The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-24
THE GREATEST
 OF THE SULTANS

The septua genarian Mohammed ", Sultan of Turkey and so-ca1Ied Calif of 1 the Mos1erns. decrepit and i'll and like ly at any moment to be called by AL 1ah to the Paradise reserved for the faithful, is a pitiful figure in this great war. Peaceful and pious by tenn perament, he has been plunged into a struggle in which Turkey has taken the side of one aggregation of giaours which might be freely translated as 'tinddeI dogs''--against another. with the fate of the empire and the throne at stake. The heir to the throne, who opposed the Teuton domination and favored the A11iesJ has killed himself
 -or perhaps was assass1nated.
 In this crisis in Ottoman affairs Mo hammed V, does nothing but pray. With his face turned toward holy Mecca, his petitions ascent almost un- ceasingly to the throne of Allah. Yet there must be times when his timid spirit is exalted. when he longs to eIn- u1ate those immortal ancestors who conquered with their flaming swords a large part of Europe, overthrow an empire, and made Christendom quake with fear. Allah has not so Wil1ed it, however and the present Sultan, thir- ty-fifth sovereign, in male descent, of the house of Othnan, can only pray while he awaits the decision of the god of battles.
 Of all the Ottoman Su1tans the greatest was another Mohammed, sec- ond of that name to occupy the Fur kish throne. He was born in Adrian ople, which had been taken by the Turks in 1861. on the twenty-fourth of March. 1430, just 4s6 years ago to-day. He was the son of Amurath IT., who abdicated when Mohammed II. was twenty-one years old. From the beginning of his reign the young monarch was animated by the long cherished desire of his house to make Constantinop1e the capital of the Os- 1nanlf empire. Constantine XIII, the last, of the Eastern Caesars, had a1- ready been reduced to the position of ruling only over single city. That city Mohammed II, determined to take. The young Ottoman Emperor was a mixture of savagery and sci- ence, of nobility and ruthlessness. He entered into a treaty with Constantine to keep the peace, but the engage ment was only a scrap of paper, for he immediately began the construc- ton of a fort commanding the cap1- tai Two years after ascending the throne the Emperor sent his army. across the strait and laid siege to Constantinop1e Constantine had on- 1y 5000 soldiers for the defense of the city, which then had g population Of about 100000 while Mofaanmed's army numbered a quarter of a million,
 Constantine appealed to Rome for help, and received a company of priests.- Yet the defenders, few in numbers long held out. The great walls of the city were impregnable to the missiles thrown by Mohamfne s monster cannon. A chain stretched across the entrance to the Golden
 Horn kept out the Turkish fleet until Mo11amnled had built a sort of tram way or road of blanks over which the gaIIeys were hauled These were launched safely in the harbor and be- gan borabarding the city. At last the Turks made a, breach in the walls and swarmeds into the city. The Chris lions fought valiant1y, but they were heNn down by the rnerci1ess Ottomans. Constantine died fighting.
 At noon on the day of victory Mo manned the Conqueror rode in trf- urnp1a into the city and proceeded to the cathedral of St. Sophia, where the golden crescent of the Prophet float ed above the golden dome. In that ediffce, where Constantine on the pre- ceding night had received the holy. sacrament, Mohammed knelt and thanked Allah for his bloody victory. From that day to this ConstantinOp1e has been a NGos1em city; but to-day the successor of the Conqueror awaits in fear and trembling the issue of war which may drive him and his people back to Asia.