New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-28

await the decision with considerable unsad.
ness, he added:
81 do not think that our misled and nj,
guided friends, the Turks, will have any ,u,.
fears as TO the result Of the conference. az ".
have no quarrel with them, and they hav.
never shown any malice or hatred and b,v.
behaved we'll as warriors in the field. whs,.
we find cases of cruelty it is in ill-discipIin.d
irregulars of the bashibazouk type, recrui.sd
from criminals and outcasts Of many countrie.
1.-THE Turk is good fellow all round max.
these few remarks anent the Turks because II
is highly probable that at an early date III.
position of Turkey in this war may underso
considerable change, and in the near futursS.
Bagdad line may not be in German hands
1.-THE sole reason why the Turk has been al.
luded to as the sick man Of Europe is the IN.
capacity and callousness Of the Turkish Gov.
eminent. Official corruption has brought bad
name on a people who are mutually excellent
citizens-kindly, good-hearted and honest.'
Il is a great surprise 10 the person who ha,
not lived among the Turks and believes them
fre-breathing savages TO learn Of their love
for flowers. Few Americans would like to be
caught dead with blossoms in their hands, but
single bloom will make a wounded Turk hap
pier than a dozen packages Of cigarettes would
a Tommy who had stopped bullet
Visitors to the hospitals Of Constantnopls
have been almost mobbed by slightly wounded
soldiers in their eagerness to share the wild
flowers brought in from the banks Of the Bos.
porus. When the flowers are distributed the
inevitable cigarettes come next.
If no other incident could be cited TO Danish
the adjective "unspeakable' in connection with
the Turks, the following related by an Amer.
can who served in a Turkish hospital would
suffice:
A young Australian Of twenty, with a nasty
shrapnel wound in the thigh, CHANGED to be the
only Britsher placed in a Turkish hospital at
Beylerbey on the Asiatic shore Of the Bos.
porus. As the news of this lone English
speaking boy filtered through the native vii
lage. the old hanoums-the elder women-out
did themselves in visiting the lad and bearing
him flowers and sweets.
Perhaps he has a mother in England who
is waiting for him." was the remark Of one
of them. So much attention was given the
Australian that the other wounded in the hos.
pital took to grooming tremendously whenever
visitors would enter, in the hope Of attracting
part of the attention. OF course, their motive
was evident, for the wounded Turk is the last
man in the world to give way 20 his feelings
under pain.
The Turkish doctor in charge was actually
too kind to the lad, for in his solicitude 70 re-
move every fragment Of the shrapnel he kept
opening the wound every few days, until the
boy could stand it no longer and succumbed.
He was buried with full military honors,
and, after the Turkish custom, the coffin was
borne upon the shoulders of a squad for fully
five miles from Beylerbey to the English ceme-
terry at Haidar Pacha. There, beneath the
expresses that shelter the English troops killca
in the Crimean War-men whom Florence
Nightingale could not save-they laid the Aus
tralian away. The Rev. Robert Frew, the Eng
lish pastor, beloved alike by the Turks anC
British, read the burial service. The lad haC
a Christian funeral, with a company Of Mos
lem troops as a guard Of honor.
The gray-haired Turkish captain in charge
of the hundred stood at the foot Of the grave
with tears running down his cheeks. Il los
a boy just like him at the Dardanees,' h
said.