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Deposited by the
Linonian and Brothers Library

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*^".', • .

DIVERSIONS

OF A

DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY,

BY

SAMUEL S-^''COX.

hate American Minister to 7^urkey.

Author of "Buckeye Abroad," "Eight Years in Congress," '•Win
ter Sunbeams," "Why we Laugh," "Free Land and Free
Trade," "Arctic Sunbeams," "Orient Sunbeams,"
" Three Decades of Federal Legislation,"
"Isles of the Princes; or, the Pleas
ures OF Prinkipo," etc.

'The wealth of shifting hues that lies
In Eastern Earth's unfathomed heart.
For every season's change supplies
A counterpart. "

NEW YORK:
CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO.
1887.

Copyrighted, 1887,
CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO.
{AU rights reserved.)

PRESS OF
JENKINS & McCOWAN
224-228 CENTRfc; St.

PREFACE.

The title of this volume indicates its scope and spirit. It has
little to do with the art of Diplomacy. It is a Diversion because it
turns aside from that esoteric art. Out of the channels of the
diplomatic movements of Constantinople, and aloof from the cares
and studies of the Author's ministrations in the East, it seeks to
impart something of the relaxation, if not the amusement, which
furnished the pastime of a sojourn of unequaled refreshment and
entertainment. The contrarieties of this experience furnish abundant sources
of humor, to those who regard the essence of that subtle element
as the inversion of human nature, in its outre and peculiar phases.
How the observation of that human nature, under these strange
conditions, affected the Author's own sense and associations, he
has is these pages, assisted by the artist, essayed to portray. But
it must be remembered that what would seem ludicrous, odd and
funny to an American, might not seem so to an Ottoman, a Greek,
an Armenian, a Bulgarian or any of the other Oriental peoples.
Constantinople is the capital of the Ottoman empire. It is an
empire of vast dimensions. It is the seat of the central government.
Its people are of every race and nationality. It has seventy odd
dialects. It is composite beyond any other capital.
Upon these diverse races the Holy Ghost was outpoured at
Pentecost. They were anciently governed by Roman and Byzan
tine rulers. This capital was, and is now, the genius of the Mos
lem faith, whose pulsations are potential in three continents. Even
the distant regions now being opened in Africa, from Zanzibar

VI PREFACE.
to the mouths of the Congo, and from the Cape to the Atlas
Mountains, feel the throbbing of this faith. It has affected and
still affects the Hebrews in their wanderings and destiny. It has
yet much to do with Christianity, as well by its rule over Palestine
as by its control over the Churches of the empire. These wide
relations give added interest to this remarkable city, its people
and government.
Constantinople was the supreme seat of the ancient Christian
councils, and the theatre of the most remarkable and wasting wars.
Its changes are as startling as its sieges and romances. Its name
recalls contests with the races of Greece and Central Asia, and with
the chivalry which gave its glamour to the Crusades. Where
is there a spot more vital with interest and glory ?
Some of the chapters in this volume are dedicated to a descrip
tion of the races which were once enlightened and the religion once
expounded by Chrysostom, Gregory and Athanasius. Their
candlesticks have fallen and their lights are extinguished. They
need to be re-illumined. The efforts made by the Christian
teacher and missionary will show how far this enlightenment may
partake of its early splendor. The American missionary is fore
most in this work. The West is supplying the East with the
brightness of that torch which the East gave to the West many
•centuries ago. Along with the Living Word, which informs and
inspires our better nature, is that subtle knowledge which the
West is returning to the East concerning chemistry and other
sciences. These elements of physical philosophy, which came out
of the Orient, have a reflux, with ever-widening applications from
the Occident, and are opening revelations beyond all the marvels
of Arabic alchemy and astrology.
The first part of this volume concerns a sojourn of the Author
among the diplomats of the Upper and Lower Bosporus, and his
observations in and around the city.
The second part undertakes to deal with the ever-recurring
Eastern question. Recent events in Asia, Africa and Europe,

PREFACE. Vll
especially in Egypt, Armenia, Bulgaria and East Roumelia, give
to this discussion an interest worthy of statesman-like study. I
have eliminated from it all minor details, with a view to the general
and permanent phases of the question as it affects the races and
religions which have Constantinople as a centre and the horizon
•of the world as a circumference.
In a volume of this kind it is not intended to make either a
•diagnosis of the disease with which the Orient is said to be
afflicted, or an analysis of the government which theoretically is
almost perfect. The divisions of the empire for demonstrative pur
poses are, first, into vilayets, governed by a vizier. These are subdi
vided into sandjaks, each under the rule of a pasha. There are other
subordinate divisions. There is much fluctuation in the political
¦divisions of Turkey, but there is more of the old spirit of municipal
freedom inherited from the ancient Arab, Greek and Roman rule
than the political and speculative philosophy about Turkey recog
nizes. It is this spirit which gives permanency to government in
the Orient.
While I am not prepared to say that the Turkish empire has
been failing during the last three or four decades, yet if the reader
will lake the changes of two centuries, especially from the time
when the Turkish power menaced Vienna, there has been a great
•declension. At the taking of Constantinople in a. d. 1453 the Otto
man empire had reached its acme. Those limits it can never reach
again. Perhaps no country will ever boast, in our day, of such a
quick and splendid conquest as the Ottoman made over the Orient,
including the Balkans and the Danube.
Has the reader ever pondered upon what a wide jurisdiction
the Sultan once exercised and what he still has ? It is upon
the boundary line between three continents. Within its dominions
are the most celebrated cities of classical and sacred history, or,
at least, they have been comprised within this dominion. The
sites of Carthage, Memphis, Nineveh, Tyre, Ephesus, Tarsus,
•Babylon and Palmyra; the cities of Alexandria, Jerusalem,

Vlll PREFACE.
Damascus, Smyrna, Nicaea, Broussa, Athens, Philippi and Adrian-
ople; and those other celebrated cities, Algiers, Cairo, Mecca,
Medinah, Bassorah, Bagdad and Belgrade — all delivered their
golden keys to the Sultan, as their Suzerain, The Mediterranean,
the Sea of Marmora and the Black and Red seas saw the Turkish
Crescent, and their waves were stilled before Turkish valor and
seamanship. What mountains and ranges this empire compre
hended ! The Atlas and the Caucasus, Athos, Sinai, Ararat,
Carmel, Taurus, Ida, Olympus, Ossa, Pelian and Haemus, and
the Carpathian and Balkan ranges — these were, or are yet, a part
of this remarkable realm. It embraced the most opulent and
lovely regions of the world. It is full of historic memories, redo
lent of classical mythology and sacred to the memory of pro
phets and apostles who pursued their glorious paths through these
vast dominions. And yet — and yet all bowed in the end before
the nomadic Seljukian Turk, who came out of the recesses of
Asia and elevated the Crescent and Star by his energetic zealotry
in religion, his genius in polity, and his invincible force in war.
Samuel S. Cox.
New York, September jo, 188"/.

DEDICATION

F E I?, Ivi: I S S I O IST.

To His Majesty Abdul Hamid II.,
Emperor of the Ottomans, etc., etc.
During nearly two years of sojourn at the capital of your empire
I was not unobservant of its situation as a grand entrepot of com
merce as well as of its scenic enchantments. During that time, and
while near Your Majesty as the American Minister, it was my
special gratification to receive conspicuous marks of your friend
ship for my country, and I may add, if it please you, for my wife and
myself These evidences of your regard have followed me home
and into another sphere of public life. Since my return to America
I have often pondered over my reminiscences in the Orient.
Among all their delights, none are more alluring than the recollec
tion of the relation which I sustained at your capital.
I have observed the complex form of the government or gov
ernments of your empire, and admired the skill, vigilance and
probity which you brought to bear in the reconciliation of all
interests and the maintenance of your authority, not only as a civil
ruler but as the head of the great Faith of the Orient.
In the following pages I have endeavored to do credit to my
observation by never omitting to be just to your efforts for the
maintenance of peace, and your forbearance and moderation in
promoting harmony between other governments and your own.
I therefore have asked the privilege — so kindly accorded — of
dedicating this volume to Your Majesty, as an evidence of the
regard which I cherish, as well for your public virtues as for
your private character. I have the honor to be.
With the highest respect,
Samuei S. Cox.
New York City, September jo, i88y.

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ABDUL HAMID IL
PRESENT SULTAN.

contents;

PAGE
Preface  ,,
JDedication in English — ) bj^permission—  , . vi.
Dedication in Turkish — ( to the Sultan   vii.
CHAPTER L
Arrival at Constantinople . ,  i-6
CHAPTER n.
Waiting for the Reception — Obsequies of General Grant-^The Lega
tion — Residence — The Salemlik Music  7-10
CHAPTER III.
Reception by the Sultan  1 1-26
CHAPTER IV.
The Sultan at Prayers— Salemlik  27-35
CHAPTER V.
The Sultan in his Yildiz Kiosk— Presentation of American Books  3^-45
CHAPTER VI.
Social Life at Constantinople — A State Dinner and Decorations  46-62
CHAPTER VII.
Diversion in America over Diplomacy in Turkey  63-75
CHAPTER VIII.
Compendium of Ottoman History  76-85
CHAPTER IX.
The Origin, Power and Fall of the Janizaries  86-95
CHAPTER X.
Salient Features in Ottoman Empire — French Influence  96-102
CHAPTER XL
The last four Sultans — Incidents of their Reigns  103-1 1 1
xiii

xiv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
The Latin Conquest of Constantinople  112-119
CHAPTER XIIL
The Capture of Constantinople by the Turks  120-135
CHAPTER XIV.
The Upper Bosporus — Diversions at Therapia  136-153
CHAPTER XV.
Possibilities and Actualities of Petroleum— American Interests  154-174
CHAPTER XVI.
Characteristics of Races and Classes in Turkey  175-186
CHAPTER XVII.
The Jews of Turkey  187-207
CHAPTER XVIII.
Rehgions of the East — The Caliphate and its Consequences  208-217
CHAPTER XIX.
Religions of the East— Moslem  .-  218-231
CHAPTER XX.
The Orthodox Greek Church— Its Origin  232-255
CHAPTER XXI.
The Orthodox Greek Church— Its Architecture, Synods, Progress,
Condition and Severance from Rome  256-277
CHAPTER XXII.
The Latin Church — The Armenian -Catholic — The Armenian Grego
rian Churches— Bulgarian and Other Churches  278-293
CHAPTER XXIII.
American Missions in Turkey — Their Magnitude — Obstacles and Rights 291-303
CHAPTER XXIV.
Turkish Language and Literature  304-314
CHAPTER XXV.
Turkish Wit and Humor  315-326
CHAPTER XXVI.
Stories of the East — Their Moralities  327-347

CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XXVIL
Among the Cadis — Mahometan Justice — Humorous Illustrations  348-363
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Dragoman's Story — "Which of the Two, the Bad or the Stupid
Man?"  364-372
CHAPTER XXIX.
Diversions at the Legation  373-382
CHAPTER XXX.
The Lower Bosporus — The Cosmopolitan and Kaleidoscopic City —
Scenes at the Bridge  '.  383-4- r
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Caiques of the Bosporus .  402-416
CHAPTER XXXII.
Dogs of Constantinople — A Canine Republic — Fights..,  417-433
CHAPTER XXXUI.
Diversions in Pera  434-45 ^
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Scenes and Diversions in Stambor.l  452-472
CHAPTER XXXV.
Scenes and Diversions around the City of Stamboul  473-485
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Democratic-Republican Features in Turkey  486-497
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Turkish Time— Fasting and Festal Days  498-5 1 1
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The Harem— Innovations — Dresses and Incidents  512-529
CHAPTER XXXIX.
The Eunuch and other Incidents of the Harem  530-540
CHAPTER XL.
Slavery — Its Conditions and Mitigations  541-544
CHAPTER XLI.
L'enfant Terrible Turk— Education of Children  S4S-S6i

Xvi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XLII.
Marriage of Moslems— Mahometan Marriages and Their Consequences 562-580
CHAPTER XLIII.
American Institutions in Turkey— Our Schools and Colleges  5^1-597
CHAPTER XLIV.
Contrariety of Opinion about the Fate of Turkey  598-608
CHAPTER XLV.
Resources of Turkey — Taxation — Brigandage and Finances  609-621
CHAPTER XLVI.
Is Reform possible in Turkey ? — Railroads of the Empire in Existence
and Projected  622-632
CHAPTER XLVII.
Oriental Problems — Prince Alexander and the Insurrection in Bulgaria 633-641
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Balkan Peninsula ; Roumania ; Servia — Preparations for fighting —
Greece — Its King and Queen  642-657
CHAPTER XLIX.
Bulgaria and its Capital — Russia in the Conflict  658-666
CHAPTER L.
Fighting between Servia and Bulgaria — Prince Alexander  667-675
CHAPTER LI.
F^esignation as Minister — Return Home— Prince Ferdinand — Fresh
Events — Horoscope of the East — Conclusion  676-685

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Steel Portrait of Author  Frontispiece.
Map of the Bosporus  ix
City of Constantinople  x
Dedication to the Sultan in Turkish  xii
Portrait of the Sultan on Horseback (colored)  xiii
United States Summer Legation at Therapia  5
Palace of Dolma-Bagtche  13
Gate of Dolma-Bagtche Palace  15
Sultan's Coachman  16
Kiosk of Fhlamour  17
Dwarfs of the Palace   22
Garden and Palace of Yildiz  25
The Sultan's Favorite Steed " Ferhan"  32
Hamal Carrying United States Census to Yildiz  38
The Sultan's Kiosk at Yildiz  40
A Moslem at Prayer  42
Cablakiai, or Food Carrier  51
Cuisinier, or Cook  52
Legation Steam Launch Sunset off Prinkipo  65
Mehmet, The American Kavass  69
A. A. Gargiulo, Dragoman of the United States Legation  71
The Minister's Four-Horse Act —an Ideal  73
Girding on the Sword of Osman  79
Tombs of the Founders of the Turkish Empire, Osman and Orchan  81
Genealogical Tree of the Ottoman Rulers  83
Aga, or Chief of the Janizaries  87
Commissary of the Janizaries  88
Chief of the Janizary Chasseurs  '  90
Arms of the Janizaries  92
Old Guns of the Janizaries  94
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent  98
Roxolana, his best beloved Wife  gS
Sultan Abdul Medjid, Father of the Present Sultan  108
Sultan Abdul Aziz, Brother of the Present Sultan  109
Map of Constantinople at the Conquest  112
Dandolo, Doge of Venice   117
Castle of Romoli-Hissar  125
Bursting of Gun  130

X Vlll LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS.
Gypsies of the Bosporus  I44
Life-Saving Breeches  149
Map of the Caspian Oil Region  155
Nymphs of Ancient and Modern Byzantium  160
The Hebrew Tinkering an American Petroleum Can  ,  162
A Bulgarian Woman  ->  179
Albanian in Costume  182
Circassians  183
A Hebrew from Jerusalem  205
A Moslem Reading the Koran  215
Dancing Dervishes  227
Fac-simile Signature of the CEcumenical Patriarch, Simeon I. A. D. 1474. . 254
Fac-simile Signature of CEcumenical Patriarch, Metrophanes III., A. D. 1567 258
Dionysius V., The Greek Patriarch — Recently Elected  271
The Armenian-Gregorian Patriarch — Monseigneur Vehabedian  285
The Coat of Arms of the Washington Family  290
' ' Ghit ! " With the Kavass  305
A Goose-Fight near Adrianople  318
Scene from the Cadi, Chapter XXVIL, Page 349  318
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba  322
Pasha of Bagdad on a Spree  325
Hodja's Picture  334
Hodja Without his Latch-Key  335
The Hodja Sneezing in the Well  339
The Hodja's Donkey on his Veracity  339
The Donkey's Ears and the Crazy Man  346
A Modern Cadi  348
Amij'ig the Cadis  ¦^^q
Turkish Lex Taliohis ; or, Jumping on the Old Man  355
The Donkey as a Detective  gen
The Worst Man in Turkey  366
The Stupidest Man in Turkey  368
The Sponge-Diver at the Legation  375
Moussa Bey Buys a Bible  370
Constantinople in A. D. 1632  ^83
Four Separate Groups on the Sultana ValidS Bridge of Different types, viz. :
1st Group: Tart-Seller; ^d Group : Zebeck from Interior;
Arab from Mecca ; Circassian ;
Rug Pedler; Arab from Bagdad;
Turcoman  391 Syrian Nomad  397
sd Group: Turkish Woman from Mecca; 4th Group: Ice-cream Seller;
Armenian Family; A Candy-Man;
Womanand Slave from Saarit; Water Pedler-
Kurdish Woman from In- Plate Merchant  399
tenor  393
The Mosque of Ortakeui and the Caiques  407
Caique at the " Sweet Waters " of Europe  [ " " .qq-
Ancient Galley   ~/

LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIONS. XIX
Dogs in the Streets of Constantinople  417
Donkey Riding in the Orient  425
A Dog Fight in Constantinople  427
A Turcoman and his Bears  436
The Meat Seller and the Hungry Packs  447
The Burnt Column of Constantine  454
Bazaar Scene  ,  460
The Turkish Cemetery at Scutari  476
Tomb of Ali  479
" Sweet Waters " of Asia  483
Group of Turkish Women at " The Sweet Waters."  484
Moon-Gazers Running for the Reward at Bairam  505
Interior Staircase of Dolma-Bagtche Palace  507
A Turkish Lady of 185 1  ,.  513
A Turkish Lady of 1887  516
Turkish Lady and Slave in the Harem  518
The Muchoir Dance in the Harem  523
The Eunuch of 1887  530
Black and White Eunuchs and Dwarf in 1807 (colored)  535
Turkish School Children  552
Turkish School Teachers  ;   554
A Sum in Turkish Arithmetic  557
An Old Woman Looking for Brides m the Schoolroom ,  570
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, First President of Robert College  584
The American Robert College  591
Turkey and the " Powers" Ready to Carve  603
Bashi-Bazouks  617
The King and Queen of Greece  655
Palace of Sophia — Bulgaria  661
Parliament Building at Sophia, Bulgaria  661
Prince Alexander of Battenberg, Prince Ferdinand of Coburg, the Czar
of Russia  677

CHAPTER I.
ARRIVAL AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
It is easier to do a thing again, than to do it the first time.
This is a simple statement of a fact sometimes forgotten. Twice
before my appointment as Envoy to Turkey, I had been to Con
stantinople. On the first occasion, in 1851, in life's morning, we,
— we, I say — on a honeymoon — sailed thither in a French steamer
up the Mediterranean. On the second occasion, thirty years
afterwards, we traveled to Turkey from the land of the Mid
night Sun. After visiting St. Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa,
we crossed the Black Sea. We arrived in time to meet our then
new Minister, General Lewis Wallace — of literary and military
fame. Upon his staff, I temporarily served when the Minister was
first presented to the Sultan.
Unlike our first voyage, the difficulty in reaching Constan
tinople in the year 1885 was at the start. There were strong
bonds which attached us to our home and city, and myself to
long-accustomed congressional life. Leaving the latter was a
resignation more Christian than political. After the sumptuous
Oriental banquet with which the people of New York honored me
at the Hoffman House — a repast which had all the gravity of at
traction and the levity of festivity — there arose other impedi
ments. It was as difficult to leave the harbor as it was to obtain '
the consent of constituents. Then, in mid-ocean, among the ice
bergs of the banks of Newfoundland, the steamer of the Cunard
line — the Gallia — broke her shaft, as if reluctant to bear us away.
This incident may not be placed to the account of " Diversions."
Our ocean voyage was nearly a score of days, when it should have
been but half that time. Although we had not the full allowance
of sea stores on board, we had the skill of mechanism, by which,
after many days of atixiety, our shaft was patched up and the
engine was again in motion.
The Fourth of July reached us when we were in sight of Ire
land. That was a Diversion. Despite many sick days the writer

2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE V.
had occasion to indulge his rhetorical jubilation. He endeavored
to prove to his British cousins on board that our Revolutionary
War was fought to assert the principles of the English constitu
tion ; and that, in vindicating those principles. Great Britain was
aggrandized by the magnificent secular growth of her successfully
rebellious step-child.
Between Washington and Constantinople, forty days are al
lowed the Minister. Every^ one of these days was occupied,
partly by the misadventure to the Gallia, and partly by reason
of the earthly rest at London, Paris, Munich, Vienna and Buda-
Pesth. Many of the " Diversions " recorded in this volume were not
simply produced by observation abroad, but by observations at
home as to our movements. The cable seems to have
been no unreluctant medium for remarkable stories. In this office
it fulfilled one demand of humor, which may consist in retailing
huge unveracities. For instance, the interesting intelligence was
received in New York from London, that the United States Min
ister to Turkey left that city for Paris on his way to his new
post in regal style, the railroad company having done him the
exceptional honor of placing the royal salon at his disposal.
Upon this announcement, the hundred-mouthed press made its
commentaries: " Lo ! here is our President," said the journalist,
" at Washington. Observe his habits. He rises from his shuck
mattress at 4 o'clock in the morning. He works all day in his
shirt-sleeves. He partakes of a frugal breakfast of mush and
griddle-cakes. He lives so plainly that visitors cannot distinguish
him from the janitor of the White House. Thus he sets a beau
tiful example of ' Jacksonian simplicity,' while this Minister to
another Sardanapalus is speeding toward his post in a royal salon
car, arrayed in purple and fine linen !"
Some journals called for immediate action. If such things con
tinued, where would they stop ? The next thing would be that
the Sultan would place, not only a royal salon, but a royal
harem, at the disposal of this luxurious Minister of a Democratic
Administration ! This pleasant prophecy was not fulfilled.
After a week's busy life in London, ten days in securing
an outfit in Paris, two days at Munich looking at the breweries
and foundries — which, in our callow conjecture, we took for
palaces — three days at Vienna, where we saw the " Flying

APPROACH TO CONSTANTINOPLE. ->
Dutchman ' of Wagner, and two days in Buda-Pesth, the superbly
situated capital of Hungary — where an exposition was going
on, of rare interest — and one day in Varna, on the inhospitable
Euxine, and a night on the steamer from Varna — we arrive at
Cavak, the fortified mouth of the Bosporus. It is a rough sea-
journey, but when daylight dawns we see the house of our
Consul, with our flag flying over it, at Therapia ! We almost
renew our former Turkish kef and say, "Well, at last, we are
here to rest! "
No student, no man, can approach the city of Constantinople
— the confines of Christendom — without peculiar sensations.
These are not aroused merely by the novelty of the scenes and
thC' strangeness of the costumes : the memories which are ever
associated with the land upon which he enters invest the capital
of the Orient with a mystic romance unknown to the Occident.
But a new and patriotic experience awaits us before we land.
The captain of our Austrian Lloyds vessel raises the star-
spangled flag, in honor of our country and the Envoy. Soon we
sight the launch which Congress had voted. It flies the starry
ensign. The name of the Lloyds vessel is the Uhland. Its
captain's name is John Mizzekinovnichvich. He is a Dalmatian
of fair renown; and, like all Austrian subjects who take to the
sea from the Adriatic, he has a magnificent physique. Besides,
he speaks, as do all captains of the Lloyds, the English lan
guage. But who could or can speak his own sesquipedalian
name in our tongue ?
If I have made any mistake in giving our captain his proper
name properly, it is because my orthography was not thoroughly
cultured by my Dalmatian servant, Pedro.
Nothing eventful happened on our journey overland to the
Black Sea. There were some embarrassments en route connected
with the numerous boundaries and their Custom-houses. We
were not on the overland train, which runs through in four days
from Paris to Constantinople, although at first we intended to
make that disposition of ourselves. Stopping at the cities
narned compelled us to undergo the experience of local
travelers. In crossing the boundary line between Hungary and
Roumania I was nonplussed, for I learned that our trunks were
nqt on board. They were coming through by the express. In

4 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
that baggage was my special passport, after which the officers of
the customs were in quest before allowing us to go on. I had
made a mistake in packing my carpet-bag. I took with me my
commission as Envoy, signed " Grover Cleveland," and coun
tersigned by " T. F. Bayard," instead of my passport. But what did
it matter to a customs officer who could read neither passport nor
commission ! I displayed my commission with its large eagle, its
stars and its legend. Its text authorized me to perform all
matters as to the office, and the said office to hold and exercise.
To my surprise, the officer took the commission and bore it away.
I never expected to see it again. How could I present myself to
the Sultan ! It was my only credential. At length, to my relief,
the officer returned with it. He had had it vised by the stamp of
the Roumanian agent, Ul Vamal. I had better luck on my
return home through Roumania, when we stopped at its capital,
Bucharest. There I had the good fortune to meet Sir William
White, who had been my colleague at Constantinople during the
Conferences. We remained at Bucharest a day. While there
we received a pressing invitation to visit the King and Queen, the
latter known as the accomplished Carmen Sylva, and the promise
of hospitality and a dinner at Sanaii— their superb home in the
Carpathian Mountains.
Without further passport incident or Custom-house Diversion
we reached the mouth of the Bosporus at daylight. We had
breakfasted, and were ready for pratique. Soon we pass
through the gates — the supposititious gates — which keep all for
eigners out of the Bosporus, unless with the consent of the
Sultan. We reproduce the olden memories of our trip down the
Bosporus six years before. After reaching the city, or, rather,
the harbor, we embark upon our launch. After many greet
ings we steam back upon our course, some dozen miles, to
Therapia. We had already made arrangements with our lamented Con
sul, Mr. Heap, to unite the Legation with the Consulate at our
Therapia home. Among the other friends who came to greet
us was our former guide, the Greek Dionysius. Many of his
wonderful stories had already produced their impression, and had
vanished like writing in water.
The first week was passed in watching the wierd and witching
water-way of this most wonderful Bosporus in its mid-summer

SUMMER HOME. 5
robe, with its banks of verdure, its palaces of marble, and, above
all, its luxurious ease and its relief from the discomforts of
summer. The day we landed, the Sultan's Foreign Minister, Assim
Pasha, sent a messenger to tender us a cordial welcome. He
prepared an audience with the Sultan, whose aide-de-camp came
the day after our arrival, to greet us on behalf of His
Majesty. Such greetings are compensation for the Diversion of

UNITED STATES SUMMER LEGATION AT THERAPIA.
those at home at our expense, and make up for the exile from old
friends. The home in which we are ensconced for the summer has
one window looking out over terraces extending upward three
hundred feet. This garden is leafy and green in the moist
warmth from the waves below us. Its roses, magnolias, helio
tropes, jessamine, Virginia and other creepers, make an exquisite
picture. Out of another window there is a prospect of the hills

6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
of Buyukdere — one of the beautiful villages of the upper Bos
porus, where my colleagues of many Legations reside. The
clappotage of the waves against the stone quay almost under our
window lulls one into a poetic swoon. Thus the first week
passes by.
My predecessor. General Wallace, had to wait fifty days before
his reception. Such occasions are frequently postponed, for
reasons that appear strange to American etiquette, which soon
admits to these diplomatic welcomes. My delay was not more
than thirty days. The United States ship of war Quinnebaug
happened to be in the Bosporus at that time, and its officers were
anxious to be presehted to the Sultan. As I had some experience
in this business along with General Wallace, we made every
arrangement for a good company, which should attend upon the
Reception.

CHAPTER II.
WAITING FOR THE RECEPTION — OBSEQUIES OF GENERAL GRANT — THE
LEGATION  RESIDENCE  THE SALEMLIK MUSIC.
The time spent in waiting for the reception by the Sultan is
passed in voyaging up and down the Bosporus, and in making the
diplomatic courtesies. We enjoy the courtesies, the Euxine
breezes and sights which belong to these extraordinary waters.
In the middle of August comes the sad news of the death of
General Grant. On the i6th of August the American colony
meet at the Consulate, together with a large attendance of ladies
and gentlemen of other nationalities. The officers and men of
the Quinnebaug, then undergoing repairs in the Golden Horn,
attend also. All pay such tribute to the memory of the ex-
President and soldier as was fitting his fame and virtues. The
occasion was the means of bringing the Minister near to many
with whom he was afterwards associated. The venerable Doctor
Wood presided. Many of the professors of Robert College were
there. Hobart Pasha, the Admiral of the Turkish fleet, and
whilom blockade-runner in our civil war, then in full life, added
his expressions of sympathy. Rustem Pasha, the present Turk
ish Minister at London, wrote to say how sincerely he associated
himself with the sentiments of grief felt by the American people
for the loss of their great citizen. The Minister was then called
on to do his first duty — alas ! a melancholy one — in eulogy of
the deceased.
As General Grant was from my native State of Ohio — the home
of the Shermans, Sheridans, McPhersons and McCooks of our
conflict — it was my special pride to be known in Congress as his
devoted friend, perhaps next in that body to Mr. Washburn, of
lUinois. It was my privilege, just before the close of the war,
when Grant's army was before Petersburg and Richmond, to be
the GeneraKs guest ; and just before leaving Congress I had the
honor to introduce the first bill to re-instate him in the army.
This relation gave me the privilege to speak with emphasis of

8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
the eventful life which had just closed, and in which cloud and
sunshine so strangely alternated. May I be permitted to quote
what I had occasion to say in that far-off country, concerning
some personal reminiscences, as well as General Grant's public
services ?
' ' Does not our American pulse beat stronger, and our patriotic love grow
warnier, by the contemplation of the character of such an American ? If in life
he was such a lever of power, in death his grave is the fulcrum of that reserved
force which, in our future battles for law and liberty, will be felt as that of no
other American, unless it be Washington and Lincoln !
"We read of the meetings of czars and emperors to determine questions of
territory and state; we hear of the marriages of princes and princesses, and of
efforts for the permanency of dynasties; but far more significant and illustrious
is the departing splendor of this evening orb of the Western Hemisphere.
Modest magnificence, unassuming pomp and sturdy strength — what qualities to
allure other people to America as the cynosure of their hopes and happiness 1
"Is it not fit, in this Oriental land, far from the sympathetic contact of our
fellow-countrymen at home, that we, as Americans, should echo their sad refrain
over the loss of our chiefest chieftain ?
"The custodians of his fame are not only upon the Hudson and the Potomac:
they are here also upon the Bosporus. His deeds belong no less to the North
and South of our own land than to the remotest East and the farthest West of
our planet. He belongs to all; and although with half-masted flag and mourning
drapery, with muffled drums and wreaths of ivy and laurel, he is borne to his
sepulchre upon the beautiful heights near our great metropolis, yet the heritage
of his renown is not theirs nor ours only: it is the property of mankind. The
East melts into the West and the West into the East before its brilUancy. It
has no horizon. In every army, in every land, aye, among the hosts of the
sflent armies of our own land which have preceded him to the unseen bourne,
there is a bivouac of the dead around his tomb, and a cordon of sentinels keeping
eternal ward over his glory.
' ' The Epic Muse has sung of the heroes of these classic and romantic shores.
Troy is within the jurisdiction of the Ottoman. Greece stifl peoples these lands.
Terusalem and its holy places are n'Dt unrealities to us. Here is the historic
home of Homeric heroes. The Paynim and Christian, knightly Saladins and
chivalric Geoffreys, and more recently captains of modern armies, have met in
deadly encounter to aggrandize power, reconstruct boundaries, glorify patriot
ism, or vindicate faiths. Their deeds ' in majestic cadence rise and fall ' to the
music of lucent waters, under the bluest of skies and the most witching of asso
ciations. Nowhere else have there been sung sweeter lyrics or grander epics
in honor of men of war and men of peace. Here the Iliad and the Odyssey rose
•to the sweUing of the voiceful sea, but no strain of poetry , no burst of eloquence,
has ever given to the holy air of the Orient a name more revered, a patriotism
more exalted, and sacrifices more pure than those which are symbolized in the
laurel wreath and civic crown upon the dismantled domestic altar of the soldier,
statesman and man— Ulysses' S. Grant! "

DEA TH AT HOME; LIFE ABROAD. n
How soon one sad event follows another ! The year had not
closed before, ia a mournful procession, there was announced the
deaths of General McClellan and Vice-President Hendricks, to
both of whom I was personally attached from old associations.
Then followed the death of General Hancock. It seemed as if, to
the exile from home, there was added the poignancy of these fast-
coming, regretful memories. And yet how soon such clouds are
lifted, under a sky like that of the Bosporus ! Here, in the midst
of death, we are in life ! Many a vivid incident served to dis
tract the mind from its bodings.
As the summer passes away, we fill its days; sometimes with ex
cursions to the Giant' s Mountain. Sometimes in our launch we cross
to the Asiatic shore, or run up in our caique where the " Sweet
Waters" are situated. On Fridays we cross the Straits, and
mingle with the throngs on the meadows near these " Sweet Waters,"
where thousands of Turkish women and children disport them
selves, or enjoy their domestic picnics in groups under the
shadows of the sycamores. The Bosporus is the same as of yore
— renowned for more than two thousand years for its fish. We
<lrop the line in its waters within a few feet of our own door. We
catch the little shiners from the clear depths. They are both
toothsome and beautiful. In our promenades, followed by our
stately and obese Kavass, we pass up and down the quays, re
ceiving the salutations of the soldiers of the barracks, or wander
over the hills safe from all intrusion or fear. Everyone in the
neighborhood of Therapia vies with each other in hospitality and
courtesy. The summers upon the Bosporus are prolonged late into the
fall. Many of the Ministers and other residents upon the upper
Straits never leave their country homes until the autumn winds
sharpen in November. Then the walls of the gardens are fes
tooned with vines tinted warm and red with the advancing season.
They add a rich sheen to the beauty of departing summer.
We move to the city about the first of November. We had al
ready organized the Legation under one roof. Our new quarters
are comfortable. The rooms have such an unusual, sprightly and
elegant aspect as to astonish the tourist and confound the economic
State Department. The Legation rooms are near the Royal
Hotel where we lodge. Having taken a full suite on the second
floor of the hotel, we have a splendid outlook, not only over the

ID DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Golden Horn, with its bridges and boats, and Stamboul, with its;
domes and minarets, but far beyond, over the Marmora Sea to
the mountains of Asia, among which the Mysean Olympus shows
conspicuous and pre-eminent.
From our rooms, every Friday noon, we are reminded of
the Salemlik ; for passing up our rue — Petits-Champs — there
marches a regiment with a band discoursing music, whose tones,
half Oriental, mingle in strange symphony the wierd, barbaric
wailings of the bagpipe with the round swelling bursts of more
aesthetic instrumentation.

CHAPTER III.
RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN.
Although familiar with public life, its receptions and glamour,
and although I had a peculiar opportunity as the extemporized
attach^ of General Wallace in 1881, when he was presented to
the Sultan, still I experienced considerable tremor in relation to
my own reception. After being advised by telegraph from Munir
Pasha, the First Chamberlain, of the day fixed for the ceremony,
and advised again of its postponement, and then, as is the
custom, of another day being fixed, the anxieties were enhanced.
Besides, had I not been informed by the initiated that I was
expected to furnish my speech to His Majesty in advance, or,
rather, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that it might be
investigated, or, rather, read between the lines, so that nothing
offensive should be said or suggested ? According to the rule,
the speech, in both the French and English text, is sent to the
Foreign Minister. I need not say that it was short. It was the
"greatest effort of my life," and laboriously I worked at it. The
labor consisted in its abbreviation. Accustomed to the five-
minute rule in Congress, I was cautioned that it would be wiser to
make the speech even shorter than five minutes, if possible. I
had more difficulty about the French than the English portion.
For the benefit of callow diplomats, and as my colleague, Mr.
Fearn, sought for it as a model at his audience with King George
of Greece, I modestly transcribe it herein:
" Your Majesty:
"It is my special delectation to present from my Government the letters
of the President of the United States which accredit me as their representa
tive near your Majesty.
" Without indulging in any personal retrospect, in which are associated
many early and recent memories of a charming sojourn in your superb cap
ital, and of instructive travel in your historic country, and without indulging
in any formal and unnecessary protestations as to the past and future relations
between the Ottoman Empire and the States of the Federal Union, it is my
pleasure to say, that, by inclination, interest, tradition, friendship and jus-

I 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
tice, there can be no other than relations of comity and kindness between the
respective nations. The United States would not, if they could, depart from
the invariable policy which forbids all entanglements in foreign affairs, a policy
which has sig^nafly marked our intercourse, and which has preserved from
stress and severance, amidst all vicissitudes, our relations with other Powers.
" It is personally gratifying that I am enabled to foUow a predecessor who
has established satisfactory relations with your Majesty. It will be my hope to
be allowed to share in the good- will extended to my friend and predecessor.
"It is a delightful duty to assure your Majesty that it will be my
endeavor to continue and increase (if possible) the cordiality of those ties by
which the two great nations of the Orient and Occident are so happily
imbound." This speech caused me barrels of perspiration ; yet one word
in the translation became almost a casus belli. It was the word
" entanglements." I translated it enchevitrements. I had in my
mind Washington's Farewell Address as to all foreign entangling
alliances. There is no synonym for the idea in French, except the
word which, after much research, I had selected. Nor is there in
that polite tongue any compounding of syllables, as in the Ger
man. My "entanglement " might be rendered as, for instance,
a colt with a halter, a very interesting though by no means an
exalting allusion. When my French speech was scanned by the
leading linguist in the Foreign Office in Stamboul, assisted by a
cohort of polyglots, they lit upon the words enchevitrement. What
could it mean ? Was it an American torpedo, or polysyl
labic dynamite for the overthrow of the dynasty ? Whatever
might have been their opinion of the explosive and perilous com
position, I was satisfied, from intimations, that the delay of my
reception for some days was occasioned by the confusion incident
to this terrible six-footed word. I felt, however, compensated
for my linguistic pains, by laying the anxiety upon the altar of
of my country, and kindling its patriotic flame with the " Fare
well Address."
The speech was finally accepted in the sense in which it was
intended, and thenceforth the respective countries never ceased
to dwell together in diplomatic unity. My apprehensions had
been quickened when I remembered the august presence in which
my personality was officially to appear ; for Turkey is, in
a diplomatic way, among the most interesting of the Powers of
the earth.
The past, present and future seemed to be concentrated in

THRILLING ANIICIPA TIONS t -7
the journey down the Bosporus, whose termination in the
Reception was to be under such novel and happy circumstances.
As this volume is a record of personal reminiscence, it may
not be accounted egotistic if I describe the subjectivity as well
as the objectivity of the unusual situation.
I had but a few months before left a forum in which a quar
ter of a century of service had made a "property of easiness."
After many wanderings between my native Ohio, njy official
home at Washington, and my adopted home — " no mean city " 
New York, and after divers travels between America, Asia
Africa and Europe, I was about to become an official 'fixture

PALACE OF DOLMA-BAGTCHfe.

amidst most romantic surroundings. I was about to meet, in
most unrepublican fashion, the ruler of forty millions of people
and the Caliph of two hundred millions. The Bosporus, the
Seraglio Point, the silent gesture of the minarets, the marbled
palaces, and the very uniforms and languages on every side, gave
to the expected reception a bewildering delight. The bright blue
of the summer skies, the rolling hills of the Asiatic shores, and
the perpetual movements of the waters, with their strange craft,
their restless birds, sportive dolphins, and peculiar people, added
their thrilling sensations.
We start out from Therapia bravely. The white kerchiefs of

14 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
the ladies from the Legation balcony wave us their encourage
ment. The flag fairly snaps in the Euxine wind ; and the gilded
eagle of the launch seems to protrude his beak, as if showing
tl;e anxiety and excitement of the hour. I am accompanied by
the Consul-General, Mr. Heap — now no more — Professor Gros-
venor, of the Robert College, and the officers of the Legation,
including the Kavass.
We are to land at the marble quay of the Dolma-Bagtche palace
— the incomparable structure of the world ! A description of it
may not be uninteresting at this very point, for it is a part of
the mise en scene of the performance : It is situated on the Bos
porus. It is about two miles from the port of Constantinople.
Its park is surrounded by a wall twenty feet high. Its gates are
of white marble, and fit to open to the popes and rulers of the
earth. They are superb in decorations of gilt and tracery of
beauty. This palace was built by Sultan Abdul Medjid. He was the
father of the present Sultan, and a rare man and statesman. The
road from Dolma-Bagtche to Yildiz follows the shore of the Bos
porus, though one cannot see the stream through the village of
Bechiktash. This name, when translated, means " stone cradle."
All Turkish names of places mean something substantive. Here
we turn to the left over a very well paved though steep and wind
ing road. This road brings us, after much meandering, to . the
palace of Yildiz. The view from this high ground and palace is
superb. Below us the rapid, blue Bosporus flows between the
green and beautiful shores of Europe and Asia. It then washes
the classic Seraglio Point, where so many of the Sultan's ances
tor's wives and friends lived and died. The outlook over the
rolling hills of Asia is entrancing, and this day we could plainly
see Mount Olympus, in Asia, rising to the olden fame of its
Greek namesake — as the superb guardian of Troy in her embat-
tlements. But let me not anticipate.
We are received in cordial and courteous state, at the landing
of this palace of Dolma-Bagtche, by the Sous Introducteur des
Ambassadeurs — Ghelib Bey. He is in gay, gilt uniform. He
speaks French with facile grace. We are then ushered by him
into a waiting-room. There we find the commander of the
United States steamship Quinnebaug, Captain Ludlow, who has
with him seven of his staff, viz.. Lieutenant Sperry, Lieuten-

UP THE HILL TO YILDIZ.

5

ant Sturdy, Doctor Tryon, Lieutenant Fletcher, Lieutenant
Dickens, Chief Engineer Allen and his assistant. These officers
are in full uniform. They look brilliant beside the Minister in
his plain suit of black. Mr. Emmet, Charge ; Mr. Gargiulo, the
interpreter; Mr. Bigelow, the Marshal of the Consular Court;
and Mr. Demitriades, assistant to the Consul — these officers are
OR hand in evening toilet. They are the Legation and Consular
officials. They have seen much service here at this venerable
capital.

GATE OF DOLMA-BAGTCHfe PALACE.

