of any program that does not put it on top.
 More Tongues Than at Pentecost.
 
 commonly sees shop signs in five diff ferent languages. French is supposed to be the prevailing language of the higher circles of the city. Except for the work of the missionary schools the English tongue is losing ground. The German language is not making the inroads of other German forces loprp Ronooil tho 1,rror crl-ct Jpl,prn these European languages are recog- nized one finds more tongues than at Pentecost, and, incidentally, practical, ly all of the races mentioned in the Pentecost story in the Book of Acts, are now within the confines Of the Turkish empire
 Ten minutes upon the Calata bridge will give g vaster and better coneep- tion of the motley assortment of pso- nles with which the Turkish govern ment has to deal than a lcng ncWs- rarer article. Thanks to Ia1aln there 1 is no color line in Turkey. Across 1 this rickety bridge, all wearing the red fez or tarboosh, which marks Turkeys subjects in Ccnstantinorie, so 1 black Nub;ans from Africa, and blond 1 Circassians from the north, yellow
 Mongols and brown Arabs, with a1l 1 possible shades between the yblacl. and the white-Armenian. GIsck, Jew, Druse, Koord and~Turk. Tsse dress is more diverse than tho faces. There l is no spot on top of the earth so cosmopolitan as this shaly old struc- ture which joins Galata and Stamboul ] above the waters of the Golden Horn.
 Liberty That Will Kct Mix.
 "Wear any kind of clothes you please and it will he all right; nothing is strange in Turkey" So said an old resident to visitor. Turkey is tol- erant of all non-re,is.ous usagcs. l There is no kind of raiment that may 1 not be seen in half an hours walk in old Stamboul; there are more rags in French shoes Ottomans are fond of shoes, especially the women. Be- meath tLe hideous black garment (the ezar) that covers head, face and body there may be seen pccping out tho latest creation in tan CT fawn col ored Oxford ties. American enter prise is opening ID the shoe markets for Massachusetts rroducts.
 A queer local fashion is the devc- i tion to the bootblac11 There are no sidewalks to speak of, and yet it is a roint o, etiquette to keep ones shoes rolished. Bootb,aclls, who carry their kits on their shoulders, arc ss common as they were in American cities 20 years ago. The flextbility of Turkish manners-sonle of them primitive and to western ideas revolt,rg-speahs well for the open-niGdedness of this country
 These things are superficial. Be- meath them reigns a rigid loyalty to | ones own nationality and religion that 1 is the despair of all who hoped for a unified Ottoman empire. In this great 1 and fantastic city the life is grouped
 i'll various Quarters-the European quarter, the Greek quarter, the Ar 1 menian quarter, the Jewish quarter, and so forth. These different peoples ] do not at all blend; there is no in termarriage; each keeps it's own holi- | days; so that in every week ConStan-
 tinople has three Sabbaths-Friday
 for the Moslems, Saturday for the l Jews and Sunday for the Christians. | The last is the best kept one. Each nationality speaks of the others as they" I have heard Greeks and ] Armenians talking of the Turkish gov
 ernment, of which they are legally a
 part, as if they were speaking of some
 nation in Africa or America. There is