After some talk, coffee and cigarettes we are driven,
slowly and majestically, as becomes those who are to be intro
duced into the presence of the Padishah of all the
Ottomans. Our vehicles are wonderful in their apparel of gilt
and satin, and superb in manufacture. They are the palace car
riages. They are drawn by gigantic horses, and driven by solemn
Turks covered with gold lace, one of whom is pointed out as the
Sultan's coachman. I am happy in the possession of his por
trait, which is here presented. On the way we pass in view the

i6

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

beautiful kiosk of Fhlamour. We are not now permitted to see
its interior; but if the interior be the counterpart of its exterior
grace and beauty, there cannot be found oil our earth a structure
so elegant and attractive. I make no apology for its presen
tation in the picture on the subsequent page.
Ten minutes, and we are at the gate of the small but beauti
fully situated palace of Yildiz. This favorite palace is, built on
the summit of a high hill, in order, it is said, to prevent any

But under present

SULTAN'S COACHMAN.
sudden surprise from the foes of the Sultan.
auspices this is an unnecessary precaution.
The Bosporus in front of Yildiz is two miles broad. It runs
about a mile below the palace. There it melts into the Sea of
Marmora. Yildiz in Turkish means " Star." It is the star which
glitters between the horns of the Crescent.
Evidently we are expected. All are on parade or guard.
America may be far away, but her abstinence from Eastern

••• J J

» -s.

lifr'J

I 8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
complications gives her a moral and near power. Her modesty
and remoteness make her all the more respected.
A guard of honor of loo men is drawn up at the entrance to
the palace. The Minister leads the company in his carriage.
He is followed by the others. He is frequently saluted by soldiers
along the route'. When he arrives at the palace he is met by
Ibrahim Bey, who is one of the handsomest men of the Eastern
type. He escorts the Minister into a reception-room. There we
meet Osman Pasha, the hero of Plevna. He is Minister of
War, as well as Marshal of the Palace. He. talks with the Min
ister about General Grant, and anxiously asks after the children
and widow of the General. "The Minister is met by Assim Pasha,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and by other officers of high rank
and distinction. The ovation evidently surprises the Minister.
It is unusual and hearty. Then again we have coffee and cig
arettes. The coffee is served in cups covered with diamonds.
They are too beautiful to be discussed. We are then waited upon
with even more than Eastern courtesy. Shortly after, we are
shown up a broad stairway, over costly carpets which we have
observed inside and outside. The stairs are lined on either
side by palace officials. These dignitaries and officers are in
strange contrast with the Minister and his suite. Even the officers
of the American man-of-war do not display in all their effulgence
the elegance of the Pashas, chamberlains and other officials
who meet us at the palace entrance. We are conducted within,
walking on Smyrna carpets of rare design. We begin to look
about us, as we feel more at home. We take a mental inventory of
the aspect of the Yildiz interior.
After crossing a spacious hall paved with marble, we are
ushered into another reception-room. A large divan is at one end,
and chairs all round the walls. The furniture is covered with
red damask. In the middle of the room is a marble table. On
this is placed a large silver candelabra for sixteen candles.
Facing the divan is a pier-table supporting a large clock. This
clock is of silver. Two magnificent Japanese vases are on
each side. The floor is covered with a priceless Smyrna carpet.
Everywhere — in palace or in mosque — the carpet plays a principal
part in Turkey and in the East. Osman Pasha, Assim Pasha,
Munir Pasha and other palace officials, who are not unknown to
fame here and elsewhere, are in this enchanted chamber when we

PICTURESQUE INTERIOR OP THE PALACE. ig
enter. Munir Pasha is an old friend of the American Minister.
In fact, he chaperoned us when we were visitors in General Wal
lace's time. Munir leaves the room for a moment. He returns,
announcing that His Imperial Majesty is waiting to receive the
Minister. There is a rattling of Quinnebaug swords and a rise
in gold lace. Then we proceed up a broad and elegant staircase
in the following order : The American Minister is between the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Grand Master of Ceremonies.
Immediately following is the interpreter of the American Lega
tion; then come the Legation staff and the officers of the Quinne
baug. On the first landing of the staircase we pause a little to
observe a choice picture by the skillful brush of an artist signing
himself "G. Washington." This was very pleasing to us Ameri
cans. It flattered our national pride. It also surprised us. No
one knew that omx pater pafrce, was given to picture-work. We
then enter a large hall. It is on the second story. On its walls
hang four life-sized portraits of ancestors of the present ruler, to
wit : On the right, on entering, is Sultan Mahmoud. He is the
grandfather of the Sultan. He was a ruler of power, as the
Janizaries found out. On the left. Sultan Aziz, His Majesty's
uncle. This portrait faces the entrance on the right, where you
see Sultan Medjid, father of His Majesty. He faces on the left
Sultan Selim HI., an ancestor of His Majesty. In the middle
of this hall is a long table. The floor is parquet. We now enter
the audience-room. It is very wide and long. Its floor is cov
ered with a Turkish carpet. In the centre of the room is a long
buhl table. There is a small table behind the Sultan, on which
he leans while " audience " goes on. It gives him relief if the
talks take too much dimension. The furniture in the room is
• not a prominent feature. Most of it is from Paris. The apartment
receives light from three huge windows facing the east. On the
walls hang superb oil paintings. The first on the Sultan's left
represents a moonlight view of Stamboul and the Seraglio Point,.
one of the most notable, beauriful and commercial spots of the
world. It is by the celebrated Russian artist Alvasowski. On the
same side of the room is an exquisite night scene of the small
Asiaric palace at the " Sweet Waters." It is by Ghickson. Who he
is, connoisseurs know. On the other side of the room are three
arrisLic paintings. The best of these represents the Midnight
Sun in Norway. The other two are naval engagements.

20 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
The Sultan receives us, standing on a rug made of camel-
hair felt, covered with embroidered flowers in different colored
silk braid of Turkish work.
As we are ushered into the presence, we make three bows^
one at the door on entering, the second half-way, and the last
when we stop, a few feet from his person. We do not bow as low
as the Turkish Ministers, but we do our best. The Sultan is
standing at the far end of the room, in front of a table. As he
is the conspicuous object of our attention, and a figure of great
attraction, is it not proper to make a detailed description of
this potentate of a great empire ?
The Sultan is middle-sized and of the Turkish type. He
wears a full black beard, is of dark complexion, and has very
expressive eyes. His forehead is large, indicative of intellectual
power. He is very gracious in his manner, though at times seem
ingly a little embarrassed. He is dressed in the uniform of chief
marshal of the army. He wears the following decorations: The
Grand Cordon of the Osmanli, which is a green scarf worn across
the breast; the first class of the Medjidie, in diamonds; theNichan
Imtiaz, an order instituted by his grandfather. Sultan Mahmoud,
and the Nichan Iftihar. The insignia and medals are iijlaid with
precious stones. The green sash or scarf is of a rich color and
texture. No person was ever decorated in more gorgeous array,
and yet in his bearing and demeanor he is unostentatious. Not-
•withstanding the prejudice of the Ottoman against images, his
photograph has been permitted. The frontispiece, which repre
sents him as a cavalier, is a faithful likeness.
There is an etiquette which Turkish officials observe in the
Sultan's presence. It has been much modified by time, and since
the Crimean War greatly modified, liise other old habits here,
especially as they affect strangers. On approaching the Sultan
the officials, when about ten yards distant, make a salaam. This
consists in bending the body till the right hand touches the
ground. The hand is then brought to the heart, the mouth, and
then to the forehead. What does this mean ? Its idea is, that
you take the earth from the ground as a symbol of lowliness.
Then you carry the hand to your heart and head. The
lips approve your regard. After the first salaam, you advance
five or six yards and repeat. If you are an official, again and
again you repeat until you are a yard and a half from the Sultan.

CEREMONY OF RECEPTION. 2 I
Then a third salaam is made. Then the person stops. He
crosses his hands on the lower part of his stomach. This is said
to be a relic of Persian usage. It has a meaning. It is intended
to show that the servant has no concealed weapon in his hand.
These officials never address the Sultan. Every time he looks
toward them they repeat the salaam. After much genuflexion
they are asked what their business is. They tell their story
and bow lowly and bow out.
On this occasion the Sultan had on his right, and standing in
single file, with their backs to the wall, about fifteen of his most
distinguished aides-de-camp. The first of the line was Ghazi
Osman Pasha. He is called Ghazi because he is a conqueror.
Then came Ibrahim Dervish Pasha, Nuzret Pasha, Dreysse
Pasha, Fouad Pasha, and others. As two of the Muchirs present
at the audience have rather romantic histories, may I append
a brief biography of them ?
In r867 Lieutenant Dreysse, of the French army, was stationed
in Paris. He was a person of particularly engaging manners. He
had a very distinguished presence. He was detailed as aide-de
camp to Prince Abdul-Hamid (the present Sultan), at that rime a
very obscure Prince in the suite of Sultan Abdul-Aziz. Dreysse
made such an impression on the young Prince that when the lat
ter came to the throne, his first thought was to have his old friend
with him. However, having forgotten his name, considerable dif
ficulty in finding his whereabouts was experienced at the French
War Department. At last he was unearthed in a village on the
Swiss frontier. He has since had every honor heaped upon him.
The other romance is that of Fouad Pasha. About a year
ago a very serious conspiracy was discovered in the palace. Fouad
Pasha was wrongfully supposed to be at the head of it. The regi
ment of Circassians which was involved in it was banished. It is
said that Fouad disappeared for nine or ten months. His friends
thought that he had been put out of the way. There are so
many peculiarities of custom and condition here, that the ups and
downs of life are not marvelous in such a land of wonders.
Upon this occasion, I looked in vain for the little dwarf whom
I saw ride so fiercely an Arab steed at a former reception. I
must be content with his photograph. I have also a picture
of his predecessor, Abdur-Rahman. The latter Abdur was
buffoon to the Sultan Abdul-Aziz, and at his master's death

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

THE SULTANS RESPONSE. n-:
he entered the service of the Shah of Persia. He is a Turk,
and still survives. He is about fifty-four years old, though
scarcely three feet high. He is a bright-looking fellow, and, when
dressed up in his Circassian General's uniform, as he used to be
in the Palace of Dolma Bagtchd, a most interesting little man.
At the presentation the officials — minus the dwarf — form in
two lines on either side of the hall. The American Minister
advances between the Foreign Minister and the First Chamber
lain. The interpreter, Mr. Gargiulo, is near by. I do not make
a very low obeisance, nor is it expected. I receive the proper in
timation, present my credentials, and speak the speech as it -was
set down, and with appropriate decorum. The hush of the place
conquers my rhetoric. The low tones in which everybody
speaks naturally reduces the compass of the voice. The speech
is hardly two minutes' long, but after it is finished I am relieved.
The Sultan is pleased to respond most amiably. He is pleased
to say that he is gratified with the selection made by the Presi
dent. He has great satisfaction in knowing that I had been in
the country before, and was familiar with its affairs and govern
ment. He makes the usual reference to the happy relations
always existing between the two nations, and expresses the
hope that they would continue. He is glad to extend the
same friendship to me that he extended to my predecessor. After
some pleasant and informal talk, he steps forward and shakes
me warmly by the hand. Then the guests are severally intro
duced to the Sultan, who expresses his gratification at having
made their acquaintance. We then leave the room, walking
backward, making the three bows, as before. Muchir Munir
Pasha, Drogman du Divan Imperial, stands during the audience
on the left of the Sultan, and Assim Pasha, the Foreign Minister,
on his right. Everything said to the Sultan is interpreted to him
by Assim Pasha.
Before leaving, I thank His Majesty for allowing the
Quinnebaug to be docked and repainted without charge, and
for the compliment thus paid to the United States. After this
a private audience is courteously accorded by the Sultan, at
which some of the officers are present. It is regarded as an
unusual courtesy. It lasts an hour. During its continuance
much informal inquiry is made and answered. Among other
matters, the Sultan asks:

24 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
" Have you been to Constantinople before?"
I respond: "Yes, your Majesty. I was here in 185 1 ;
thirty-four years ago."
This e.xcites astonishment and interest, and I add:
' ' It was on our American great day — the Fourth of July.
Then I saw your Majesty with your father. The' occasion was
the reception of the Cherif of Mecca. Your Majesty was then
eleven years of age."
This led to much conversation about the changes since that
time. After this private interview, the reception ended most
happily; and we all returned to our homes with the same stateli-
ness and style.
This was not my first meeting with the Sultan. I had been,
as I have said, presented to His Majesty in 1881 with the staff
of General Wallace. In my book, '• Orient Sunbeams," the
Yildiz palace is described by a few dashes of the pen. I have
added much reminiscence to it since 1881. In that volume I
indulged in a little general reflection upon this ruler of Turkey.
I repeat it now as a first and lasting impression :
" He is a man of calm dignity and superior intelligence.
Mahomed II. , the grand progenitor of this line, who took
the city from the effete Greeks, may have had more elan, as
he had a larger army, but he had no more reserve in his eye
than his descendant before us. Is not the present Sultan admin
istering, amid troubles for which he is not responsible, a great
empire of various nationalities and religions, and under manifold
embarrassments? By his illustrious descent and inborn dignity,
by his position as heir of the Othmans, Amuraths and Sulei
mans, he receives — as the Oriental chief should — that Occident
which has never encroached upon his prerogative or domain, and
has no inclination nor object in so doing."
I confess, before I had an idea of being here in any but a
tourist's capacity, to an enthusiasm for this monarch. He is a
king every inch, and without any dramatic ostentation. He
deserves great regard for his rare ability. He is his own adviser.
Amid his troubles and cares, and with the populations of divers
religions and races, which he must reconcile to rule, he is not
unworthy of the fame of Abdul Medjid, whose memory is to me
a part of my earliest association with the city of Constantinople.
Before leaving New York, at our Oriental banquet, in June,

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26 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
1885, when called upon to respond to the kind wishes of friends,
I pictured in my mind this reception as a climax of former
experiences at this capital. I then indicated, with more lively
rhetoric than would be appropriate at a court presentation, that
to enjoy the Orient one should have thoughts impearled upon
vestments of Oriental light, and imagery as enchanting as dreams
of Cashmere. I had anticipated something of that bewildering
exhilaration which one might indulge for a thousand and one
nights and never surfeit. I spoke of the melody of the Eastern
nightingale, who sings his love to the rose in the tender idyls of
Hafiz. There was in my imagination all the rare emblems of the
East, and I looked upon a residence in Turkey, to which this
reception would invite, as the consummation' of all poetic fancies.
I was to give up for ever the old toilsome life of congressional
wrangle. I- was to watch calmly the progress of events in the
Orient, v/ith a view to seize every demonstration of war as an
opportunity for commercial America. But ever and always, when
I fancied myself amidst the changes and progressive liberalities
flickering over and around the ancient and modern city of empire
to which the President had accredited me, I could not help draw
ing contrasting pictures of the overshadowing grandeur of my
own country.
Here, to-day, at this reception, the poetry of these dreams
is recalled in the traditions of empire and opulence. Was I not in
the real presence of a race of men and rulers who made nations
tremble with the shock of their arms, and who, at one time, bid
fair to gain universal sway ! To what strange fancies such a
thought gives birth, in the presence of the Caliph of all the
Mahometans !

CHAPTER IV.
THE SULTAN AT PRAYERS — SALEMLIK.
One of the pleasant excursions which not only Ministers, but
others who are strangers to Constantinople, and even the denizens
of that city, care first and most to make is that on Fridays to the
neighborhood of the mosque in which the Sultan offers his
prayers. Most of the rime while I was at the capital the
Sultan was in the habit of saying his prayers at the mosque of
Bechiktash. But there is in process of erection, and nearly
completed, a new mosque, which is nearer his palace of Yildiz.
It is on the summit of the hills above the Bosporus. It is called
the mosque of Hamidida. It is named after one of the earlier
and most devout Sultans. To this mosque he often goes.
This ceremony of attending mosque is never omitted, if the
Sultan be alive. It matters not whether it hails or rains, whether
there be an earthquake, a plague or a pestilence, or personal
sickness — this observance is one of the scrupulous duties of the
Sultan, who is at the same time the absolute Caliph of the Faith.
The prayer which he offers cannot be said by any one else for
him. It is a religious duty to be done by him in person. It is
reckoned the most honorable of his functions and the greatest of
all his privileges. To omit his appearance on that day would
almost provoke a riot.
This custom came into use in the year a. d. 1361. Then the
reigning Sultan, Murad I., having offered to give evidence before
the Mufti in a case in which one of his favorites was concerned,
his testimony was rejected on the ground that, according to the
law of the Koran, no person can be admitted as a witness in a
religious court of justice who has not joined in common prayer
in the mosque. In acknowledgment of the justice of this de
cision, Murad proceeded, on the following Friday, in great state,
to the mosque. He joined with the other worshippers, and per
formed his devotions as one of their own number. The custom
has since been observed with the utmost strictness and regularity.

28 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Sultan Mahmoud I., though very ill, insisted on going to the
mosque, with the result that on his return to the palace he fell
down dead at the entrance as he was dismounting from his horse.
The same fatality happened to Sultan Osman II. , who, heedless
of the advice of his physicians, left his sick-bed in order to
attend the usual Friday prayers. He returned safely to the
palace, but expired on the following night.
The ceremony is not now attended with as much eclat as in
the early days, when the Sultan's servitors were dressed in velvet
and gold, and scattered handsful of gold and silver along his
path as he passed on his way to the mosque of St. Sofia.
In those early days, when Turkish power was literally Sub
lime, the far-famed carpets of the East were spread over the
ground, upon which pranced the Sultan's steed. The Oriental
escort, with its flowing robes, immense turbans, military music
and official retinue, has been more or less discarded by the
fashions of the present day, and by the advancement of the Turk
himself in European customs.
When the Sultan attends prayers at the mosque the time is
fixed by the Turkish clock at 7. This means about 2 o'clock in
the afternoon, European time. He generally comes in a large
and elegant open carriage. He is accompanied by a trusted
friend, the aged Namyk Pasha, who is the very pink of
courtesy, and Osman Pasha, the hero of Plevna. From five
to seven thousand troops usually keep the way on these occa
sions. They come in with bands of music from all parts of
the city, bearing their sacred banners of green, inscribed with
Koranic texts, and their own regimental flags. They are in
line before the Sultan appears. Some of the battalions or
regiments appear in fanciful uniform, such as the Albanian.
I saw one regiment made up of the Nubians or Tunisians of
Africa. They had a corps of stalwart sappers and miners, in
leathern aprons and huge battle-axes. Every part of the domin
ion is represented by the troops. They are a strong body of
soldiers — well officered. They have a variety of uniform. Their
fine music and the esprit du corps of the escort give something
more than a religious aspect to the occasion.
Those who would see the "Salemlik," or the Sultan, as he
enters the mosque and comes from it, should take their stand
about noon either at the guard-house or at the new quarters.

SCEA'ES AT SALEMLIK.

29

¦"In the multitude of the people is the King's honor."
The population turns out en masse on these occasions. The
black-tasselled, bright-red fez cap gives its color to the scene.
The general tone of the uniform, however, is that of the Zouave,
whose scarlet trousers reach to the knee. The soldiers are olive-
colored, and bronzed with many a sun, and are of splendid physique.
As the Sultan enters the mosque, he is surrounded by dozens of
his officers, whose uniforms glitter with a profusion of gold lace and
decorative orders. He is met by the Imam, or Moslem priest, at
the door. There is no special order about the crowd, except that
they are kept more or less in check by the soldiery. Carriages,
horses and people mingle together in confusion. I never saw
a drunken man nor any flagrant disorder occur during the cere
mony. Many of the carriages contain the wives of the Sultan,
his children, cousins and nieces, and his mother and aunt.
Diamonds shine with unusual profusion upon the veiled beauties.
Of course, there are many women present who are not Turkish,
and, therefore, not dressed in the costume with which the reader
will soon become familiar.
The Sultan enters the mosque. All is quietude without, until
he has finished his prayers. Then is heard a bugle note ; a car
pet is laid down, and the officers, who are his adjutants. Minis
ters and others, mount their horses. They are ready for the move
ment. The soldiers "present arms !" the iron gate opens, and
the shout goes up — " Padisha ! Chok Yasha !" — The Sultan !
Let him live forever ! Sometimes the Sultan is mounted on
a white steed, which is appareled for the occasion ; but generally,
amid much salutation, he comes and returns in his carriage,
takes the reins himself, and drives to and from the palace. His
people close about him, and the spectacle is over.
You may ask how he is dressed. I have generally seen him
in a blue-black frock coat, closely buttoned, edged with red cord.
The present Sultan is a graceful rider, and when on horseback,
like his fellow-countrymen, he shows to advantage. His tide as
Sultan does not signify all the power which he possesses as an
absolute ruler, but yet it signifies much. Padisha signifies most.
it is the chief and favorite title. It signifies Father of all the
Sovereigns of the Earth. He has other ritles, such as Imam-ul-
Muslemin— Ponriff of Mussulmans; Alem Penah— Refuge of the
Worid. Any more ? Yes. Other titles are that of " Lord of

30 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
Two Continents and Two Seas, King of Kings, High and Mighty
Lord, Servant of the Two Holy Cities, Shadow of God upon
Earth; Hunkiar, or Man-Slayer." Any more ? Yes, more still.
He is called Ali-Osman Padishahi — King of the Descendants of
Osman ; Shahin Shahi Alem — King of the Sovereigns of the
Universe ; Hudavendighar — Attached to God ; Shahin Shahi
Movazem ve Hilloulah — High King of Kings and Shadow of
God ; and, to illustrate the theocratic democracy which pervades
the civil order and the Mahometan religion, he also bears the
title of "The Son of a Slave." He thus combines with the
highest human exaltation the lowliest humiliation. It is the
law of the Koran. He is the son of a slave-mother, and, therefore,
should he not be humble ? He is the Divine representative of
Mahomet, and the father of his people, and, therefore, should
he not be exalted ? His family line runs back with unbroken
links to the middle of the thirteenth century, and though he may
not be as great in war and as rugged in manner as Orchan
or Sulieman, or as stately and tall as his brother, Abdul Aziz,
or perhaps as kingly in theatric style as his father, Abdul
Medjid, he has a splendid eye and a royal mien, becoming the
lineage of Osman. His face is pale, and its general contour
and features indicate a man who is amiable, shrewd, vigilant and
able. Perhaps the most sacred place in the neighborhood of Con
stantinople is the historical site of the mosque of Job, or Eyoub.
It is situated at some distance from the northwest corner of the
Stamboul triangle, a few yards from the Golden Horn. It is a
hilly spot, selected for burial purposes. The mosque is never
shown except to the faithful. It marks the burying-place of the
great leader of the first Arab attempts upon the city, and therefore
it has always been kept sacred from the foot of the infidel.
Within the mosque is the green banner of the prophet, only used
in great emergencies, as when Mahmoud II. carried it before his
troops in their assault upon the Janizaries, when he destroyed
them. Within it is treasured the sacred sword of Osman, with
which the Sultan is girt when he is invested with power. It is
the symbol of office and the pride of the Ottoman race. When
poor Murad V. was called to the throne, after the tragic death of
Abdul Aziz, in 1876, he was not allowed to assume this sword.
He was non compos. Upon the last day of August, 1876, his

COURTESIES OF THE SULTAN. n t
O^
brother, the present Sultan, Abdul Hamid II., after much sincere
protest, took upon himself the Imperial duty with the sword of
Osman. This ceremony is not witnessed by the outside world,
and, therefore, I shall hereafter draw upon my pencil and fancy
for a picturesque description of the scene.
Although the Sultan is thus exalted as the successor of
Mahomet, it is permitted, after the Oriental method, to any one
who approaches, to present a petition to him upon this occasion
of prayer. At the new mosque of Hamidi^a, where he occasionally
worships, there is a lattice through which he can see his troops
marching ; and, by the aid of a glass, he observes the guests who
are assembled at the guard-house to do him honor. If he desires
to confer with or to honor any of these guests, he charges one of
his Chamberlains to convey to the personage his greetings. This
occasion is seized upon to indicate his cordial good-will toward
the foreign Ministers or distinguished people who may be
sojourning in Constantinople. Oftentimes, these occasions are
utilized to present colors to the new regiments, and sometimes
speech-making is indulged in. Thereupon the flag is unfurled,
and an aide-de-camp delivers, on behalf of the Sultan, a speech
whose burden is not only patriotic, but religious and opulent
of Oriental rhetoric. The responses are full of devotion to
his Imperial person and the Holy Faith.
It is difficult to praise without undue encomium ; especially to
praise those who have been unusually affable and kind to the
eulogist. I feel this difficulty in regard to the Sultan, but I
think everyone who has come in contact with the present sover
eign of Turkey will allow me to express, with becoming earnest
ness, my opinion of his high merits and noble character. To
ascertain these merits and appreciate his character, there must
be some familiarity with his daily work and thought.
How does he administer his realm, with its multiform inter
ests of mosque and state and its varieties of population and creed ?
In the first place, he is an early riser. After he leaves
his seraglio and has partaken of a slight repast, his secre
taries wait upon him with their portfolios. He peruses all the
official correspondence and current reports. He gives up his
time until noon to work of this character. Then his breakfast is
served. After that, he makes a detour of his gardens and park,

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

SULTAN'S RECREATION. 13
looks in upon his aviaries, perhaps stirs up his menagerie, makes
an inspection of his two hundred horses in their fine stables,
indulges his little daughters in a row upon the fairy lake which
he has had constructed, and, it may be, attends a performance in
the little theatre provided for his children in the palace.
At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, having accomplished most of
his official work, he mounts his favorite horse for a ride in the
park. This steed, as I have him pictured from the Sultan's own
album, is a war-scarred veteran.
This park is very extensive, comprising many thousand acres.
It is surrounded by high walls and protected by the soldiery. Often
times, being a fine shot, he tries his aim upon some of the wild
fowl which are decoyed upon the waters of the park. He is at
the palace for dinner at 7. He dines after the European
method. It would be a task to make a catalogue of the gold and
silver candelabra and massive epergnes which, with their iflowers
and fruits, decorate the table. Oftentimes he has company pres
ent. On such occasions his First Chamberlain, Munir Pasha,
acts as interpreter, standing behind His Majesty's gold chair.
He offers wine to his guests, but he indulges only in water. He
observes the precepts of the Koran. The dinner is accompanied
with music. A fine military band plays during this meal. The
servants are dressed in scarlet, like the old English brigadiers,
with gold epaulettes. You would think they were mutes, by the
quiet way in which they serve. It is understood, of course, that
the wives of the Sultan are never at the table. The wives of
others are frequently invited, but on such occasions the Sultan
does not preside. If the Sultan desires to converse with any one,
there is a convenient room, where cigarettes and coffee assist the
conversation. Humor is somtetimes indulged in upon these
occasions. There are the antics of the court dwarf and some
tricks of the juggler or conjurer. But it is all over by 10 o'clock.
The Imperial carriages are then at the door. The guests are
attended to them by the Chamberlains. A troop of horse some-
rimes accompanies the carriages. After the guests depart the
Sultan resumes his administrative work, which hot only concerns
the internal but the external affairs of his empire. He is one of
the most industrious, painstaking, honest, conscientious and
vigilant rulers of the world. He is amiable and just withal. His
every word betokens a good heart and sagacious head.

-^ 4 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL DMA T IN TURKE Y.
The comment is often made in respect to the present Sultan,
Abdul-Hamid, that he is timid; that he will not expose himself
to the danger of assassination; and that he has withdrawn to the
suburbs of the city on the European shore, where, protected by his
soldiers, he lives in privacy and security. It is alleged that he
resides in a fortress, although nominally a palace. I have yet
to see in my observations of the Sultan and his acrions any such
evidence of fear. It might well be, considering the events which
occurred when Abdul-Aziz was assassinated, and Murad, his
brother was imprisoned, that the present Sultan would act with
caution; but upon every Friday is he not seen ? In these days
of progressive science, if any one chooses to use the appliances
of chemistry to destroy his life, is there not plenty of opportunity ?
When he appears at the mosque is there not always an immense
crowd ? His guard is more from custom and for pageantry than
for protection. All Constantinople, and all the strangers within its
gates, are on hand to see him drive his own team or ride his own
steed. The multitude of both sexes throng upon the hills. The
dignitaries of the empire and the Pashas, who are supposed to
be jealous of his power, and who lose and gain offices with every
change of the, moon, are constantly near him. This proves that
there is no dread of assassination quivering in the Sultan's heart.
It is one of the fantasies of the ready writer of cablegrams.
The Salemlik of the Sultan, which I have endeavored to pict
ure, has been well painted by a native artist, Hamdi Bey.
It was painted for one of the citizens of New York, Mr.
Elliot F. Shephard, who cultivates both art and religion. It
presents His Majesty driving in an open carriage, accompanied
by the venerable Namyk Pasha, of long and honorable service,
and Osman Pasha, the hero of Flevna; but it cannot, and does
not, represent the enthusiastic cheering with which he is received
at the conclusion of his prayer, or the other proofs of the good
will of his people.
It is, I think, a favorite relief and pastime of the Sultan
to show himself to the people in this quasi religious way. It mat
ters not whether the Ministers who are waiting to see him are from
Japan or Russia, China or America, Persia or Spain — he is al
ways gracious with his courtesies. And what a splendid attrac-.
tion it is for the populace of Constantinople 1 What a fete day,
once every week ! What variety in the uniforms of the soldiers !

END OF THE SALEMLIK. 35
What a changeable aspect the soldiers present from week to week !
to-day a regiment from the Soudan, to-morrow a battalion from
Albania. Each Friday there is a new greeting to new people of
strange and distant parts of the world. He is always ready, at
this religious season, to bestow favors and to be pleased with the
•devotion of the Oriental people, and especially those of his own
dominions.

CHAPTER V.
THE SULTAN IN HIS YILDIZ KIOSK  PRESENTATION OF AMERICAN
BOOKS.
During my sojourn at Constantinople, and while cultivating
the graces which belong to the Envoy who, according to Lord
Chesterfield, seeks the success of his mission, I found it was not
only not at all improper, but thoroughly Oriental, to indulge in
some gift making and taking. I do not speak of the little per
sonal courtesies of this kind, but of those of an official quality.
Indeed, as eariy as December 31, 1881, the Sultan desired to
have sent to him from the United States, and at his own expense,
an album with every description of fire-arms in photograph.
There is nothing which he has inherited from his ancestors, to
which he clings with such pertinacity, as the desire to examine all
inventions pertaining to artillery, and the various armaments
and explosives connected with warfare. To fulfill this expression
of his wish was a part of my pleasure while serving near his
court. A more superb photographic album of the arms and
inventions from America could not have been desired. It was
a recent collection up to date. Besides, he desired stereoscopic
and other views of the scenes, objects and buildings which are
considered the most interesting in the United States. These,
also, it was my privilege, six years after his request, to
present to His Majesty in the name of the President. The Sultan
is also fond of trees of all kinds, as the cultivation of the grounds
of Yildiz, amounting to several thousand acres, amply illustrates.
He desired a collection of American fruit-bearing trees and
shrubs, and also specimens of our various evergreen trees. The
latter he desired packed in such a way as to preserve them for
setting out in Turkey, with a likelihood of their growth. General
Wallace thought there could be no difficulty in gratifying these
requests of the Sultan. He suggested that our Government
should bear the expense, and that they should be a present
from the President to the Sultan, as a manifestation of good-will,
36

PRESENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT. -> 7
" at once delicate and happily expressive." I quote the language
of the auther of " Ben-Hur.''
Nothing was done in pursuance of these suggestions, although
many promises were made to make an effort to comply with the
wish of the Sultan. Surely it would be gross remissness, after the
expression of the wish of the Sultan, if the sovereigns of the United
States represented by our Government should not heed it. But
it was not heeded for a long time. After the Sultan had paid for
the docking and repairing of the United States ship of war
Quinnebaug, I took the liberty in the fall of 1885 of recalling
to the attention of the home authorities the request and promise
in several missives. Mr. Bayard, the Secretary of State, at once
gave a gracious and favorable reply. He did not stop there : he did
better ; he proceeded to execute what had been promised.
In some meetings which I had with the Sultan, and in reply to his
curiosity as to the miraculous growth of our own land in population
and resources, I told him that the only way in which he could
possibly understand our advancement would be to take the salient
points out of our Census reports, and especially the Tenth Cen
sus (1880), have them suitably translated, and apply them to
his own land. He would thus see what an advertisement a good
census would be of the vast resources of his own empire. Hav
ing been Chairman of the Census Committee of the 'House of
Representatives which reported the bill, and, I may say, engi
neered it through the House, by which our new system was inau
gurated, I did not feel incompetent to talk with the Sultan on the
subject. As a result of these communications, I was happy to
report to my Government that two boxes containing photographic
and stereoscopic views of scenery, edifices, etc., in the United
States, together with a complete set of the Census reports, with
the Census law and instructions and blanks, were received at
Constantinople. Having informed the Sultan of my desire to
present these articles in behalf of the President, His Majesty
accorded me a reception in the afternoon of May 16, 1886. The
boxes were borne from the Legation by a stalwart hamal to the
palace, and there opened under the eyes of eager officials, who
seemed to think that there was something in them — something
strange and curious. The hamal of Constantinople is able to
carry' six hundred pounds weight of material. Had he known that
he was bearing the ponderous statistics of over ten years of

^8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

HAMAL CARRYING. UNITED STATES CENSUS TO YILDIZ.

EXAMINING THE GIFTS.

39

American growth, he might have staggered under the heat and
burden of the day. What a chance was here for the reporter of
the American press, had he but known that the figures of our
condition and advancement were laboring up the high hill of
Yildiz for the instruction of an effete dynasty !
The boxes were opened on the first floor of the palace,
in one of the side rooms, and their contents carried to a
kiosk in the midst of the beautiful private garden of the Sultan,
which is situated on the summit of Yildiz — the palace of the
" Star." In this kiosk there was also a library. I present a pict
ure of the kiosk, though I cannot, in the same connection, pre
sent a picture of the scene that followed. The volumes in the
library are of the same red binding as the portfolios containing
the photographs, so that at once the entente cordiale is estab
lished between the various volumes, there being harmony in
their toilets.
In making the presentation, I had the honor to remark that no
such representation could be had of any country as that which the
President had thus presented. The natural scenery displayed
what God had done for our land, and the views of edifices, bridges
and other structures what man, under the conditions of oui
American life, had done in a century. The Census returns gave,
in statistical, tabular and picturesque form, the grand results oi
our American policy and civilization.
The Sultan was delighted at the elegance, uniqueness and
magnificence of the gift. After adjusting the stereoscope — on
which was inscribed upon a silver plate : " From the President
of the United States to His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan of
Turkey " — he selected some of the views from the hundreds
before him. They elicited expressions of delight and wonder.
The photographs of the " Red Men " attracted his eager atten
tion. He asked many questions as to their origin, their move
ments, and their present numbers, condition and government. I
could see that he surmised them to be of that Mongol race—
which in the cycles of history clustered in " Tartar tribes " on
the territory between the Himalayas and the Mediterranean-
out of which, as the most energetic, came the Seljukian Turks,
who almost conquered Europe, as well as a large part of Asia and
Africa. I endeavored to explain to him the relations of oui
Indians to the Federal Government — as wards — of whom it was

40 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

ARE OUR RED MEN TARTARS? 4 1
the guardian. He was anxious to know if they amounted to
much, and how we provided for them. I explained, as well as I
could, the effects of white raids, whisky and land-grabbing, as
well as the " reservation " plan, and the probability that by
intermingling with the white population, they would in time, and
like our other races, be absorbed in our composite system of
society. The towns and houses of the Zuni Indians attracted
his attention, for they are counterparts of certain towns in Asia
Minor, which I have just seen in photographs. Besides, are not
the Indians themselves Tartaric in custom and costume, and
have they not an Oriental veneration for the sun ?
The Sultan asked curiously — pointing significantly to the
minaret of the new mosque visible from the kiosk — if they
believed in one God. I gave him a brief outline of the natural
religion of these people, who have almost ceased to be interest
ing to ourselves except in romances, but who, as these photo
graphs show, are a source of infinite interest to the ethnologist.
In thinking over these incidents, and the Sultan's query
as to the religion of our Red men, I recalled the posture of
Mahometan prayer, and the listening Moslem, his hand to his
ears, in honor of the All-Audient Allah, together with the verse
of Longfellow in his Hiawatha :
"Gitche Manito the Mighty,
He, the Master of Life, was painted
As an egg, with points projecting
To the four winds of the heavens.
Everywhere is the Great Spirit,
Was the meaning of this symbol."
Indeed, the Sultan not long since indicated his strange if not
hereditary preference toward the tribes of other countries, who
perhaps were more or less akin to the Mongolian or Tartaric
tribe from which his ancestors were descended, by honoring an
American who presented some Australian "Indians" for his
observation and delight. Had I been in Constantinople at the
time, I think I should have put in a caveat against them in behalf
of the noble red men of America ! An Australian, who is
indigenous to the soil of that island, is always associated in my
mind with the kangaroo, some of whose legs are inadequate. In
some electioneering performances in the " wild West," when I

42

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

A MOSLEM AT PRAYER.

CENSUS EXPLAINED.

a:

first ran for Congress, a company paraded on my own domain at
a mass meeting. They were known as the Australian children,
and were made to dance under the cowhide of the exhibitor, and
under the delightful inspiration of gingerbread if they got
through safely. I was asked by the proprietor of these
Australian children to give a name to their chief Without
knowing the full significance of ttie meaning, I named him
Cambyses. The Orient had even then its fascination for me, and
the Australian, by some strange permutation, became its repre
sentative. Nothing better could have been selected to interest the intelli
gent Orientalist than those rare portraits of the chiefs of our
American Indians, whose origin Science may some day indubita
bly trace to the Mongolian ' ' hive ' ' of Central Asia. Nearly
two hours of that beautiful May afternoon passed in thus
reviewing the aborigines, scenes and resources of our country.
Not the less attractive to the Sultan were the Census volumes.
Just before I went to Egypt, in February, I had a conversation
with him as to the necessity of a census for his dominions. I
was not unprepared to make the endeavor to explain somewhat
the features of our system, and its results, as embodied in the
fourteen books which the President had forwarded. The afflu
ence of these returns — considered as an advertisement merely
of ^our values and growth — evoked the Sultan' s wonder. He
specially examined the volumes on Forestry and Architecture, and
made some notes for his own purposes. He referred to his love
of trees, whereupon I expressed the hope that his wish as to the
fruit - bearing and evergreen trees from America might yet be
gratified. Each census volume was explained to him seriatim — agri
culture, petroleum, minerals, manufactures, population, cotton,
debts and taxation, &c., and so on to the last published. He
marveled that with such abundant information as checks on
human frailty, we should ever have peculations, spoliations, or
maladministration. He concluded that, with such data for
administrative policies, we could not be other than prosperous. He
asked me if we had dishonesty in administration. I said that our
civil war — like all other wars — had begotten frauds and corrup
tion, which time and better administrations had abated. He
congratulated himself fervendy on his own recent policies of

44

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

peace and forbearance, by which he had saved so much of taxa
tion, grief and trouble to his people.
I had the honor, with much pride, thus to show the variety
and completeness of the Tenth Census, with which, as statists
of Germany, France and England have said, there is nothing
comparable in the annals of other nations, and certainly nothing
of the kind in Oriental countries. These volumes not only dis
play the physical features of our country, by table and picture,
but its rapid development and its political history, o'f which
those features are a factor. The progress of settlements are here
traced across mountains and valleys; the population with its
variety of race and nativity ; its educational, benevolent and
religious conditions ; its occupations and mortality; its industries,
finance, commerce, wealth, debt, taxation, expenditure and
revenues — all as data for social science and political order, and
in such detail as to bewilder, if they were not so methodically
arranged. These elements pass in review before this autocratic ruler
of forty millions of people, who, with intelligent grasp, compre
hends their utility, and the need of their application to his own
country. Then he reminds me of our conversation about a
census for his own country, and said that he had directed his
Grand Vizier, Kiamil Pasha, to organize a commission to begin
the work. He was anxious as to its cost. I told him that ours
was limited, by the first act, to three million dollars, or about
seven hundred thousand pounds sterling, but that the publica
tions nearly doubled this sum; and that for his purposes, and as
the initiative, it was not necessary to spend a million of dollars to
present a fair summary of the Turkish elements of population
and wealth. He asked me if I would aid it by my advice, when
the commission was formed. To which I responded that, con
sistent with my duties to my country and health, I would do so,
if the President did not object. The law, the instructions to
superintendents,' enumerators, and blanks for returns, and the
modus operandi of special experts, were fully detailed by the
printed papers in the envelopes which were in the box. These
envelopes he sealed with his own hand, and gave them direction
at once. So that probably Turkey may, if peace prevail, have
a census of her own.
Never was there such a desideratum for a country. For ex-

THE SULTANS THANKS!

45

ample : As to the population of Constantinople — no one can tell
what it is, whether one or two million, much less of what ele
ments it is composed. It is the greatest seat of commerce in the
Eastern world. Its industries are manifold and various, and
yet, there is no local data worth having, either for taxation or
administration, nor statistical returns of any kind.
The afternoon passed away, with constant expressions from
the Sultan of his obligations, and thanks for these remarkable
gifts. I was charged to convey to the President His Majesty's
high regard and esteem, and his thanks for this thoughtful and
elegant present.
As an evidence of the 'delight which this peculiar present
gave to the Sultan, he was pleased to direct his Chamber
lain — Hadji-Ali-Bey — to show me about the grounds of his
private park, whose beautiful arrangement of lake and fount
ain, mound, hill and vale, is only equalled by the prospect of
the Bosporus below, and the Asiatic mountains beyond. To
emphasize his delight still more, he was so courteous as to invite
my wife and myself to dine with him at the palace. But this
deserves a chapter by itself.

CHAPTER VI.
SOCIAL LIFE AT CONSTANTINOPLE — A STATE DINNER AND DEC
ORATIONS.
It is not very easy to define what society is. Perhaps the
simplest definition is that it is social and friendly intercourse.
If it be thought impossible to have such intercourse in Turkey,
owing to the various races of its population, its many faiths and
the seclusion of the Mahometan women, certainly I have not
found it so. There is much visiting by the Turkish women
among themselves, both in person and by proxy. They seek on
every occasion to make visits of salutation, condolence and con
gratulation. They make visits when children are born, when
people are married, and when people die. They visit much in
the evening during the religious season, when in fact there is
more freedom for the Turkish women than at other times. But
as to the enjoyments of social life, as we regard them —
where the amenities and delights of intercourse are elevating and
instructive — these do not strictly belong to the Turks of the
capital. Can such a congeries of men and women, without the same
nationality or creed, have that common interest which creates a
social order ? In the other capitals of Europe where courts exist,
there is always a grand centre. There is a big fly-wheel, as it
were, by which the lesser machines of social order are regulated
and moved. But owing to the reserve of the social system of
Turkey this social centre is missing. Even the Sultan, notwith
standing his word is law, does not undertake to exercise any social
power, except now and then by a dinner to the Cabinet, to an
Ambassador, or to some of the officers of the palace. His Hfe is
passed as the slave of his people. It is a course of official
drudgery from early rising to late retiring. He has no time for
society. If it be said that he keeps aloof from social pleasures
because of timidity or fear, I deny the statement. He is, as I
have said, always seen publicly once a week. Very little care is
46

IS THERE TURKISH SOCIETY. >

47

taken to protect him from the observation or the approach of
the populace. He is always received with enthusiasm, and is
easy and frank in responding to it. Passing between lines of
troops, with crowds of military officers and Pashas, and ladies of
the harem in their carriages, and amid the noise of the streets,
drowned somewhat by martial music, he does not look a bit like
the thin-faced, grizzly bearded, pale nian, nervously fluttering
his hand before his face by way of salute, hurrying into the
mosque, and giving himself time only to throw a half-frightened
glance around him, and soon lost to view before he can be well
seen; yet it is the custom of European writers thus to represent
him. He is not a grizzly bearded man, nor is his mien one of pale
timidity. He is the head of a State, and is always caring for his
people. Since he is not the head of society, so called, no other
Turk can assume that position.
The truth is, the Turk is too quiet and reflective for the but
terfly work of society. He is reproached by the "dudes" and
popinjays who move in some of the Legations, because he likes
old and kindly ways and because, instead of devoting himself to
a club or to frivolity, he goes home and takes a contemplative
smoke with his family, or invites some of his neighbors to come
and smoke with him and listen to the stories told in the Salemlik.
That society which New York, London, Paris, Vienna and St.
Petersburg furnish, is not at all akin to this home sociality. The
Turk goes to bed early — with the chickens. He rises early. His
good old-fashioned ways are incompatible with the unprofit-able
social regime. Sometimes the Ministers and many State officials,
including the Grand Vizier, attend the receptions given by the
Foreign Ministers, but they seem to be more or less out of place.
They are observant, never loquacious, and always reserved and
self-contained. There can be no great social tendency in a dem
ocratic country like Turkey, where there is neither hereditary nor
other nobility. Besides, riches take to themselves wings and fly
away from Turk and Turkish homes, more promptly than in
other countries. Very few Turks there are who are very rich, or
who keep their riches very long. There is no law of primogeni
ture ; so that families are not kept up in state and style from gen
eration to generation, to lead society or to govern and grace it
with their exceptional presence. When such a man as Hobart
Pasha moved around in Turkish circles, or such an elegant

48 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
gentleman as Rustem Pasha, the ex-Governor of the Lebanon, now
Minister to England, used to leave his plain home, to spend an
evening with a European friend, there was an occasional interest
in Turkish circles of a social kind ; but Rustem Pasha was an
Italian, though a faithful officer of His Majesty, and Hobart
Pasha was an Englishman. The Greeks, Armenians and Levan
tines do not lead in the social order. Their wealth, which many
of them have in abundance, has not much weight in the social
hierarchy. Is there any aristocracy of intellect or art in Constantinople ?
There is one Turkish painter — Hamdi Bey. His pictures are
greatly valued. There is now and then an editor, who, if his lucu
brations are printed, and if he does not fall under the censorship,
may be accounted a literary man, and this is all there is of it. There
is an aristocracy of money, and yet not of society. A leading man
in Pera, whose splendid home upon the Bosporus is only equalled
by the elegant entertainments at his mansion in Pera, is the presi
dent of the Ottoman Bank — Mr. Foster. He represents a social
coterie. It is gradually being merged with that of the dominant
social people; I mean the Foreign Ministers.
It is not at all true, as is generally supposed, that there is
much uncharitableness and jealousy between the different em
bassies — a German set here, a French set there, and an Austrian
set yonder, or a special Russian set under the direction of the
gifted Russian Ambassador. So far as I could observe, there were
the kindest relations among all the Ministers; and yet they are a
body by themselves. They enjoy one another's hospitality with
great cordiality and unfailing iteration. It strikes me that, at
present, the German element is in the lead; but how long will it
remain so at a court where the Foreign Ministers are so transient
that almost half of them have been changed since I arrived in
Constantinople ?
There is a literary conclave here with an intellectual atmos
phere, where poetry is recited and rare themes are discussed.
This is outside of the routine of society. But the principal con
versation among the various embassies and their attaches, con
cerns ridiiig parties, lawn-tennis, dances, dogs, horses and flirta
tions. If you should undertake, while upon the cricket-ground
or in the ballroom, to discuss any subject connected with art
science or literature, I doubt not you would be considered by the

THE PLAGUES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 40
bulk of the young English, French, German, Austrian, Russian,
Italian or Greek attaches, as de trop, or, in other words, a bore. It
seems that neither by position, money nor intelligence do em
bassies at Constantinople deserve theplaces which they assume as
the leaders of society. When it comes to carrying straws from place
to place they are active and vigilant; but when it comes to solid,
substantial ideas for the advancement and culture of those
who make Constantinople their home, they are not as im
portant a factor as are the various religious societies, which
really form by themselves a social order of a self-sacrificing
and noble quality. And among these I would include the
American missionaries, both male and female, as well as the
Scotch, English, Dutch and German good folk who make
the Protestant churches and schools both attractive and in
structive. As early as a. d. 1837, when Miss Pardoe wrote her " City
of the Sultan," she remarked that there were three plagues
of Constantinople — fire, pestilence and dragomans. The drago
mans still remain, but I find them a most reputable and indis
pensable class of public servants. The pestilence, notwithstand
ing the horrible condition of the streets, has not, of late years,
aroused anxiety. This may be owing to the good quarantine
established — under Fatalistic doctrine ! But the other plague —
fire — is not quenched. It is a perpetual scourge, for reasons.
which are apparent in the wooden buildings of the city, and in
the careless mode in which the all-consuming pipe is used.
Besides this incendiary there is another. It is a sort of frame
work over the hot coals in the brazier which is used for
warming the apartments. It is called the pandour. It is not
the "whiskered pandour" of poetry, but it is equally de-
' structive. The family washing is hung upon it to dry. Of
course, after the clothes are dry a fire is likely to ensue. But the
fourth plague, which Miss Pardoe was inclined to think was
worse than all the other three, she designated as "politics."
She says : " The Faubourg of Pera always reminds me of
an ant-hill, with its diplomatic bustle and race for straws
and trifles, and its ceaseless, resistless struggle and its striving
to secure most inconsequent results." What she observed
forty years ago continues, not so much among the diplomats
as among the various civilians, who are jealous of each other,

50 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
and among the Greek, Armenian and other races, who are
contentious among themselves.
One thing can be said in favor of the social life of the Turk.
He seldom dines alone. He is even more hospitable than the
Arab with his salt. If he is in his konak, or country house,
every visitor is an invited guest to his table. Let me make a
picture of a real Turkish dinner:
The Pasha sits down, cross-legged, on a divan, and his
eunuch, or aga, brings him a chased silver basin and ewer. After
the Oriental method, water is poured upon the hands. Another
servant brings in a gold-embroidered napkin ; then drawing up
a low table, which is becoming common now in our Western
households as an article of bric-a-brac, being inlaid with mother-
of-pearl, an attendant places upon this the waiter loaded with
the repast. There are many dishes, to suit a variety of
tastes. A favorite dish is a lamb roasted whole. It is
stuffed with rice, raisins, and the favorite pistachio nut. This nut
is sold upon the streets of Constantinople as commonly as the
peanut in New York. It is the pearl of good things. Then
comes a delicate dish of small fish, and there is no place equal
to the Bosporus for this article. Egg plant, if it be in season,
appears fried in oil, and followed by boiled squashes stuffed
with hash. The Turkish hash is by no means to be derided, for
it is neither second-hand nor equivocal. The national dish is
called dolma. Hash is an element of that dish. Hash and
mutton is the piece de resistance. Rice is served with it, as well
as with rabbit, and both are cooked in vine leaves. Then we have
chicken breasts stewed in rose water, and cakes of flour and sugar,
or dough sweetened and cooked. Then come the jellies, the
sherbet, the exquisite rose preserves and various "dulcet syrups,
tinct with the cinnamon.'' Nothing equals the rose preserves in
the eye of the Oriental housewife; and here, by way of paren
thesis, it is just to say that the housewifery of the Turkish
matron cannot be overrated. She has much to do, and does it
well. There are a number of side dishes in small saucers
— most of them delicate and unfamiliar to us. To crown the
repast comes the pilaf. This is a dish of rice, seasoned with
butter and tomato juice, in accordance with an invariable cus
tom at every meal.
Is not this menu a sign of advanced civilization ? Is not this a

CABLAKIAI, OR FOOD CARRIER
51

52 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

CUISINIER, OR COOK.

TURKISH MEALS. C ^
5o
feast fit for Lucullus ? One of these Eastern dishes has as much
patriotic flavor as the roast beef of Old England, the frogs of
France, the olla of Spain, or the hog and hominy of America. It is
the plenteous pilaf, the national dish. It is worthy of all accepta
tion. It is sometimes spelled pillau, but generally pronounced
p'laf It is on every Turkish table. It may be made in various
ways, but its very soul consists in the essences and sauces which
belong to the stewed meats, over which plain boiled rice is
poured. The rice is as white as the unbolted snow of Boreas. To
a Turkish or Arab peasant or soldier a dish of pilaf is a feast
of the gods, and as prepared here in the East it would adorn
a Delmonico dinner.
I am not aware that the Roman gourmand ever ate with his
fingers, nor have I ever seen any classic announcement of the
number of tines to his fork ; but it will be many decades before
the Turk gives up the habit of eating with his fingers, or regard
ing the knife, fork and spoon as otherwise than unhandy table
ware — wasteful and ridiculous.
Are there any liquids on the table ? No. No bottles, no
pitchers ? No ; only a large glass of water for each guest at the
end of the entertainment.
The meals for the palace, and frequently for the konaks, are
brought from a distance. You will notice their carrier in the pict
ure. He is called the ^'CabldKlai." The other personage is the
cook. These are orginal sketches — not commonplace photographs.
The trays are carried from Dolma-Bagtche to Yildiz, nearly a
third of a mile distant — and up-hill. The meats are contained
in copper dishes, so that they can be heated on a charcoal fire
after their arrival at Yildiz. There is, however, a kitchen for
the Imperial family connected with the palace of Yildiz. Their
dinners do not travel that distance, but the tray is in service at
all the dinners.
An American friend asked me, on my describing these twenty-
odd dishes, whether the Turk " waded " through all this variety
with his fingers. If the Turk had asked the question of a New
Yorker whether he " waded " through all the dishes of the Hoff
man House menu with a lot of cutlery, the answer in each case
would have been an equation — "why, certainly !"
A story is told of the Shah of Persia, during his visit to Eu
rope, which was exceedingly amusing to some Turks to whom it

54

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

was mentioned. It was, that after dinner, forgetting temporarily
Western customs — having used his fingers in dining — he wiped his
hands on the lace curtain, which was conveniently near him. This
was after dining with the Emperor of Austria. He thought the
curtains were hung up for his special service.
These remarks are prefatory to a description of the best
possible dinner — at the palace itself But it could hardly be
termed a Turkish meal. It happened in the spring of 1886, after
our return from Egypt. It is unnecessary to say how much of
the preliminary preparation seemed to us dispensable.' The
calling of the landeau, and the liveried coachman with his simple
gold band, and the capture of the dragoman en route to the
palace, were not the least indispensable requisites for such an
occasion. We had been informed that the German Ambassador and his
wife were to be our companions at the feast, and that the famous
violinist Wilhelmj M'as to be present. He was to have the honor
of playing for the Sultan, and as a German, he was under the
patronage of the German Ambassador.
It is the custom of the Sultan — and for some reasons which
are more or less connected, as it is humorously said, with astrology
— always to postpone an engagement, especially when it involves
an interview, or a dinner with the representative of a foreign
power. The dinner at Yildiz, to which reference has been made,
was twice postponed. The same thing happened to Herr Rado-
witz, the German Minister ; but at last, the invitation was fixed
for Saturday evening, the 29th of May. Luckily, owing to my
perusal of history on that day, I found this date to be the
anniversary of the entrance of the Ottoman emperor into
Constantinople. According to Chesterfield's canon of diplomatic
grace, I incidentally mentioned to the Sultan this pleasing fortui
tousness. I think he had forgotten it, for he seemed to regard
me with a smile of amazement that an alien should be so ready
in Ottoman annals.
Many distinguished gentlemen and officials were invited to meet
us. The details of the dinner were published the next day in the
papers, in many languages. All that it becomes me to say is
that it was throughout, especially in its conclusion, a remarkable
proof of the friendship of the Porte for the German and American
nations.

PREPARING FOR THE PRESENCE. cc
When we arrive at the gate' of Yildiz, the Kavass dismounts.
He is no longer wanted, and he retires to the Legation. The
soldiers on guard escort us up the drive, and the coachman,
conscious of the presence of royalty, lashes his horses into a
gallop. " Are we late ? " I ask, tremulously.
"About five minutes," responds the dragoman. We breathe
freely. In the gloaming of the evening I only notice that the
garden wall is a mass of Bankshire roses and the palace a
wilderness of lights. The carriage stops. We alight. We are
met at the vestibule by a grand Pasha in uniform and
decorations. We walk upon carpets, ascend and descend steps
into the marble entrance, and there are invited to take off
our wraps. We are ushered into a small side room, and
find M. and Mme. Radowitz, together with other invited
guests, among them Dr. Mavroy6ni, the Sultan's physican,
whose son is now the Turkish Minister to America. The
German .Ambassadress is dressed in elegant .white satin, with a
gold and silk embroidered train. It is unnecessary to state how
the American Minister's wife is dressed. In some nebulous
way, I know that pink satin and point lace figured on the
occasion. The gentlemen greet us, and remain standing. In
a few minutes the master of ceremonies leads the way to the
upper salon. He is follovred by the Ministers and the rest of
the company. Each is presented in turn to the Sultan. Mme.
Radowitz, with a grace beyond all expression, sinks to the floor
in her salaam. The American Minister's wife, from her Demo
cratic manner of courtesy, is not expected to make quite such
a display ; and she does not. We are in the presence of the
Sultan. If I were to give the opinion of the female portion
of the company, I should say that he has large fine eyes and
a most gracious manner. The latter is illustrated by his cordial
shaking of the hand with all. On his motioning to the ladies
they are seated on the divan. He then calls up the three
princes ; his son, who is seventeen years old, and his two.
nephews. These youths wear military suits, epaulettes, spurs
and swords. They are each presented in their turn. How the
company is disposed, with the view to a movement towards the
dining saloon and table, it is unnecessary to state; except this.

56

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

that the Sultan accompanies his guests to the door of the grand
salon, with a parting salutation and remark that he will con
tinue the reception after dinner.
The table is a picture. It is wide and long, with a gorgeous
display of flowers fruits, lights and crystal shades. We enter at
the end of the room and are tendered our respective seats. Our
little ministerial family are placed among the Princes. One of
the nephews, Tewfik, is about ten years of age. He is a meek,
quiet, subdued-looking child. He speaks Turkish only. The
Sultan's son and nephew speak some French. When the dinner
begins, although they do not drink wine, there is much geniality.
We happen to have other genial companions at the table. They
are acquainted with some of our Turkish-Egyptian friends. Some
of them served in the wars together. Meanwhile the Sultan's
band plays rare music from the adjoining room, and the dinner
goes on very much like a French or Russian dinner. I find that
the Princes are anxious about geography. They inquire about
Egypt. They ask about America. We explain much of the
recondite history of Egypt, including incidental remarks about the
mummies, temples and tombs. Although they only drink water,
we drink their health, and they enjoy it. Asking- after their
amusements, we do not receive much information. I imagine that
the Princes are more or less restricted by their exalted position.
The menu is tempting. The wines are good. The service, in silver
at first, and then in gold, winds up with the finest crystal for
finger-bowls. Dainty little gold shells hold the ices. Ten serv
ants in gold-trimmed uniforms and fez caps serve the table.
The dinner is not tedious, for it is not long. The bon-bons
are passed about, the princes being always first served. Each
takes one, and passes it to my wife with a quaint courtesy.
After arising from the table, we march down the line of Pashas,
aides and servants, all of whom bow, after the Oriental method.
Then passing through a corridor, we enter a polished green and
black tiled coffee-room, which has a dais railed off at one end.
How rare and beautiful are the Turkish carpets and divans here !
How tempting for a siesta, after dinner ! How exquisite the
chairs and the malachite tables !
After being seated, the dragoman surprises my wife and the
company. He approaches her with a box.
" I have something to show you. Madam," he says.

A DECORATION AND A SURPRISE.

57

" Yes," she responds. " It is lovely outside. What is in it ?"
He opens it, remarking, " Shall I put it on you ?"
" What do you mean ?" she inquires.
" I have the pleasure of decorating you, at the Sultan's wish,
with the Grand Order of the Chefekat."
Thereupon he throws the Cordon over her head, and, with the
aid of the German Ambassadress, who is familiar with the decor
ation, it is decorously arranged. It is a surprise as well as an
honor, coming as it does almost within one year of our service
with the American Legation. It is a star in brown, gold and
^reen enamel, with diamond brilliants. It has five points, and
twenty-six diamonds on each point. Surely no woman of good
training would refuse such a gift ! It is fastened upon the
front of the corsage, and, with the Cordon, it serves as an orna
ment to the dress. The Pashas, the aides and the officers
make their felicitations on the happy event.
My wife told me confidentially afterwards that she thought
for a brief, ineffable moment that she was a bride again.
This decoration is a jeweled ornament which is generally be
stowed upon the wives of such Ministers here as are personce
gratcB. It originated with the present Sultan, or his father, in
order to honor Lady Layard for her services in the hospitals
during the Crimean War. It is called the " Order of Good Works."
The presentation was made with much exquisite tact My wife
received it amid general congratulations before she was aware
that a question might be raised as to the propriety of its recep
tion by the other member of her family. However, I raised no
such question. The Constitution in no way inhibits a man's wife
from receiving presents ; and if it did there is no special penalty
in connection with a gift of this nature. The ostensible reason
for this presentation, as its name signifies — being charitable bene
faction — could not well be contested by the Minister after the
fact was accomplished by the consent of the wife, "without any
coercion on the part of her said husband."
Whatever may be said of the matter, these courtesies do not
loosen the friendship of the two nations. They have no tendency
toward demoralization. That I can understand ; for they do
not lead me to be partial to aristocratic institutions or monarch
ical governments.
There has been much interchange of kindly regard between

5 8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
the Sultan and Shah. The Sultan frequently wears the Grand
Cordon of the Persian Order of the Lion and Sun, and he is
prompt to confer decorations on those who represent his co
religionists. These occasions make very pronounced the relig
ious relations btween the two countries ; not merely by cordons
of honor, for the Sultan is more practical. He has invited many
of the Persian youth to avail themselves Of the advantages of
his schools, within the domain of Turkey. This accords with the
benevolence which is authorized and enjoined by the Koran.
Whenever there are sufferers from fire and earthquake upon
the islands and lands which belong to the Turkish empire, there
is always a relief commission, of which the Sultan is the chief
patron. When he tenders relief to refugees from Turkey in
Europe, going to new homes in Asia, there is much contention
and anxiety on the part of his Ministers and friends to show an
interest in the charity. A house is burned down at Bechiktash,
and a child in consequence loses its life and its mother her rea
son. It happens near the palace of Yildiz. The Sultan hears of
it. He exempts the owner of the house, by force of his auto
cratic power, from any government tax, and presents him with a
sum of money as a token of sympathy for his misfortunes.
Presents of value are by no means uncommon in the
East They play a great part in diplomatic and social life.
They are not limited to those of the same faith. They are
often given by the Sultan to the Greek and Armenian patriarchs
and the Hebrew chief rabbi ; and often the present is in money.
These gifts are seldom bestowed to dignify those with whom
the Sultan comes in contact beyond their meed, but they
always produce the proper fruit and give encouragement to those
kindly relations out of which the charities and tolerations of this
Eastern life spring. Why should this not be ? If His Holiness
the Pope can confer the insignia of the Order of Pius IX., on
the Grand Vizier, and upon other Turkish officials, why may not
there be a reciprocity in that regard ? So the Sultan sends to the
Pope, through the Catholic Armenian Patriarch, a rich ring, to
bind in harmony their respective religious efforts.
Benevolence in the East is by no means limited. It is catch
ing. It extends to the Legations. If the Sultan may give gratui
ties to the Grand Rabbi, or to the Patriarch of the Greek Church,
or a ring to the Pope, and exercise other elegant amenities, why

ORIENTAL GIFTS.

59

should not there be a calico-dance in mid-Lent, under English
auspices for sweet charity's sake? Why should not the German
Ambassadress, to help the kindergarten, institute a bazaar for
that purpose ?
Among the presents fabricated for Pope Pius IX., was one
from the Sultan Abdul-Medjid in the year 1853. It is an Oriental
saddle. Its cloth and leather, except, of course, the seat, were
encrusted with jewels, mostly diamonds. It may not be known,
but it is nevertheless true, that among the Turks there is no
present which is so appreciated as that of a horse or saddle. Al
though the Popes are not in the habit of riding on horseback, at
least since the time when one of them was thrown from his horse in
the Forum, the saddle was a very beautiful specimen of a gift, and
well intended by the father of the present Sultan. The precious
stones in the saddle, however, have been removed since it was
first hung upon a peg in the Vatican. They now decorate
a chalice presented by the ex-Queen of Spain to the Pope.
Considering the unusual circumstances of the evening, this
digression may be pardonable.
After the presentation of the decoration to my wife, on this
occasion, and after other courtesies, the ladies enter the carriage.
They are driven toward but not to the harem. They are not
invited to see the domesticities. The gentlemen follow upon foot.
The beautiful lights in the gardens and from the windows make
the scene like one from the Arabian Nights. The plashing fountains
and the fragrance of the air produce the impression of something
magical and marvelous.
Then we enter a grand salon, with a parqueted floor
covered with rugs, divans, chairs and tables, where a rare
library, a white porcelain stove and numerous secretaries fill
the side walls, from which depend red satin hangings. Here
the Sultan receives us again. A beautiful table occupies
the centre. Upon it are some American photographs. It hap
pened on that very morning that another box of American photo
graphs was received through the Porte, and not through myself as
Minister. His Majesty sits in an arm-chair at the head of this
table, dressed, as usual, in his dark-blue frock coat, suit, sword
and fez cap. His black whiskers and large eyes produce a pictur
esque effect He seems more at ease than any of his company. He
chats with each and all, and always on appropriate subjects, and

6o DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
with musical, subdued tones and fluent language. Every sen
tence is received by the interpreter with a profound bow, carrying
his right hand from near the floor to his heart and head. The
sentences are passed through our own dragoman to the minis
terial ear with equal grace. To the German Ambassadress the
Sultan apologizes for not seeing and entertaining her before at his
dinner-table. It is because of the Greek troubles. He points to
the photographs of the Emperor and Empress of Germany on a
side table. He cherishes them as friends. To the American
Minister he expresses regret at the delay in seeing him, and the
delight which he experiences at receiving some new pictures from
the President.
These courtesies ending, the violinist Wilhelmj is ushered in.
He has a large forehead, and the air of a man of genius. He
makes a graceful bow at the door, and seems relieved when he
reaches the piano stool, where an accomplished Pasha awaits and
afterwards accompanies him in some rare and rich music. The
national air of Germany is given, on the rendering of which the
Sultan and all of us rise. Then, as a tribute to Germany, or to the
unseen goddess of Metaphysics, he asks each of us to smoke. The
ladies, of course, decline, but the American Minister is not in
that mood. The Sultan lights his own cigarette from a silver
match-box, and pointing to it says:
" Tell my friend Mr. Hewitt that I keep his gift by me, as a
pleasant souvenir."
When we retire to the library, the Sultan shows his guests
the elegant specimens of American art and scenery which he
had received in the morning. He had selected a few from the
new lot He also shows me a letter in Turkish from his
Minister, which informs him of the arrival of the package. "He
states that he has directed the Minister to telegraph the President
his grateful regard and thanks for these interesting gifts. He
also requests me to send a similar message.
The tea is then served in gold cups and saucers. The music
is concluded. Thanks are sent to the musician, along with
a pretty decoration. Then the Sultan rises, takes little Tewfik,
his nephew, by the hand and leads him to the piano, saying,
apologetically: " The boy will give us some music, although he has only
learned by the ear."

ENTERTAINMENT ENDED. 6 1
The quiet little Prince plays a spirited march. It is a national
air. Then he plays from " Norma. " After that he leaves the piano
and stands in his place meekly, till the Sultan indicates for him to
sit. The Sultan kindly explains that he is a child of one of his
brothers, who had died when Tewfik was but a few months old, and
that he was educating him as well as his other nephew as com
panions to his son.
The Sultan now arises. He will detain us no longer. It
is etiquette at the palace to remain until the Sultan gives
the signal to leave. This he generally does by a glance at his
watch, saying :
" I fear you will be late ;" or, " Perhaps I am detaining you."
He shakes hands with the ladies first; and then the gentlemen,
with their best grace, back out. The bouquets are distributed to
the ladies. A little remark of mine, which was caught as I left
the room, caused the Sultan to recall the Minister and the drago
man. I had mentioned that our President was about to be married.
He suggests to the dragoman to ask the Minister whether the
Ottoman ruler could not in some way honor the expected bride
of the President Of this, perhaps, hereafter, with proper reserve,
as it became a diplomatic Diversion.
As we retire, after many kindly greetings, we look in vain
for lattice and curtain to indicate the harem. Every window
opens into a beautiful garden, and every garden is filled with
flowers and sparkling fountains. It is a fairy scene ; but no
houri. We enter our carriages at the park gate, take our venera
ble Kavass along, and, with a cavalry escort behind, we move
toward Pera; and thus this Oriental entertainment is ended 1
The tales which have been told concerning the life of Abdul
Medjid, and his brother, Abdul Aziz, and of their enormous, capri
cious personal expenditures and luxuries, should be taken as we
take the Oriental tale about the jewels and precious minerals of
the earth seen in some cave opened by some magic influence. In
the matter of display, ornamentation, luxury, retinue of officers —
military, civil and ecclesiastical — there is much demonstrative
Orientalism even yet, for the gratification of the people and
sojourners upon the Bosporus ; but in this regard there has been
great advancement on the line of simplicity. This palatial din
ner illustrates this line of advancement.
The palaces have their alabaster bathrooms, and gates of

62 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
green and gold of marvelous beauty — places for dreams — pleasure-
houses for rare festivities like those of Kubla-Khan or Yildiz,
but they also have their offices for the labors of statesmanship.
They may have treasure halls, where rubies, sapphires, em
eralds, diamonds and pearls of rare loveliness and immense
size are so numerous and wonderful as to stud the very walls of
embroidered satin and the very rugs beneath your feet with costly
jewels; but after all, our feast at the "Palace of the Star"
signalizes its memory more by the amiability of the Sultan than
by the decorations which we observed or which he bestowed.
All the jewels of his palaces and treasury could not make the
balm of its recollection more fragrant and sweet.
If any. of my Democratic-Republican constituents should be so
curious about this representation at this royal palace and feast,
I ask the question that was asked about John the Baptist, "What
went ye out for to see?" I could not truthfully respond that I
saw a man shaken like a reed with the wind — as the Sultan is
often represented — but I could say that I saw "a man clothed
in soft raiment," and that I beheld those which are "gorgeously
appareled and live delicately in the King's courts."

CHAPTER VIL
DIVERSIONS IN AMERICA OVER DIPLOMACY IN TURKEY.
The name by which I have christened this volume indicates
that its pages are not entirely serious. The volume is intended
to record Diversions. The word has a comprehensive mean
ing. It means that which draws the mind from care or study, and
thus relaxes and amuses. It is not only an entertainment, but a
recreation. I will not say that I was limited in my recreation or
amusement to that which was immediately around me. I found
much delight in perusing the American newspaper, with its
numerous and comic caricatures, and its marvelous but humor
ous inter\'iews between His Majesty and the American Minister.
I have made a collection of these remarkable drawings ; some of
which make " old wrinkles come " with mirth and laughter.
Here is one before me :
The Minister is sitting, capped with a red and tasselled
fez, in baggy breeches, upon a scarlet cushion. He holds
an improbable pipe ' of impossible size. Its amber is between
his lips, while an odalisque fairy is" tendering him Oriental sher
bet. Another picture represents the Minister done in littie, sit
ting on a foot-stool at the feet of a gigantic Sultan with a tre
mendous turban that would have done honor to the Janizaries in
the time of Selim I. The Sultan has a drawn cimeter, the like
of which cannot be found in the treasury within the Porte or in
any armory on earth. A chibouque of immensity is connected
with an endless snaky convolution; while occasionally the Sultan
ceases to smoke in order to roar " like all Tattersails," at some
fancied joke of the Minister. Another represents the Minister,
with crushed hat and spike-tail coat, bowing before the Sultan,
who sits cross-legged — which is not his position on any except such
picturesque occasions — while out from behind the arras peep num
berless " lights of the harem " curious to observe the ceremony.
Most of these arrangements of diplomatic jocoseness, are from
the pen and pencil of the American press. They are strangely
63

64 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
anachronous and exaggerative. The American humor revels
in exaggeration ; and why may not the absent enjoy it as
well as those who are at home !
Even the most sedate papers in America had cable despatches
which stated that the Minister was presented with a set of valu
able Turkish jewelry by the Sultan. They proceeded to read
section 175 1 of the Revised Statutes, which forbids any diplo
matic or consular officer asking or accepting any present for
himself or any other person. Many compliments were heaped
upon the Minister because he had been made the recipient of
Turkish jewelry ; and one of our papers playfully remarked that
the only gift the Minister could make in return would be some
jokes of questionable age and of impossible comprehension, but
which might form a brilliant parure for the Moslem festive
board. This story of the jewels started from a pleasant incident.
It happened during my first interview with His Majesty. The
present Mayor of New York, Mr. Hewitt, and the Sultan are
great friends, having met each other in Constantinople some
years ago. Their friendship had been cemented by a library of
books of rare interest sent by the Sultan to the Mayor. Mr.
Hewitt entrusted the Minister with a return gift. It was very
handsome ; the very best sample of Tiffany's workmanship, It
was a covered vase of graceful shape, intended as a receptacle
for keeping sweet the Sultan's smoking tobacco, albeit of Amer
ican growth, which Mr. Hewitt furnishes the Sultan from time
to time. The vase was of beaten metal of various shades, in
which silver was blended with gold in such a manner as to
produce a most harmonious effect in colors. The chasing was in
Arabesque design, with two shields appearing on opposite sides
of the vase, one bearing an imperial monogram and the other
the emblems of Turkish sovereignty. Along with the vase was a
match-box, in the shape of a cigar. This opened very mysteri
ously. These articles had been transmitted to the Sultan the
day before the Reception ; and at the private interview granted,
much was said about the friendship which existed as well between
the United States and Turkey, as between Abdul Hamid and
Abram S. Hewitt. The cable, from some mangling of this
incident, gave rise to these fables about a present to the
Minister. Indeed, a poet from Ohio went so far as to attribute

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fc.,..-,. — a^:Z,>,j^^'L:MS£^m.,

' ' '.

':^?:i

Hbi|CJ1 ¦¦^•¦' - — — ^^¥^jrt<«,-**s^

.?;>^#^t|#;^^'^v"^'*?#^^^-'."-
aSB^^sa^f^.'sr^i--*-". ¦>•;;'•.•.;.¦ f''"v7»»T' -,-.¦>-;-;,,;¦»
LEGAT10-\ STEAM LAUNCH " SUNSET," OFF PRINKIPO.
66 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
to the Sultan this lyric gush as to Turkish generosity and
impecuniosity : " Please accept this jeweled casket,'
For I, Abdul Hamid ask it.
The bill is unpaid, I kno-vv, sir,
But the head of him I owe, sir,
Is now rolling in the basket !
Other papers not given to the jocose had exquisite etchings
of the Minister, in a swallow-tailed coat, making his obeisance
before the Sultan. It described the ministerial hair as oily, like
that of a Chatham Street barber, while a small rose nestled in the
button-hole of his coat, to which an odalisque nightingale sang its
song. A half-dozen richly dressed eunuchs salaamed before the
enamored Envoy. It was said that the Sultan had gotten himself
up to receive the Envoy regardless of expense ; and that he
had even gone so far as to have his shoes polished — a most
unusual honor to be paid a foreigner. Although the two emi
nent personages could not understand each other — so ran the
story — they managed to carry on quite a conversation. The
Sultan at length invites the Minister to visit the harem. That
gentleman puts on his killing smile and acquiesces ; but by a
strange break in the concatenation of the wire in the Black
Sea, the Sultan is led to keep a watch on the Bosporus, owing
to a remark about Civil Service Reform, a senseless subject to
discuss under such sensuous circumstances.
The picture which illustrates this wonderful account has
several odalisques gazing from behind an embroidered screen.
As they are the special lights of the harem, a terrific-looking
Nubian, in a voluminous turban, with a drawn cimeter, and a
meteoric crescent above his forehead, is placed on guard, expect
ing momentarily the order of the Sultan to decapitate the
Minister. All this indicates not only the free and easy way in which the
sovereigns of America speak of a brother sovereign in another
sphere, but it also shows the great progress which has been made in
the reception of Envoys since the time when the grandfather of
the present Sultan, seated behind the curtains upon his throne in
the Bagdad kiosk on Seraglio Point, simply opened the hangings
for the purpose of passing out his hand to be kissed by the
Ambassadors.

THE FUNNY AMERICAN JOURNALIST. 6 7
But it is when the American journalist is in his funniest
mood that he records as something pleasant the somewhat musty
anecdote, common in America, which plays on the word
Bosporus (Bos-for-us!), and adds to its playfulness the remark that
the point of the pun, as perpetrated by the Minister, did not pene
trate his Majesty's intellect for some time, but that when it did
he celebrated the event by sending the Minister a handsome glass.
pipe, formerly used by the females of the harem.
It will be noticed that most of these sportive accounts
do not refrain from allusions to the domesticities of the palace.
Is it not one of the liberties of the American people that its
independent citizen may take a lively interest in the discussion of
the domestic affairs of everybody ? Therefore, it was not at all
unexpected to find in American journals the statement that the
new Minister was, in this regard. Extraordinary in many senses
besides that of Envoy. May I not be pardoned, therefore, in
reproducing for Oriental surprise — for it cannot be indignation —
a few samples of this marvelous and hyperbolical literature ?
In one of these journals the Minister- is represented as
arrayed in his insignia of office and knocking at the door of the
harem, just as "His Majesty is putting on his Turkish rug and
tying his Daghestan around his high standing collar!" What
follows is none the less unexpected from the newspaper : The
door is opened by an ebony Ethiopian, as innocent of raiment as
if there had never been an apple in the Garden of Eden.
"Well, Mungo," says the Minister, " is the Son of the Moon
up yet?" "Walla, walla ! "is his only response.
The Sultan, seeing the Ethiopian embarrassed, has him
recalled. By a wave of his hand he summons the Minister into
his presence. "Mr. Porte, I believe?" says the Minister, who is also
embarrassed. " That is my name. Take an ottoman ? " repHes the Sultan,
motioning to a small foot-stool at his side.
¦' Thanks, " says the Minister. Thereupon the interview
proceeds. " I have come, my Lord High and Mighty, to let you know
that my nation isn't afraid of the ' unspeakable ' Turk any more
than it is of any other furren' bird."

68 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
The Sultan, not understanding this American argot, makes a
salaam. Whereupon the Minister offers to wager even ducats
that if he was dressed in the loose fashion of the Sultan himself,
he (the Minister) could touch his toes without bending his knees,
as many times in an hour as the Porte himself.
"Do you smoke?" inquires the Sultan, ignoring the chal
lenge and the wager.
The Minister avoids smoking, but remarks :
" I am powerful thirsty. High and Most Mighty Lord of the
Horizon! If you will give me a drink of that lighted concoc
tion of yours I will be obliged," says the Minister, pointing to
the chibouque at the Sultan's side, thinking it to be a demijohn
of rakee, from Trebisonde.
The Sultan tolerates this unwonted familiarity. He gathers
his family around him.
" These ladies here are your daughters, I presume," re
marks the Minister.
" You have a sublime father, young ladies ! "
" Please confine your attentions to business," remarks the
Sultan, flushing to the roots of his fez.
"Well, I do mean business ! What's the matter with your
daughters, anyhow? Peek-a-boo! Ah, there! I see you" —
sings out the festive Envoy to a beautiful Circassian, who wears
the customary mosquito-proof cloak over her shoulders and a
fluffy band of tulle over the lower part of her face.
" Look you ! " says the Sultan, " Child of the Setting Sun !
Look you, Sir-r-h ! I will order a bastinado for you !"•
" Two of them," suggests the Minister — "on toast !"
" You are rushing business, young man," says Abdul,
without quailing, and reaching for his cimeter.
" Put up your cheese knife ! " says the Minister. " It doesn't
scare. The sooner you simmer with your cimeter the better it
will be for all hands — and heads," stroking his black beard
composedly. Evidently the Minister has the advantage, for he exclaims
defiantly, while waving an imaginary star-spangled flag above the
star and crescent :
" Sew me up, and drop me in the Bosporus, if you can !
Hah ! Hah ! You tremble ! Ta-ta ! "
Before the Sultan could have the Minister throttied— for so

THE LAST SALAAM OF THE DOOR.

69

writes the American journal — the Envoy goes singing down the
palatial carpets to the front door :
Port«, Porte,
Fat, fair and forte.
Don't try on me your manners hortg."
The Minister then salaamed the door.
One of our poetasters, in singing of the disaster to the steam-

MEHMET, THE AMERICAN KAVASS.
ship Gallia, which brought us across the ocean, attributed the
breaking of the shaft to some joke of the Minister, and the engi
neer begged him not to joke again. The shaft of the ship broke,
and could not, or would not, again make any stroke ; and all, said
the facetious journalist, as the sad result of a joke.
These home felicities anent the head of the Legation might
have been withstood ; but the iconoclastic journalist dared to lay
his mace, like the second Mahmoud, upon the person of the Kavass
— our guide, Janizary and friend ! What is a Kavass, and who

70

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

is he ? He has a history of hundreds of years ; and ours at the
Porte is none other than Mehmet, who has served the American
Legation for thirty years.
Every personage of old Turkey, except the Janizary, is
represented in the mosaic of different people and races at
Constantinople. The Janizary is represented by the Kavass.
This official goes ahead of the Envoy when afoot, or with him on
the launch or ferry, to protect him from the Moslem. He is an
antique repetition of the old guard, chosen from the Janizary
corps to guard the Giaour or Christian from the insults of the
Mahometan. He comes down from the olden time, and is as
much out of place as an old flint-lock musket in modern battles.
Such an odd, old, obsolete genius of antiquity is our Kavass
Mehmet. He is the picture of goodness. His photograph I
found in the establishment here of Abdullah Freres. He
accompanies the Minister and family, when they take their walks
abroad along the stony paths of the shores of the Bosporus, or when
the launch lands them at an Asiatic palace across the Straits ; or
when the Minister makes his calls at the Porte on the Ministers
of State, or upon the Foreign Ministers upon the upper Bos
porus ; or when they go a-shoppmg in the Greek shops of Pera or
in the bazaars of Stamboul. On these occasions the Kavass is sure
to be the accompaniment. The American Kavass weighs 350
pounds. He wears a blue frock coat braided in black, a golden
belt, a sword in a silver sheath, and pistols of portentous size
and antiquity. He orders all the urchins, donkies, arabis and
beggars out of the ministerial path. He has his uses in the
narrow streets.
It was this valuable adjunct of our diplomatic Diversions whom
the caricaturist represented quite otherwise than he appears in the
picture herein presented. That he is heavy, grave and gor
geous in full attire, is easily observed. That he is handsome, is
true, if to be so, be to be good and honest. I vindicate him by
this faithful portraiture.
It was hardly a " Diversion," but still it is worth mention
ing as one of the encouraging features of our system of diplo
macy, that almost the moment I brought our Legation out of a
dirty side-alley in Constantinople and fixed it in a respectable
quarter and in nice chambers, at less expense, my attention was
called by the home authorities, to a most unusual contingent ex-

A. A. Gargiulo,
dragoman of the united STATES LEGATION.

72

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

pense. It was not peculiar to Turkey. It was said to be incurred
by our Ministers in "non-Christian countries." By way of
illustration, these authorities cited some charges in the accounts
of Mr. Emmet, our able Secretary of Legation, and the Chargd
before my advent in Turkey. They likewise hauled Mr. Benjamin,
late Minister to Persia, over hot coals. The object of all this was,
to learn whether the needs of this kind of service in these distant
lands absolutely required these expenses. At once many of
these expenses were discontinued by the Department, after a full
investigation by myself of every item connected with the Lega
tion. Among these items, which for fifty years had existed, was
an allowance of four horses to the Minister and one to the drago
man. These were disallowed promptly; although they had existed
from the time of Commodore Porter's ministry in 1830. Each
horse was accounted to consume sixteen dollars a quarter. These
were allowances, as commutation fOr the extra expense of traversing
the narrow and horrid streets, where carriages were impossible,
and which both Minister and dragomafi were compelled to trav
erse, every day, either to the palace or to the Porte. This com
mutation of horse was an economical convenience to the Minister
and dragoman. My attempts in Congress for economy, and my
report on the subject to the Department, seemed to arouse all
the exquisite fun and dainty deviltry belonging to the Mephisto-
phelian press of my native land. With the aid of some clerks in
the State Department or the Treasury, the public press was
enabled to enlighten my fellow-citizens about certain sudden
changes from a stingy Congressman to an extravagant Minister !
I was represented, both by word and caricature, as riding on four
splendid Arab steeds bare-back — I mean the steeds bare-back.
Of what use was it to deny this unbridled luxury ! Need I say
that at that time I was lying upon an ottoman well racked with
the sciatica ? But the Jeffersonian simplicity of the Administra
tion was demolished by these fantastic and fancied Oriental
pictures of a ministerial circus performance over the horrible
pavements of the capital of Constantine !
The most hyperbolical of these exaggerations of American
humor had reference to the reception described in a preceding
chapter. Even alliteration's artful aid was called in, and the
sobriquet of the Mmister was used to indicate the scintillation
which " Sunset" and the Sultan invariably produced in their

THE MINISTER'S FOVR-HORSE ACT — AN IDEAL.

74

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

stances. My meeting with the Sultan is thus described by one of
our humorous papers ; I need not mention its name, but it girdles
the earth in forty minutes:
They — Sultan and Minister — meet on the shore of the Golden Horn. The
Sultan advances a few paces and says :
"Gracious Son of the Mighty and Glorious West, I salute thee. Star of
my Soul and Apple of my Eye, welcome to the Sublime Porte. I hail thee as
a bubbling fountain of delectation, dearer to my sight than the rose to the
nightingale, mftre precious than the shade of the date-palm to the weary trav
eler on the desert. Thrice welcome to these classic shores."
Then the Minister responds :
"O High and Mighty Sultan, Child of the East, Playmate of the Eren-
ing Star, Companion ot the 'Vagrant Zephyr, Old Chum of the Red, Red Rose,
I salute thee and thank thee. I greatly rejoice in the decision of my master
at home, who hath sent me to these classic and legendary shores. May our
communion and companionship overflow with joy and pleasantness, without a
fleeting shadow to darken the sunshine of our content. Again 1 thank thee,
and connect the kiss of international good-will with the flower-garden of thy
Eastern cheek, O Vermilion Rose-Tint of the Fading Twilight, Soft Liniment
of My Weary Frame, and Precious Pad of My Liver."
We are led to exclaim, in the language of Puck's own motto,
" What fools these mortals be." But we must remember that
our American extravaganzas come out of the Orient through
the Celtic medium ; and, as these chapters will prove, the Orient
is of this quality of humor, " all compact."
The very nature of the East — physical and human — speaks of
" skies full of splendid moons and shooting stars, and spouting
exhalations — diamond fires." If in pursuing the behest of the
religion of the East, we make the West tributary to Oriental
doctrine and contemplation, may we not be excused for modeling
our Brobdingnagian phrases on the spire-steeple style ? Espe
cially when these phrases are .so neatly turned as in the verses of
an Ohio poet : I am very glad to meet you, Mr. Cox ;
With a royal shake, I greet you, Mr. Cox ;
Just seat yourself at ease, sir.
And take some snuff and sneeze, sir ,
I would like to sleep and eat you, Mr. Cox.
Oh America, I love it, Mr. Cox ;
I am great, but not above it, Mr. Cox ;
1 hear the climate's healthy,
And the country's very wealthy —
Oh, that gold, I'd like some of it, Mr. Cox.

THE SULTAN— A SOLID CHARACTER. 75
'You shall take the place of Wallace, Mr. Cox ;
By familiar name shall call us, Mr. Cox ;
We will have our fun together.
And we'll never mind the weather.
For we'll have a hack to haul us, Mr. Cox.
More especially, may we not be pardoned when we regard the
splendid empire which this Emperor still controls ; and likening;
as I often do, its primary elements to those of our own country —
with its diversity in unity — turn from these flippant and harmless
pleasantriesof our jolly journalists, to the solid forces of rule and
character which the Emperor displays in the midst of all attempts
to despoil him of his territory or derogate from his good name.
Properly to dignify this Ruler and Caliph of the great Eastern
country, and to correct the errors which too much frivolity piay
have created in reference to his character, let me in the next
chapter make a compendious statement of these historic
realms.

CHAPTER VIIL
COMPENDIUM OF OTTOMAN HISTOR'Sf.
Turkey is not what she was; but she is yet an empire, politi
cally and otherwise. Her possessions in Europe are peopled with
8,650,000 folks of divers races. This number includes Roumelia,
which is nearly autonomous, and Bosnia, Herzegovina arid Bul
garia. The latter is, as yet, a tributary principality. Outside of
Europe lies the real Ottoman power. Counting Egypt, Tripoli
and some of the Grecian isles, and not counting the sacred rule in
Asia and Africa, the Sultan, Abdul-Hamid, is the Emperor of
at least 36,000,000 of people, and, as the Mahometan father,
of nearly two hundred millions of the faithful.
This does not courlt Tunis, which France has. It does not
count other realms, as India, Borneo — aye, even to Congo,
Liberia and Guinea — which have devotees of the Islam faith.
Constantinople alone has over seven hundred thousand
people. Reckoning the people along the Bosporus, it is
double that number. They live mostly at or about the old point,
the ancient Byzantium. They have a grand d6p6t of commerce
and intercourse. But their harbor really runs from Kavak, or,
rather, from Fanaraki and Fener, near the mouth of the Black
Sea, to the Dardanelles. There these clear, deep and flowing
waters connect with thetideless Mediterranean.
Counting Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Roumelia, Servia,
Wallachia and Moldavia — Turkey in Europe is roughly estimated
at an area of one million eight hundred square miles. Deduct
about one-fourth of this territory for the recent changes since the
Berlin treaty, and you will have a reasonable estimate of her
European domain.
A Turkish historian remarks that, as in gazing at the , sun the
eye becomes dazzled, so the mind becomes confused when it
attempts to regard the brilliancy of the career of this illustrious
Turkish race. It is not difficult, however, to trace this race to
one of the five nomadic tribes which comprise the Turanian
76

NEBULOUS ACCOUNT OF THE TURKS.

77

family. They have been called Tartars. These tribes gave such
populousness as Central Asia had in the early centuries — even
beyond the Caspian. It is supposed that the name Turk is
derived from the Chinese appellation Tu-kiu. The Turks were
an imperial race, who lived west of China two hundred years and
more before the Christian era. The historic pen becomes more
or less confused, as it undertakes to separate the Huns, Tartars
and Mongols, who, under their respective chiefs, ravaged from
time to time the Asiatic and a large part of the European world.
But out of seeming confusion, and after many dispersions, it is
tolerably sure that the Turks became more or less subservient
to a great Khan in the gold mountains of Altai. There they
became forgers of iron and makers of weapons. From these men
the Turks of to-day claim their origin. The iron-working nations
— including the large family of Smiths, whose ancestor was Tubal-
Cain — have ever held the world in thrall. The Turks, with their
iron weapons of. that early day, cast off the yoke which pressed
npon them, and established a royal camp in the gold mountains.
They became nomadic on the Asiatic plateau.
What religion they had before their conversion to Mahometan-
ism is rather nebulous. They worshipped the elements. They
made sacrifices to the Supreme Being. They were more or less
controlled by the doctrines of Zoroaster. Their criminal code was
strict. Theft was punished by tenfold restitution, and other
crimes more heinous, with death. To show their soldierly origin
and aptitude, no chastisement was considered too severe for the
coward. Of course they met many rivals in arms before they
crossed into Europe. They fought the Persians, but still they
moved on, eddying hither and thither, adding to their strength by
their warlike energies. Sometimes they united with others;
oftentimes they had Greeks for allies as well as enemies. The
Romans sometimes sought alliance with- them, to strengthen the
wings of their advancing eagles.
When Mahomet appeared in the middle of the seventh cent
ury, his religion gave unity and zealotry to the Turkish tribes
Thereafter, out of these traditions, half fact and half fancy per
haps, the history of Turkey takes authentic shape. While many
Turkish princes ruled in Palestine, Syria and Egypt, the one great
tribe of Seljuk, known as Turkoman, inhabited the district of
Eokara. From this tribe descended the victorious Turks who

78 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
carried the banner of the Prophet under the walls of Vienna only-
two hundred years ago, and who, defying augury, remain a
power in Europe until this day.
After one of their great victories, these Seljukians assembled
to elect a king. The question naturally arose, among so many
splendid warriors, Who shall be chosen? The mode adopted
for its solution is singular. A number of arrows are inscribed,
each with the name of a tribe, family and candidate. The
arrows are tied in a bundle. A child draws out the lucky one.
Togrul Beg, the grandson of Seljuk, and a lineal descendant of
the Turanian emperor, thus becomes the first Sultan elect. His
kingdom, through division, falls into decay. Out of it springs a
clansman of the same tribe. His name is Soliman. He is with
the first of the Turkish hordes that land in Europe. He
becomes an ally of one of the Greek contestants for the Byzantine
throne, and finally the guest of the successful rival, by whom he
is royally entertained at Scutari, on the Bosporus, with his two
thousand cavalry.
From this time on the Turkish power rapidly develops, espe
cially in Asia Minor. It continues to increase until the thir
teenth century, when it meets the Tartar wave of conquest, led by
the genius of Genghis-Khan, of their own stock. Before it, falls
this Seljukian dynasty ; but only temporarily. When the great
Mogul, Ghengis-Khan, loses his conquests by too much extension,
the Turks recover from their disasters. They renew their
war against the Greeks. They are joined by their brethren
who had emigrated from their Asiatic home in Khorassan. It so
happens — perhaps the Turks would call it destiny — that Erto-
ghral, the leader of these kinsmen of the Turks, in his movement
westward from Khorassan finds himself and his four hundred
families in the presence of two contending armies. He takes
sides at once. He is chivalrous: he sides with the weaker.
It turns out that the weaker side wins. It also turns out that it
was the side of the Sultan Alladin himself. Ertoghral becomes
an Emir on the shores of the Black Sea. He continues the
Turkish war against the Greeks.
By this time we approach solid historic ground. It is the last
year but one of the thirteenth century. Now arises a military
genius. He gives prestige and name to the proudest of the
Turkish race. His name is Osman, or Othman. He is a states-

GIRDING ON THE SWORD OF OSMAN.
79

8o DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
man as well as a soldier. His is the physical arm which
strikes, and the dauntless courage which inspires his soldiers.
In his reign the arts of peace as well as of war are cultivated.
These include the erection of mosques and the education
of children, the proper tenure of land and its cultivation,
and religious toleration to the Christians whom they con
quer. It was in this Osmanli statesmanship that the many
liberalities known as the Capitulations of Turkey had their origin.
It is said that Othman ruled even after his death ; so great was
the influence of both the civil and the military "organizations
which he had created. It is the sword of Othman — to which
I. have adverted in a former chapter— which every successive
Sultan must wear at the coronation. That ceremony is
not complete until the act of girding it upon each successive
Sultan is enacted. He is then the Emperor of the Ottomans.
Othman's counsels are a royal testament to the Turk. It is his
line which, in direct descent, rules in Constantinople to-day.
His son Orchan improves the inheritance which he receives
from his father. He increases the army and extends his sway to
the Bosporus. The arts and sciences are encouraged. The basis
of Turkish naval power is laid. Of course the Turks are
more or less belligerent all the time. The weakness of the
Greek empire leads to a calU upon Orchan for aid. He unites his
forces, and even his family, with the Emperor at Byzantium.
A son of Orchan succeeds. He bears the banner of the Cre
scent into Thrace across the Dardanelles. Then Amurath, as his
successor, advances that banner over Thrace, and fixes his capi
tal at Adrianople. His conquests north of the Balkans make him
its grand suzerain. Servia, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Albania bow
beneath his sceptre.
If you should visit Broussa, you would see with interest the
capital and the tombs of the founders of the Turkish empire.
There are the mortuary chapels of the Sultans Osman and
Orchan. They stand on the site of the ancient Greek cathedral
dedicated to St. Ellas. Osman died soon after the conquest of
the city by his son Orkhan, and was, by his own desire, interred
in the biiilding, which was converted into a mausoleum. The large
drum of Osman— one of the emblems of royalty, given to him by
Alladin, Sultan of Iconium — was suspended over the head of the
tomb, whence the name of Daoul Monastir (the Monastery of the

-^^ '''^-. — a

Yif^'-^-

TOMBS OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE, OSMAN AND ORCHAN,

82 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Drum), by which the building was subsequently known. The
chapel was completely shattered by the earthquake of 1855. The
modern buildings now covering the remains of the founders of
the Ottoman dynasty preserve no trace of the architectural beauty
of the old church of St. Elias. The mausoleum of Sultan Orkhan,
in the same enclosure, contains many family tombs, but that of his
first wife, the virtuous and beneficent Christian, Princess Nilou-
f er, finds no place there : she was interred near the wall of the
enclosure. The sketch herein represents the condition of these
famous tombs.
A more elaborate statement of the rise of the Moslem power
and its progress will be found in the subsequent chapter upon the
Caliphate. The advancement of the Turkish secular empire
runs hand in hand with the growth of the Caliphate and its
extension over three continents.
The number of sovereigns who have successively occupied
the throne raised , by Osman, including its founder and His
present Majesty, is thirty-three. It may be interesting, as each
was an unquestioned Caliph, as well as a Padishah, to give their
names in chronological order, viz. :
I. The Sultan Osman, or Othman, surnamed Ghazi, or the
Conqueror. He began his reign in the year a. d. 1299. He
reigned 27 years.
2. Sultan Orchan; proclaimed a. d. 1326. He reigned 34
years. 3. Sultan Amurath I. (Murad); proclaimed a. d. 1360. He
reigned 22 years.
4. Sultan Bajazet, the Thunderer; proclaimed a. d. 1389.
He reigned 13 years. The Interregnum of Suleiman and
Moussa then began. It lasted 11 years.
5. Mohamet I., the Gentleman; proclaimed a. d. 1413. He
reigned 8 years.
6. Amurath II. (Murad); proclaimed a. d. 1421. He reigned
30 years. 7. Mohamed II. , the Conqueror of Constantinople ; pro
claimed a. d. 145 1, and reigned 30 years.
8. Bajazet II. ; proclaimed a. d. 1481. He reigned 30 years.
9. Selim I.; proclaimed a. d. 15 12. He reigned 8 years.
10. Suleiman I., the Grand and Lawgiver; proclaimed a d.
1520. He reigned 46 years.

GENEALOGICAL TREE OF THE OTTOMAN RULERS.

84 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
II. Selim II. ; proclaimed a. d. 1566. He reigned 8 years.
12. Amurath III. (Murad); proclaimed a. d. 1574. He
reigned 21 years.
13. Mohamed III. ; proclaimed A. D. 1595. He reigned 8 years.
14. Ahmet I.; proclaimed a. d. 1603. He reigned 14 years.
15. Mustapha I.; proclaimed a. d. 1617. He reigned i year
and was deposed.
16. Osman II. ; proclaimed a. d. 16 18. He reigned 4 years.
Mustapha was then proclaimed the second time, a. d. 1622.
He reigned i year.
17. Amurath I'V^. (Murad); proclaimed A. D. 1623. He reigned
17 years. 18. Ibrahim I.; proclaimed a. d. 1640. He reigned 8 years.
19. Mohamed I'V^. ; proclaimed a. d. 1648. He reigned 39
years. 20. Suleiman II. ; proclaimed a. d. 1687. He reigned 4 years.
21. Ahmet II. ; proclaimed a. d. 1691. He reigned 4 years.
22. Mustapha II. ; proclaimed a. d. 1695. He reigned 8 years.
23. Ahmet III.; proclaimed a. d. 1703. He reigned 27 years.
24. Mahmoud I. ; proclaimed a. d. 1736. He reigned 24 years.
25. Osman III.; proclaimed a. d. 1754. He reigned 3 years.
26. Mustapha III.; proclaimed a. d. 1757.' He reigned 17
years. 27. Abd-ul-Hamit I.; proclaimed a. d. 1774. He reigned 15
years. 28. Selim III.; proclaimed a. d. 1789. He reigned 18 years.
29. Mustapha IV. ; proclaimed a. d. 1807. He reigned i year.
30. Mahmoud II. ; proclaimed a. 'd. 1808. He reigned 31
years. 31. Abd-ul-Medjid; proclaimed a. d. 1839. He reigned 22
years. 32. Abd-ul-Aziz; proclaimed a. D. 1861. He reigned 14 years,
and was deposed. Murat V. was then proclaimed, but not
crowned. He reigned only a few months. He was deposed for
alleged insanity. He is still living, in close confinement.
33. Abd-ul-Hamid IL He was proclaimed a. d. 1875. He
was born on the 2 2d of September, 1842. He is the thirty-fourth
sovereign of the Ottoman dynasty, and the second son of Abdul
Medjid, who died on the 25th of June, 1861. He has four sons.
It was the eldest, Mehmet Selim, born on the ist of January, 1871,

THE SUL TANS RELA TIVES. 8 5
with whom we dined at the palace, but he does not inherit the
throne. Two others are respectively about nine years old, one being
born in February, 1878, and the other in the next month. He
has a daughter, Zekihe, born in 1871, and another, Naime, born
in August, 1876. His brothers are of great consequence in a
dynastic point of view. He has five brothers, one older than
himself — Murad, who is not competent to rule. The youngest
is sixteen years of age. He has three sisters, the eldest about his
own age. Besides an aunt, he has nine cousins. The brother
next in the order of succession under the Ottoman law is
Mehmet Reshad. He is now about forty-three years of age.
These relatives are often seen driving or riding about the city,
and not infrequently at the "Sweet Waters" of Europe, where
every class of people congregate. They are of distinguished
appearance, dressed in Frank costume, except that each and all
wear the inevitable fez.

CHAPTER IX.
THE ORIGIN, POWER AND FALL OF THE JANIZARIES.
One of the determinative factors in the history of Turkey
ought not to be omitted from this compendium. For a
time, more important than Sultans, more potential than the
Crescent, and almost rivaling the religious element of the Ottoman
empire, was the organization known as the Janizaries. They
were a body of men who had their origin in the reign of Amurath,
the son of Orchan. They were born Christians, but in their edu
cation they became Moslem. They were fearfully destructive of
the Christian people. As the ally of the Turk, they held Europe
in terror for many hundred years.
It may be asked : How could such a body of Christian men
become such zealots in the Mahometan faith and in the Turkish
army ?
By the Mahometan law the Sultan is entitled to one-fifth
of the spoils taken in battle. Amurath applied this law
by the selection of the best captive Christian youths. These
he trained in the Islam religion and in the use of arms. They
were called Yengi-cheri, or new soldiers. Their faces, like their
costumes, were white, which was interpreted to mean, shining and
cheerful. They became the flower of the Turkish army. The
same body was afterwards recruited from the Christian youths
whose parents were Turkish subjects.
No man can be compelled to serve in the Turkish army, even
yet, who is not a Mahometan. The strain for war material upon
the Mahometan population was very great, but it was relieved by
the education of these Christian youths in the Moslem faith.
What battles these troops gained, how they were handled at
the final taking of Constantinople, and how at last they were
utterly destroyed by Sultan Mahmoud II. , after nearly five
hundred years of existence, is a conspicuous part of Turkish
history. This corps of Janizaries was the first example of a regular

"^^//'.

AGA, OR CHIEF OF THE JANIZARIES.
87

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

j.4'

COMMISSARY OF THE JANIZARIES.

PICTURES OF THE JANIZARIES. 89
Standing army upon our planet. They were a sort of body-guard.
Like the Roman pretorians, which, under Vitellius, numbered
sixteen thousand, they controlled the State. They made
and unmade the Turkish Caesars. They became the instru
ments of despotic rule, and that rule was their own. Their
force supplanted the patriarchal form, which always had mitigat
ing circumstances amidst the worst surroundings. Their excesses
went far in the time of Mustapha the Fourth, who came to the
throne in 1807. When they could not use him as their tool, so
as to repeal the reforms of his predecessor, they deposed him from
power. They murdered the Sultan Selim, and endeavored to
assassinate his brother, Mahmoud.
When these Janizaries chose to rebel, it was, in one sense, a
rebellion of the stomach. They turned their kettles bottom up,
as a symbol of their disregard. They thus refused their food,
like spoiled children, and would not be dependent upon the
Sultan, who would not grant all their caprices.
The Janizaries were not all destroyed by Sultan Mahmoud
the Second. They have sometimes reappeared in certain neigh
borhoods in the same uniform, but not with the same intense and
active organization. Mahmoud the Second broke their power.
He was the son of the first Abdul Hamid, and the father of
Abdul Medjid and Abdul Aziz, and therefore the grandfather
of the present Sultan.
It would be impossible to make even a brief sketch of
this remarkable corps, without giving some idea of the pictur-
esqueness of their white uniform and of their arms. I
have been fortunate enough to find in Constantinople a
volume which bears evidence of being printed both in that city
and Paris in 1882. It is a rare album. It contains the figures,
uniform, arms and equipage — the whole paraphernalia, in fact — of
this remarkable corps. It is an authentic album. It is compiled by
one Ahmed Djfevad. He was a colonel in the Turkish army and
a member of the Government. It contains the engravings of
over forty of the Janizaries — officers, soldiers and servitors.
It is impossible to describe the uniqueness and picturesqueness
of the costumes of these soldiers. The head-dress has no parallel,
except, perhaps, among the original effigies in the Museum of
the Elbecci-Attica, at Constantinople, where are preserved, in all
their splendid attire and gaudy color, the costumes of the officers

9°

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

^

J^'

CHIEF OF THE JANIZARY CHASSEURS.

ARMS OF THE JANIZARIES. g 1
of the Sultan, and of this corps — from the chiefs of the
Black and White Eunuchs, with their wands of silver, to
the cook, with his manifold involutions of turban and
sash. I present some of these heads, to represent not so
much the costumes of the Janizaries, as the wonderful serenity
which seems to reign upon their countenances, beneath the enor
mous plumes which cap their head-gear. I would specially call
attention to the " Ousta du,32 Orta de Chasseurs." He has
no rival in costumes, unless it may be among the warriors of
central Asia or interior Africa.
This album contains engravings showing every species of gun,
spear and arrow. It has pictures of arrows with torpedo heads.
The variety of the guns, including breech-loaders, is wonder
ful. Many arms of which modern invention has vaunted
itself may be seen among the ancient weapons in the Museum of
the capital. Thanks to Colonel Djevad, we have a good repre
sentation of them. Their authenticity no one can dispute.
I insert herein a sketch of a couple of javelins which I find
in the book. Does the smoke that comes from the point indicate
some tendency toward conflagration ? With the new element of
dynamite, and other explosives which have been introduced into
modern warfare, why may not some inventive American make a
similar torpedo, not simply to be fired by a gun, but by hand !
It certainly would be a safe mode of procedure, as there would
be less danger to the man who throws it or to the vessel from
which it is fired.
When Mahmoud the Second came to the throne, in 1808, the
institutions of Turkey depended upon the Janizaries. When the
Grand Vizier of this Sultan undertook to reinstitute the liberal
measures for which the Sultan's uncle had died, the Janizaries
revolted. They successfully attacked the regular troops. They
compelled the Grand Vizier to take refuge in a building, where he
perished. They attacked the seraglio. They compelled the
Sultan to revoke his liberal measures. But this was the last
display of Janizary arrogance. Their insolence hastened their
destruction. They had been used, through, many vicissitudes, by
the factions of the empire, and had become a standing menace
to its existence. It became a question as to their existence or
that of the empire. The Sultan resolved to break them up. He
issued a decree for this purpose. They rebelled against it.

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

ARMS OF THE JANIZARIES.

THE MASSACRE OF THE JANIZARIES. 93
Twenty-five thousand of them sprang to arms. The Sultan was
prepared for this. They were exterminated by a massacre, horri
ble in detail ; but it was indispensable, if the efforts which
Mahmoud was making for the regeneration of his people were to
succeed. It was not without the exercise of firmness and courage that
Mahmoud was enabled to suppress this corps. It was an issue of
life or death with him. History repeats itself It is the pre-
torian of Rome or the strelitz of Russia over again. The mat
ter approaches a crisis. That crisis grows out of a very insignifi
cant affair. The indignant Janizaries espouse the cause of a
comrade who has been struck by an Egyptian. They
show their reversed sign of the camp-kettles. They threaten to
fire the city, and assemble in front of the palace of their
aga, or leader. We present his picture among the rest. They
demand the heads of the Grand Vizier and the Mufti, who
favor reform.
The Sultan hears of the insurrection. He hastens across the
Bosporus, assembles his faithful troops, invokes the religious
orders, takes from the mosque of Achmed the sacred standard,
and summons the Mussulmans, as if for a holy war. The rebels
entrench themselves at Etmedam, near their barracks. The regu
lar troops occupy all the streets. Their cannon are so planted as
to command the open space. The Sultan risks his life, in
demanding the dispersion of the insurgents. A brave officer pre
cipitates the contest by firing his pistol upon the priming of a
cannon. Then the artillery begins its sanguinary thunder. It is not
an action; it is a massacre. There is no quarter. The Janizaries
seek to enter the barracks and entrench themselves ; but the bar
racks are fired. Those who escape the sword, perish by the fire !
The bodies that are not consumed by Che fire are thrown into
the sea. There is an inhibition against eating fish for some time
afterward. The rebellion is suppressed and the Janizaries are
annihilated !
The traveler will notice, as he goes through the various ceme
teries where the Janizaries are buried, that certain monuments are
decapitated; that many carved turbans of marble are not there.
Vengeance pursued them even after death. The power of the
state was not weakened by the destruction of this corps. It has
often been likened to the destruction of the Mamelukes by

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

OLD GUNS OF THE JANIZARIES.

BENEFICIAL RE SUL TS TO THE MOSLEM PO WER. g 5
Mehemet Ali in 1811, and such doubtless it was, both in its horri
ble detail, and in its beneficial results to the Moslem power.
The Janizaries had borne the brunt of many a battle; in fact, of
most of the battles that led to the victorious advancement of
the Crescent. They fell by their ambition and insubordination.

CHAPTER X.
SALIENT FEATURES IN OTTOMAN EMPIRE — FRENCH INFLUENCE.
Following Amurath — who besieged Constantinople a. d.
1422, before his successor captured it — are many Sultans
who extended their conquests in Asia Minor and Europe. Many
of these conquests remain until this day as the possessions of
Turkey. Macedonia, Thessaly and parts of Greece, as well as
portions of the Balkan Peninsula, indicate how high the Turkish
tide arose in those days ; and a reconstructed map of Turkey in
Europe to-day shows how far that tide has subsided.
Constantinople, however, existed long under Greek dominion,
notwithstanding the weakness of its rulers and the feebleness of
its defense. It had succumbed, at the time of the Fourth Crusade,
to the Latins — a most cruel conquest, making an execrable
page of human history. But anterior to the fall of Constantinople
before the Turkish arms, a second Tartar wave under Timour
swept over the same ground marked out by his Tartar predeces
sor. The Ottoman Sultan, Baj,azet, at the battle of Angora fell
before this Tartar inroad. The schemes of Timour were
too great for his execution. He thought to conquer the world,
but in retiring backward upon China he was killed, and his con
quests were dissolved by his death.
One of the singular incidents of the war of 1877-78 in the
Balkans, between Russia and Turkey, is the fact that a major-
general in the Czar's suite was none other than Genghis Khan, a
descendant of the famous conqueror, Genghis Khan, the " Scourge
of God." He is described by an American pen as a great, '
burly, good-natured soldier, with high cheek-bones and black hair
and beard, the perfect type of a Tartar, as depicted in any child's
geography. Thus the fourteenth century and its Scourge is
reproduced upon the olden plains of Thrace.
After the death of the Asiatic conquerer, Timour, there
was nothing to stop the Turk from making sure of his conquests
in Europe, or gaining the much - coveted capital of the three
96

TURKOMAN CONQUESTS. g7
seas and two continents near the shores of the Bosporus. But
the Byzantine rule was not yet to succumb, although it was
honey-combed with corruption and only defended by mercenaries.
The Timour and Tamerlane Tartars, who overran the world,
were of the same race as the Turk, but not of the same moral
quality The Turk, when he accepted the Arab civilization
along with the Koran, accepted the best refinement and exaltation
of each. It is said that Genghis Khan slew between five and
six millions of the human race. Empires built upon education
and advancement fell before him. How proud these Tartars
were, to be accounted the "Scourges of God" ! They were
indeed the irony of Nature; for where their standard was raised,
no grass ever grew again. At least, that was their boast. Not so
with the Turks.
It has been already stated that the Turkish race had its origin
in the fastnesses of a gold mountain range. Out of this range
came these Scourges. It is not so celebrated in geography as the
Alps, Himalayas, or the Rockies of America. The invading
Turkomans adopted a creed which had hardly been consolidated
or understood among those who adhered to it They became
inspired with a fanaticism which intensified their native courage.
Out of their emergencies came a progress unequalled in the
romances on our star. No such stories have ever been told in
the life of any other nation.
Behold this horde of nomads on their first emerging from the
Asiatic mountains ! After many wanderings and fightings, they
make conquest of the richest provinces of Asia. They overthrow
the Byzantine empire, displace the Christians in the very land
where Christ was born, and, crossing continental waterways, seize
upon the fruitful lands between the historic seas of ancient Greece.
Almost by a single dash, unequalled in the campaigns of Caesar,
or even Alexander, and with the aid of new inventions in
gunnery — inventions of their own Tartar race — they command a
proud position in the family of nations.
At the time of the accession of Suleiman the Magnificent, in
1520, the Ottoman power was most dominant. The Turks
then held all the Slavic country as far as the capital of Hungary.
They held many tributary states along the Danube. They held
the Crimea and the shores of the sea of Azof, almost com
pleting the circuit of the Euxine. Fifty millions of people

98 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

ROXOLANA, HIS BEST BELOVED WIFE.

THE MAGNIFICENT SULTAN AND HIS WIFE. 99
regarded the Sultan as their sovereign. He received tribute from
thejlouse of Hapsburg. His fleets, under Barbarossa, controlled
the Mediterranean. Turkey was then not only a great Power,
but the first among the Powers of Europe.
Roxolana was the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent. She is
supposed to be of French descent, but was really a Russian
slave. The magnificent Sultan made her Khorum- Sultana. He
thus legitimated her and her son. She was a seductive and
accomplished woman, and for nearly a score of years shared
with Suleiman the throne. What her character was, how wicked
she was, and how she strove for her own son, to perpetuate her
own blood upon the throne of Islam, is well recorded in con
temporaneous history.
It seems that the Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, had an
heir to the throne. Mustapha was his name. He was a son by an
earlier marriage. Roxolana was his step-mother. Throughout her
reign, she conspired with others to inflame her old husband to
deeds of cruelty. Among these deeds was the destruction of the
legitimate heir, Mustapha. It is a long history, but it is to the
everlasting degradation of the race that the Emperor who had
given so much glory to his reign should have succumbed to such
a woman — even though she be described, in the history of those
days, as " ever so fair, yet full of hateful thoughts, most finely
masked." I call attention to the portraits of these personages. I
present Suleiman in all his magnificence and Roxolana in all
her head-gear. These pictures are taken from an old and
rare volume, called the History of the Ottomans, published in
London in 1610, and which was kindly presented to me by
Senator Wagstaff, of New York, to whom it descended as an
heir-loom. _,
What events in Europe may have helped this remarkable people
to a continuance of their power, are not wholly recorded in the
pages of Gibbon. In this connection a chapter might be written
upon the advent of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose Oriental ambition
and invasion of Egypt greatly changed the relations of the Osmanli
to the outside world. The situation of the Turkish capital had
also much to do with these events. The struggle for supremacy
and commerce in the East has been going on for many centuries.
The Italians at one time seemed to be dominant in this regard.

lOO DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
But it is to France that the Christian world has been in-
debted for the " Capitulations," or treaties by which the alien
population of the Ottoman dominions have been protected
in their rights of trading, residence, conscience and other
personal liberties.
During the long centuries of this struggle the French monarchs
have had varying emotions and policies about the Orient. Some
times they have been chivalric and Christian, and sometimes the
reverse. When it concerned commerce, all the subterfuges which
belong to diplomacy were resorted to by the "grand monarchs"
of France, for their own aggrandizement. Notwithstanding all
this, France has been, and is, less mercenary in her Eastern rela
tions than any other nation. She was early known for her devo
tion to the Holy Places. She is still the guardian of the Christian
subjects in the East, and especially those of the Latin Church.
Of course, her guardianship does not include American and
English Protestantism, which in the last fifty years has become
not only an educator but a power in the East. In her early
days, France led the fight of Christendom against the Moslem.
Was it the elder Disraeli who spoke of the events of history which
did not happen, by which the whole course of empire might have
been changed ? So a like condition in the East might have changed
empires and creeds. It is said that Charlemagne was anxious to
wed the Empress Irene, who, after her dethronement, made the
island of Prinkipo, her first home in exile. Charlemagne was
willing to overlook her infamies, in order to reunite the Latin and
Greek races and churches under one empire and head, and thus to
rescue Christianity and its Holy Land and places from the follow
ers of Mahomet. Irene lost her throne, and the great Charles
did not win his bride. The result is known. If the marriage
had been solemnized, what then ?
When Napoleon thought to strike the world by some grand
military effort, he marched on the East. There he dealt the blow.
His Minister at the court of the Sultan at the summit of his
greatness and power, when France antagonized Russia, was a
Corsican, General Sebastiani. It may be pardoned to one who
has voyaged somewhat around the world, and visited the island of
Corsica, if I state that in 1868, while at Ajaccio, the birthplace of
Napoleon, I naturally sought for all the local mementoes belong
ing to that hero; but I did not dream of seeing there Napoleon's

SEE A STIANI AND HIS DIPL OMA CY. I O I
great general who had ravaged Spain, and so ably represented
him at Constantinople.
One day, while wandering about the suburbs of Ajaccio, I
was directed to a cave where it was said Napoleon had studied
geometry. In going thither, I passed through a lemon-orchard. It
was the very garden which Napoleon had planted. Whom should
I see in the garden but a tall, military-looking old gentieman of
some ninety years of age. He was bowed by years. He was
walking slowly under a yellow umbrella. The guide pointed him
out as that illustrious, daring and obstinate illustration of
Corsican character. General Sebastiani.
At the beginning of this century, or, rather, before Napoleon
became a great power, Sebastiani was selected by him for the
mission to Constantinople. At that time the contest for suprem
acy was between France and Russia; England then, as now, taking
a prominent hand. Sebastiani was a true Corsican. He had rare
strength of mind. He made himself the controller of the des
tinies of Turkey, as it seemed then, according to the Napoleonic
idea. He was the strategist of those movements by which the
Orient was rescued from Russia, and by which France — unlike
her present subordinate relation of neutral or ally of Russia —
became for the time paramount. He it was who had the
Bosporus closed to Russian ships. He it was who gave the
prestige to the French army in Dalmatia, which enabled it to
maintain the integrity of the Ottoman empire. He it was who
ruled Selim III. with as much power as the Grand Vizier himself.
He it was who dictated those policies upon the Danube, which have
become traditional, and which so long preserved its principalities
to the Turkish rule. It was this same Sebastiani whom, after
three score years, I saw as an old man, under a yellow umbrella,
watching his oranges and lemons, at the very spot where the young
Napoleon used to play in Corsica. What memories could he not
have divulged as to those early struggles in the Orient in which
he was chief actor! In 1808, however, he was compelled to make
a precipitate retreat from Turkey. In his hurry he destroyed his
instructions, his correspondence, and other papers of importance.
By some mistake he burned his own marriage contract.
Madame Sebastiani, then expecting her accouchement, was unable
to retreat with him from the Bosporus. She was protected by
the Austrian Minister under most romantic circumstances.

I02 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
How far the policy of Napoleon, which originated in thebrairt
of his wily Corsican confederate Sebastiani, influenced the compli
cations of the Eastern question may never be known. Strange
as It may appear, France, during part of this time at least, was an
ally,though a secret one, of Russia — as she is to-day. The alliance
was then directed against the Porte. It transpired to the amaze
ment of its rulers. I refer to the treaty of Tilsit, by which all
the provinces of the Ottoman empire in Europe- — Constantinople
and Roumelia alone excepted — were, in the language of that day,
to be " withdrawn from the yoke and vexations of the Turks."
The correspondence of Napoleon with Sebastiani revealed the
fact that a partition of Turkey was then agreed upon, which
would give to France, Bosnia, Albania, Epirus, Greece, Thessaly
and Macedonia; to Austria, Servia; and to Russia, Wallachia,
Moldavia, Bulgaria and a part of Thrace. The little renjnant of
Turkey in Europe would have been almost as meagre as that
possessed by the Greeks when their empire fell before Mahomed
the Second in 1453. What a high-handed example this treaty
affords to the landless — who are not kings or emperors !
It has frequently occurred to me that I missed an opportunity^
in Corsica when I saw this tall and grand old diplomat and soldier..
Had I imagined that I should ever sojourn near the Sultan in the-
city in which he — Sebastiani — exercised his early diplomatic
acumen, I certainly would have taken some risk, if not pains, to
draw from him the incidents of his Eastern career. Since his day,
or, rather, since the day of the great Napoleon, French power
has waned in the Orient, so that France may now be consid
ered a secondary influence at the court where she once held the
primacy.

CHAPTER XL
THE LAST FOUR SULTANS — INCIDENTS OF THEIR REIGN.
Since the Conquest there have been twenty-eight Sultans, in
cluding Mahomed the Second, the Conqueror, who died in 1481,
and the present Sultan, Abdul Hamid, who was crowned in 1876.
These remarkable men — the Mahomeds, Bajazids, Selims,
Suleimans, Osmans, Murads and Abdul Medjids — form a direct
line of sovereign descent from conquering stock, and are
unequalled in history for the genius of their statesmanship and
the valor of their armies.
As the Turks move to their conquests from Asia to Europe,
they find the land which they subdue peopled with numerous
races of different religions, customs and interests — Armenians,
Kurds, Druses, Maronites, Arabs, Jews, Wallachians, Gypsies — •
all in intrigue one against the other, and all clamoring to be
recognized as superior in the curriculum of political life and
domination. Some historian says that if we would have a proper idea of the
difficulties of government in Turkey, we should consider what
the British House of Commons would have to do if it were called
upon to legislate for nineteen Irelands instead of one. And yet
this Seljukian nomad from the interior of Asia, by his forbear
ance, genius, skill and equability, brought under discipline and
control all the various phases of human nature which are illus
trated within Turkish borders, and gave peace, protection and
prosperity to all. The rule was continued by energy, decision,
toleration, justice and chivalry.
This historian is somewhat at fault in his illustration. The
Turk did legislate for and not against his subjects, of whatever
race or creed. From the first it was, and is to-day, Turkish
policy to give Home Rule its largest and best operation ; and to
sacrifice no section of its subject-races for the betterment of any
other race under its sway. It will strike the impartial reader that
the British House of Commons might, even at this late day, learn

I04 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
something of the true principles of legislation from Turkish
municipal policy.
The grandfather of the present Sultan, Mahmoud II. , knew
that he had alien hostility, worse than domestic broils, to over
come. This hostility was fomented, if not created, principally
by one of the European powers. Hence he never could institute
stable government for Turkey while the Janizaries existed.
Although they were forty thousand in number, he wiped them
out in a single day ! Their horrible deeds no longer became
the reproach of Turkey. Their destruction was the decapitation
of forty thousand murderers at one stroke of the royal cimeter.
This was the beginning of new Turkey. The Janizaries were
not, however, the only menace to the power of the Ottoman
Sultans. Mahmoud the Second was almost overthrown by one
of his own subjects — the great Viceroy of Egypt Under
Mehemet Ali, and by the aid of his grand captain, Ibrahim
Pasha and a skillful Frenchman, known afterwards as Suleiman
Pasha, the Egyptian armies became masters of the Holy Land
and of Syria. In 1832 Ibrahim, with an army of thirty thousand
men, defeated sixty thousand of the Sultan's Turks at Koniah.
Ibrahim was moving on Constantinople, when his march was
stopped by the interference of European diplomacy. The Porte
did not recover Syria by military force, although it made efforts
in that direction as late as June 24, 1839. The Great Powers
had to combine to restore the wasted provinces of Syria to the
Porte. A fleet menaced the shores of the Holy Land, and finally
Ibrahim evacuated Syria and retired to Egypt. After this he
made a grand tour of Europe, and was recognized as late as
1846-47-48 as a man almost as remarkable as Mehemet Ali.
Out of the conflict between Turkey and Egypt, and the stress
put upon the former by the Powers, came the reforms, which have
been failures only in the eye of those who expected more than
was possible.
Many reforms upon the Turkish body, both politic and social,
have been started within the last four decades. It is hard to tell just
when they began. Was it when the Sultan Mahmoud II. began
to circulate portraits of himself, to foster music, and to establish
military bands of his own outside the Janizary corps ? A represent
ation of the human form and the use of muSic were forbidden by
the Koran, and the Janizary had become quite a permanent order.

REFORMS IN TURKEY..

^05

Since the time of Mahmoud the Second there has been no more
drowning in sacks of wives and odalisques, no decapitation of
officials, and no strangulation of deposed Sultans or of the
brothers of reigning Sultans. With the death of Mahmoud, such
cruelties — which had the sanction of legality in Greek and Roman
custom^ceased. Mahmoud was a great student. He studied
such material changes of his country as could be tolerated. He
endeavored to better the condition of the Christians. Notwith
standing the conflicts of his time, and the discontent of the
old Moslem at his innovations, he struggled for thirty years to
ameliorate the condition of his people of all races and creeds,
until death ended his splendid career. The present Sultan has
allowed not one human life to be taken since his accession to the
throne. Of what other monarch of his time can the like be
said ?
Abdul Medjid was a boy when he came to the throne of
his father, Mahmoud the Second, but he did what he could to
•carry out the reforms of his father. The famous Hatt-i-huma-
youn, or "august writing," announced a new order as to taxa
tion and justice in the empire. The Berlin treaty of 1878 confirmed
this advanced movement. Many monopolies were overthrown,
education was elevated and energized ; and in spite of all oppo
sition — even that of religious fanaticism — it is due to truth to
state that the Turkish Government met the crisis with as much
firmness as was possible, in the midst of such troubles and trials
as few nations ever encountered.
The Crimean War had closed with the treaty of Paris in 1856.
Neither the war nor the treaty pleased Russia. For neither,
could Turkey be justly blamed. Every time that Russia struck
at Turkey, Turkey seemed weaker than before; but Turkey did
not and has not succumbed, although she has copied some of
the worst elements of European nations. What has transpired
in the Balkan Peninsula since the Treaty of Paris, and what
reforms have taken place for the good of the country — these are
¦well summed up by an English Consul when he says: "If we
compare Turkey as she is with what she was twenty-five years
ago, the change is marvelous." Lord Palmerston said in 1856
that Turkey had made greater progress than any other nation in
Europe. Was this because she had a greater field for reform ?
At all events, she reformed. The present condition of Turkey

I06 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
at least proves that much. Ever since the death of Abdul
Medjid, in 1861, and at the present time — despite great expendi
tures and demands upon her exchequer, and even after the perils
following the suicide of his brother, Abdul Aziz, and the imbe
cility of another brother, the Sultan Murad, who was deposed
promptly — there is evidence of an anxiety for reform, backed
with much executive energy.
Abdul Medjid had a storm-tossed administration. It lasted
long. He was among the best of the Sultans. Among the
conspicuous and illustrious embodiments connected with his
reign of advanced thought, was the renewal of the bill of right
and freedom of worship to all equally with Mahometans. Of
course this could not be fully carried into effect except at the
capital As to other places, it was a dead letter. He did all that
was possible by his government for liberality. There were
reforms in connection with taxation, so as to defeat the cupidity
of the tax-gatherer. But restless Russia would not keep within
her limits. With these evident signs of improvement in Turkey the
Czar became more aggressive than ever. The revolution by which
Austria and Hungary were in collision — in fact, the cataclysm
of Europe in 1848 — disturbed somewhat the Turkish realm;
and in 1853, two years after my first visit to Constantinople, I
was not too young to observe that the general peace of Europe,
which had remained undisturbed since 18 15, was trembling before
a fresh disturbance of the Eastern question. The Crimean War
grew out of a wrangle about the Holy Places. It was a question
of privilege. The Greek Church, through Russia, demanded
one thing; France, as the protector of the Latin Church, another.
Russia had some pretext for her demand, growing out of an old
treaty of 1774. The Turks were perplexed. What was Greek
or Latin to Turkey ? Was she to be a mere cat's-paw to drag the
Christian chestnuts out of the fire? The matter came to a head;
the Russian demands were denied ; war came. We know the
result, for the Crimean struggle is not yet forgotten. The
siege of Sebastopol still retains its pre-eminence in the history of
military strategy and engineering skill.
Now we come close to the time when Abdul Aziz,
breaking loose from the best thoughts of his early reign, fouled
the attempts of reform. What came to him personally from his
resistance to the onward march of events, is told to every passen-

FA TE OF SULTANS AZIZ AND MURAD.

107

ger who goes up and down the Bosporus. There is pointed out
a certain mark of broken masonry in the palace of Tchiragan:
it indicates an improvised breach in the wall where the dead body
of the Sultan was carried out after his suicidal bath.
It is not for me to repeat the oft-told tales which connect the
Sultans, even of our latter days, with self-indulgence in luxurious
excesses; nor do I give heed to the thousand-tongued rumor of
the taking off of Abdul Aziz, or, as a consequence, of the
aberrations in'the mind of his brother Murad. It is said, how
ever, and related on the authority of one of his seraglio, that,
just before his death, the unfortunate Sultan, Abdul Aziz, on
entering his prison in the palace, traced on the dust that covered
the table this verse in Arabic :
"Man's, destiny is Allah's will.
Sceptres and power are His alone;
My fate is written on my brow,
Lowly I bend before His throne ! ' '
On looking out of the window of his palace, and seeing that
his iron-clads had been placed in front of his prison, with the
guns pointed toward him, he was appalled by the sight, and
exclaimed, with emotion, to his mother, who was present: " See
to what use the force I have created for my empire is applied 1 "
When Murad was approached by those who had dethroned
Abdul Aziz he turned deathly pale, and exclaimed : " What is my
offense, that I should be doomed to an untimely death ?" He did
not then know of the conspiracy by which he had been elevated.
He had a short reign. He soon became distrait, for what reason
no one knows, and few care to know. It is said that he is still
confined in one of the marble palaces upon the Bosporus. His
feeble body and mind, aggravated by excesses, led, as it is
alleged, to his deposition on the last day of August, a. d. 1876.
There is, however, two sides to his story. He owned a
fine estate on the island of Prinkipo. There he was happy.
There he spent his summers. There he lived more like
a private gentleman than a prince. In this he was not
singular. The unpretending style of the Turkish gentle
man is quite in contrast with the splendor of the royal palace.
Murad visited his neighbors. Christians and all. He was
fond of music, and he practiced his music with them. His

Io8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

'U

O

SULTAN ABDUL MEDJID, FATHER OF THE PRESENT SULTAN.

SULTAN ABDUL AZIZ, BROTHER OF THE PRESENT bULTAN.

I lO DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
manners were distinguished and affable. The condition of a
Sultan in prospective is worse than that of the poorest hamal.
Murad passed his time under an espionage which was in itself an
imprisonment, and which gave him — even while enjoying the
pleasures of the Princes Isles — many unhappy days. When he
was fixed upon as the successor of Abdul A?iz, he had to change
this island life. He could no longer read his Dante, nor play
Rossini's music. When he came to the throne he was utterly
cut off from his old companions.
The bloody incidents of that insurrection overthrew Murad's
reason, and before he could be invested with the sword of Osman,
which conferred royalty, his mind was a blank. He was removed
from power and consigned to one corner of the palace of Tchi
ragan, which is also pointed out to the traveler' on the Bosporus.
He was succeeded by his brother, the present Sultan, who very
reluctantly assumed the grave office which he has filled so well.
Thus the present Sultan was raised to the throne as the thirty-
fourth ruler of the house of Othman. His character had not then
been fixed or known. He strongly resisted the importunities of
his friends to place him in such a perilous position, but there
was no other man possible. By the decrees of state and the
order of succession, he, as the next brother, became the repre
sentative of the Turkish faith and state. Who could better
represent his people, or with more moderation, affability, fidelity
and probity ? Aye, or with more humanity ?
Properly to introduce Abdul Hamid the Second upon the
later stage of Oriental affairs, the origin of the Ottoman race and
dynasty should be traced — as I have endeavored — to its springs
in Central Asia. Besides, the reader should consult, not merely
Gibbon, but the history of that remarkable rule in Turkey which
has had its vicissitudes of order and anarchy from its beginning
up to the present time. Its pages tell us that when the Sultans
became apathetic and debauched, the Janizaries dominated over
all. Whenever avarice and lust, often provoked and assisted by the
Christian subjects of the Porte, left their sinister mark upon the
empire, a foreign element came ever menacingly to the front.
That element was inspired by the greed of dominion. It began
actively with the reign of Peter the Great. It was organized in
steadfast intrigue. It sought the dismemberment of Turkey
with a view to its own aggrandizement. It never failed to

DOMINANT OTTOMAN QUALITIES. Ill
obstruct the path of Turkish progress. It has attempted its work
in Bulgaria. It has succeeded in northeastern Turkey in Asia.
It began to exhibit itself before the Ottoman occupation of
Constantinople, and it is prosecuted to this very day by the
accomplished Russian Minister, Nellidoff, as the agent of the
Czar in Constantinople. It is the Muscovite policy.
Since the accession of the present Sultan, it , is apparent
that his rule has permeated the empire with a wise and honest
sovereignty. To-day he reigns triumphant under the old ban
ner of One God — and Mahomet as the Prophet — not as some
irreverent writer has interpreted, " One God — and Backsheesh
as the Prophet." This interpretation comes too close to
the reproach on us for our "Almighty Dollar." I there
fore reject it all the more readily. I have observed,
heedful ly, much of the progress of Turkey within the last
three decades, and from what I have seen of it I believe that the
Turk is to-day the only man who can give Turkey the proper
impulse to overcome the vis inertia of her laggard progress, so as
to bring her forth into the light and liberty of a new civilization.
If you question the ability of this people for such advancement,
look for the inspiration of their remarkable race and rule, and
you will find an answer in those rare qualities which Gibbon
catalogued when he said that they were distinguished for their
patience, discipline, sobriety, bravery, honesty and modesty. It
is because of these solid characteristics, and in spite of the
harem, in spite of autocratic power, in spite of the Janizary and
seraglio, that this race and rule remain potential in the Orient.
It is a good omen that the head of the Turkish Government
to-day is a man of honest intentions and clear intellect, and that
he gives unremittingly his time to the service of his people. He
is not merely an amiable and humane Prince, but wisely versed
in statesmanship. His heart is touched by suffering, and his
views lean strongly to that toleration of the various races and
religions of his realm, which other and more boastful nations
would do well to imitate.

CHAPTER XIL
THE LATIN CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

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It is impossible to recapitulate or picture all the strange
vicissitudes through which the capital of the Oriental empire
has passed. How often it has been besieged — how it was held
by Greece, Rome and Persia — how it was attacked by Arabs,
who were driven back by the strength of its walls and the chem
istry of the Greek fire — how again and again the Moslem forces
undertook its siege — how the great Slavonic power, Russia, in
the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries, attempted to make this
its objective point and centre of operations. All this would
require volumes. The scope is too large for the " Diversions " to
which this book is devoted. It might be a matter of interest, how
ever, to consider, in passing, the graphic and wonderful conquest
of the city under Baldwin of Flanders, and Dandolo, the aged
Doge of Venice, in a. d., 1203-04. It was Dandolo's remarkable
power which set up the house of Flanders in the palace of the
CRUSADING A TTACKS. II 3
Comneni. The Greeks recovered their capital in a. d. 1261.
After that the second Amurath besieged it. But it was not until
A. D. 1453 that Mahomet the Second made good the prophesies
of the Prophet, by capturing the city.
A city like Constantinople, which has been besieged twenty-
four times and taken six times, must have a history worth repeat
ing, even though it be in a meagre way.
The country around the capital is instinct with thrilling mem
ories: every mountain and valley, and, but for its mobility, every
drop of water, has its history. The great strength of the city was
not in the Divine Wisdom, after which its principal church was
named, but in the walls which, shortly after the Christian era, were
built to strengthen it against invasion. The invasion did not
always come from the Turk when the Greek held the city. And
when the Christian manned her walls, the Crusader was sometimes
the invader. So it was at the Latin Conquest.
In the Month of May, 1097, Godfrey of Bouillon, with an
army of some three hundred thousand men, having the Holy
Land for its objective point, came crusading in this direction.
His army was composed of a different class of men, and under con
ditions quite unlike those of the first Crusade that followed wildly
Peter the Hermit. The Crusaders under Godfrey, when they
encamped, to resist the attacks of the enemy, made breastworks
out of the innumerable bones of the Crusaders who had preceded
them. What a sacrilegious horde these later Crusaders must have
been, to make such a resurrection of the Paladins !
The first fall of Constantinople must not be confounded with
that of the Turkish capture of the city. The first fall was in 1203.
It occurred at a time when Innocent HI. was the Pope of Rome,
when the Fourth Crusade was under way, and when the greatest of
the Venetian Doges, Henrico Dandolo, wielded the trident in the
eastern Mediterranean. The history of the expedition has been
well written, for there is abundant material. The crusade left
Corfu on the 23d of May. Along with it was young Alexis, who
aspired to be emperor of the Greeks. Why it was deflected
from Egypt is a part of the mystery of its attack on Constanti
nople. The wily Venetian, Dandolo, had been paid to leave
Egypt alone. Besides, he had the animus of an old grudge against
Constantinople. Had he not been blinded by its emperor? Al
though ninety odd years of age, he was following his Nemesis.

1 1 4 DIVERSIONS OF A. DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
The imperial journey of young Alexis was that of a
conquering hero. On the 23d of June the fleet anchored off
San Stefano, which is on the European side of the Sea of
Marmora, some twelve miles southwest of Constantinople. The
sight of the city was an incentive to the Crusaders. Its walls and
towers, its palaces and churches, made the enterprise a magnifi
cent romance. Dandolo was the genius of the undertaking.
Leaving San Stefano, the fleet harbored at the Princes Islands.
These islands may become familiar to the reader from my
account of a summer's residence on Prinkipo, the chief
isle of the group.* From these islands it was but a few hours' sail
for the fleet into the Bosporus. The traveler will observe upon
the Asiatic side of the shore, off Chalcedon, a cemetery crowded
with monuments, in strange contrast to the Turkish cemeteries
around, with their cypresses and turbaned tombs. It is only, a
mile from Constantinople, and here the army disembarked.
Here they gathered in the crops which had just been harvested.
It was but a short move from Chalcedon to Scutari. Scutari is
well known to the American colony, for upon its heights is situ
ated the most interesting school under American auspices in the
Orient. Nine days the Crusaders waited, with an occasional
skirmish to whet their appetites for plunder. It is' unnecessary to
picture the consternation of the city, the negotiations which were
begun, and the suspicions that were engendered.
The walls of Constantinople remain to-day as they were then.
They form a triangle. Two sides of the triangle bring them down
to the water's edge. The waters are deep enough to float the iron
clads of the Turks, as they then floated the galleys of the Venetians.
A display was made upon the galleys, by the barons and knights,
with Dandolo at their head, of the person of the young pretender
to the throne. Proclamation was at the same time made
before the crowds upon the walls, from the galleys of the Vene
tians, of his right to the heirship. The Greeks who garrisoned
the walls laughed at the proclamation. Then the business of the
siege began. It was inspired by the rich booty in prospect.
Religious services alternated with military display. At the end
of ten days an attack was made upon the walls. The tourist will
observe, upon the heights of the European side of the Bos-

* " Isles of the Princes ; or, the Pleasures of Prinkipo." By S. S. Cox.
Putnam's Sons. New York, 1887.

ORDER OF BATTLE.

115

porus a conspicuous Genoese tower, upon which the Turkish flag
flies every fete day and every Turkish Sabbath — Friday. It is
known as the tower of Galata. It confronts the old city of
Stamboul. Two bridges of boats now connect Galata with Stam
boul. It was under the shadow of this tower, at the point known
as Tophane, now used as a Custom house, where the troops
landed. It is near the mouth of the Golden Horn. It is now a
large open space, which at the present time, or at least when the
writer left Constantinople, is crowded with many of the arma
ments which the genius of modern invention has produced. At the
time of the siege there was a chain boom across the Golden Horn
from Galata to Stamboul. It was protected by the tower of
Galata Behind, the hills slope, and upon this slope lived the
Hebrews of the city. It is still the most thickly populated por-
t;on of the European part of the great city- — known as Pera.
How to possess the tower of Galata, in order to reach the Euro
pean end of the chain, is the question. The castle is captured.
The chain is now in the control of the invaders. The fleet
enters the Golden Horn. Victory ensues upon the sea against
the Grecian galleys.
Here then is the scene and the order of battle: The attack
is to be made by sea as well as by land. The ships are to be
brought close up to the wall on the north side of the city. Lad
ders are to be thrown out from the ships to the walls, on the
part of the navy, manned by the Venetians, while the Crusaders
are to attack on the west side through the landward walls. A
bridge has to be made across the Golden Horn, or an old bridge
of stone repaired. On the 5th day after the capture of the
harbor the army of the Crusaders is in position near the Golden
Horn, and almost opposite the Imperial Palace of Blachern. From
the camp of the Greeks there is a splendid prospect. All the
waters which make Constantinople the capital of commerce
in the Orient are within view. St. Sophia towers above all.
There are triple walls to guard the city. Machines are ready to
hurl the vast round stones, that are still seen piled up upon the
quays of Constantinople — relics of the siege. This camping-place
is historic. Hosts of Moslems had before attacked the city
from this point. Travelers who have visited the mosque of Job,
or Eyoub, have no difficulty in locating the place.
The attack is made with varying success, but it fails on the

1 16 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
landward side. On the northern side it is more successful.
Dandolo, then nearly a hundred years old, and blind, directs the
attack from his own galley. The Greek fire is at this time the
most conspicuous element of warfare in the East. Dandolo has
anticipated the day of iron-clads: his ships are shielded with raw
hides to resist this fire. From the cross-trees of the ships to the
walls is the order of battle, as the vessels are moored close to the
shore. In spite of the stones which are thrown m immense quanti
ties, and reckless of the cross-bows of the besieged, the fight is
hand to hand on the scaling-ladders thrown out from the ships' tops
to the walls. The Gonfalon of St. Mark is borne on shore by
the old Doge, who leads his followers into the conflict. At last
the Gonfalon is seen floating from one of the towers of the walls.
Twenty-five of these towers are captured in succession. In vain
the Greeks try to rally. Even the mercenaries, or auxiliaries,
made up of the hired Norsemen and Englishmen, and Warings
and Pisans, endeavor in vain to recapture the towers.
The result of this fighting is a great conflagration in the city,
and the repulsion of the invaders. It is not necessary to recount
in detail the consequences of this attack: how the Emperor Alexis
fled; how the aged Isaac was restored to the palace; how a
revolution broke out in the city; what resulted from a deputation
of the invaders who entered the city; what differences broke out
within the army of invasion ; the intrigues which were incident
to the rule of the city; the terrific fire which broke out a second
time ; in fine, the confusion, dissensions and anxieties on both
sides and in both armies, which resulted in the deposition of
the old and the proclamation of a new emperor. These facts
form chapters in this magnificent romance.
Even before the fall of the city there were many divisions
made, in anticipation of the spoil? and the Government. As Mr.
Pears, in his History, says : " The bear-skin having been thus
divided, it only remained to capture the bear." The Crusade
had been forgotten. The lust of plunder and of power alone
inspired the invading host.
No one at this day, when munitions of war can be improvised
so readily, can realize the genius and industry which prepared
the machines for hurling stones, the battering-rams, the ballista,
the mangonels and the enginery for war of that time. The prepara
tions were completed by the 8th of April, A. D. 1 203, for tmother as-

DANDOLO, DOGE OF VENICE.
IT7

I 1 8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
sault. One line of battle was formed upon land. That line stretched
from the Blachern Palace, at the northwest corner of the wall, to
the Petrion. The Petrion I am familiar with. It is a very
unwholesome quarter of the city. It is almost impossible to pass
through it now, for its stench and filth. It runs parallel with the
Golden Horn for about one-third of the length of the harbor
walls, eastward from Blachern.
The attack was made, as before, by the navy from the cross-
trees of the ships to the walls. The walls meanwhile had been
heightened. The feat of conquest had thus been made more
difficult. The assault again failed.
Another assault is made. A tremendous fire rages throughout
the city. At length the city is entered through one of the gates
upon the land side, after the Venetians obtain a foothold in the
towers. It is late in the evening when the Crusaders enter the
city. Then begins the carnival of plunder. Never was there such a
systematic, shameless and terrible sacking. These soldiers of
Christ, as the historian says — sworn to chastity, pledged before
God not to shed Christian blood, bearing upon their own breasts
the emblem of the Prince of Peace, under vows to redeem the
tomb of Christ from the Moslem, bring down upon themselves.
the reprobation of the great and good Pope and the indignation
of the world for their brutality. Such scandalous orgies and
barbaric cruelties, such sacrilegious robberies of churches, palaces
and homes, had never before been equalled in the history of
mankind. The plunder by Mahomed, with his Turks, in a. d.
1453, is a summer-holiday excursion compared with this Christian,
capture and sacking. Nothing is spared — neither the works of
art, nor the sacred vestmentr, images or vessels of the churches^
Exclusive of what was stolen and what was paid to the Venetians,
money to the value of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling
was distributed among the army. It was the richest prize of all
the ages. Sismondi estimates the wealth of the city — in specie:
and property — before the capture, at twenty-four millions of
pounds sterling.
Sucli a capture could not fail to result in quarrels among the
captors. For generations after this, the Latin Conquest continued
to be a byword and a reproach. Like the conquests of Alex
ander, when they fell under the control of his generals, they

DANDOLO'S DEA TH.

119

faded away, because of the lack of that skill in governing
which alone can make domination lasting.
Dandolo, the genius of the Conquest, died a. d. 1208. I have
seen the stone in St. Sophia which marks his sepulchre, or which
did mark it, for the stone is a part of the pavement in the women's
gallery of the great Church of St. Chrysostom. It is worn and
dusty. It was by an accident that I happen to see it. Our
dragoman, Mr. Garguilo, who is of Italian descent, was along
with me, on a summer evening — as we are wandering through
the upper corridors of the Church of the Divine Wisdom — when
I observe some dim letters on the pave beneath my feet. At
once I am on my knees dusting the stone with a handkerchief.
I read : Dando — ! This, and nothing more. Where is his
body ? The dragoman promises to investigate the problem.

CHAPTER XIII.
CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE TURKS.
What wonderful attractions this city of Constantine had
before its fall ! Owing to the resistless state of the provinces,
it allured everyone who had means to live within its walls.
Those who honored art and studied the sciences were here
gathered. Above all, this city was the seat of intellect, of theological
intellect; for here, or in its vicinity, were settled for the coming
centuries the tenets of the Christian faith. And beyond that,
there was codified and almost developed in this new Rome a
body of jurisprudence, known as the Justinian Code. It con
tained the principles of the Roman Civil Law. Edwin Pears, one
of the eminent lawyers of Constantinople, has said of this law,
" that for precision, subtlety, grasp of principles, and wonderful
adjustments, it has made a powerful impression upon the world."
When we remember that it was from here we received the authenti
cated dogmas of Christendom, and the principles of the Roman
law, which have been followed in continental Europe almost since
the time of early empire,and which have become the law of the whole
civilized worid, except where the common law of England is re
garded as paramount — it may be truthfully said that this wonderful
capital ranks second only to Rome itself in her influence for
civilization, religion and progress. This city is not alone a place
for ethical memories; for nowhere can we find in the highways
and byways of our planet, more splendors of wealth, luxury and
refinement than she' once possessed. Gibbon, in closing his
seventeenth chapter, generalizes about her commerce in the fol
lowing sentence :
"Whatever rude commodities were collected in the for
ests of Germany and Scythia, and far as the sources of the
Tanais and the Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by
the skill of Europe or Asia; the corn of Egypt and the gems and
spices of the farthest India — were brought by the varying winds,

CONSTANTINOPLE BEFORE HER FALL. \ 2 I
into the port of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted
the commerce of the ancient world."
At the present day there is no spot so specially central for
commerce, or which is within reach of so many fruitful and popu
lous countries as Constantinople. Looking at the map and
glancing at the Black Sea, we find a passage of eighteen miles
open to the Sea of Marmora, v,-hich is a lake under the shadows
of the domes and minarets of Stamboai, as capable of being
defended as the outlet of the Dardanelles.
Constantinople has always had a liberal policy as to commerce.
Her trade concessions have increased her wealth and power.
Her situation is so favorable that there never was, nor can
there be, without some strange convulsion of nature, a mart
for the collection and distribution of merchantable products
between the hemispheres, equal to this entrepot on the Bos
porus. What a shame it is that only lately have the Powers
of the East and the economies of the West been invoked
for the encouragement of her trade, the building of rail
roads, and the extension into the opulent interior of all the best
and fleetest modes of transportation. Much is yet to be done
before the khan and caravan of the ancient merchant shall be
transmuted, by the magic of trade, into the d^pot of the railroad !
May I be allowed, in this connection, to copy from a singu
larly attractive work, called " The Captain of the Janizaries," by
Mr. James M. Ludlow, of New Jersey, a short colloquy, which
indicates just what the relation was between Constantinople and the
Powers of the earth at the time she was about to fall into the hands
of the Turk ? His book has reference to the times of Scander-
beg, and the contest which preceded the arrival of Mahomet the
Second upon the Ottoman rhrone. The attempt was then made
to arouse the Christian power of Constantinople against the
Turk, while the Italian and other elements were striking him
in Europe. It was an attempt to put some new life into the
old Greek empire. Constantine, the sixteenth of that name, was
then the emperor — the last of the emperors. He danced attend
ance upon Italian dukes and other influences of the West He
sought an agreement with the Pope, in a creed which was irrecon
cilable with that of the Latins. At the same time he was demoral
izing his reign with his uncurtained harem, and shamed the
very Turk himself; yet, when the crisis of fate came, he alone

I 2 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
seemed to be worthy of the ancient Greek prowess. He fought
and died — the last of the stock which had over a thousand
years of empire.
The incidents of the capture of the city by the Turks are
more romantic and attractive than those of any other capture or
siege in history. One of these incidents is the navigation
overland of the Ottoman vessels. Much ridicule has been
expended upon the Fads mode of ship-transportation by rail.
Why is it so strange? Only last year a screw steamer — the
Duke — was transported over Florida fifty miles or more, by the
Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad. The vessel did not show a sign
of steam. Reading the history of the capture of Constantinople,
I was somewhat amazed that any one should be surprised that
mechanism in our day should not easily harness its forces to
transport ships by rail. There seems to be nothing novel or
difficult in the feat. The principle is as simple as the ABC
of science. The difficulty, if any there is, with the Eads
scheme, is not mechanical, but merely economical. Its accom
plishment has depended on the doubts of those who do not
believe in associating government or its administration with mere
" business." When a scheme depends on the loan of govern
ment credit, or the issuance of government bonds, there is only
one view of the case presented. This view should not blind us
to the utility or virtue of the plan or invention of the ship railway.
Doubtless, in ancient times, in Egypt and elsewhere — and even
in Central America, near the proposed Eads railway — immense
masses of matter were moved by means of railways, tramways, or
similar devices. Evidences remain, in the solid rock, of such fa
cile contrivances. Mr. Eads, with that practical sagacity for which
he was distinguished as an engineer, may have had his inventive
faculties aroused by pondering upon these marvelous mechanical
results of the eariy epochs. It is not my purpose to discuss the
feasibility of the Eads project, nor to compare it with any other
plan for inter-oceanic transit. This has been done elaborately by
engineers. Admiral Ammen, in a tractate, has considered the
various disadvantages of " taking a laden ship out of water at
Tehuantepec, and whisking her over a distance of 140 miles or
more, and over an elevation of 738 feet, making a broad cut of
seventeen feet."
As a legislator, I would give great weight to his opinion. I

NA VIGA TION ON LAND. t 9 •>
would not tamely allow the American eagle to be caged on any
isthmus, nor take another bird, domestic or aquatic, as em
blematic of our abandonment of the Monroe Doctrine, in order
that the bird might be plucked. But as a question of physics, I
would like to hear an amicable discussion on the feasibility of
taking up and whisking the laden ship over a railroad. John Roach,
who is now dead, but who was acquainted with such matters
stated that the performance would endanger the hull. In this
view William H. Webb concurs. Harlan & Hollingsworth say
that if the foundations of the railroad, having six tracks,
could be made substantial, so as not to yield under the immense
weight of a loaded ship, they believe a cradle could be
constructed to receive it, and transport it the distance named
without injury. They are doubtful about the ordinary wooden
vessel venturing upon such a journey. They doubt whether
underwriters would take the risk of damage. Other experts in
shipbuilding expressed similar opinions. But they are all iron
workers, and wooden ships seem to be passing out of commerce.
These opinions had reference somewhat to the material of the
ships. The Pusey & Jones Company, of Wilmington, Del,
thought that a good iron ship might endure this transportation
without damage, but still it would be a risk. As to wooden ships,
or thin-plated iron ships, they thought it would be simple destruc
tion. They regard the dynamic effect of the load, and of the
boilers and machinery, as an extraordinary peril. In short, in
their opinion, a ship railway would always encounter grave and
scarcely surmountable difficulties. Mr. Rowland, of the Conti
nental Works, has some notions as to the best method of moving
heavy bodies on wheels. He draws his argument from the condi
tion of vessels and the injury which they sustain by^being dry-
docked. Mr. Nathaniel McKay, who is a practical man in rela
tion to such matters, holds the opinion that Captain Eads's propo
sition is a delusion. As the builder of some one hundred ships,
some of them among the largest sailing-ships in the world, he
says the greatest care which shipbuilders are compelled to exer
cise is in laying the keels and seeing that the foundations for the
launching-ways have the best possible bearing that can be
devised, so that the vessels may be launched with safety, without
injury to the hull, when sliding a distance of only one and a half
times its own length. Mr. Delamater does not believe in the

I 2 I DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
scheme, although he admits that such a feat could be done. It was
for him a question of expense ; the expense would be too great for
private capital. Our New York Mayor, Mr. Hewitt, with whom I
talked on this topic, is familiar with forces, mechanical as well as
political. He inclined to the opinion that the plan would only be
practical if an immense tank were made and filled with water,
and the ship were floated therein en route.
These opinions represent one side of the question from a practi
cal standpoint. Properly, to offset them, the results which history
furnishes, and especially the siege of Constantinople, should have
reference to vessels such as are now in use; otherwise the analogy
fajls. It is well known that the Venetians transported some of
their large galleys from the River Adige to the Lake of Garda. A
similar feat had been accomplished by Augustus after the battle
of Actium. It was attempted by Hannibal at the siege of Tar-
entum. But in size, even the largest Venetian war galley, or
the triremes that were accustomed to- plow the Mediterranean,
not to speak of the vessels which were used by the Turks at the
siege of Constantinople in 1453, were but as children's toys, com
pared with the sailing and metallic vessels of the present day. On
the other hand, it may be truthfully urged that there is no com
parison between the physical forces which are now developed and
the forces employed in ancient times or in the Middle Ages. I
stopped in a hotel in Chicago more than twenty years ago, which'
was quietly lifted two stories higher by the aid of six thousand
jack-screws, without my being sensible of the motion. And why
may not a ship be lifted and carried, with the remarkable mechani
cal appliances of to-day, irrespective of its weight or its load ?
But the reader may perhaps ask. What has the Eads ship rail
way or Chicago hotels to do with the fall of Constantinople?
Only this : that had the Greeks given as much attention to apply
ing the mechanic forces to resist as their invaders did to capture
the city, there might still be a Greek empire in the East, and no
Eastern question to vex diplomats or to give cause for large
standing armies in Europe.
The history of the defense of Constantinople in a. d. 1453 re
veals a redeeming picture of the heroism of one man, the Emperor
Constantine, and the few thousand Greeks and auxiliaries who
were with him during the siege. So many attempts had been
made upon the city before the time of Mahomed II. , and so

I 26 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
staunch had been its defenses, that the Greeks relied upon its
traditionary strength, instead of the improvements in mechanism
and armature which the Turks were sedulously studying and using.
The Latins held the city for sixty years; the Greeks,
after incessant warfare, again obtained possession of their
capital. They did not hold it long. The Turks were
eager to seize the prize. Amurath the Great had made the
attempt. It was reserved, however, for his persistent son,
Mahomed II. , to consummate the work. This Sultan omitted
no effort in its prosecution. The Turks were then — about the mid
dle of the thirteenth century — the most accomplished artillerists
of the world; almost the only ones. They knew that the city of
Stamboul could not be taken from the land side of the triangle.
They did not attempt to take it from the Marmora Sea side of
the triangle; and as they were cut off by chains and other bar
riers from coming down the Bosporus into the Golden Horn,
what did they do ? They copied Augustus and Hannibal, and
anticipated Captain Eads. The story is worth retelling, in the
light of six hundred and thirty odd years of progress in mari
time warfare, transportation, gunnery and mechanism.
Mahomed II. was one of the greatest of the Turkish Sultans.
He was of that manly mold and stamp that conquers obstacles.
He was not discouraged by them, although they had impeded all
the efforts of his predecessors. It was this Sultan who resolved
to starve this great city into capitulation. His plan was to cut it
off from the Euxine entirely. To this end he built, at the nar
rowest part of the Bosporus, which is midway of its length, the
stronghold called Boghazkesen, which, being interpreted, means
the " Cut-Throat." This is upon the European side of the Straits,
and opposite the Asiatic fortress which Mahomed I. had built
This part of the Bosporus, with the surrounding scenery, is one of
the most picturesque spots of the world. Three thousand men
worked for three months, under the protection of his army, to
build their great fortress of Romoli-Hissar. Every vessel that
sailed by was compelled to pay tribute.
No pleading nor diplomacy could divert the coming storm
from the city. In vain the Greek Emperor, Constantine, entreated
that the crops around the city might at least be spared for food.
Mahomed's only answer was:
"I will feed my horses therewithal."

DEFENSE OF CITY AGAINST TURKS.

127

Notwithstanding this shortening of supplies, Mahomed found
that it was no easy task to take Constantinople. It had been called,
in the edicts of emperors, " The Well-Defended." Its enormous
walls and towers still remain to attest their formidable strength.
Artillery had not then risen to the fine art that it is to-day;
but even then Greek Catlings, Hungarian Armstrongs and Wal-
lachian Krupps were at work perfecting cannon of enormous
calibre. Out of these were projected granite balls, some of which
weighed twelve quintals, or 1,200 pounds. Some of these mon
strous balls are still arrayed in harmless pyramids outside the
castle of Romoli-Hissar. Orban, the Wallachian iron-founder,
made the gigantic machine which threw such balls. It required
700 men to serve it. It threw a shot a mile, covered the horizon
with a canopy of smoke, and filled the air with its thunder.
While the Turkish preparations were going on for the taking
of the city, its gates were closed and the garrison were upon their
vigilance. Alas ! on mustering them there were only 4,973
efficient men within the walls. To these were added 2,000
foreigners, among them 500 Genoese. The latter came by way of
the Mediterranean. They were commanded by one Justiniani.
Only a few ships were at the call of the beleaguered Greeks —
fourteen in all — and even these were pressed from the foreign
shipping in the port. The walls, strong as they were, had not
been repaired for years. Some repairs were hurriedly made.
Physical forces were sought from Christian Europe, but in vain.
As a last resort the Emperor endeavored to close the schism
between the Catholic and Greek churches. No army came,
however, to reinforce the . proposed ecclesiastical unity, out of
which might have come a tremendous energy of defense. On the
1 2th of December, a. d. 1452, the Roman Catholic Legate cele
brated mass in honor of this unity of Christendom ; but the
Greek priests regarded it as sacrilege. They cried out :
" Give us the Turk's turban rather than a Cardinal's hat ! "
Christendom, therefore, kept aloof from the contest. It saw
with indifference the Ottoman wind his powerful folds around
this last barrier of the Greek Christian, and not with much regret,
for the Greek orthodoxy had not infrequently been the champion
and abettor of Moslem aggression.
The month of April, a. d. 1453, saw more than 200,000
Turkish soldiers encamped upon the land side of the city. This

I 2 8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
was not the first, nor second, nor third, but the twelfth time that
the Moslem had invested this magnificent city. Mahomed's Kismet
had told him that the city was fated to be Mahometan. Mahomet,
his prophet, had promised it hundreds of years before. It was a
part of the faith. During this very investment one of the grand
Sheiks had discovered the bier of Eyoub (which is Arabic for
Job), the sacred leader of the third siege. A mosque now marks
the spot where this bier was discovered. This discovery gave
exaltation to the esprit of the Mahometan troops. It was as if
the green banner of the Prophet himself had been newly found
and unfurled.
The Greeks fought on the walls with intrepidity. They were
led by the Emperor. The Italians did their work well. It was
no easy task to fill up at night the breaches which the day had
made, and to deepen the ditches so as to aid the defense. The
Turks did not have the Greek fire. It has long been obsolete.
What it was no one now knows; but in spite of the shields of triple
hide to guard the wooden towers and the draw-bridges of the
Turkish invader, his machines were burnt by the Greek fire,
which the Greeks alone had. There was, therefore, no way on the
land side to approach the walls. At the end of April a sea fight
took place outside the harbor. The Ottoman fleet were thrown
into confusion by the chemical missiles of the enemy, while
reinforcements from Italy, in ships, entered the harbor. These
ships, in spite of the numbers against them, sailed through the
Turkish fleet. The chains were let down to admit them, and
were drawn up again behind them.
This disastrous sea fight led the Turks to ruminate over a new
plan. The Greeks were in the full possession of the Golden
Horn, and held it along with the Marmora Sea. The Turkish
vessels were in the Bosporus, more than a mile above, but below
the fortresses of Asia and Europe. Since the Turkish ships
could not enter the Golden Horn by water, Mahomed and his
engineers conceived the daring thought of entering the Golden
Horn with his ships by land! As the old chain and the strong
walls and fortifications protected both city and harbor, Mahomed
undertook to transport his boats overland and launch them in the
Golden Horn. The canals of Grant and Butler, in our
civil war, had a similar strategy for their object, but the
Turks were the more successful engineers. Mr. Pears, in

INVESTMENT OF CITY.

129

his "Fall of Constantinople," says that Mahomed transported
his boats over the neck of land between the modern Tophane
and the valley now known as Cassim Pasha. Galata itself
at that time was a walled city, and of course the boats of
the Turk were transported to the northwest of the walls.
The Turkish fleet sealed the Straits at the spot then, as now,
known as Bechiktash. It is on the European side of the Bos
porus — just above the superb imperial marble palace of Dolma-
Bagtche. The palace of Yildiz, amidst its grounds of
pleasance and beauty, is situated just above Bechiktash, on
¦a height which overlooks the blue Bosporus and the azure
mountains of Asia beyond. It was from Bechiktash on the 20th
of May, 1886, that I witnessed the sacred camels cross the Bos
porus laden with the Holy Carpet for Mecca — amidst the prayers
of the devout believers, and a throng of one hundred thousand
Moslems of both sexes and all ages. More than three hundred
years before, the most singular work of engineering which war
had up to that time called forth, had here its experiment and
success — not without religious awe and ceremony, and not
upon " ships of the desert," but with real ships, energized by the
same religious esprit.
It is not my purpose to refer to the political or dynastic com
plications which led up to the siege, nor to the consequences to
Italy, and especially to Venice and Genoa, nor to the Greek people
or to the "Western Powers, by reason of the fall of the city. For
two centuries, including the latter half of the thirteenth century,
there had been a rapid decay of the Greek empire. The country
round about the city had been desolated. The merchant
princes of Venice and Genoa had rifled palace, church
and temple, and carried away the marble columns and exqui
site mosaics. On the other hand, the Turks had been
trained under the rule of their Great Sultan, Amurath, who
taught them honesty and valor by his own noble example. When
the son of that Amurath — Mahomed II — succeeded his father, he
was a young man. He was only twenty-one years old. Young as he
was, he made cool preparations for the taking of the city. It was,
to him, the fulfillment of prophesy. Gibbon depreciates him some
what He says: " He was doubtless a soldier, and possibly a gen
eral." But the growth of his empire and the fall of the great capital
are evidences of his persistent genius for war and conquest. Be-

130 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN. TURKEY.

BURSTING OF THE BIG GUN AT THE TURKISH CAPTURE.

BIG GUNS.

131

sides, at that time he had, in addition to his immense army — which
was variously estimated at from one hundred thousand to four hun
dred thousand men — before the city the famous Janizary corps.
They were twelve thousand in number. They were of the selectest
blood of the Christians who had been taken in battle and been
trained in the Mahometan faith. When the siege began, the
Janizaries were placed midway on the land side of the walled
city before the gate of St. Romanus. Perhaps the most salient
feature of this remarkable siege was the blending of the methods
of ancient and modern warfare in its operations. The catapult
and the ballista of the Greeks and Romans were on hand,
hurling their showers of darts and stones. But just as the
present Sultan utilizes every valuable invention that comes
to the Bosporus, so his ancestor utilized the newest means
of destruction then known to the world of invention and
engineering. As now, so then — the Sultan resorted to the for
eigner for the most refined and efficient means. He established a
gun foundry at Adrianople, and employed the Krupp of that day,
Orban of Wallachia, as its superintendent.
On the 6th of April, a. d. 1453, the siege began with the firing
of the big guns. The very big gun was brought from Adrianople.
It was planted, and fired. Other guns were fired with 600-pound
balls against the gates. It was all in vain. The very big gun
burst, and the engineer was hoist with his own petard. He was
killed by his own "arm.''
The first assault was resultless. In spite of the navy, the
big cannon and the portable turrets, and even the valor of the
Janizaries, the city defied its assaults. The attempts on the
land side had failed.
Then came the inspiration and the attempt — which is the
gravamen of this chapter — to convey some of the Turk
ish vessels overland and launch them within the harbor
of the Golden Horn. Some sixty of the Turkish vessels
were in the Bosporus, anchored between the great towers
in Europe and Asia and the place where the Palace of Dolma
Bagtche now stands. The distance between the last-named place
and the available point on the Golden Horn for the launching of
the overland ships is some five miles. The traveler will notice a
high ridge overlooking the Golden Horn, upon which is situated
the City of Pera, now a European city inhabited by the Ambas-

132 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
sadors, dragomans and dogs. There is a long, sloping declivity
from Pera to the waters of the Golden Horn. This slope
is now occupied by an old neglected Turkish cemetery,
whose tombstones lie around in the utmost confusion, amid
old cypress - trees. The space to be traversed by the
ships was then not only hilly but wooded. A passage was cut
over the hills and through the valleys, and laid with planks which
had been well greased for the occasion with the fat of sheep
and oxen. All the flotilla, armed cap-a-pie, sailing through the
woods and down the hilly slopes into the Golden Horn, was the first
object which met the Greek sentinels upon the towers of the city.
The work of transportation was done by oxen and men, an innu
merable host, and the fleet and the army were thus brought in
unison within the inner recess of the harbor, whence the city
was most assailable !
There is some contrariety of opinion as to the route which the
ships pursued overland, in order to reach the Golden Horn from
the Bosporus, but the route indicated by the map on the first
page of the previous chapter is generally considered the one then
taken. The surface of the land between Bechiktash and the
Golden Horn is quite hilly and rugged even yet. It is probable
that it was more so at the time of the Ottoman conquest. The
splendid palace of Dolma-Bagtche had not then been erected, and
the various streets and avenues in its rear were 9ertainly not laid
out at that time as they are to-day. A deep valley intervenes
between that palace afid the Military School and Arsenal, which
are prominent objects of observation at this time from the
Bosporus. It was, therefore, no ordinary physical work to
overcome the acclivities between the two points over which the
ships were hauled. Besides, it was at a time when the utmost
vigilance in the camps of the Italians, Greeks and Turks was
observed. The contest for Constantinople might well be called one of the
pivotal struggles of the world. It was stupendous in its prepara
tion and in its consequences. After the Turkish fleet was
launched in this way, a bridge was built, and artillery was placed
upon it, the garrison quietly looking on. The siege then began
on the land side, and at the end of forty days the gate of St. Roma
nus was in ruins, its towers were razed and the Turks were ready
to assault the city. Such a scene was never observed before, or

THE CITY FALLS. I •; t>
since, on those classic shores. The Moslem still holds his
rule at the Palace of Yildiz, above the very point on the Bosporus
from which the movement of his ships by land began.
There are many stories — many of them apocryphal — about
the entrance of Mahmoud within the church of St. Sophia. It is
said that he reined his steed under the mighty dome, and made
that imprint of his bloody hand which is still pointed out to the
credulous tourist by the patriotic Greek valet-de-place. It is
further said, that this sign-manual is the prototype of the toughra,
or cypher, wherewith the Sultan signs all edicts of state. This
toughra appears in the frontispiece, beneath the picture of the Sul
tan Abdul Hamid II. It has an involuted look quite diplomatic.
The Turks, after their method, bathe themselves and fast, and
perform other religious ceremonies, preparatory either for death
and the delights of Paradise, or victory and the spoils of the rich
city. The cry arises from the Moslem, " God is God, and Ma
homet is his Prophet !" Then the Turkish infantry advance to
the attack. Not even the valor of the faithful friends of the
Emperor of the Greeks — the last of a line of a thousand years —
can withstand the fury of this assault. Under the eye of the
Sultan himself, the Janizaries pioneer the way. ,A giant of that
famous corps, Hassan by name, leads the host to victory. The
Greek emperor falls, a hero amidst a cohort of cowards. On
the a9th of May, a. d. 1453, after a siege of fifty-three days, the
besieged people rush, as with one accord, toward the Church of
St. Sophia, hoping for the descent of the Saint from heaven to
save them from the enemy. It is otherwise decreed. Not the
Saint but the Star and Crescent descend on St Sophia and the
city. The complications which have confused the dynasties of Europe
and the political philosophers and diplomats of the world then
began. It still goes on. Whatever may be said of the rule of the
Ottoman in the old city of Byzantium, one beneficial result was
accomplished by its fall in a.d. 1453 : the literary treasures heaped
on heap within the libraries and crypts of the monasteries and
churches of the city and its environs were scattered throughout
Europe; scholarship received a new impulse in the revival of its
learning, and the world, instead of merely marking time, began
a march toward a higher civilization than the Rome of Augustus
or the city of Constantine had ever attained. How much of

134 DIVERSIONS OF A. DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
this progress was due to the Arabic science, which Mahomed
the Second brought into the Golden Horn, we shall probably
never know.
Strictly speaking, there was no Greek empire of the East when
the Turks took the city. It had crumbled away centuries before.
The Saracens had cut off many of the Asiatic provinces which
owed allegiance to Byzantium. The kingdom of Jerusalem and
other important places of the East had nearly all been rescued
from the crusading Christians. Until the accession of the first of
the Basils, in the year a. d. 867, the empire was usually regarded as
an eastern branch of the Roman empire. After that, it became
in fact the Eastern or the Byzantine empire. Let there be
no confusion; for if " Byzantine '' be the designation, it must not
be forgotten that the empire was also Roman. It was called
Roumania. It was new Rome. It was thus distinguished from
the Old Rome. The nomads only knew Constantinople as the
capital of Roman territory. " Romaic " is still the designation of
the Greek-speaking population of that empire. The city of Erze-
roum and the province of Roumelia are a nomenclatural acknowl
edgment of the potentiality of Old Rome. The Patriarch of the
Orthodox Greek Church is described as a bishop of New Rome.
Greek, however, was the language of the Eastern empire, as it
was also of the educated classes of Rome herself It was the
language of elegance and refinement. The Latin had its place,
and helped to strengthen or modify the Greek. Naturally enough
the sturdy old Roman fathers despised the Greek tongue as
thoroughly as the English Saxon despised the French; and for the
same unreasonable pretense ; for had not the Greeks, like the
French, an elegance and refinement that seemed unmanly to the
ruder races ?
Call the Eastern empire by what name we will, it was a tre
mendous power. It was an empire. It lasted with miraculous
pertinacity. To what is this permanancy attributable ? Muni
cipality ! During all the changes in the capital and in the
provinces, and until the empire finally fell before force, the
forms of municipality, Grecian and Roman, remained. The
very Essnafs, with their artisan and trade-unions, had their
share in the rule of the city. Absolutism never entirely under
mined the spirit of Home Rule. The citizen was one thing
and the soldier another. The foreign mercenary was often-

MUNICIPAL FREEDOM.

135

times called in to suppress the citizen. This municipal system
was the opposite of centralization, which seems to have its
analogy to-day in Russia, where the Emperor is looked upon
as the father of his people, and is hedged about with a divinity.
His acts are only questioned by the Agnostic and Nihilist. Still,
even the Czar, like the old Byzantine emperor, is surrounded
by local municipal authority — a municipal commune, the Zemstro
— which the steam-engine and the telegraph have not altogether
dissipated in this nineteenth century. But Russian peasant
municipality is not even a shadow of the old Roman and Greek
municipality. However much the Greek may have worshipped his emperor;
however much he may have been absorbed by trade; how much-
soever the people may have been separated, one from the other,
— by mountains upon the mainland and islands upon the sea — the
old municipal spirit survived. The merchant princes of the elder
empire, like the merchant princes of the Grecian race to-day,
had a power of their own which never deferred to absolutism.
The spirit of municipal freedom was a part of the condition
of the Conquest by the Turk. It is one element of his permanency
both in Europe and in Asia. It was nothing new to him. It
descended to him as it did to the Greeks and Romans, from
Patriarchal rule in tribal groups. It is the patria potesta, at
once the law of Nature and the old civil law; which gave power to
Rome — old Rome and new Rome — and which inspire the refine
ments of modern polity.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE UPPER BOSPORUS  DIVERSIONS AT THERAPIA.
These Bosporus banks, by general consent, are considered
the most beautiful for scenery, convenient for commerce, salu
brious for health, and interesting for association on the globe.
When we came here in 1885 we took up our residence at
the upper end of these remarkable Straits, at Therapia. It is in
sight of the Black Sea. That sea, purified of the dirt of the
Danube, Dnieper and Don, runs through the Bosporus into the
§ea of Marmora, and thence into the Mediterranean. So clear
are these waters, so breezeful in their motion and so useful to
trade, that at no hour of the cool days of summer can one fail
to see an Austrian, Russian, French, German, Italian or Turkish-
steamer making a snowy wake over their blue, very blue, very
deep blue surface; not to speak of the hundred sail and caiques
(or row-boats) which make the Bosporus picturesque and at
tractive. There is a gr^ similarity between the waters of Constan
tinople and those of New York. This, tourists often remark.
The East River connects Long Island Sound with New York
Harbor just as the Bosporus connects the Black Sea with the Sea
of Marmora ; and the Golden Horn not inaptly represents the
Hudson River, except in this, that the Golden Horn nearly divides
the city of Constantinople. Perhaps the East River better repre
sents the Golden Horn, as it separates New York from Brooklyn.
Stamboul, the old city, is situated on a peninsula, and is very
like New York City. The other part of the city, which is called
Pera, would represent Brooklyn; while Scutari, across the wide
river, which is always attractive by the Florence Nightingale
Hospital, might be said to represent Jersey City.
It is a question, however, whether New York, Naples or
Constantinople possesses the rarest harbor in the world. With
all my partiality for New York — and perhaps because I know its
defects from taking an active part in remedial legislation — I am
136

RIVAL VILLAGES ON UPPER STRAITS. 137
inclined to give the palm to the harbor of the city of the Sultan,
and in this connection to express a preference for the comfort
upon the vessels which navigate the latter waters, and for the
gorgeous panorama they unfold.
In going to and fro on the Bosporus, especially on the larger
steamers which navigate the Black Sea or cross the Marmora, the
passengers are made up of every race, order and color of people,
from the venerable Pasha, whose family is hid behind the
curtains, to the poor government clerk, who depends upon the
Pasha's bounty. If you take a long journey to any of the ports of
the Black Sea in the large steamers of Russia or Austria, you will
find the same Pasha, traveling with his family and dining with
the passengers, while his wives, too often, browse outside on the
deck without a murmur. The deck-passengers on such steamers
are a motley mixture: lazy, black eunuchs,servants, business men,
and women and children of every nationality massed together in
heterogeneous confusion.
Therapia and Buyukdere have always had a quarrel. It is
probably a sanitary quarrel. The burning question is. Which
enjoys the milder climate ? I have never tried the latter, but I
have the former. The former is always fresh and cool in mid
summer, while Buyukdere is reported to be otherwise. Therapia
has the advantage of the breeze of the B^ck Sea. From our
home in Therapia we could always look into its mouth. Buyuk
dere appears like a town shut in, as if it were situated on an
inland sea, but its improvements have surpassed those of Thera
pia. When the ten thousand led by Xenophon had completed
their retreat, they stood upon the summit of Mt. Teches. Their
joy was greater than that of Moses and his Israelites when they
beheld the Promised Land, for Xenophon and his host sighted
the Pontus Euxinus and its realities, which I have the pleasure of
seeing from my home at Therapia, under its wondrous sheen of
beauty, every day of summer, and in comparison with which the
land of Jordan and its environment are tame and uninteresting.
Philologically and mythologically, the name of the Strait has
received considerable discussion. It is generally agreed that it
means the " Harbor of the Ox." Webster's " latest " says that
Bosporus is the more correct orthography. It is the English way,
but this mode depends on etymology. Without regard to this,
it is the spot where the goddess lo crossed on the back of that

138 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
animal. The schoolboy will remember the legend of that lady,
who traveled over all the world, with Juno closely following after
her, because lo was too well beloved by Jupiter. She was put
to great straits in the pursuit — in fact, compelled to cross the
Straits which separated the Old from the New World. Our
learned men, like Lord Bacon, who find so much recondite
wisdom in the classics, say that her crossing the Straits indicates
the progress of agriculture ! I suppose this comes from
ploughing the sea with an ox. The more learned idea is that
agriculture came from the East to the West — hence the myth
of the Ox, which was the animal first used in farming, and
therefore typical of the noblest pursuit by which man lives.
Notwithstanding this legend, the Bosporus was more cele
brated for its fish than its oxen. It was called the " Fishy
Bosporus" — thus uniting piscatorial and agricultural occupa
tions. According to the earliest accounts, the early Byzantines
drove a rich trade in fish. Shoals of fish, and especially of
a fish called pelamys, a sort of tunny, were accustomed to come
down from the Black Sea, attracted into the harbor by the fresh
water which flowed into its upper end. What was in the
water to attract these finny creatures, whether marine insects, or
whether they were attracted by the growth of seaweed, which
served as pasture, has not been cleared up. Doubtless the stream
lured the fish along, as running water always does, and its
currency made the early fortunes of Byzantium. It was to fish
that the name " Golden Horn " is to be attributed. It was
derived from the "net" earnings which poured out of this
cornucopia !
Within the radius of no other point, unless it be Thebes or
Athens, are there so many classical associations as those which
have the Bosporus for a nucleus. Here, unless we except Noah
and his ark, was the first naval exhibition on record, and upon
this spot, fixed with certainty by pundits, the Argonauts landed
and erected altars and offered sacrifices. Here were the several
temples erected by the Greeks, but unhappily destroyed by the
Persians, Turks and other invaders. The names signify the
sites of old renown. The home of the Gauls is Galata; ancient
Metopon is Tophane, so familiar to our launch and to our foot,
and where the guns of Krupp and Armstrong stand in belligerent
array. The temples of Venus and Diana afterwards became

JASON AND THE SYMPLEGADES. i ^g
churches of the Saviour and the Saints. The burning rocks
furnish the tomb of Barbarossa. The old Rhodian port is now
known as Bechiktash. It was once honored by a temple to Apollo.
All the places which confuse the mind with their Greek and
Turkish names, from Cavak to San Stefano, give to this
renowned current, with its impetuosity and mystery, a history
which the reign of the Ottoman has not destroyed, and which no
power can entirely destroy.
It may be difficult to revive many of the associations connected
with this history, for, like the Straits, the history often runs contrari
wise. Elsewhere I have spoken of the classic rocks at the entrance
of the Bosporus; of Richard the Lion-Hearted and his prison
here; of the castles of Europe and Asia; of the Giant's Moun
tain; of the old Genoese castle celebrated for the siege of Haroun
Al Raschid, with two hundred thousand men, and of Godfrey
de Bouillon and his army, which was encamped along these
waters. And yet these figures of classic and crusading history
seem but dreams in this age of reality. The sooty emanations
of the Shirket ferry, as it goes up and down the Straits, speak of
new motors and a new element of civilization. No one can
enjoy a visit to Constantinople and its environments like those
who tinge the realities of the present with the visions of the past.
With the aid of the launch, we were enabled to visit, as a
special Diversion, a scene which has both a classic and a geologic
association of intense interest. An hour from Therapia will take
you into the Black Sea. A half-hour more will take you to the
Cyanian rocks, or Symplegades, outside of the Bosporus stream —
rocks famous in Grecian lore. They used to be movable, and
opened to engulf, like icebergs, the sailors and vessels venturing
near. Captain Jason, the skipper of the Argo, went through
them safely. He left an altar upon their top, which remains to
tell of his scrupulous piety and of Medea's parental devotion.
In one of my rambles along the Asiatic shore I picked up
under a hospitable roof — once a Turkish harem, now a home
where Armenian and Turkish girls embroider the rare fabrics in
gold, silk and silver for the refugee fund of the East — a rare
volume of poetry. It is entitled, " The Life and Death of Jason,"
by William Morris. It starts with Jason in Thessaly, beside the
tumbling sea, " where once dwelt a folk men called the Minyae."
It follows the princely hero in his roving, after the demand for his

I40 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
kingdom, and after the promise for its loyal reconstruction, if he
would only find the golden fleece of that ram that had carried
Phryxus to Colchis, where the fleece was located. It follows the
ship to the Bosporus.
How does the vessel pass the Symplegades ? To answer this
question requires a description of the rocks. These I visited one
Sunday. There was a smooth sea and a clear sky for that visit
Hardly a ripple struck their rocky sides, and not one of the old
tumultuous waves splashed and roared through their dark caverns.
How unlike the rocks of Mr. Morris's poem ! He locates them at
the narrow ending of the sea. So far, good. That means the
Bosporean mouth. But the shifting winds and the flapping sail
there and then, which confused all seamanship, we did not experi
ence. The Jason mariners heard the pounding of the rocks and
saw the steaming clouds of spray. The " polished bases " of the
rocks were hidden from them by these clouds of spray, except
when the sun cast its glittering eye into the churning waves and
moving caves. The clamor and the movement scared the
Grecian crew, but not their intrepid captain. Juno stood by
him. He was ambitious, and his arm had the strength of seven
men. His voice was stentorian, and when he saw his danger, he
cried out to the gods to know if the quest for the fleece was to
end thus ignobly.
The Argo is driven toward "the dashers." Jason takes
the helm. He begs of the gods to let him through the gates. A
dove comes to the rescue. It is so nice, in poems and when at
sea, to have a dove handy. By its flight the open place in the
rocks is shown, and in the very nick of time, after a big blow had
spent itself Jason clutches the tiller tighter; his sailors grasp
the oars with mighty force, and the ship is driven
"Unto the rocks, until, with blinded eyes,
They blink one moment at those mysteries.
Unseen before — the next, they feel the sun
full on their backs, and know their deed is done !"
The Bosporus is by no means always a placid or a safe stream.
Horace describes it in four words:
"Novita Bosporum Poenus perhorrescit. "
There is beneath the tranquil waters of the Bosporus a coa

STORIES OF HERODOTUS.

141

stant collision of currents. This is a danger to navigation, as
the writer has had ocular demonstration. It has been ascer
tained, beyond doubt, that while the upper current will bear
you on its surface from the Black Sea to the Marmora, the
under current runs exactly in the contrary direction. This was
proved in early days by the fishermen, who, in dropping their
nets to a certain depth, found which way they swung. Besides,
it is recorded in the early writers who discussed the navigation of
the Bosporus.
I have read Herodotus. He is called the father of history, and
sometimes the father of liars. In his lifetime his reputation was
good, in his own community, for truth and veracity. He is therefore
competent as a witness in any court of law. He does not disdain
to speak of the Symplegades. It must have been ^an old story
even in his time. He was a good story-teller, for he tells us how
Darius ascended these rocks for a view of the Black Sea. It must
be true, for I have done the same myself. There is nothing in
the fact to boast of. I did it with a sprained ankle. There was
much vaunting among the earlier Greek explorers. How they
magnify every obstruction to navigation ! Evidently, since the
day when the veracious Herodotus wrote, there must have been
many structural changes in and around the mouth of the Bosporus.
He says that the Ionian fleet which accompanied the Scythian
expedition of Darius sailed through these rocks. This is impos
sible; unless there was some special seismic or volcanic arrange
ment made for his Persians. Moreover, he says that on one of
the islands there was built a temple ; but I am a living witness
that there is now little room on the top of the largest island for
anything but an altar, which still remains. It is likely — since
Herodotus cannot be gainsaid — that a larger island existed. It
must have been the great obstacle at the mouth of the Bosporus
to the navigation of the Euxine.
Different causes have been given for the opposite currents of
the Bosporus. Maury attributes it to the specific gravity
between the surface and under water. This is a very learned
view and weighty. It strikes even the unlearned. The water at
the bottom is more impregnated with salt, therefore heavier
than the water at the top, and there is an effort of the two to find
their proper level. Another explanation is : That there is an
underground communication between the Caspian and Black

142 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
seas ; the surface of the Caspian being lower than that of the
Black Sea, it is thought that the water is sucked from below
through this underground channel, thus creating an undercurrent
to the north and to the Caspian. This is rather a recondite
explanation ; but it would not be inconsistent with hydrostatics.
Once upon a time, it is said, by geologists and others, that the
Black Sea, the Sea of Azof and the Caspian were one. This great
inland body of water was on a higher plane than the Mediter
ranean and the Marmora. It was held in by the Symplegades,
which plugged the mouth of the Bosporus. About fifteen
hundred and thirty years before Christ a volcanic eruption broke
down this barrier and flooded all the Mediterranean, deluging
the lower countries on the south. The thirty years is put in for
exactness. Ancient writers refer to this deluge. Dr. Washburn,
of Robert College, confirms this view, but is not positive as to
the date. He offered to furnish me with some geological matter
of his own in confirmation; but I never received it, to my regret.
From all these data there can be no doubt in the mind of the
reader that some great seismic movement once tore down the
gates at the mouth of the Bosporus, and the pent-up waters found
their level in the Mediterranean, even to the flooding of the
countries in northern Africa. I have to admit, however, with all
my own and my borrowed hydrostatics, that it has taken a long
time for the two seas to find a common level — for the Euxine is
still running out Perhaps the most obvious cause of these
transverse currents is a difference of temperature. A test for
this is as simple as the one for salt I confess that I have never
made either.
It is a matter of ancient record that the Bosporus has been
frozen over twice. Unless the seasons have very much changed
since the early days, this would seem to be very doubtful — even if
recorded by Herodotus — especially a freezing over the " Devil's
current," which is swifter than a mill-race, with the hydrostatic
power of a sea behind, it But with all its geological and seismical
riddles, no Strait is so famous in history, and no locality presents
such a combination of picturesque loveliness and sublimity as the
Bosporus. And in this remark I do not depend for vindication
upon the grand works of man — the domes and minarets which give
their romance and charm to old Stamboul and the Seraglio Point
— nor upon the crafts, impelled by steam, oar and sail, which

BEAUTY AND SHAME OF THE BOSPORUS.

143

everywhere ply upon the bosom of the water, but upon the shores,
which are as lovely as the heavens which bend over them.
It is difficult to describe the subtle charm of the landscape of
the Bosporus. As well try to picture with words the idiosyncrasy
of a human face of which you are enamored. Wherein consists
the peculiarity of this landscape ? What makes the light of its
atmosphere ?
No answer to these queries cOuld indicate the ineffable charm.
Aside from all associations around the Bosporus, such as the
great strife by which Islam was here enthroned upon the ruins of the
Eastern Church ; aside from the fact that this strife is still being
waged upon these shores, a strife which takes hold upon the view
less world to come — there is a fascination in its past, present and
future which fires the imagination like the new scenes of the
Yellowstone or the Yosemite, and radiates it with the influence of
poetry and the affluence of color and imagery. Even a traveler
accustomed to the balm and beauty of the skies ^of southern
Italy may here find its counterpart in the soft balminess and
delightful beauty of earth and sea and sky.
Still the Bosporus might be improved. It has some ««-fra-
grances. Going up and down a good deal in our launch, we meet
v/ith many a nuisance. The horses that die are thrown into the
stream. It is expected that they will be carried off by the
current, bnt the current is eccentric. When it goes down
seemingly, it may go up really, and when it appears to go up or
down, it may swirl off into an eddy. The bodies that are thrown
into the Straits often rise to the surface, and are floated into a
corner. There they lie and rot until assisted by some boatmen
to drift again into the current. There are a great many unused
caique-holes, called caik-hanes. Many of them have no gates.
They are, therefore, sinks of putrefaction. They are nauseat
ing, with their bad odors. Animals are sucked in to taint the
house which is above the hole. It is not unusual to see dead
horses, dogs, calves and porpoises on both sides of the Bosporus.
Another drawback to the beauty of the stream may be
mentioned. In the Orient, where there are seldom any fire
places in the buildings, you will see in the winter the beauty and
architecture of the houses destroyed by long sheet-iron pipes
protruding from the windows. In the better houses — palaces,
even — the only warming apparatus, as in the palace of the

144

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

Vatican, is a large iron or brass basin, called a mangal. This
mangal contains glowing coals, free from unpleasant gas. It is
sometimes richly chased. I have seen exquisite work of this kind
in the palace of Yildiz. Its elegance does not compensate, in
inclemeit weather, for the absence of a stove or so in the roomy
houses. Hence the ungainly stove-pipes.

GYPSIES OF THE BOSPORUS.

One trip ought not to be omitted in the summer season. I
shall never forget it, as it led to the locality of a strange race
who have the Orient for their origin— I mean the Gypsies of the
valley of Buyukdere. Buyukdere means, in the Turkish, " the
forty trees." On the beautiful tented fields spread out around
these trees I have seen in mid-summer these Gypsies. They are

GYPSIES AT BUYUKDERE.

145

as ready to shoe your horse as to tell your fortune. These wan
derers are disliked by all the inhabitants of Turkey. Does this
come from fear of the mysterious ? We found nothing but kind
ness in visiting their tents, and a tender of food and hospitality.
Call them Zingari, Tartar, Gigonza, Gitanna, or Rom (man), as they
call themselves, or as we call them, Gypsies; whether they came
from India, fleeing before Tamerlane, or elsewhere — they lead
here, as in other places, a most remarkable, itinerant life. This is
not their worst condition. Despised by the Turk, and without
commiseration from the Christian, they are the pariahs of the
land ; and yet to me, constantly observing them, both in the
field and in the city, I could not make out that they were worse
than the ordinary people, except in their vagabondage. Over
the Galata bridge their little girls, in their picturesque raven hair,
brown complexion, splendid eyes and white teeth, in tatters and
rags, dash after and beg from every carriage. The mothers carry
their babes in slings, sometimes on the back and sometimes at the
breast. The stalwart men carry poultry or calves under their
arms; but they all betray a remediless condition of abject poverty.
The Christians call them " children of the Evil One ; " but
they have ever shown, when I have met them, only the common
importunity for alms, and that plentiful humor and good temper
which is in happy contrast with their condition.
In a former chapter the Gypsies were referred to with as
much charity as our vagrant human nature demands. We are
all Gypsies, in the sense of trade and locomotion. The difference
between the Gypsies of the Old World and those whom we see
vagabondizing, telling stories, trading or stealing horses, and
occasionally kidnapping a child, is the difference between one
class of vagabonds and another.
The evidence from the language traces the origin of this race
to India. In the fifth century a Persian king received from an
Indian king a pretty gift of 12,000 musicians of both sexes. They
were luris. It is Persian for Gypsy. They are known in Arabia
as the Zott people; in Turkey as zigeuner, or musicians; and
among themselves as Horn, or man. Sometimes they became so
predatory that an army was called in to subdue them; but since
A. D. 855, when they came into the Byzantine empire, they have
not caused any turbulence in the composite social order of either
the Greek or Ottoman empires.

146 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Another trip worth making in mid-summeris to Kilios, the life-
saving station near the Symplegades. It is not necessary to say
why I made this trip.
It was no slight adventure which took us over the bosom of
the Black Sea in our frail " mouche," to visit Kilios. When we
arrived at that point we were amply repaid for the trip by the
kindness of Captain Palmer's officers, for the captain was
then absent, and by the practice with the rocket and other
apparatus. Since my visit to this wild and wonderful point on the Euxine,
I have studied the service at these posts. It is sustained by a tax
on the tonnage, levied under Turkish authority. The tax is not
much, but it is enough, although it is said one can never have
enough of a good thing. The gentleman here most interested in
this service is Mr. William H. Wrench, the British Consul at
Constantinople. He is the " European Delegate on the Adminis
tration of the Black Sea Life-Saving Service." He is vigilant
and active in his duty. It is a delight to have such a humane,
practical hobby. That I know from nearly twenty years' expe
rience at home as to the same benignant service.
The service here within the last four years has guarded a
coast line of thirty miles on each side of the Bosporus. There
are eight stations on the European coast, two of which possess
lifeboats. These boats are in good order, and are manned by
seventy men and four officers. There are seven stations on the
Asiatic coast. Two of them have lifeboats, with seventy-two
men. These men are nearly if not all Turks, and, as my
observation shows, they are sober, active and brave men. Work
is still going on for the improvement of these stations.
Captain Samuel Palmer, the hero of the incident I shall relate,
superintends the European stations. When on a visit to his
station, there was shown me, with much sensibility, the photograph
of his father, who was drowned in 1878 near Kilios, in assisting to
rescue the passengers of a stranded Turkish transport He
looked, as his son looks, the incarnation of dauntiess pluck, cool
caution and commanding qualities.
The Asiatic stations are commanded by Matthew Summers.
He is also English, and is known in England for his honorable
association with the rocket service. The crews here do not use
the howitzer to throw the line, as we do, but the rocket. The

SHIPWRECK AND LIFE SA VERS.

147

relative value of the two methods has been tested. The advantage
is with the gun.
The incident I meant to relate concerns a Russian vessel —
'Cci^ Emperor Alexander II., a mail-boat of the Russian Steam
Navigation Company. This vessel was making for Constantinople
from Odessa, when she stranded on the i8th of February, 1886,
between i and 2 o'clock in the morning. She struck ground
about eighteen miles west of the Bosporus entrance. The patrol
saw her strike, and gave the- rocket signal. Within an hour fifteen
men from the two rocket stations of Ak-Bownad and Agatchli were
on hand with their rocket apparatus. Before the danger became im
minent, whi-r-r! whizz! went a rocket over the vessel. The entente
was at once established between ship and shore, between peril
and safety, Kilios was twelve miles off. Captain Palmer was there.
A messenger was sent for him. He was reached at 4 a. m. The
messenger traveled his twelve miles in loose sand. Our life-savers
know what that means. There was a heavy sea. The captain,
however, launched his lifeboat. He had a hard time in get
ting her through the surf The current was against him.
In two hours he made only four miles. He put his boat about
and went back with the current to Kilios. The waves increased.
At the entrance to Kilios harbor — a most romantic, wild and
desolate place — his boat was imperilled. A comber, such as
whelmed a Barnegat boat off our New Jersey coast not long
since, took his boat abeam, after it was knocked over by a heavy
sea. The boat filled. It escaped by a few feet from a wild dash
against a sunken rock, for the shore is rocky, as all know who
have entered the Bosporus. But the gallant captain beached his
boat. Then, like King Richard, he called for a horse, and reached
the scene of the disaster at 10 in the forenoon.
What had happened while the captain and his men were
thus struggling? The Russian captain had sent a bottle ashore
by the buoy. It contained only the name of the vessel.
When Captain Palmer appears, a man in the ship is placed
in the buoy and is hauled ashore. He is a Turkish shep
herd  in charge of two hundred and fifty sheep aboard. Fol
lowing him in the buoy are the passengers, numbering about
one hundred. They land in quick succession and are sent
to the nearest station, where hot tea, brandy and dry clothing
are ready. The large number saved require extra provision.

148 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
and other stations are summoned, with their hands for the whip
line and their comforts for the rescued. The laborers on the
Government farm near, and some charcoal burners, also come to
the rescue. By 4 in the afternoon ninety-six persons, among
them thirty-one women, are saved. They are all, except two,
Russian peasant-pilgrims bound for Jerusalem.
This curious shipload of pilgrims was brought down to Con
stantinople, where they were cared for. The Sultan sent them
a large purse for their comfort, and the Russian Embassy gave
them every attention.
When I started on my Egyptian journey in February, 1886,
upon the Russian steamer Ccesarovitch I had a close look at about
one hundred of this class of sheepskin-clad pilgrims. They are
of the Greek Church, and believe that if they can only reach the
Holy City their calling and election are sure. They go in droves
to the Old Jerusalem, with an eye on the " New." Far away,
upon the shores of the Volga, Don and Dnieper, they live and
worship with a faith that makes religion a romance. With only
funds enough to reach Jerusalem, they venture forth under the
guidance of some leading man or woman, who directs and cheers
them on their way with recitations and prayers that shame the
soi-disant Christian folk of other lands. When they arrive at
Jerusalem the great Russian convent buildings receive and care
for them till their eyes are gladdened with glimpses of the golden
pavements and alabaster walls, and then, if alive, they return to
their Russian homes.
The marvel of the saving grace of the life service, as illustrated
above, on the Black Sea is in the number of lives saved, and at
the rate of one in every three minutes of the time employed.
There are in our incomparable service but few incidents like
this. I recall the rescue of the Amerique passengers, near Long
Branch, as one of these incidents.
I will conclude this incident by a description of the 7nodus
operandi by which this marvel was effected. Both Captains Palmer
and Summers are inventive men, and have endeavored to improve
their paraphernalia. I made a little sketch of the " rigging " of
Captain Palmer. The reader will see that instead of employing
one traveler-block. Palmer uses two, the one attached to the
breechesbuoy and running on the hawser in the usual manner,
but the other, which is called the "leading traveler," runs on

INVENTION FOR SAVING LIFE.

149

the hawser about four feet in-shore of its companion when the
hawser is set up from the shores to the wreck. It is kept at this
distance by a clove-hitch in the whip line, which thus passes from
one traveler to the other, exerting its force on the " leading
traveler " in bringing the breeches buoy from the vessel to the
shore, and on the traveler in taking the buoy to the vessel. From
the " leading traveler" to the breeches buoy two slings descend,
which are attached to the points at "which the two in-shore slings of
the buoy itself are made fast By this arrangement, so says
Palmer, not only is the breeches buoy kept level on the water the
same way as by " Summers's method," but the hawser is not

depressed into the V-like
shape it assumes when all
the weight of the man in
the buoy falls on one trav
eler alone; and as the haw
ser is not so depressed, the
drag for the men hauling
on the whip line is from
one-third to one-half less
heavy. Captain Palmer was not
LIFE-SAVING BREECH. forgottcn by the Russian
Government, for his efforts in saving the passengers of the ship Alex
ander II. The Czar sent him a splendid testimonial, and the com
pany to which the ship belonged, gave him a more substantial
reward in a silver service, in recognition of his courage and skill.
Speaking of the Life-Saving Service, in which our own country
takes so much pride, I have had occasion to know of another
heroic act. It was achieved by a common Turk. His name was
Mustapha. I here recount it : A ship is wrecked off a high bluff
in the night ; cries of distress near the bluff are heard. Mustapha
is let down the bluff over a hundred feet by a rope secured
around his body. Being a seaman, he struggles with the waves
which dash violentiy against the bluff. He seizes the imperiled

150 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
man, but is himself dashed senseless by the waves. He loses
his grip on the man. He is drawn up. Then having been
brought to by his friends, he goes down again, and a third time.
Finally, he brings up the sailor, or, rather, the dead body of the
sailor. This hero is the much decried Mussulman, yet the
Mussulman certainly attested his faith by his works. He is but
one among, thousands of the same race. Whether it is brave
because it believes in Fate or not, certainly his Allah has
"made him just and right, sufficient to have stood, though
free to fall."
Most of the officers of the Turkish Government live outside
the city in summer. They have palaces or konaks — country
villas — upon the banks of the upper Bosporus or upon the hills
round about. On the upper waters of the Bosporus, Therapia
and Buyukdere are approachable by the Shirket, or ferry, which
lands every quarter of an hour. These ferries are crowded with
people; for no people are more fond of moveinent out-doors than
the Levantine and Turkish population. Some hours' ride above
the city, at Buyukdere and Therapia, on the European shore of
the Upper Bosporus are situated the palaces of the Ambassa
dors of the great Powers. Here are the Russian^ • English,
Austrian, German, French, Persian, Italian, American and Greek
Ministers. Most of them live in grand style. Their resources
are seemingly unlimited. They are visited by the Pashas, Beys,
Effendis, Agas, and other notables and officials of the Ottoman
empire. When convened under various auspices — as, for example,
at the Russian Legation, under the rockets' glare and pyrotechnic
display outside, and music, flowers and festivities within — the
scene is quite dramatic. These embassies are in perpetual
motion, toward and from one another. By stationnaires, i. e.,
large naval vessels, or by steam launches, or by ten-oared caiques,
they move up and down the Straits, and zigzag across to Asia
and back, as if in perpetual unrest. This is diplomacy.
When the conferences were in session during the summer of
1885, this movement was accelerated ; for the Bulgarian and the
Egyptian questions were very prominent among the Pashas and
the Ministry, as well as among the Ambassadors of the great
Powers. Sir Drummond Wolf, the English special Ambassa
dor, was here, doing his devoirs, among the other Envoys, at the
Porte in Stamboul, and at the Sultan's palace of Yildiz. I met

FOREIGN MINISTERS.

151

him frequently on the quay at Therapia, where, as old Parliamen
tarians, we talked of the battles we had fought in legislative,
capacities. These Ministers, with whom I mingled much in the summer
of 1885, are not distinctively national. They are selected for
their cosmopolitan manners, tact and ideas. The then English
Minister was Sir William A. White. He was followed by Sir
Edward Thornton, whom I knew in Washington. But since that
time Sir Edward has retired. He is followed again by Sir Will
iam. This latter gentleman has been abroad almost all his life.
He was recently in Roumania, where he acted as Minister.
He knows many languages, and he is perhaps more accomplished
in the Danubian questions than any one connected with any
embassy. Among the others whom it is pleasant to recall, is the
Baron de Calice, the Austrian Ambassador. He tendered to us
our first dinner, and made up by his courtesy, and • that of his
charming wife, for that which our Department of State seemed to
find lacking at the Austrian court in the reception of the
Minister whom we tendered to Vienna. He is a man of varied
accomplishments. He has made treaties in the farthest East,
in Japan, and early won consular laurels at Liverpool. The
Italian Minister is Count Corti, who is well known in America,
having represented his country at Washington for many years. He
has been transferred to London. The French Minister at that
time. Count de Noailles, was called away by the death of his
father. M. Nellidoff, the Russian Ambassador, is a man of
great experience, finesse, and skill in diplomatic arts. He was chos
en for this capital, to aggrandize his country's interests. He is well
seconded by the Chancellor, M. Onou. M. Radowitz, the German
Minister, left his grand palace upon the heights of the Bosporus,
near the city, for his home on the Upper Bosporus, where
Germany is now building another palace for her Legation. He
seemed to be the least troubled of any of the Ambassadors
about the impending questions. The American Legation, where
we spend the summer, is situated above the English Legation
in Therapia. Our flag is always flying upon Sunday and on
fete days, within fifty feet of the clear, plashing waters of the
Bosporus, midway between the quay and the hill-top, and in sight •
of the mouth of the Black Sea. The residence is surrounded by
a beautiful garden, in which the magnolia-trees are conspicuous.

152

DIVERSIONS OP A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

Its terraces reach to the top of the mounta.n, ana are covered
with flowers, shrubs and creepers. The frequency with which
the steam launch of the American Legation moves about during
the summer of 1885 shows that Mr. Heap, the Consul-General,
and the Minister himself, who reside together, are keeping up
their part in this Oriental movement What a curious life it is !
It is called rest by some of my friends at home. I should call
it restive. This life has its comic phases. One of them consists in
the strange commingling of various nationalities, united under
an order established by the wisdom and foresight of the early
Sultans. " Foresight," I say, for it was here, upon the shore of these
waters which flow to the old Propontis, that Suleiman, the son of
Orchan, and grandson of Othman, saw the crescent of the moon
rise before him ! It was the emblem of his race, and in its sign
he entered the continent of Europe, and conquered. Temples
and palaces floated up out of the great deep, and mysterious
voices blended with the sound of the sea, exciting in his heart
a yearning for enterprise and a sense of supernatural mystery.
This is the story told by the German historian. It is often quoted
as an inspiration. Out of it the earlier Turks forwarded their
schemes of conquest and advancement.
There is no parallel to the climate of the upper Bosporus.
In the summer, the proximity of the seas creates a current of
wind which mitigates the hot weather ; but the same influences do
not obtain in winter. In summer the air is so deliciously pure
that it is tonic to the body and exhilaration to the spirit. Some
one has said that Constantinople, in its best season and estate,
drives away all care, and makes existence a beatitude ; or, to use
the exaggeration of another, " Here you could almost be willing
to lose your dearest friends, and rejoice at their departure."
The climate had not this Lethean effect on me.
The winter upon the Bosporus does not, as I have said, begin
until late, so that its rigors, which are experienced in February,
have no counterpart in December. We therefore make it our
pleasure and duty to seek a softer clime.
The President having given a sixty-day leave in February,
we spend the remainder of the winter in Egypt and Greece.
Such an excursion, I venture to say, no man ever enjoyed more

OFF TO EGYPT. I 53
than the writer. At the time I left Constantinople the Egyp
tian question was under full headway in Egypt. Ghazi Mouk-
tar Pasha had been sent as the special high commissioner of the
Sultan to that bedevilled country. Our arrival at Alexandria,
and subsequent sojourn and Nile trip, under the telegraphic au
spices of the Sultan to his commissioner, if they were recounted,
would make an episode quite as diverting as any of our Ottoman
experiences.

CHAPTER XV.
POSSIBILITIES AND ACTUALITIES OF PETROLEUM  AMERICAN
INTERESTS.
To enhance the American influence in the Ottoman empire
requires something besides our American teachers and preachers.
Trade is the forerunner of civilizing influences as well as its con
comitant. Our trade with Turkey is insignificant. Our flag is
never seen on the Bosporus, except upon our launch. Such trade
as we have is the ' importation , of petroleum and the exportation
of rugs and carpets. The petroleum trade is of the largest
amount and interest. From recent developments, it would
seem as if the crust of the ultra- American earth was in com
petition with our own crust, in spouting its petroleum. How
can I take a universal view of this growing question ? Europe,
Asia, Africa and America are engaged in giving light and force
out of the bowels of the earth. Since magic belongs to the East,
I must evoke some supernatural or sub-natural enginery. I
will visit the Sultan, and borrow from him the celebrated " cap
of Fortunatus," which tradition intrusts to that ruler. It is not
generally known that this wonder of our boyhood was in the cus
tody of the Sultans ; but every one knows that whoever puts
this cap on his head, and wishes to be in any part of the world,
will find himself there in a moment I am graciously favored
by His Majesty with the loan — for this chapter only — of this
invisible head-dress. I can now do more than Madame Blavat-
schi, or the other theosophites. I can not only fly, myself, to the
uttermost and innermost parts of the earth, but I can take you,
my reader, with me.
" I wish to be in America." Presto ! Here we are ! " Give
us a peep at petroleum." " Where are we?" "One moment in
New York, the next in Pittsburg!" ""What is this infernal
noise?" We are in the " Petroleum Exchange. " Hear the growl
ing of the Bears and the bellowing of the Bulls ! It is not war

WAGERS IN OIL.

155

between England and Russia. No: it is the roaring of gas and
the eruption of oil. Whenever a disturbing shock comes from
some oil-well which spouts lively or dries up speedily, what an
uproar ensues ! A is carrying bundles of this stock, and B dis
poses of his load. Values change, and stocks break with every
new discovery or disaster. Bankruptcy depends on so many more
barrels /^r day from West Virginia, and affluence from so many
less/^r day from Pennsylvania. In one day, on the Pittsburg

eaneaua
AAMENIA

KHEBAJt
MAP OF THE CASPIAN OIL REGION.
Board, the transactions include 13,000,000 barrels, and with all
the chances of rouge et noir at Monaco. This beats the feats of
the old enchanters.
In all these vicissitudes little account is taken of the 14,000
square miles in this Russian territory, in and around Baku,
whither we can " wish" ourselves in the twinkling of an eye.
Little is thought, in this desperate gambling, of the strata which
we see with enchanted eye : starting from the Crimea, under-

156 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
lying Caucasia — the land of our ancestral race and language —
and the Caspian Sea, to the vicinage of Baku, where the soil
absorbs the oil as if it were a huge sponge to be squeezed, and
where 20,000 acres alone of petroleum land have furnished 1,000,-
000 tons of oil annually. Here we are in the " Black Califor
nia," as the Russians call it, which furnishes fuel for locomotive
and steamer, and kerosene for Central Asia and Europe. The
wells are elevated, so that gravity can run the crude article into
Baku for refinement and export.
One fountain at Droojba, in September, 1883, spouted two
million gallons per day into the air 300 feet, from a depth of 574
feet, while the adjacent wells pursued their usual avocations un
disturbed. The immensity of this product does not give you an
idea of the reserve in the Caucasus. I mention these instances, as
a fact and a warning, to account for the inrush of this oil into mar
kets where once our own petroleum prevailed. No wonder the oil
sells cheaper at its source and in the neighboring countries ! There
is a large margin for profit, because of its cheapness. No won
der the market in the Turkish empire, which was once all ours, is
now divided between Russia and America!
A dissertation upon Oriental petroleum would be wanting in
the poetic and pietistic elements, if we should forget Lalla
Rookh and the Fire Worshippers. Were not the magi located at
Baku ? Was it not here that the sacred fire of Zoroaster, guarded
by the magi, burned for thousands of years ? It was only once
extinguished — at least so say the learned Mahometans — in the
month of April, a. d. 569. What happened then ? Amina, the
beautiful wife of Abdallah, for whom, when he married her, two
hundred virgins of the tribe of Koreish died of broken hearts —
then gave birth to Mahomet ! Without a pang of travail, but
with many portents, the prophet enters the world ! A celestial
light glorifies the Oriental heavens ! Lakes become dry ; the
Tigris overflows ; the palace of Persia shakes, and its towers top
ple. And more: all the idols of the world fall down ; the angels
pitch the devil into the deep sea, and the fires of Baku and the
Parsees are extinguished !
The Mahometan yet calls the enemy of his faith Giaour ; from
an Arab word, Guebir, signifying a fire-worshipper. We might
infer that the Mahometan world would not be partial to the Baku
oil, in preference to the American.

PRODIGIES IN PETROLEUM.

157

Observe, as we pass up and down the Bosporus, at the nar
rowest gateway flanked by the grand towers of Roumeli-Hissar
on the one side, and Anatoli-Hissar on the other, that row of
small houses on the Asiatic side, of uniform shape. What
are they? Nothing, in a romantic way. It is not here that
Darius crossed on his bridge of boats. It is not here that Richard
the Lion-Hearted was imprisoned. These are unhistoric, practi
cal petroleum depositories ! They are, I assure you, the archi
tectural results of much diplomacy and some selfishness.
By the regulations of Constantinople, all vessels loaded with
petroleum arriving from any quarter must anchor at this storage
d6p6t at Pacha Bagtche, which is midway between the Black
Sea and the Sea of Marmora. This depot was originally estab
lished by the Ottoman government as a measure of safety. It
was intended to prevent the accumulation of large quantities of
petroleum in the city and suburbs.
Petroleum from the United States comes mostly in Italian
sailing-vessels carrying from 12,000 to 30,000 cases. The article
from Batoum, intended for local consumption, is frequently con
veyed in small sailing-vessels carrying 500 to 1,000 cases, or a
proportionate quantity in barrels. They anchor at this depot, and
are allowed to sell their cargoes from the deck, paying no ware
house charges. If ships coming from the United States wish to
avail themselves of this privilege, they have the right to do so ;
but it would be a manifest disadvantage for them to pay demur
rage for the long period it would require to dispose of their large
cargoes. No vessels of any nationality loaded with petroleum are allowed
to discharge at the wharves of Constantinople; all, without distinc
tion, being obliged to go to the depots at Pacha Bagtche for this
purpose. These stores were, in the first instance, built by the gov
ernment, and offered few conveniences for the rapid discharge of
ships and the delivery of the petroleum for consumption. Sub
sequently, a concession was given to Samni Bey and his con
sorts to build larger and safer stores, and a wharf where vessels
could lie and discharge much more rapidly, and without the
expense of lighterage. For these additional facilities and econ
omy in time and money, the tariff for storage was increased,
which led to much discussion and correspondence. It was finally
reduced to the rate which the American Legation and the Russian

I 5 8 DIVERSIONS . OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
Embassy v/ere of opinion would be just and sufficient So it has
remained, but not with any formal consent on their part.
1 "i Boats carrying fifty cases, or fifteen barrels, convey the
petroleum to the city. Many of these boats belong to the im
porters. They are of uniform build and size. They are col
ored blue, and assist to make the water scenery of the beauti
ful strait, with its Shirket ferries, poetic caiques, antique Norse
yechts of graceful prow, and enormous Austrian and Russian
steamers a picture in both oil and water ! These azure boats
are built of iron. Only a limited quantity of petroleum is allowed
to be received in the stores in town. The capital of the land of
Kismet — where it might be supposed that predestination was a
prevalent doctrine — takes many precautions for human safety,
irrespective of the fateful genii of the Koran.
We are glad to know that there is no discrimination in Tur
key against American petroleum, whether at the depot or else
where ; at least by the Ottoman government. If any facilities
have been granted to the Russian trade which have not been
equally extended to ours, no complaint has been made at the
Consulate or Legation. Importers of the American article are suf
ficiently awake to their own interests to promptly protest against
discrimination. The greatest local obstacles of our trade in Turkey and in the
islands of the archipelago, are the frauds connected with the sale
of the American petroleum. The " Danaos," whom Virgil feared,
when bearing gifts, are generally the cunning culprits. They sub
stitute the poorer Russian article in our American boxes and
cans, and sell it for the better American. But such impositions
cannot last long. They soon find their remedy.
What a useful utensil for every purpose, here in the East, culi
nary and otherwise, is the square American tin can in which the
oil IS imported! You see it where that house is building; it holds
the water to mix the mortar. You see it in the vineyard up there
on the hill ; with it the vine-grower waters his plants. You see
it on the hillside, on the rocks, and in the meadows ; at the
" Sweet Waters " of Asia and Europe, where those gay hanoums
congregate, arrayed in their many-hued silk feridjies, to coquet
and gossip. It holds the water from which their sherbet is made.
On isle and mainland, m city and country, wherever we "wish"
ourselves, the Am'erican tin can passes current, taking the place

FOUNTAINS AND THE OIL CAN.

159

of wooden and tin buckets. I have even seen it, in its debased,
oxidized condition, used to repair fences upon the hilly turnpike,
on the road to the Sultan's palace at Yildiz. A few days ago I
saw a dozen watermen, upon the isle of Prinkipo, using it to fill
the casks upon their donkeys.
It is being used — this uncanny can — to revolutionize the taste
of the Orient, thus :
Throughout Constantinople and Turkey, the principle of life,
water, is everywhere recognized as a part of the religion of the
people. Fountains of exquisite beauty display, in gold letters on
an azure ground, along with their clear lympth, the legend of the
Koran, ' ' By water everything lives." There are public fount
ains established by individual piety, street fountains for miscel
laneous drinking, and fountains in the mosque courts for puri
fication before prayer. Some of these — as the elaborate one at
the seraglio gate — are of marble. They are finely decorated;
some are carved and colored, and some are gilded. The roof is
a series of domes. They are of all forms and sizes. They are
called "Well of Paradise," Sacred "Fountain of Mecca," or
some other poetic name. They are visited by women — who bear
the amphora of the antique world ? Oh ! no. The Ottoman
hanoum of Stamboul bears to the fountain the American petro
leum can ! She is in strange contrast with the graceful Greek
nymph of our classic fancy.
If the women of other countries would observe the mode, or
pursue the practice, of walking over rough and hilly ground, with
jars or buckets of water neatly balanced on their heads, there
would result quite an sesthetic development. More graces would
hover around their forms. The superb carriage of the Spanish,
Greek and Egyptian — I may say Oriental — women, is due to the
long-continued habitude of going, like Rachel, to the well. I
have seen such living pictures of the Nubian women as would
shame the ramshackle, stunted, awkward woman in more civilized
societies. Our artist has endeavored to make the contrast between the
ancient nymph and the modern female of the fountain. There is
not so much grace in the costume of the modern as in that of the
ancient. This is owing to the clumsy feridjie. Still, she is
erect and stately, and until she begins to carry her can by
a handle, and not upon her head, her pose will not be demoral-

l6o DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

NYMPHS OF THE FOUNTAIN. l6l
ized. But this change in our can has begun. The descend
ants of Jacob, forgetting how Rachel looked when she was wooed
and won at the well, have begun to tinker with the can. The
sketch which I present is from an oil-painting which I found
in General Cluseret's room, near Constantinople. The General,
after fighting all over the world for freedom, and after the
death of the Commune — -whose history he has just published in
Paris — was exiled from France. He then took part with the
Turk. When the big wars were over here, he turned to the easel.
The sketch of the Hebrew soldering the American can is one
of the children of his art.
Meanwhile, the world demands more light. The lamp holds
out to burn in realms that never knew aught but natural illumina
tion — a farthing dip or a little wick in a small vessel of grease. It
demands cheap illumination, which means cheap transportation ;
and if the Orient can furnish her own oil, the day is not distant when
the American article will have a limited territory for its market.
Still, as the competition grows sharp, new sources spring from
our own earth, and along with them the remarkable natural gas
which Ohio and other localities are using for every emergency of
mechanical energy and domestic life.
The figures which show the magnitude of our oil and gas
business are majestic " columns" of grandeur and pride :
Statistics show that 53,000 wells have been drilled in Penn
sylvania and New York since the discovery of petroleum, at a
cost of $200,000,000. These wells have produced 310,000,000
barrels of oil, which were sold at the wells for $500,000,000.
This represented a profit to the producer of $300,000,000.
The amount of oil exported is placed at 6,231,102,923 gallons.
In the pool in one county in western, Pennsylvania alone,
$3,200,000 has been expended in machinery and drilling. This
does not include the many millions that are represented there
in the natural gas industry. Independent of the oil business,
there is about $50,000,000 in natural gas plants in that State.
What this and other States may show when the eleventh cen
sus is taken, confounds anticipation, and distances the Caspian
and its wonders.
To what uses, besides that of light, may not this element be
dedicated ! It is already taking the place of coal. Twelve bar
rels of oil in a tank on the tender ran a Pennsylvania locomotive

1 6 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.

1 i

>^'

THE H1!BRF,W TINKERING AN AMERICAN PETROLEUM CAN.

OIL AS FUEL.

163

116 miles. The residuum of petroleum, as a substitute for coal,
is just coming into use in America. In this we are copying the
carriers of Baku. Three years ago, on the Russian railroads in
Asia, oil was used as fuel; then, a year later, its residuum; then
it fired up the 300 steamboats on the Caspian and the Volga.
The use extended to Swedish and Egyptian railroads and facto
ries, at a great saving.
The refineries of Baku and the factories of Odessa gave up
English coal for the cheaper fuel. One ton of it was equal to •
two of coal. The North Caucasus Railway to Novorossisk has
opened new outlets for the marvelous factor among the forces,
and from a new field upon the Black Sea. This oil residuum has
been used upon our Pacific coast by the Central Pacific Railroad.
It saves forty per cent. The saving on the Swedish railroads is
from twenty-five to fifty per cent. This new element has hitherto
been wasted. Now, it is selling at Baku for ten cents a ton, and
it is produced there at the rate of a million tons a year. What
will the world of navigation say when, by burning it, the steam
ship which wrestles with the ocean displaces 2,500 tons of coal
with 1,000 tons of residuum, while the latter only occupies the
space of 600 tons of coal ? Will it not revolutionize the naviga
tion of the seas ?
In view of such eventualities it may not be out of place
to detail some particulars of this trade and its regulation,
together with such facts as bear upon this industry in the coun
tries of the East. While it may not be an entertaining Diversion,
it may interest the utilitarian American.
The Russian petroleum has proximity to the Turkish markets.
That is an advantage which no tariff can affect or ameliorate.
Transportation is protection pro tanto, and sometimes prohibition.
It has not yet reached the latter stage here, as against our Amer
ican product The Baku oil is not as rich as the American. So
it is said by our American traders, though vehemently disputed
by the Russians. Once, when I was spouting a littie jet of rheto
ric at the Commencement of the American (Robert) College, I
happened to say :
' ' As the olive-trees of the academy furnished their purest
oil for the victors of the Grecian festivals, so this institution
furnishes no crude article, like that from Baku, wherewith
to strengthen the wrestlers in the intellectual arena of these

1 64 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
elder lands. Under the direction of your energetic president.
Dr. Washburne, and his American associates, your lamps are filled,
and burning with the white light of the refined American article!"
My wife was sitting in the audience, next to Mme. Onou, the
accomplished wife of the Russian Chancellor of the Legation.
She quickly said, in a quick, crispy whisper :
" Ah, madame, your husband is making figures of speech,
not figures of statistics! Russia is ahead on quality, and by
nearness on quantity, and will have the market !"
"How did Mrs. Cox reply?" In French, of course. Is it
not the language of diplomacy? "But what did she say?"
She passed it off lightly, as became the subject and the occasion.
Madame Onou to the contrary, notwithstanding, I think that
the Baku article contains only thirty-five per cent, to our sixty-
five or seventy. Therefore, if I am correct, the Russian will be
used mostly for lubricating purposes. But there is room for
doubt, because its low price, its unlimited quantity, its cheapness
of transportation, and its new refining processes, now being
adapted from the American, are attracting attention from the
enterprising capital of Sweden, Germany and Russia.
The magnitude of the business at Baku may glut these
Turkish markets, if not others ; and unless the "Standard" and
other companies either risk and make losses to " hold their own,"
or buy out Baku physically, from the nadir, whence comes the oil,
to the zenith toward which it spouts, America may have to open
fresh wells of petroleum, seek new fields for her business, or go
into liquidation.
A London journal has a correspondent at St Petersburg, who
places the total quantity of raw naphtha pumped or received
from the Baku wells at 2,000,000 tons for 1885 — that is 400,-
000,000 gallons. Of this, 500,000 tons of kerosene have been
distilled, and sent from Baku alone. Two-thirds of this goes into
the many-mouthed Volga, at Astrakhan, upon flotillas, which are
fed and propelled by the oil that they carry in their tanks.
Although the Volga is shallow, the boats are made to suit the
navigation. Passing the shoals, they run to their depots at
Tzaritzin, Kazan, Nijni, and Reybinsk. The Volga, at the first-
named place, is not far from the Don. By many highways and
byways, by rail and cistern-wagons, the product is distributed
to all parts of Russia, to the Baltic ports, and thence to other

OIL STATISTICS OF BAKU. 1 65
lands. Hamburg is already a grand depot for the Russian petro
leum, with refineries at Riga and elsewhere. This is a rival of no
mean proportions. It would be vain to ignore it. The oil is sent
in bulk. No casks are used except to foreign ports. It is thought
that cistern-vessels will soon be used to run the oil across seas.
One-third of this Baku product goes through Batoum — a free port
no more. It goes by rail to the Black Sea, thence it reaches the
Danube. It finds welcome at Odessa, Constantinople and Mar
seilles ; and, via the Suez Canal, it is on its way to the extremest
East. The petroleum people at Baku cannot expect to be above the
peril of bankruptcy, until they complete the construction of their
pipe-line from the Caspian to the Black Sea. This they will do
in time. Nevertheless, the exportation from Baku is increasing.
The improved methods of carriage and refining have enlarged
the importation from one hundred and sixty millions of gallons
in 1885, to three hundred and seventy-seven million gallons in
1886. Since 1883 it has increased fivefold.
" Naphtha is a great desideratum among people where the for
ests above ground have been destroyed, and where the forests
which have been carbonized for millions of years beneath ground
have not yet been developed."
Yes, I thoroughly agree with the statement. Italy and other
countries are studying closely the Russian naphtha industry. I
should not be surprised to see the Italian Navy, as a conse
quence of the reports from Baku, substitute naphtha for coal.
But this will not be done until the pipe-line has been constructed
and the burning of the article becomes less dangerous.
Would my reader know how much petroleum comes to this port
of Constantinople and the Mediterranean from Baku ? I have here
a statement from the ist of January to the 30th of September,
1885. It is as follows : In Italian vessels, 6,334 tons ; in Austrian
vessels, 3,747 tons; and in Greek vessels, 3,173 tons — .being a
total of r3,254 tons.
Upon the application of our Consul-General here, Mr. Heap,
the Russian Consul-General did not consider it expedient to
inform him of the quantity of oil exported under their flag from
Batoum during that period, so that the statement given is incom
plete. It would be safe to add at least 33 per cent to the amount
furnished by the other three Consulates — Italian, Austrian and

1 66 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Greek. Most of the petroleum arriving here from Batoum in
Russian vessels is intended for consumption in this market. That
exported in Italian, Austrian and Greek vessels is about equally
divided between this and Mediterranean ports. There were 256,-
870 cases of petroleum imported from the United States in 1885.
The wholesale price of American petroleum is generally from 3
to 4 piastres (13 to 18 cents) per case higher than the Russian.
"When and where was petroleum first discovered? What is
its antiquity and history ? ' '
Petroleum is not by any means peculiar to our time or to
America. It is as old as the earth, and its development antedates
the "Cities of the Plain." That it should be found in Asia was
not a surprise. That it should be found in such quantities and
so easy of transit on the Caspian and Black seas was surprising
to our speculators. That it was recently found on the Red Sea
in Egypt ought not to have surprised anyone. The wells near
Jebel Zeit, on that coast, 170 miles south of Suez, were reported
upon by M. Petit, a French civil engineer, at the request of
Nubar Pasha, the Prime Minister, as early as 1883, with speci
mens and analysis. Much money was then spent to develop the
sulphur and oil enterprises at this point, under the Bassano con
cession. It had a steamer and a syndicate, but it failed : first,
because of the intolerable climate ; second, for lack of water,
and, third, because of remoteness of provisions. In other words,
even the cheap Arab labor of those parts could not over
come the local and climatic disadvantages. In September,
1884, a Belgian mining engineer, M. Debay, was sent there to
report. He gave favorable accounts. Under his direction, thirty
skilled Belgian workmen were sent to the place. Finding neither
vegetation, habitation nor water, his little colony had a harsh
time. He, however, bored away until February, 1885, just
before his contract expired. Then suddenly the oil rose two
metres, or more than seventy-nine and one-half inches above the
sea-level. This led to the latest exploration, in which Egypt
speculated largely in connection with her debts and resources.
Now it is thought that the new appliances for pumping and
the better organization of the industry may overcome the former
obstacles. When I was in Egypt, in March, 1886, rumors were
rife of the extraordinary yield from these Jebel wells ; but they
have not been realized, or, if realized, published. There seems

EGYPTIAN PE TROLEUM. 1 6 7
to be a lull in the bruit by which they were heralded. The son
of the premier, Nubar Pasha, together with other engineers,
including an American friend, Mr. Mitchell, a geologist, whom I
met at Cairo, returned from an expedition to the " suspected "
spots on the 2 2d of March. They reported that petroleum
undoubtedly exists ; that the geological formation of the country
is favorable to the existence of larger quantities at lower depths ;
that the store of oil is generally distributed over a large area in
the neighborhood ; that under existing unfavorable conditions a
single source yields about two tons daily ; that the specific
gravity is 88, and that the spot is easily accessible from the coast,
where there is good anchorage.
There are many other evidences in the East of the existence
of petroleum. The late engineer of the government works at
Cairo, Mr. Garwood, in a letter which I have seen, suggested to
those who are interested in Egyptian petroleum to make a diligent
search in the neighborhood of the Helouan sulphur baths. They
are about twenty miles from Cairo, or in the wady, or valley,
near the petrified forest, about the same distance from Cairo.
Oil may be struck, and then worked at a far more remunerative
figure than it ever will be from Jebel Zeit.
"Was it from some long since disused source at Helouan
that the mummy-cloths, saturated with petroleum, were prepared
for those who found a last resting-place in the necropolis of
Memphis, which is not a great distance from Helouan ? ' '
This query indicates that preparation of the dead for their
immortalization on earth must have called into ancient use
petroleum in some of its forms for this pious purpose.
What possibilities or probabilities there may be in the Orient
for the production of petroleum are not yet fully ascertained.
They are in the region of conjecture. An intelligent writer from
the northeast corner of the Mediterranean, pictured in a Stam
boul journal the other day the opulence of that district of
Cilicia, as well in mines of coal, silver, copper, iron and galena
as, probably, in petroleum. A railroad has been in part made
to Mersina, the port of Tarsus— Paul's old city of education.
The rivers on that coast I have visited. The coast on the south
shore and west of the Gulf of Iskanderoon, as I bear witness, is
low, with lakes and rivers where lighters or boats can be used.
Here was once the garden of the world, which had in its circuit

1 68 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
such cities as Aleppo, Antioch and Tarsus. It is surrounded
by splendid mountain ranges. It produces wool, madder, gums,
skins, berries and wheat. These seek, even over bad roads, by
donkeys, camels and carts, exportation to the ports of Europe
and Turkey. Nor is it marvelous that signs of petroleum should
here exist. Perhaps these are surer signs than those of Jebel
Zeit, on the Red Sea. Time will tell. There is near by Tarsus a
stream of mineral water flowing from the cavity of a limestone
rock. It is rank with the smell of bitumen. The soil over which
it passes is dark. It is called "Itch water," for the natives who
have that disease cover themselves with the black muck and get
cured in a brief time. This system is commended for use on the
Argyle estate.
This stream is only three hours' ride from Tarsus. Who
knows that Tarsus may not again come to the front, dropping
the scales from its sightless eyes, and under a new light and less
itching give some trouble to our Pennsylvania, Ohio and West
Virginia proprietors, if not to those of Jebel Zeit or Baku !
For the present Baku holds the lead in the East. It is spring
ing into immense importance, like its sister city Batoum, under
oily and Slavonic auspices. Although the sacred fire is not now
worshipped there, oil is. It permeates all social and physical life.
Even the rubles are greasy. The dry streets are dampened with
the naphtha. You shake a man by the hand ; your grip slips
before the cordiality is expressed. Oil is talked day and night —
at the hearth where it cooks the meal, and at the coffee-house
where it is wagered. The steppes about the city are arid, but
under them lie countless millions in the sunless lakes. The city
is improving under these lubricities. Gardens and parks are sup
planting the blackness with which the town was painted by the
subtle element The old palace of the Khan, and the winding,
narrow streets, the strange Persian Moslem women and men, and
other features of old Baku, no longer attract the tourist He goes
to see oil spout It is oil, oil everywhere.
Baku is situated on a little bay upon the west coast of the
Caspian. It has already 75,000 people ; for its growth is un
rivaled in the East. Its railroad crosses a mountain 3,200 feet
high, called Songame. This trans-Caucasian railway is 561^^
miles long. It runs by way of the superb city of Tiflis, and
affords the tourist a view of the grand scenery of that mountain-

THE STAR IN THE EAST.

169

land of our earliest progenitors. Its western terminus is at Ba
toum. Batoum is therefore the entrepot of the great trade of the
Caucasus, and much of the trade of the Caspian and beyond
The waters of the Volga, which have their confluents almost
from Arctic regions and empty at Astrakhan, with the Caspian
for their outlet, the Don and Dnieper, the ancient Tanais and
Borysthenes, as well as the Danube — all are by the railroad con
nection made to swell the importance, commercial and strategical,
of Baku, this new-born Oil City of Asia.
Eastward the star of empire takes its way. It follows the
rails en route to India. This iron way has a greater function than
carrying oil for Russia or for English traffic to and from India.
Although it is, when made, to have a longer reach — say 1,122
miles to Libi, the first railroad station in India — still it is the old
route described by Pliny, from Cabul to India. It overleaps the
Hindoo-Koosh, extends westwardly to the Oxus, near Balkh, and
thence down the' Oxus to the Caspian. Once on the Caspian, the
traffic which enters at Baku, as things are ordered, will," at
Batoum, be under Russian control. Not far from Baku, on the
trans-Caucasian railroad, the river Aras joins the Kour. From
this point — say at Adji-Cabul junction — the future railroad will
proceed to Teheran via Resht. The country is rich in petroleum
and in soil. Altogether it will not be more than 550 miles from
Adji to Teheran. This would bring Persia into the world.
These routes have been surveyed, and have undergone much
discussion. The Russians contemplate a great central Asian
railroad. It is to connect their commercial and especially their
military communications. The Standard oil agent, who was here
on the way to and from Baku, told me that it was impossible for
the outside world to know the grandeur of the scale by which
Russia is pushing her military power into the heart of Asia.
Troops he saw by the thousands, of which no journal or corre
spondent takes notice. They are on the constant advance. The
Caucasian railway was built for troops and their transportation.
The railroad now building from the Caspian to Tashkend will
run 1,100 miles farther toward sunrise It points unmistakably'
to the sealed wonderiand of Thibet, toward which the English
are pushing their so-called peaceful embassy {a la Burmah, I
suppose) under Macaulay and his commercial travelers.
To make these connections profitable the Russian governmept

170

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

subsidizes. She is making a new Caspian port at Mikhailoffsky,
to overcome the shallowness of the present harbor and give access
to vessels of large tonnage, and to economize in the cost of reship-
ment. Money and time are lavished for the magnificence and
munificence of Russia in aggrandizing her interests, martial and
commercial, on the Caspian. In all probability Persia will become
a mere dependency, soon to be bound hand and foot to the car
of the autocrat, whose splendid visions of an almost universal
empire are fast being realized in these seats and lands of ancient
renown. " But what connection has this with petroleum ? " Quite as
much as to-day has with to-morrow. It is the prelude of great
events. To-morrow — "new style," the 17th of July, or "old
style," the 4th of July — Batoum ceases to be a free port
After that date all merchandise arriving there pays the usual
duties levied in all Russian ports.
" Well, what of this ? What is its meaning ? What is it to us ? "
The Fourth of July is not a good day to place restraints on
freedom, even in Russian " style." This restraint is not merely
an economic measure. It is not intended altogether to check
smuggling or to collect revenue. Nor is it, as Russia says, an
advantage to the naphtha trade merely, or to the merchants of
Baku and its vicinity. It is a deliberate act of Russia in deroga
tion of the fifty-ninth article of the Berlin treaty. This article
was made on the urgency of Bismarck and Disraeli to avert war.
Although insignificant in itself, it may be the cloud, " no bigger
than a man's hand," charged with electricity to set not only
diplomacy to buzzing, but Krupp to booming. On the horizon
it seems like summer lightning ; but it may be charged with a
thunderbolt. What, after all, and in view of recent developments,
is the Berlin treaty to Russia, or to the Powers ? An elastic
string to be stretched by the strongest !
When I was first in the Orient, Batoum was known as a petty
port, and safe in the wintry weather for quite a number of ships.
It had a bazaar, it had some co'ffee-houses, a khan, or tavern,
some few private houses, and a mosque, all built of wood. It
was then in Turkish territory, but near the boundary. Its people
belonged to the Georgian branch of the Caucaso-Thibetan race
It was coveted by Russia ; but it was nobly defended against her.
It was, however, acquired by Russia in 1878, not by conquest.

BA TOUM AND THE BERLIN TREA TY. ^ 7 j
but by treaty, and on certain conditions. It is near the ancient
seats of Grecian and Roman, and later, of Genoese adventure and
commerce. It is the readiest point of communication with Persia
Georgia and Armenia. Although it can never be the rival of
Erzeroum, with its half-million of souls and immense traffic, yet
with the railroad terminus and the oil trade it bids fair to be
quite a rival, not only in Eastern trade, but in our own petroleum
business. Under Russian auspices, in some measure, it is
already the rival of Samsoun, a southern Turkish port, and of
Trebizond, a southeastern Turkish port on the Black Sea.
By the Beriin treaty of 1878 Russia acquired Batoum. It is
not a sanitarium, for fevers are there. But, notwithstanding,
Russia quietly went to work to fortify it as soon as she acquired
it. She fortified without protest Turkey was not in a condition
to protest. The other Powers were oblivious or careless. The
fortification was accomplished. It was a part of the plan of resur
recting the old Russian naval power on the Black Sea.
It was followed by a defiant destruction of a clause of
the Berlin treaty. That clause, the 59th, made the cession
of Batoum to Russia dependent on its being a free port.
Russia declares, upon her own responsibility, without deigning
to consult the other six " signatories '' to the treaty, that Batoum
must change its commercial character, and be a Russian city,
under Russian tariffs and exactions. It is due to truth to say
that the Russian government does not pretend to justify its noti
fication about the free port of Batoum on the ground of the faith
of treaties ; she places the matter on the ground of commercial
convenience and interest.
The railway over the Caucasus, and the trade between England
and Persia, she contends, have altered the circumstances, and,
therefore, she no longer uses Batoum as her emporium. Besides,
the oil interest demands thai Batoum should no longer be free.
But will the oil men relish an edict which adds to their burdens a
customs tax on their machinery ?
Suppose that this does not affect Turkish trade ; suppose
France, Austria and Germany, and even Italy, do stand indifferent,
saying that this is too small a thing about which to risk a quarrel ;
suppose England is left without an ally among the " signatories,"
and that the fortification is comxplete — what does Russia care for
English or possible Italian protests ? Neariy all of the trade of

172

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

Batoum that is not Italian and Turkish is EngUsh. If England
can afford to lose this trifling traffic and stand the manifestation
of Russian b^d humor, and observe with serenity the exaltation
of the Slavonic element, can she sit still while Russia is seeking
to flank and outmanoeuvre her in Asia ?
Should these Russian demonstrations in the Black Sea, as at
the Crimea and Batoum, be more than a mere coup de thMtre,
the Black Sea will become a Russian lake. If this new movement
be only a matter of trade or chagrin, the next time Russia
makes war on Turkey, the latter will find a chain of naval stations
and forts from Odessa all around to Batoum. In that case,
before the English or allied fleets could enter the Dardanelles
another Russian army corps might dictate near Constantinople a
new and more permanent treaty than that of San Stefano.
Constantinople might then see the Cross over St. Sophia.
One feature of the negotiations on this head is, that if the
reasons for declaring Batoum free no longer exist, and if the forti
fications are to remain at Batoum, why may not other clauses of
the Berlin treaty be abrogated by other parties ? Why may not
Bulgaria become independent and annex East Roumelia, irrespect
ive of treaties ? Why may not England and other Powers be
relieved of their obligation, conditioned on this cession of Batoum
to Russia, and enter the Straits at their will and pleasure?
If I should say that the prominent question of the East is
one of grammar ; that it concerns the power of expression in the
Anglo-Saxon language ; that the thesaurus of our language and
the history of philology have had their scientific interest in the
question, and their sources of verbal manufacture in and around
the lands of which this new contest is the focus — the answer would
be challenged as rather remote. But if we must go to Rome
and Greece for the origin of our language, this discussion takes
us still farther East. It takes us to Xh&fons et origo of the Teu
tonic tongues. It takes us to the Caspian, and gives an idea of
the antiquity and mosiac qualities of our wonderful language.
The contest for Batoum and its connections takes us by rail to
Baku, and from Baku to the inner sanctuary of our language. If
we go to Armenia, in fancy, for the Garden of Eden, we may
more surely go to the Caucasus and the Caspian for the ancestral
consanguinity of our own tongue and its relatives. Grammarians
have in the last analysis divided the languages of our earth into

OUR CA UCASIAN ANCESTRY. i 7 -.
three great tribes. The most important to us of these three is
what is known as the Indo-European, or Indo-Germanic. This
includes many stocks, and among them the Saxon and Celt, who
gently lie down together in linguistic love. How is this proven ?
By the words common to the various tongues. The words most
familiar to our own tongue belong to a mountainous country, a
cold climate and a tideless sea.
These terms fulfill the conditions which point to the vicinity of
the Caspian and the Caucasus. Philosophy, history, philology
and tradition here agree. Besides, these tongues of the Indo-Euro
pean stock have no original words which signify their genesis in
a different country. It is ascertained beyond a doubt that there
are affinities between our own language and the languages of this
interesting Caucasian land and Caspian Sea. The oldest dialects
once spoken there are akin to our own. For instance, the Zend is
the oldest in use; then comes the Pehlvi, and then the modern Per
sian. It is shown, in examining certain roots of our own words,
that 57 Zend, 43 Pehlvi, and 162 modern Persian are allied to
Saxon roots.
Is it not one of the eccentricities of this reflux wave of language
and civilization, that the Indo-European people are pushing their
adventures for knowledge and business into these early centres of
historic interest ?
" Old Persia ! New Persia ! " exclaims Marvin, summing
up the situation. " What visions they conjure up of the exten
sion of the White Czar's dominions toward the British empire !
Persia, a mere khanate, dependent for its existence upon the nod
of the empire of Russia ! If the rocks at Baku could speak, what
tales they could tell the slovenly slippered Persians loafing about
the bazaars, under the eye of the bearded, heavy-booted Russian
policeman, of ihe great creed and great empire of their ancestors !
Once upon a time these Persians of the elder time resorted to the
Surakhani altars to thank the great fire god — Petroleum — that they
were not as other people; poor, cowardly, oppressed creatures now,
but once warriors and statesmen, from Delhi to Constantinople."
Persia will be nothing between the upper mill-stone of Russia
and the lower one of Great Britain !
Yon waste where roaming lions howl.
Yon aisle where moans the gray-eyed owl,
¦Was once the proud Persian's great abode.

174

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

Thus anathematizing Russia for her aggrandizement. Great
Britain for her tame acquiescence, and Persia for its rotten-ripe
condition, Marvin preaches a sermon and makes a prophecy from
the oleaginous rocks of Baku. These are the rocks upon which
English power in the East will split.
The Russians will be the element in the great Caspian region;
" while," as Marvin prophesies, " a mere handful of white faces will
be all that will represent English suzerainty at Benares and Alla
habad ; Merv will be a busy Russian mart, another Kazan or Oren-
borg ; and Baku, with a population of half a million or more of
Russians, the all-powerful metropolis of the Caspian."
While I am not aware that these dynastic and imperial
prophecies concern us Americans greatly, still, their fulfillment, in
a business point of view, does affect us in an article which is the
fourth in values in the catalogue of our imports. It is in vain,
therefore, for us to seem indifferent to these ratiocinations and
revelations as to the Caspian future. True, they were made by a
journalist three years ago ; but to-day, the world of diplomacy
here and elsewhere is ringing its wild changes and charges upon
one remarkable transformation scene on the Black and Caspian
seas. Russia deliberately, before the eyes of Europe, tears up the
Berlin treaty. After her staunch defense of it in the East Roume-
lian imbroglio, from one motive or another she gives formal notice to
the signatory powers that Batoum shall be no longer free but
Russian ! As these strange shadows are cast by this old Light of
Asia into the dreams of empire and the paths of commerce, I
turn down my argand lamp, and bid my readers " Good Night."

CHAPTER XVI.
CHARACTERISTICS OF RACES AND CLASSES IN TURKEY.
The costume of the Turk has changed very much in what I
may call my own time — since 185 1 — especially the head-gear. So
have his characteristics. The Turks, and all subjects of Turkey
who are not Mussulmans, wear a red fez with a black silk tassel.
It is shaped like an ordinary tumbler. It is never removed
except on going to bed. Then the old-fashioned white cotton
cap takes its place. Some of the subjects of the Porte wear a
black fez. There are grades of color in the red fez. But from
the Sultan down to the mendicant in the street, the red fez is a
sign of a rayah, or subject. It is not so much a sign of his
religion as the turban is. The turban covers the old conservative,
the iron-clad, the moss-back, dyed-in-the-wool Mussulman ; and
the larger the turban the tougher and more venerable the devotee.
The fez is sometimes called a tai-bouche, especially in Egypt. It
is customary for the old-fashioned Mussulman to wrap several
yards of muslin around the fez, and the more voluminous the
head-gear the more pious its wearer.
It was not without an effort that the two or three preceding
Sultans were enabled to change the street dress of the people,
and substitute the fez for the turban, or the shoe for the slipper
or baboosh. It was a long time before other ancient Moslem ways
were eliminated. Even yet, a walk through Stamboul proper
shows that the blood of the ancient Ottoman still stirs beneath its
European investment.
The Turks have no very marked vices ; no catalogue can be
made of them. The worst they do is hidden from the other
people who reside among them. The Koran forbids them to play
cards for money, and they observe the Koran. It commands
them not to quarrel and fight, and they are scarcely ever arrested,
like the burly Englishman, for contesting with fist or foot in the

I 76 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
street. They never blaspheme. There are few cases of murder
among them. They are too honest to be thieves. They do not
regard poverty as a reproach, much less as a crime.
It is the custom of those who pretend to be the censors of
morals, to speak of the lack of progressive sagacity of the Otto
mans. They are called barbaric ; and every dastardly act or
crime committed by the Christians of the Orient — I mean the
Greeks, the Italians, the foreigners who reside in the Turkish
dominion — is attributed to the Turk. But I assert that those
nations who imagine themselves to be very high in the scale of
advancement have much of democratic-republican liberty to learn
from a nation which gives every one a fair field of enterprise, and
opens to the humblest bootblack the office of the Grand Vizier.
Moreover, when it is said that the courts of administration tend
to cruel oppression, especially upon the peasantry, it will be
found that in the main this is not true ; and where cases of
wrong do occur, they can generally be traced directly to the ill-
conduct of the Governors, who are often of another race than
the Turkish.
It has always been the case in the East, that there has been an
immense amount of corruption. It is not necessary to apologize for
it ; and those countries whose criminal calendars are choked with
vile murders and burglaries and wife -beatings, and marital infeli
cities and infidelities, and whose language is brutal and whose
insults are coarse, are not the nations who should throw stones
at the Turkish people. The divorce courts of Berlin, Paris and
London give us revelations which the worst that we can imagine of
the harem cannot equal in sickening detail.
A French writer, in comparing the Turkish with other peoples,
praises their justice, impartiality and religious tolerance, and com
mends the simplicity of their organization, the rapidity of their
executive work, the facility of their resources, the absence of
"red-tape," and the informalities of their prompt action.
There is much habitual simplicity in the Orient, Out of
this habit springs their hospitahty, which is unbounded ; and hos
pitality is but another name for unworidliness. Some years ago,
in one of the remote Arabian provinces of the empire, there was
some gold coinage put into circulation. The people had never
seen it before. They did not like it They preferred the old
white shekels of the fathers ; and a Yankee captain who came

QUALITIES OF THE TURK. I -jj
along that coast, drove a thriving business by trading off old silver
coin for gold coins of equal size.
Judging by the thousands of soldiers whom I saw after the
emeute in Bulgaria in 1885, and by the physique and robustness
of those who, every Friday, pass our Legation on their way to the
Salemlik, I think that the average Turk is in a contented and
healthy state. He shows an equable temper and a regular life. His
religious observances and grave countenance give to his habitual
reserve, not merely the outward sign, but the inward kindness
joined with an easy manner. Suppose he has the love of ease ;
suppose he is deficient in our ethics and education ; suppose his
mental faculties are not fully developed and sophisticated ; sup
pose he does loll upon a divan and pass the time with his guests
in talking of indifferent things ; suppose he is content with his
chibouque and coffee, his mosque, bath and repetitious prayers, his
game of chess or backgammon ; suppose he is eager to listen to
the old tales, proverbs and parables, or revels in the enjoyment of
his astrologies and his pilaf — it may be said of him, that when he
comes down to work as a mechanic or merchant, he is honest and
fair in his labor and dealings. As a farmer he serenely plows his
fields and reaps his harvests, amid the vicissitudes of his lot and
his trials with the tax-gatherer. At home he is a model of
domestic tenderness toward his family, and loyal to his sovereign
and religion. In summing up his character, the qualities of
patience, candor, contentment and resignation are conspic
uous beyond those of any other race upon the footstool. If the
religion of the Koran pervades every act of his life, and mixes
with his every occupation ; if his prayer, by its frequent dropping
wears away the stoniness of his heart, still he preserves the
refinement and hospitality that belong to the Orient. He will give
to his guests all that he has — " eggs, fruit, coffee, bread, fish,
honey with Scio wine, and all for love, not money."
While here as Minister, I received letters from many parts
of the United States, inquiring whether Turkey has not set an
example in regard to the " prohibition " of ardent spirits. The
answer is : that the Turk, under the law of Mahomet, does
not drink himself nor sell spirituous liquors. I do not accept the
report that there is a taste for drink spreading among the Turks,
or even among the Arabs. I do not believe in the existence of the
dissipated Mahometan, as a rule. The rakee-bibbing Turk is not a

I 78 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
character to be suppressed by statute, because he does not exist
Perhaps a little spirituous liquor discreetly imbibed might
stir the Turk into more activity. ' This might be tolerated,
even if the beads on the beaker's brim brought him into more
frequent conversation with the bibulous Christian. It might
elucidate things hidden in connection with Eastern faith, or those
hidden caves of wealth which require only a bottle of rosoglio
to inspire the magic words, " Open sesame ! " The lamp of
Aladdin, in the absence of American or Baku naphtha, might burn
brighter if fed with a little alcohol. It is something to the
credit of the Turk, and certainly to the discredit of other
races in Turkey, that when one of their own kith, or a Greek
or Armenian, gets drunk and goes staggering around at the
festivities, he is, in the Eastern phraseology, considered drunk,
a la Franka.
The Turk is not the same in personal appearance as his ances
tors in Central Asia. The Parthians who antagonized the
Romans, and the Kurds who harassed Xenophon and his ten
thousand Greeks, have descendants who are still ferocious ; but
the Turk corresponds more nearly with the European than with
the Asiatic type, because of his inheritance of Caucasian blood
from the maternal line of Georgia or Circassia — which is the
bluest of the European stock.
One of the offices performed by the head of a Turkish house
hold is the bringing on his return home, every evening, an
offering to his family. You pass in the streets of Pera and
Stamboul, toward the going down of the sun, at every turn, a Turk
going to his house, but always full-handed. He carries a gift,
no matter how trifling : it may be a cluster of grapes, a box of
sweetmeats or fig paste, or a fish, or some fruit or vegetable.
This offering is always made to his penates. If for a day he
should omit it without explanation, the females of the harem
would be apt to infer that a divorce was impending. There is
something very beautiful about this custom. It is not limited to
the household. When we left Egypt to return to Constantinople,
the wife of the Turkish High Commissioner, Ghazi Moukhtar
Pasha, sent us a present of rare fruit, including pineapples. They
were not only done up in a shining white napkin, but the napkin
itself was covered with a rare purple silk handkerchief. The
latter still remains as a souvenir of the signal courtesy of this

TURKISH GENTLENESS.

179

estimable family into whose harem my wife had the pleasure of
an entrde. Notwithstanding the lapse of time, the fragrance of
that pineapple still hangs around the elegant fabric in which the
fruit was ensconced.
Among other qualities to be mentioned, is the unselfish kind
liness with which the Turks treat their superiors and inferiors.
They illustrate, in their daily observance, what Sir Thomas More
has said so pithily: " To be humble to superiors is duty; to equals,
IS courtesy ; to inferiors, nobleness ; and to all, safety." This is

A BULGARIAN WOMAN.

both gentle and wise. Therefore the Golden Rule is not con
sidered a mere form by them : it is practically illustrated. The
richest defers to the poorest. Women and children and the weak
receive protection in every emergency. Parents are reverenced
by sons, and all the agreeable elements which belong to hospital
ity find abundant illustration.
When the traveled Turk returns from a Western trip, he still
retains, or expects to retain, his pride as to the nature and situa
tion of his own people and their splendid capital. This is not

l8o DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
surprising to me. The morals of Western civilization appear
loose to the austere followers of Mahometanism. They cannot
understand how our women can be good mothers and faithful
wives. They think vanity is at the bottom of all their display,
and that the desire of pleasing others than their own, is the inspira
tion of their desire to shine in unveiled social life.
Certainly a people like the Turks cannot be far aloof from the
best instincts and moralities of our nature. They love rural scenery.
They seek beautiful spots for the festival and home. They like
commanding points in a landscape. Their kiosks, vineyards and
flower-beds are in the favored nooks. They love to drink in the
balmy air and bright prospect. Their happiness consists greatly in
that natural joyance which is the essence of country Hfe.
These are some of the salient features of this race, which once
horrified mankind, and which occasionally still startles them, under
fierce provocation. Like the pirates and vikings of Norseland,
they have been much modified by time and circumstance.
They are surrounded by other races and peculiar classes, some
of whom deserve a photographic script These are the Greeks,
Armenians, Franks, Kurds, Persians, Bulgarians, Circassians and
the Slavs, including the Montenegrin, and the Albanian, or Croat
The Jews deserve a separate chapter. They are " chosen " for
that purpose.
I have often been struck with the fact that while the men of
these various races are shrewd, money-getting merchants — active
in all the various phases of life — they pay little attention either
to literature or science. There is but one artist known among
the Turks, and he gives his time mostly to the Museum near the
Porte. It is very difficult, in such a community, to keep up an
interest, either in the theatre or the opera. Our conclusion is, that
the land of the Greek, the land of the Garden of Paradise, which
fancy locates in Armenia, the land of Assyrian, Judean and classic
interest, has not so many of those active and gentle amenities
which add to the social life of the West many of its alluring,
elevating, comforting and instructive features.
The Greeks have one vulnerable spot. Otherwise they might
conquer the Orient, as they did in earlier days. They are, in
this, like Achilles ; but the spot is in the heart, not in the heel.
It is infidelity toward each other. They are jealous of one
another. They are perpetually quarreling about ascendancy.

COMPOSITE RA CES. 1 8 I
Social ties and individual friendships give way before their quar
rels. Even at Fanar, where their religion seems to be con
centred, there seems to be more or less of discontent.
I have said that there is little of what we call social life in
Turkey. The Turks encourage none ; for no outsider can visit
them at their homes. The various Christian churches and sects
are often in collision, and at the best the sympathy which should
belong to such institutions does not exist to a great extent. The
Christian population, which is mostly Greek, are not particularly
attached to one another, for they are, many of them, " shoddy "
people. There are among them many millionaires. They have
made their money quickly, either in cotton or on the Bourse.
They are looked down upon by the old Phanariot Greek families,
who are blue-blooded, and petted by their Turkish rulers, in
whose service most of them are proud to be engaged.
It is often very difficult to distinguish a Jew, an Armenian, a
Turk or a Greek, one from the other. To do so you must be very
observant You want to know the man first. The genteel
haughtiness of the Turk will soon enable you to tell that the man
whom you are addressing has not the cunning subtleness of the
Greek. His manner distinguishes him from the Albanian, Jew
or Arab. The Armenians are the sharpest people in the world.
They are the Yankees of the Orient, with much additional acute-
ness. They are divided, also ; some, as will appear, lean to the
Catholic faith, and some to their own Church ; and both away
from the Greek orthodoxy.
The Levantines — the descendants of the French, Italian, Ger
man and other settlers of European origin — are also among the
shrewdest of people. They are a class by themselves, and mingle
very littie with the Greeks or the Armenians.
It is a mooted question as to which race is paramount for
sharpness, or, as we call it, smartness. I will not attempt to de
bate that question. Certainly, the Turkish is not the one, although
it is the ruling power. The Frank or Levantine is not the one;
nor the Greek, nor the Jew It is a common saying, and likely
has some basis of fact : that it takes the wit of four Turks to
over-reach one Frank ; two Franks to cheat one Greek ; two
Greeks to cheat one Jew ; and six Jews to cheat one Armenian ;
but when the Persian, the Kurd and the Croat, the Dervish,

l82

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

the Gypsy, the Eunuch and hamal, which we have endeavored to
photograph, come into view, the Armenian will take the prize.
Whether it is from lack of conscience, or because he has more en
terprise, or because he has been thrown, like the Hebrew, on his
own resources in his wanderings from his native land — it is cer
tain that wherever he is, whether as the Prime Minister of Egypt,
or Secretary of the Treasury in America— I mean Governor
Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, of Armenian-Hungarian descent— the
shrewdness of this race gives them grace, humor, eloquence,

ALBANIAN IN COSTUME.
genius, and above all, intrepidity in self-seeking, or, in one word,
smartness. The Armenians have never been intimidated by
threats, and therefore they are successful.
The hamal is generally an Armenian. To see him moving
with dignified Samsonian strength and stride, amidst the various
pen-venders, sugar-mongers and obscure menders of things,
who howl all the day about their wares or trades, is one of
the interesting sights — if not sounds — of the Metropolis. He wears
a loose gray jacket with white sleeves, gray gaiters and red belt.

MIXED RACES.

l8^

He carries fabulous loads upon his shoulders. I have seen him
carry pianos, and even carriages, up-hill on his back. One needs
to observe a hamal going up the hill of Pera, to understand what
the Bible means in its Oriental metaphor, when it says, " Bear ye
one another' sburdens." When his fete day comes along, a high and
festive time results. He makes strange music with an old pipe, and
dances along the streets of Pera as an elephant amidst crockery.
The great body of the Jews are wily, and very difficult to catch

CIRCASSIANS.

in a trade. The Greeks are always more or less timid. The
Levantine is anything you please, for he has no nation. The les
sons of the Koran seem to have made the Turk the best of the pop
ulations which he governs and by which he is surrounded. What he
would be if he belonged to a subjugated people under Christian
despotism, is another and, to be hoped, improbable question.
The Bulgarian is generally described as an honest, hard work
ing, but rather slow and stupid laborer or peasant The ferocity

184 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
attributed to his character is denied — it can be justly denied of
late years — but according to history in the Middle Ages, nothing
was comparable to the outrages of which the Bulgarian was
capable. Now, he is considered too tame — by some, too domestic
and sober. He is the demure head of a family, which enjoys its
dance on the common ; or a peasant faithful to his work in the
fields, or joyous at the rose harvest beneath the Balkans. He
has not, as a rule, been subject to much instruction. His demon
strative faculty is feeble. It is of the peasant I speak, not the '
upper classes.
Recent events have demonstrated that the Bulgarian has much
conservatism to the square inch. The whole people are pos
sessed of a patience in their enthusiasm, not to be compared
with any other nation which has struggled, or is struggling, to be
free. Those who are not prejudiced, and who have visited Bul
garia, say that a more uninviting race on casual acquaintance
than its peasantry hardly exists. What better could be expected
of a subjugated people ? Centuries of oppression, extortion, mis
rule and injustice will go fair to deaden, in any race, the sense of
manly independence and courage, and to replace these virtues
with cunning and duplicity.
The Bulgarian is, as a race, gifted with honesty, sincerity and
economy. He is quiet and peaceful, not caring much for the dog
mas of the Church, but independent enough to separate both from
the Greek Church in Russia and the Greek Patriarch in Constan
tinople. Our American College on the Bosporus has vindicated
his intellectual stamina, for, in its curriculum, the Bulgarian
generally carries off the highest prizes. It is not unknown that
the leaders in the movement for Bulgarian independence are
graduates from the Robert College, where their minds have been
developed, permeated, disciplined and elevated by American
teaching and tenets.
The Circassians, when the Russians thrust them forth after the
long wars in which Schamyl was their heroic leader, were kindly
invited to Turkey by the Sultan. Many of them are yet to be
seen around Constantinople, and not a few in their peculiar array.
They have a dignified and military carriage ; their faces are tan
ned ; they are mostly clad, somewhat after the Russian method,
in long gray, close-buttoned coats, which are girded with the
sash. The head is wrapped in a sort of handkerchief. Their

THE CIRCASSIANS AS BANDITTI

185

arms are a sword by their side and pistols in their belt ; and the
cartridges are carried in semi-circular rows upon the breast
of their coat. The engraving from a photograph herein,
shows the peculiarity of their attire. When I first saw this cart
ridge arrangement, I thought it was a musical instrument for the
lips, and perhaps it sometimes does make music. When under
proper restraint, the Circassians may be good soldiers and
officers ; but those with whom I had some diplomatic " Diver
sion ' ' in Asia Minor, and who robbed and committed out
rages which it is not best to mention, are the Circassians now
resident there. They formeriy lived in the district around Adri
anople, but their accumulation of cattle and sheep, without labor
or care, since they have enjoyed the hospitality of Turkey, looked
suspicious. The truth is, that their accumulations were stolen
from the more industrious Bulgarians or Turks, and, as a conse
quence, the male Circassian is not now in good odor in Turkey.
If it were a female Circassian, I would not be so sweeping in my
remark, but qualify it by saying that, outside of the harem, the
Circassian is not admired.
I have read, in the accounts of Montenegro, descriptions of
the brave mountaineers who people that wild country of the Black
Mountain. I have seen many of them upon the Bosporus, and
in the isle of Prinkipo, where we summered in 1886. They are
gardeners and farm-hands. I have seen some of the same race
who dress as if they were princes. The truth is, that their wives
at home do most of the work. They prepare the toilets of the
men with exquisite skill, work in the fields, and embroider or
fashion the clothes of their grandiose husbands. Once Tsaw in
the procession going to the Salemlik, a cavalier whose equine
accoutrements seemed golden ; and the surtout which covered
his dress was, in fact, worked with gold chains on an elabo
rate Plutocratic pattern. No doubt he spelled his name with a
" Vitch," as representarive of the Prince of Montenegro. If I
had been possessed of an instantaneous photographic apparatus I
should have risked his yataghan to capture his habiliments.
Among the peculiar costumes which one sees upon the Galata
bridge are those of the Croats. They belong to the same Grseco-
Slavonic race as the Albanian. They wear long white robes
fastened with a broad belt, out of which many ferocious weapons
peep, but are seldom drawn.

1 86 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
The Persian merchants are by no means undistinguished for
politeness, cunning and trickery. In these accomplishments
there is no class in Persia or in Turkey that excels them, except
the Armenian. What has been said of the Armenian, Persian
and Hebrew in Turkey, may be also said of the same races in
Mesopotamia and the provinces. But in Asiatic Turkey, between
the Tigris and the Euphrates, the merchant who does most of
the dealing is an Arab, the Turk being there either as a civil func
tionary or an army officer. Europeans are rarely found in that
country now. In 1885 Bassorah had only fifteen Europeans,
and Bagdad but fifty-one. I learn that whenever trouble arises
there affecting the European, if the English, French and Rus
sian Consuls are derelict, he had better call in a Mahometan
priest, as then he will be more likely to have a satisfactory result.
The Kurd is a warrior and spoilsman. It was the Kurd that
fought Xenophon, over the numerous parasangs which we traveled
in callow classical days. The Kurd harassed the Greeks in
their retreat. He was a formidable enemy of the Roman legion.
The Crusaders opposed him in vain ; and to-day he is the most
incorrigible of the subjects of Turkey. To hold him, when
caught, is like attempting to hold water in a cullender ; and to
catch him is indeed like catching a Tartar. He gives to the
government and to diplomacy more trouble than our aborigines
give to the Federal Government.

CHAPTER XVII.
the jews OF TURKEY.
It was my especial good fortune,when trouble and trial seemed
to be renewed in the persecution of the Jews of Russia,
Roumania, Morocco and other lands, to make such public
remonstrance in Congress as, I think, eventuated in some
restraint, if not altogether in the cessation, of such persecution.
More recently, while acting as Minister to Turkey, I have had
the opportunity of observing, within my own bailiwick, the condi
tion of the Hebrews in their ancient land. As Judsa and other
parts of the Orient are still the home of thousands of that race,
and as they will seek, even unto death, or, rather, as they near
the fatal goal, for '"thy palaces, oh Jerusalem!" to brighten
their dying eye and to illumine their latest hope, it is not without
interest, as well as emotion, that I have observed the political,
social and religious relation which the Jews hold to the dominant
rulers of the Orient.
There is no authentic census of this empire ; so that the
information which I give, although meagre, has been obtained
from the rabbins of Constantinople and Jerusalem, who have
interested themselves in furnishing it.
The Jews of Constantinople are descendants from those
who were once expelled from Spain. They returned upon their
Eastern track in the sixteenth century. The language spoken
by them is a mixture of bad Spanish, worse Greek and infamous
Turkish. Ever since these Jews were banished from Spain by the
bigoted King Philip II. they have had little fair play in the arena
of mankind. But Constantinople cannot compare with some other
cities of the East for its Hebrew population.
Salonica has 35,000 Jews. It is a commercial place with
a future. It is a paradise for Jews. When you are rowed
ashore there, your boatman is an Israelite masquerading in
Turkish fez and trousers. On landing, you are hustled by
187

1 88 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
porters in turbans and red shoes ; but they are Jews. You
enter the Custom-house: the mob of officers, with their continuous
gabble, are Jews. Jews in turbans and Jews out of turbans; Jews
as builders of houses and Jews as barbers — the children of Israel
are everywhere, in every kind of work. They are dealers in metals,
in old clothes, and in almost every object that belongs to the city
where Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, preached to the Thessa-
lonians nearly 2,000 years ago.
It is a matter of doubt how this element ever reached Mace
donia. Did they come from the East with Alexander the Great, on
his return from conquest ? When the Jews were dispersed, would
they not naturally go to the nearest islands, and thence to the
mainlands of Greece ? The New Testament makes mention of them
in early days at Thessalonica. It was some 250 years b. c.
that the Jewish mercantile tendencies were noticeably developed.
In these early days the cities of Macedonia were enriched by
synagogues in great numbers. It is said that some of the Jews
in Salonica are ostensibly Mahometan, but privately — otherwise.
There is no occasion in Turkey at the present day for any
such reproach of hypocrisy, as the Jews are partial to the Sultan,
and the Sultan has been tolerant of them. They have no hier
archy. They are Congregationalists. Each congregation is
independent. It is ruled by its own chief-rabbi. The Hebrew
representative head is at Constantinople; He is called the
Khakambashi. He is the chief of the Israelite nation of the
empire. He is a part of that system by which, in this country of
divers religions, the rule of the Ottoman is enforced through
ecclesiastical heads. There is a civil council also, connected
with the chief rabbinate, whose functions will be explained
hereafter. In order to arrive at a decision in religious and civil
cases in a Jewish community, judgments are expected from
those most learned in the sacred books. These are followed by
the Turkish administration — just as our United States courts in
the several States follow the local laws. Could there be a better
system of home rule ? It is carried almost within the family, in
order to reconcile domestic litigation and to prevent intolerance.
The head of the Hebrews is next in rank after the Greek and
Armenian Patriarchs.
There has been great effort in the Orient to convert the Jews
to Christianity. It has had little or no success. The Jews are

JE WISH POPULA TION. I g g
reserved. They are impervious to the intrigues of the Greek and
Slav. There is no section of the subjects of the Sultan that
gives him so little trouble. Jew and Mahometan get on admir
ably together. This is often disputed by the transient tourist, but
I know to the contrary. Yet between the Jew and the Greek
there is always an antagonism. It was so in the time of Christ
and "the Fathers."
The Jewish population in the Ottoman empire, which includes
Egypt, is only about 350,000. Of those, 90,000 live in Turkey
in Europe, the remainder in Asia and Africa. Bulgaria, where
the contest is for self-government against. the pressure of Russia,
contains 18,000 ; Roumelia, which is a part now of Bulgaria, has
7,000 ; the rest of Turkey in Europe, known as Old Thrace in
classic history, 18,000; and Macedonia, immediately north of
Greece, but still under the Turkish empire, 45,000. The princi
pal cities of the Ottoman empire which contain the greatest
Jewish population are Constantinople, which has 45,000 ; Bagdad,
well known to the reader of " Thousand and One Nights,"
30,000 ; Smyrna, a city of great commercial importance, 25,000 ;
Aleppo, in Syria, 10,000, and Jerusalem, not 20,000, as is repre
sented, but fully 22,000. The English Bishop, in a recent letter
asking for aid for his Protestant church at Jerusalem, states that
during the past few years the number of Jews in Palestine has
increased from 15,000 to 42,000. This is an accurate statement.
It is confirmed by my informants.
So far as commercial transactions go, I do not know that the
habits of the Jewish people could be improved by any Christian
izing conversion. They are as good, if not better, than the Greek
and Armenian merchants. Stories are told of Jewish merchants
greatly to their credit. For instance: A Salonica merchant
receives a large order from foreign merchants for prunes. The
part of the country from which he expects these prunes lies two
hundred miles away. What does he do ? There are no postal
communications, no telegraphs; he simply hands over money
enough for the purchase to a Jew. This commercial traveler goes
off to the interior with the money. He may not return for some
months; but the business is done faithfully. Baker in his book
on Turkey says that he met a merchant who had twenty-seven
thousand pounds sterling (nearly $150,000) out in this way, and
no goods in his store to show for it. His only security was the

I go

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

honesty of the Jewish commercial traveler; yet the purchases
came safely to the store in due time. Now that the United
States has sent a Hebrew as Minister to Turkey, perhaps we will
have more authentic accounts of his race and their progress. One
thing I think my successor will find, that the Jews, under the
guidance of the chief of the Israelitish nation in the empire, are
free to resolve against the intrigues of either Armenian, Greek
or Slav. Why should not the Jew and the Mahometan do well to
gether ? Did not Mahomet draw largely upon Moses? Let the
reader of the Koran, or of the history of its Prophet, recall its
pages of teaching out of the Pentateuch. Let him go along with
the young Mahomet and his caravan to Syria. Let him observe
the prophet meeting with the remnants of the lost tribes near the
Red Sea, and draw from them the lessons of the Divine judgment
against idolatry. Like Abraham when he came from Chaldea,
Mahomet had a mysterious reverence for Syria. Was it not
here that the angel of God spread his wings over the patriarch ?
Was it not here that the idea of the Unity of God first dawned
on Mahomet ? The religion of Mahomet is not behind that of
the Jew and Christian in reverence for the Wise King and his
valiant father. Their tombs in Jerusalem are guarded by the
Turk with vestal vigilance. Why should not the Moslem and
the Hebrew live in accord with such revelations ?
The thrift, care and trading skill of the Hebrews have not been
the result of recent events. The fact that they made out of so small
a territory as Judaea such a wonderful nation, indicates a natural
superiority which has not yet been sufficiently rated. They always
were a staunch people, ready to do battle for their own. Even in
the time of Moses they numbered half a million fighting men.
They must have numbered two millions of people when they re
volted against the Romans. Galilee alone furnished one hundred
thousand fighting men. In the time of Solomon his kingdom was
greatly enlarged. It extended as far as the Euphrates ; and what
is better, like the wise ruler that he was, he had peace with it all
It is very hard to estimate the immense wealth of the Jews
in the time of Solomon. The Bible shows what it cost to con
struct the temple and other buildings, and this perhaps is a
standard by which to judge the power and wealth of the nation at
that time.

JEWISH QUALITIES AND QUARTERS. \g\
The Jew is always ready for the march. From the time he
evacuated Jerusalem he has ever since been evacuating other
countries under the pressure of persecution. Hence in eastern
Europe he still divides his property into three parts ; one of float
ing capital, another in jewelry, and the third in the money of the
country. So that the ecclesiastical persecution, which drove him
from land to land, always finds him ready to depart with portable
property. The Jews and Jewesses of the East are said to have less of
that crafty look belonging to trade which centuries have more or
less engrafted upon their features. There are Jews whom I have
seen around Jerusalem and Constantinople, and especially among
the old men, who remind one of the very best pictures of the best
artist's representatives of the great prophets of Israel. There are
the dark, oblong eye and the prominent nose still visible. But the
Jews of the East have been noted as having high foreheads, a
noble mein, and a spiritual beauty set in features made pure
by contemplation of those things that make the glory of Jerusa
lem and of Jehovah.
The Jews of Constantinople inhabit that quarter which lies
between the Fanar, where the Greek Patriarch lives, and the
mosque of Eyoub, outside of the walls, which is so sacred that
Christians are prohibited from entering it. Many Jews, also,
live on the Pera side of the Golden Horn. I cannot say that the
body of them are well-to-do. They are poor. I cannot say
that they lack avariciousness, for they have that in common with
other races in the Orient. Those who trade with you in the
bazaars are as apt as others to impress you with their probity, or
its lack, though I have yet to know, personally, of any bad faith
on their part.
It is an interesting spectacle to observe the Jewish quarter. A
walk or ride on a Saturday from Fanar to Eyoub will show you
three Jewesses to every Jew. The Jews are perhaps off on some
peripatetic or pedling journey, for they are pedlers as well as
artisans and merchants. But the Jewesses, ah, the Jewesses !
Many of them have rare beauty. They sit in coveys, like
partridges, but with gayer plumage. They sit where they can
be seen ; all of a family in one room. They are exclusive, like
their race.
The Jews have been so loyal to the Sultan and his gov-

192

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

ernment that his charity has been bestowed upon them freely.
He often makes the chief rabbi the almoner of his bounty.
In some of the Turkish cities outside of Constantinople the
Jews make a better worldly showing than in Constantinople. In
Broussa the brilliancy of the windows of the Hebrew houses are
an index of the cleanliness within. The women who look out
from these windows have head-dresses of exquisite beauty, rich
in gauze or painted handkerchiefs and ornamentation of flowers
and jewelry.
The rich Jews of Constantinople are seen promenading on
the quays or through the streets upon Saturdays, dressed in their
fur gaberdines. Their women — like those in northern Africa
whom I have seen — when attired in full dress, rival the gala-
toilets of their Turkish sisters. I have before me a picture of
one of these Jewish ladies. She is in a full dress of white silk.
It is confined above the hips by a broad girdle of wrought-gold,
clasped with gems. Above this robe- she wears a pelisse, which
is of dove-colored cashmere. Costly sables overlay this robe.
The sleeves are loose, and fall back to reveal the bracelets
and the rings that flash upon her fingers, for, in this respect, the
Jewess is not unlike the Turkish, Armenian or Greek lady — in
fact, she is like her sex. If she cannot compare with the picture
which Isaiah in his third chapter paints of the luxurious and
jewel-bedizened and feet-tinkling angels of his time, it is because
her poverty will not allow the extravagance. The more costly
the gems of her head and robe, the more important and glorious
she appears. Her turban is of enormous size. It is formed of
the pointed muslin of the country. It is also covered with
jewels of rare quality. Beneath it are pearls and emeralds, as to
the size and value of which, as they gleam over her brow, down on
each side of her face, and even upon her shoulders, no estimate
of mine can do justice.
It has been said by those professing to be familiar with the
condition of the Hebrews of Constantinople, that they wear a
subdued and spiritless expression. The same old picture of
crouching humiliation, with the stealthy glance of mercenariness,
is attributed to the poor Jew of Turkey. While he may feel the
constraint which his condition imposes, and while within the last
two generations he has been the subject of outrage — not he alone,
but those of his household and of the gentler sex — still there has

PREJUDICES AGAINST HEBREWS. 193
been much reform in this direction. Formerly, it was a custom
when the Turks and Greeks passed the Jews, even upon the
water, for the former — the superior beings, who do not disdain to
worship the Nazarine — to raise one hand, and, with outstretched
finger, to count the number of the Jews upon the boat. This
enumeration was thought to bring heavy misfortune on the
numbered party. The Jews, like most Orientalists, have faith
in such spells. They never fail to retort so that the curse
should fall back upon the Turk or Greek. Thus was the bitterness
renewed from time to time by this mirth of the tormentor and the
sufferings of the tormented. But this custom has happily gone
to the rear. As an illustration of this progress in other respects,
as well as with reference to the Jew, may I not relate a %\.oxj ?
The Sultan, Mahmoud the Second, renews an old order —
which was defied by Sir Stratford Canning, the British Minister —
by which Christians on horseback, as well as Turks, should
dismount in riding past his palace. One day a man passes on
horseback before the palace, without dismounting. The zaptieh,
or policeman, on duty calls a halt. He explains to the horseman
that the order is general.
" It applies to all — Christians and Turks equally."
" But," says the horseman, to the consternation of the police
man, "lam not a Christian."
The zaptieh responds : " But you are a Turk, are you
not? "
" No," said he, " I am a Jew ; and therefore neither a Turk
nor a Christian."
He was allowed to pass ; it was a proof, not of the persecu
tion of, but of the indifference toward, the Jews in the East.
It must be said for them, as a class, that the Hebrews spend
their Sabbath religiously. They are most conscientious in theii
ceremonies. While they may be accused of extortion and
avarice, they never fail in caring for the poorer portion of their
own people. This charity inspires them with the hope of termi-
nating their lives at Jerusalem, to which they look forward, bul
with a better prospect beyond this life, which has been to them a
sorrowing pilgrimage.
The same hostile feeling toward the Jews which reigns
among Germans, Russians and Roumanians, exists to some
extent in Turkey. Foolish charges about kidnapping chil-

194

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

dren, and accusations about their scringency m business,
are not uncommon here, as in Europe, but in spite of all
that may be said of the Hebrews, they are not as bad as some of
their neighbors. They are very rich when rich at all, and very
poor when poor at all. They have a greater liking for the Moslem
than for the Christian. Is this a parodox ? No. The Moslem
may sneer at the Jew, but he has more charity toward him than
he has toward the Christian. The Jew will always take the
Moslem's side against the Christian; and the wealthy Israelite,
as the late imbroglio about Bulgaria attests, always assists the
government. The Jew when poor is limited in his industries to a few trades,
generally those practiced by the laboring classes. The coarsest
and dirtiest work of the town is performed by him, but he does
it with patience. He is the chimney-sweep, tinker and the boot
black, but he still holds aloft the oracles of Jehovah and looks
forward to the beautiful city of his Love as the resting-place for
his weary foot and aching heart.
It is to the Sultan of Turkey and to the institutions of that
country that the enjoyment of Jewish liberty and citizenship is
due. Hebrews of Constantinople have told me that they have
nothing to complain of in connection with the rule of Turkey.
Whatever may be their social condition, their political con
dition has been that of a race which has been treated with
clemency and equality. As to citizenship, the Hebrews enjoy
the same rights as the Ottoman himself. Besides, they are
exempted from military service, from which no Mahometan is
excepted. From the earliest times many of the high offices in Turkey
have been filled by Jews. I wish I could say that their Avorldly
condition is equal to their political privileges and opportunities,
but it is not. Perhaps that section of them who are most
advanced in material goods are the Jews of Salonica. That city
contains very many rich Jews. Some of them are millionaires. In
Bagdad the Jews have a large business, and are the traders with
the East Indies, while in Smyrna they are honorable and exten
sive merchants. It is m Constantinople that the population shows
a painful contrast. There are men among them who are worth a
million of dollars. But the general cause of this impoverishment
can be traced to the fact that they have not turned their attention.

JEWISH HABITS AND RULES. igc
as in other places, to commerce and other kindred adventures.
In Beirut and Damascus, like Smyrna, they are the exporting
merchants, and their work shows immense fruit in the accumula
tion of wealth.
In many parts of the Orient different races are set apart one
from the other. Certain quarters are given to certain races,
as well as to certain trades and professions. This has not, how
ever, been the case with the Jews in Constantinople. Notwith
standing there is no compulsion upon them in this regard, the
Jews in Constantinople seem to preserve this custom; they live
as neighbors with one another fraternally in special quarters. For
instance: Haskeui has a population of twenty-one thousand inhab
itants, who are nearly all Israelites; Balat, ten thousand ; and
Kouskoundjouk, five thousand. These are suburbs of Constan
tinople. The Jewish houses are generally clean, though many
families dwell in the same habitation. As in New York, so in
Constantinople, the families are extensive, the children numerous
— and they bid fair some day to overflow outside of Constan
tinople to those other places in Syria and Judaea which are so well
known to the reader of the Bible, and which are sacred beyond
all other associations to the Hebrew and Christian.
The Jews in Turkey are orthodox. There is scarcely any
schism among them. They observe what is known as the
Spanish rites. The Chief of their religion is, the Grand-Rabbi.
His jurisdiction extends to all parts of the Ottoman empire.
As already stated, he is consulted by the Ottoman government
and the Sultan on all matters pertaining to the Hebrew faith and
community. Each community has its own Grand-Rabbi, who
depends on the Chief, who is a perpetual resident at Constan
tinople. The Consistory of the Grand-Rabbi, or Hahem Bashi,
is administered under an organic law. This law is considered as
a sort of by-law of the empire. It is an imperium in imperio.
It is a copy, in fact, of the old system from the earliest days of
history in the Greek and Roman empires, whereby the ecclesiasti
cal and civic functions of certain races and religions were reserved
to those races and to their synods and councils respectively.
The Jews are called "the people of the Book.'' When it is
remembered that so much of the Moslem religion embodied m the
Koran is derived from the Hebrew Bible, and that many of
the rites and ceremonies connected with birth, marriage and

196 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
death, which we see every day performed in the mosques and ii
the cemeteries of the Moslem, were taken by Mahomet from the
Hebrews of the East, who sojourned among the deserts of
Arabia, it will be readily believed that the Hebrew faith and the
great Hebrew teachers, prophets and psalmists are equally
venerated by the Moslem, both in the literature of his religion
and in the ceremonies of his faith.
The Moslem prays to an all-audient God. Although he turns
in the direction of Mecca to make his prayer, as the Jew did
toward Jerusalem, and as Mahomet himself at one time did, he
looks to every point of the compass in recognition of the ever-
during, invisible and ineffable presence of Jehovah. As a con
sequence of this similarity between the Mahometan and the
Hebrew faith, it follows that no imagery is worshipped, that
idolatry is not permitted, that even the pictures of prophets and
saints, which adorn and give beauty to the churches of the
Greeks and other religions of the East, have no more place in
the mosque than in the synagogue.
Polygamy is absolutely forbidden to the Israelites in Turkey.
Although I have been told that there are some in Bagdad who
are allowed to marry under the Moslem law, still they
are limited to four wives. The nuptial ceremony is that which
Solomon depicted in his fascinating picture of the bridal canopy,
with its wood of cedar, its pillows of silver, its bottom of gold,
its covering of purple, and in the midst thereof it was paved with
gold for the fair daughter of Jerusalem.
There are no mixed marriages among the Hebrews in Tur
key. Divorce is acknowledged, as it is always acknowledged among
the Moslems. Govermental authority may be called upon to
execute the sentence of the Jewish tribunals on matters connected
with marriage and divorce. As a general rule, the Jews marry
when they are twenty or twenty-two years old.
One thing struck me as peculiar in connection with the aspira
tions of the Jews in Europe and in the Orient. While the Jews in
Austria, Germany, France, Hungary and other parts of Europe
have filled offices of great trust, have become bankers, editors,
musicians, orators, legislators and artists, distinguishing them
selves before those of other races in the refinement and skill with
which they have elevated learning, art and science, yet in Turkey
they seem to have little or no aspiration for and association

STAGNANCY AMONG THE JEWS. 107
with Statecraft and other elevating pursuits. .\t least, they inter
est themselves very little in politics.
They like the liberal ways of the government, which are in
great contrast to the treatment of Hebrews in Russia, Roumania
and Germany. And though they may be persecuted in a social
way in remote places in Turkey, where the central government
does not reach, still they are devoted to the government of the
country. They are prompt to recognize the kindness of the Sul
tan, and to show their loyalty to him. I will not say that the Jews
of Turkey are the equal or the inferiors of the Jews of other parts
of Europe. There is a reason for this, and a sad one. They
have partaken of the general stagnancy which belongs to the
Orient, owing to the everlasting Eastern question, which, by its
unrest, has forbidden men to reach out for those higher aims in
life that are the result of stable civilization.
During the last two centuries there have been no conspicuous
literary movements among the Ottoman Israelites, but since the
Israelitish Alliance has begun to found schools and interest itself
in the Hebrews of the East, there is a marked advancement, not
only from year to year, but from week to week. This is appar
ent in Jerusalem, as I shall show.
The Turkish language, or the language of the country, is not
the common language of the Jews. Those who inhabit Syria
talk Arabic, and those in Macedonia modern Greek. Among
the three hundred and fifty thousand Jews in Turkey, more than
two hundred thousand talk a Spanish idiom. It is a dialect that
has been much corrupted. But the great body of the Jewish
traders in Constantinople and elsewhere speak French. The
truth is, that nearly all the people of the Levant, including Turks
themselves, who are perhaps more reserved on this head, speak
many languages. They speak them with facility. They are
taught tongues almost before they learn anything else. It is one
of the marvels in the East that it is almost a matter of inheritance
that even the vocal organs of the Levantine seem to be polyglot.
There are about six Hebrew newspapers published in Turkey.
Two of these appear in Hebrew. One is the Habazeleth, the
other Hatsevi. The others are Spanish, but with Hebraic char
acters. The other four are called El Telegraph and El Tiempo, of
Constantinople, La Burna Esperanza, of Smyrna, and La Epoca,
of Salonica. Much of my information in relation to the Hebrew

198 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
people comes from the editor of the Telegraph at Constantinople,
That journal takes quite an interest in political affairs, and
though under the censorship of the government, it has fallen
under no objurgation, as have other newspapers in that city.
I need not say to the Hebrew reader that the customs of their
race in and around the Turkish capital are still patriarchal.
Indeed, most of the Oriental customs connected with the family
are of that quality. The family life is always exemplary. The
members of the family are respectable, and rarely, perhaps never,
is there to be found the Jewish - Spanish woman of bad fame.
They cling with great fidelity to the religion of their ancestors.
They strictly observe all Jewish ceremonies, and yet in doing
honor to their wonderful ancestral code, it is to be hoped that
they will not become, in adhesion to their belief, either bigoted
or fanatical. The Jews of Constantinople, not being blest in worldly goods,
cannot make those offerings for the poor of their own class, or
those of other parts of the empire, which the European and
American Jews have made with such charitable abundance,
but still they do their part in providing for the needy and the
afflicted. I have said that there were few schisms, if any, in the Jewish
race of Turkey. I may modify this by stating that the Karaites
are protesting Jews. They do not agree with the Talmud.
There are few families of them ; hardly seventy-five in Haskeiii.
They live in special quarters by themselves. They are not in
communication with other Jews. They are not, perhaps, as
brilliant intellectually as other Jews, for they have not the same
opportunities nor advantages for education and philanthropy.
In fact, they are disappearing, from one cause or another, while
the orthodox Jew, who believes in the Talmud, seems to be
improving with the lapse of time. In Egypt, however, the Kara
ites are improving with wonderful advancement. There are some
five hundred families who are residents of Cairo.
But whatever may be the differences of opinion in this
remarkable faith, one may stand at the capital of the Turkish
empire, where for thousands of years commerce has made its
centre, and dynasties and policies have had their nucleus, and
observe with an interest only next to marvelous, the survival, even
in the midst of dire persecution, of this race of men. The He-

HO, FOR JERUSALEM! Inn
brews are associated with the prophets and law-givers and poets
and heroes of a history which has no peer in the annals of man
kind. They are a race which, transplanted under new skies to
a new hemisphere, under institutions of liberality and tolera
tion which they have rarely known in their wanderings throughout
the earth, have elevated their scale of being. Their sons and
daughters have attained an intellectual superiority and primal
beauty which belong to the chosen people of God.
If I should select the one special trait for my admiration and
exaltation in connection with the Hebrews whom I have observed
in the Orient, I should say it was their grand sentiment of love
and profound veneration for the sacred city of Jerusalem. Al
though scattered throughout the empire and among a composite
people who speak even seventy-two languages, from Mt. Sinai
and Bagdad to far Albania and Bulgaria — wherever they are and
whatever they do, their harps are still hung upon the willows of
exile, and they still sing of Jerusalem as the Psalmist sung : " If
I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my hand forget its cunning and my
tongue cleave to the root of my mouth."
They cannot sing the Lord's song in a strange land, but
whenever their circumstances allow, they move, as if by some
strange, divine magnetism, toward their Holy City, animated by a
strong and ardent desire to spend upon the mountains round
about, or within its walls, the serene evening of their lives, with
the hope of a grand immortality beyond the grave.
The interest in the Jews of the East does not centre in Con
stantinople, but in Jerusalem. They number about forty-two
thousand in Palestine. More than half that number are in Jeru
salem. The rest are in Hebron, Jaffa, Saffed, Tiberius, Haifa,
Akka and the rest scattered throughout the country. In a. d.
1824, there were only thirty-two Jewish families in all Jerusalem,
and but three thousand in all Palestine. This increase has
come in the last twenty years. This gain has been in spite
of interdictions by the Turkish government, for I think that that
government has had an apprehension lest there should be He
brew colonies formed in their old beloved land. Four-sevenths
of these Jews are Askenazim. They are of the class to which
the Jews of Russia, Germany, Austria and the Danubian
provinces belong. The rest are, like the Jews from Constan
tinople, of Spanish descent from Spain, Morocco, Algiers and

200 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Tripoli. It has always been known that a large settlement of
Jews has existed in the southwest of Arabia. Doubtless from
these Mahomet learned most of the incidents and doctrines which
he taught in the Koran. These Jews from the desert have been
isolated. They were of the tribe of Gad, and until recently have
had no communication with other Jews. From the time of their
expulsion from their tribal lands east of the Jordan, more than
seven hundred years before Christ, they have lived like the Arabs
of the desert. They seem to have been impelled toward Jerusa
lem, by a belief that the time of the Messiah had come, and that
It was the will of Jehovah that they should be among the first
to appear at their national restoration. They are distinguished
from many of the Jews of Palestine by peculiar traditions and
traits, which point with certainty to their early Hebraic origin and
seclusion. They are said to be a simple race and to have a
chastened bearing.
There is a small community in Jerusalem known as Caraim.
They are called "the partisans of the text." They deny the
authority of the Talmud. Their little synagogue is underground.
It is of great antiquity, and one of the most interesting places of
worship in Jerusalem, having much of the interest which clings
about the antique form of worship that belongs to the early monks
who lived in caves. The body of the Jews of Palestine, however,
are called orthodox. They defer to the Talmud and other
traditional teachings. They are opposed to change, and are,
distinguished from those known as reformed Jews, who have
become so prominent, rich and influential in America and Europe.
The Askenazim cling to the old Jewish customs. They do not
fall in naturally with the people among whom they dwell, as do
other Jews. They differ from other Jews regarding the Mosaic
law as well as the Talmud. Being thrown in close association
with the "Sephardim, these peculiarities of custom and taste are
more noticeable.
To be sure, all these classes are Hebrews, and they all look
for the approaching jubilee, when their country will be restored to
them and a Messiah will appear. Another class of Jews are those
who study what is called the Kabala. They are mystics. It is
not uncommon in the East, where the sky is deep and the stars have
a magical influence, and contemplation creates devotion — the
realm from which all the religions of the world have emanated —

EMIGRATION TO JERUSALEM. 2OI
that the strange mysteries of creation and of the spiritual nature
should have a secret fascination. The language of the Bible
is interpreted by them somewhat after the Swedenborgian
method, with hidden meanings between the lines. Miracles are
wrought, or supposed to be wrought, in vindication of their strange
tenets. The Askenazim Hebrew speaks a language known as a sort of
German tongue. It is a compound of the German, Hebrew,
Russian and other languages. Its written dialect is a medium
of communication for nine- tenths of the Jews of Europe. That
spoken by the Sephardim is Spanish. It has the music, purity
and dignified flow of that graceful tongue. The Jews from
Arabia speak Arabic, and nearly all the Palestine Jews have some
knowledge of Hebrew, and many of them speak it with great
facility. The largest portion of the Jews of Palestine are Turkish
subjects. Many of them, however, register at the Consulates of
their native land and preserve their foreign citizenship. It is
within my knowledge that this custom, however, is changing.
They are enrolling themselves as Turkish subjects. This custom
tends to propitiate the Turk, who has always feared the social
regeneration and building up of a state within his dominion. I
think that it helps the Hebrew to be more self-respecting as well as
more respected. It would seem as if they believed that they had
come to stay in their old land without the animus revertendi.
In former days the Jew came to Jerusalem when he was in old
age. He came to secure the special blessings which should follow
a burial in the Holy Land. , Now young men are coming, and
women; in fact, families. They emigrate as our emigrants go
West. They come to build up permanent homes for themselves
and their children. Three-fourths of the Jews of Palestine are
well off. They live upon the proceeds of invested funds or busi
ness pursuits. Wealthy Jews are going there. The remaining
fourth consists of old persons. They are supported by the benev
olence of their co-religionists. As in the East it is especially
the custom and tradition from the earliest days that beggars
should be allowed, as an incentive to charity, so the Hebrew peo
ple are not an exception to this rule. Many of them are found
living in hovels wretchedly poor and pitiable. Much money has
been raised in Europe and northern Africa to assist the poor. It
is called the Chalouka. These funds were not exactly as charity, for

2 O 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
they were a means to a higher end than the sustenance of the
physical body. They were intended to encOurage learning, and
the beneficiaries were men' who devoted their lives to Talmudic
and other theological studies. This charity is not favorably re
garded by many of the Jews themselves. ' I have been told that
It stimulated a spirit of scholastic pride and gave rise to discussion
and contention. The ,Jews of Europe, while extending these
benefactions to their co-religionists, have given it another direc
tion. Agricultural colonies and the industrial schools are the
main objects of these gifts. The most encouraging results are
expected ffom this change in the dispensation.
I have said before that there is an imperium in imperio within
the Turkish realm. This has existed for many centuries. There
are Jewish judicial tribunals in Judea, and these have power to
punish, by penalty and excommunication from the synagogues,
for breaches of the Jewish law. The Turkish government,
especially in respect to the domestic relations and ' the distri
bution of property and estates, assists the Jewish ecclesiastical
tribunals by the execution of their judgments and by other
penalties. I have heard it said in America that the. Jews are fond of
litigation. In my early days I was the lawyer of a large number
of Jews in Cincinnati, but I never observed -this attribute. There
is, however, but little litigation among Jews in the East. They
settle their difficulties before the Rabbins. In fact, the Rabbins
have much to do with the internal government of the Jews in
Palestine. The sects which I have described have among them six hun
dred Rabbins. The chief Rabbi of Jerusalem belongs to the
Sephardim. The Rabbins engage in no direct business. They
are assisted from abroad. Many of them have official incomes
and private resources. They are also teachers, readers, judges,
and for these services they are paid. They receive money for
prayers offered on anniversaries of deaths and for the sick;
Many of these ecclesiastics visit northern Africa, Asia, Europe
and America, to collect the charity to which I have referred.
Charity in another sense, however, belongs to Jerusalem.
There are two hospitals with forty beds. The Rothschilds' Hos
pital is to be enlarged. It is situated without the walls.
There are other associations in Palestine for assisting Jewish

?'!j';'

EDUCA TION IN JERUSALEM. 20 "'
women and the poor and aged Jews, for educational purposes
and orphanage, as well as for the loan of money without interest
to those who are needy and enterprising. The Israelitish Alli
ance is endeavoring to enlarge the sphere of these operations,
which are oftentimes limited to the sects to which I have referred.
In time, through its influence and its schools, and through agencies
now growing immensely in influence in the East, many of these
differences growing out of sectarianism will vanish.
As to education, it has generally been conducted upon the
Turkish standard, which is almost altogether limited to a knowl
edge of the Koran. So the education of the Jewish children was
formerly confined to instruction in the law and the Talmud.'
The divergence from the old modes consists in branches of
general study, including foreign languages, which includes the
Arabic. There are six primary schools in Jerusalem, with seven
hundred pupils. There are nearly one hundred professors of
Talmudic literature, who teach in private houses classes num
bering from five to ten scholars each. As a consequence there
are advanced schools, like our own high schools.
The Rabbins have opposed that general 'system of elementary
education of which America has been the champion. But it has
secured a foothold in Jerusalem, and is approved by the people.
The principal school of this elementary character was established
in A. D. 1882. It is under the auspices of the Israelitish Alliance.
That Alliance is reaching everywhere around the world, although
its centre and direction is in Paris. After much opposition
in Jerusalem, this school numbers 150 scholars. It is thought
that it will soon increase tenfold. It could be thus increased if
the resources would allow. In addition to elementary study, the
pupils are taught Hebrew, Arabic, English and French. The
latter is the principal language taught. Workshops have been
established to assist the pupils in various grades. Many go out
from the school and earn good wages as the result of their
apprenticeship. The school is fast outgrowing its present limita
tions. Its cost during the year a. d. 1883, up to the ist of Septem
ber was $7,200. Never was there a more splendid opening for a
race whose children have no equal in all that makes' up memory,
reasoning, imagination and judgment There is an agricultural
school near Jaffa. It was established by the Alliance in a. d. 1869.
It has 737 pupils. It gives a general education, like our primary

204 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
schools. It makes practical farmers. It has a great future. Its
expenses for the last year were $9,800, while its receipts were
$5,300. It will soon become self-paying. There is another
school of the Alliance at Haifa, with 100 scholars, which was
founded in 1881. I cannot too highly praise the Israelitish Alli
ance, not merely because I am partial for its kind words toward
myself, a stranger, after I had undertaken to expose the persecu^
tion of the Hebrews in Russia, but for its benevolent objects.
Never since the children of Israel have been dispersed over the
world has there been a more vigilant, enterprising and useful
institution. It was established under the auspices of the great
lawyer, once Minister of Justice in Paris, M. Cremieux. I found
its friends and officers in correspondence in Damascus when I
was there several years ago. Men of standing and wealth gave
it their help, morally, physically and pecuniarily. The Hebrews
of New York know how beneficent and far reaching are its bene-,
factions. From its current contributions and its invested funds,
which for the six months ending December i, 1885, amounted
to $47,000, schools have arisen and workshops for technical
instruction .throughout the Orient and northern Africa.
The Alliance endeavors to expunge the lines which divide the
Jews into sects, reconciling their jarrings and bettering their
condition among the nations wherein they have been dispersed.
Perhaps no more difficult task could be undertaken than that
which endeavors to reconcile the Jews at Jerusalem among
themselves, and with the new conditions of human advancement.
As I write this paragraph, in the summer of 1887, I am
advised that the two journals of Jerusalem, the Habazeleth and
the Hatzevi, have been burned by the Rabbis of the Sephar^
dim. Why were the black candles lit, the cornet blown, and the
journalists accursed ? For alleged slander. This consisted in
calling for an account of the donations and their disbursement.
The Hebrews of other lands, including America, are laughing at
the ceremony of ostracism and the childish anger of the Rabbis.
The ban has been tried before, on Sir Moses Montefiore, but
without cutting him short in his length of days. Amsterdam.
once tried the ban against Spinosa, but it was a vain bull against
a comet of rare brilliancy. Recently Baron Edmond de
Rothschild has been visiting Palestine. He and his rich family
have been bountiful to the Jews of Jerusalem, but when the

ISRAELITISH ALLIANCE.

205

the Baron proposed to endow a school where something besides
the Bible and the Talmud could be taught, he was opposed by
the unprogressive Rabbins. They succeeded in their efforts, for
the school closed for want of pupils, as the Rabbins petitioned
the Sultan to avert this attempt to wrest Palestine from his rule,
in the interest of France !
What has eclipsed t'ne Hebrew race ? Why do such things ex
cite our special wonder ? Surely they need at Jerusalem a Pres-

l'||ffii)'i'ih')ri'i'ii

' ¦ !.i/'fe

"ill 1 ," II' 'iMi
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V ' ;'''|iV/iiii|
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II ¦! I

A HEBREW FROM JERUSALEM,
byter Omnium Judaeorum — with undisputed authority, such as
the great Sasportas, the eloquent De Silva, the learned Abendana,
or the accomplished David Nieto — who, while looking to the select
radiance of the past of Judaism, could inspire the scattered tribes
with the glory of a better day for Jerusalem and their race.
The Alliance may, in time, liberalize this Rabbinical mass at
Jerusalem. The Jews outside of Judaea believe in its methods.
To show the kindness of the people toward the Israelitish Alii-

2o6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
ance, I may be permitted to state that at the municipal theatre
of the Petits-Champs in Constantinople, under the patronage of
the French Ambassador, Count Montebello, a charity ball was
given for the " children " of Israel. Perhaps it would surprise
some of the children to know that among those present as
a committee, there were Elias-Pasha and Isaac-Bey, and others of
the Hebraic type. Some of these are thoroughly interested in
the vindication of their race.
The reader will remember the Russian and other persecutions,
and the necessity which fell upon the Jewish race throughout the
world of providing for the refugees. Then it was that the Alliance
became useful, not merely in turning the tide toward Palestine —
to reach which there were many obstacles, as I am personally
a witness, but to our own country. It was thought by many to
be impracticable to send these Jews to Palestine and to pro
vide for the refugees at that point. It is thought by many devout
Jews that this dispersion among the nations of the earth is a posi
tive blessing.
One thing is observable to a traveler in Judaea, and it is per
haps the most significant and interesting fact connected with the
Jewish re-occupation. I refer to the agricultural colonies, of which
there are eight at present. These are prosperous. I have seen the
two which are distant from Jaffa some two and a half hours.
They were established about ten years ago. They were pioneer
colonies. They now number five hundred and fifty souls, princi
pally Russians. They have a farm of about twenty-eight hun
dred acres. They have fifteen thousand vines, thirteen thousand
olive-trees, and bid fair to make that land once more blossom as
the rose.
It is eighteen hundred years since the new dispensation. Dur
ing that time most remarkable changes have taken place in Pales
tine and among the Jews. History records the humiliation and per
secution of this wonderful people. They have been thought by
some to be an unseen and an unknown quantity among the
nations of the earth. Quietly and without ostentation, by some
supernal influence, Jerusalem at last is becoming through its new
population, a Jewish city. A majority of its population are Jews.
Its trade is Jewish. It will own the sol} of Palestine in time.
This prosperity has inspired many with the hope that the re
demption of Israel and the restoration of their old country is

AMERICA, THE VINE AND FIG-TREE.

207

drawing nigh. Leaving their traffic behind them, they come with
their own handiwork to redeem the waste places of Zion. It
would almost seem beyond belief, but considering our age of
physical progress, with the factors of electricity and steam, it
does not seem improbable that the prophesy will be fulfilled
which declares that in the last days " Zion shall be filled with
judgment and righteousness, and that Jerusalem shall dwell safely,
and that there shall be power upon the house of David, and upon
the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up
thereon ; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall
walk there ; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come
to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads. They
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
And I will plant them upon their land which I have given them,
saith the Lord my God."
Great changes are taking place in the Orient. The Musco
vite is ever ready to move down upon the Bosporus. The great
land animal challenges the great colonial empire of England
in Asia. The various Powers of the earth are moving for the
aggrandizement of their dynasties and boundaries. And shall
Judsea be left alone ? Shall the six millions of the Hebrew race,
which have given so much to civilization, to poetry, to finance
and to religion, be alone exempt from the onward movements of
our time ? Shall there be no manifestation of the great powers
of the earth which are revolutionizing mankind at the centre of
our earlier theology ?
There is a majestic meaning in the events which are taking
place in the world. They point with no unmistakable finger
toward the beautiful walls of Jerusalem. If it be the purpose of
Jehovah to return the Jews to Palestine, why may not the ravening
wolves, which have driven Israel almost to despair, and which have
used the force of brutes against her, be balked in their endeavor;
so that the hope of the Hebrew shall have realization even in our
time ? All is possible with Jehovah. Seek Him that maketh the
Pleiades and Orion and turneththe shadow of death into morning.
But until that day doth come, America seems a chosen land
for a chosen people. Here, under our Constitution, is their vine
and fig-tree.

CHAPTER XVIIL
RELIGIONS OF THE EAST  THE CALIPHATE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
By the word Caliphate, or, more correctly, Halifate, is implied
the supreme and combined political and religious authority of the
Ottoman ruler. The titie of Caliph signifies heir or successor.
It was given by the Prophet to his disciples or successors. These
followers started from one end of Arabia and advanced in armed
bodies, with irresistible force, as far as Bagdad. They pro
claimed the sacred law of the Koran and propagated the Moham
medan religion.
The first Caliph to gain distinction was the Arab leader, Omer
Ipni Hatab. In a. d. 637, the sixteenth of the Hegira, he stormed
Jerusalem. Afterwards, on the site occupied by Solomon's tem
ple, he built the mosque bearing his name. It still remains, in an
excellent state of preservation.
At first there were several Caliphs. The title was arbitrarily
assumed by the chiefs of the most powerful tribes in Africa and
Asia. These tribes, though they became united by the bonds of
one common religion, were still constantly waging war against
one another. The strife often ended in the almost total extermina
tion of the weaker side. This was the fate of the tribe of the
Fatimies. They were in the course of time exterminated by the
Devlet Eyoupie tribe, of which Yousouf Salahedin, Sultan of
Egypt, is said to have been the founder. This latter tribe fell a
prey to the superior strength of the Mamelukes. These in
their turn were vanquished by the Circassians. These in their
turn were finally subdued by the Sultan Selim, of Turkey. In
A. D. 15 1 7 the Sultan Selim conquered and became master of the
whole of Egypt. He was officially acknowledged by the Cherif of
Mecca as protector of the two holy cities of Islam, viz. : Mecca,
where the Prophet lies buried, and Medina, where he was born.
The Turks having thus subdued the Arab tribes, the title of
Caliph came to be the exclusive hereditary right of the Sultan,
208

THE INSPIRATION OF IHE KORAN. 2O9
who is also styled "Commander of the Faithful." His right to
this exalted title there is none to dispute, since the fall of the
Mahdi and other pretenders.
The present Turkish dynasty, as we have seen, was founded
in the thirteenth century by Osman, or Othman. The father of
Osman was Erthogrul, which in English means "Straightfor
ward." The tradition goes; among Turks, that while out on
a journey he was hospitably entertained at the house of an Arab,
This Arab was greatly venerated among his countrymen for
his learning and piety. One night during his sojourn with this
personage Erthogrul had a wierd dream. The greatness and glory
in store for his descendants were thus revealed to him. Before
retiring to rest he had noticed his host taking out a large
volume from a bookcase and reverentially placing it on a high
shelf in the chamber where the guest was to sleep. Erthogrul
inquired of his host about the book. He was informed that it
was the Koran, the Sacred Word of God revealed to the prophet
Mahomet. Erthogrul, as soon as his host had withdrawn, took
down the book. He spent the entire night reading it. He re
mained standing up all the time in a most respectful attitude.
When in the early morning he went to bed and fell asleep he heard
a voice which said to him:
"For that thou hast done reverence to my everlasting word,
thy sons and the sons of their sons shall receive honor upon honor,
and shall be glorified in all ages to come."
This promise began to be redeemed in the person of Os
man, the eldest son of Erthogrul. Osman embraced a military
career. He showed such extraordinary military talent and per
formed so many unprecedented feats of personal valor that he
soon became the idol of his followers. He gradually succeeded
in organizing them into a regular and irresistible army. He was
thus enabled to conquer and acquire for himself a large extent of
territory. This included the fortified town of Karadja Seher and
other Byzantine strongholds in Asia. He also lent his aid in
defeating the enemies of Aladdin, the Sultan of Iconium. In
recognition of this service Osman received from the latter the title
of Emir and the insignia of princely rank, consisting of a standard,
a drum, the tail of a horse and a sabre. These insignia are still
preserved with- other sacred relics in the Imperial Treasury at
Constantinople.

2IO DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
After these conquests Osman became Sultan of the Turks, or
Osmanlis, as they preferred to be called in honor of their leader.
At this juncture further warfare is suspended, in order to give
himself and his soldiers rest. He attends to the internal organ
ization of his newly acquired kingdom. He begins a vigorous
reform by transforming the Christian churches in the town of
Karadja-Hissar into mosques. He appoints Imams, or priests,
to perform the services, and a Molla, or religious judge. He
orders Friday to be kept as a day of rest and prayer. He strikes
the first Turkish coins with his superscription. He builds Yeni-
Seher, or New-town. Here he makes his capital. He appoints
his father-in-law, the Sheik Edepali, as Mufti.
Osman .'eigns for twenty-seven years. On his death he is
succeeded by his second son, the Sultan Orchan. The elder
brother, Aladdin, conscious of his own inexperience and diffi
dence in military matters, makes over the right of succession,
being content to occupy the subordinate post of Vizier. This
office was specially created for Aladdin. The word Vizier in
Arabic means a carrier. In this instance it signifies the carrier
of the charges of the State.
Orchan, unlike his brother, was like his father. He was an
intrepid warrior. While his father was still living he made several
successful campaigns. In the course of one of these he took
Broussa. He largely added to his dominions. He was the founder
of the Yeni-tcharis, i. e., Janizaries. The strength of this corps
was at first limited to one thousand men. In after years it grad
ually increased to forty thousand warriors. Besides the Yeni-
tcharis, the Turkish army consisted originally of a number of bat
talions of regular infantry. These are called, in Turkish, piade's.
Their regular infantry went by the name of azap. The spahids are
regular cavalry and the akindjis are irregular horsemen.
The prophet Mahomet was born in Medina, in central Ara
bia. He died in Mecca, where his tomb still exists. It is in the
custody of the Cherif or .-High Priest of Mecca. T^he^ office of
Cherif of Mecca has been-hereditary in the same family for ages.
The Sultan's approval of the appointment of a new Cherif is a
matter of form.
Mahomet was a driver of camels. While following this avoca
tion he made the acquaintance of a monk from the Monastery
of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. The monk, it is said, fore-

MAHOMET AMONG THE MONKS. ¦ 2 I I
told to Mahomet the great eminence to which he would attain.
In consequence of the revelation, he asked, in advance, for Ma
homet's indulgence in favor of the Christian community and cer
tain privileges for the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.
Mahomet gave the promises.
According to the Turkish tradition, Mahomet, acting under a
sacred inspiration, abandoned his trade of camel-driver. He
retired to a secluded hostelry. There he spent his time in prayer,
religious meditation and fasting. It was while thus engaged that an
angel appeared to him one night, and delivered to him the Koran.
Mahomet, in his turn, communicated its precepts to his disciples,
whom he named Houlifai. These followers, in a very short time,
swelled in numbers to such an extent that they soon constituted
a powerful and well-disciplined, if not properly organized, army.
At the head of this army Mahomet started on his religious expe
dition, proclaiming the new faith. This comprised a belief in
one God, and in Mahomet as the prophet and emissary of
that God.
In the course of his conquests and triumphal march through
Arabia and Syria, Mahomet came to Mount Sinai ; there he again
met his old friend the monk of the monastery of St. Catherine.
Having reminded Mahomet of his former promise, the monk
obtained from him an " actinamen," or official act This con
ferred upon the monastery in question the promised privileges,
and upon the Christians in general the free exercise of their
religion. The actinamen was dictated by Mahomet himself. It
was taken down by one of his followers, Ali Amboudalip. As
Mahomet could not write, he made his mark on the document.
He dipped his hand m the ink and brought it down on the paper,
leaving thereon the impression of his five fingers. This incident
is commemorated in the " toughra " or Imperial ensign, which may
be seen on every Turkish official document and coin up to the
present day. There is another origin given in a former chapter
for the toughra, but J;his is as veritable as the other. It appears
in the signature of the Sultan in the frontispiece. It is literally a
sign -manual, with a slight difference for each Sultan or Caliph;
The present Sultan has a design below the signature.
The document was kept at St. Catherine's monastery in Mount
Sinai until a. d. 15 17. Then the Sultan, Selim I., took it into his
own possession as a sacred relic. He gave in exchange for it an

2 I 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
authenticated copy, certified by himself This is still preserved.
It bears the following heading:
" This paper has been written by Mahomet, the son of Abdul
lah, and Emissary of God, the Guardian and Preserver of the
Universe, to all of his nation and religion, to be a true and
sacred grant for the race of the Christians and the offering of the
Nazerites." Is not this the fountain and origin of the " Capitu
lations " and toleration toward the Christian and other sects?
The Koran, as proclaimed by Mahomet and his disciples, was
subsequently collated and expounded by two Imams named
Azam and Safi. Those of the Mussulmans who faithfully follow
the teachings of these two holy men are styled Soonites ; that
is, the orthodox or true believers. All those who have adopted
the theories of other expounders of the Sacred Book go by the
names Mehzembis or Kiafifir; that is, heretics and unbelievers.
The Persians who follow the doctrines of Ali, son-in-law of
Mahomet, and some of the Mussulman sects in the East Indies,
are of the latter class. The Turks, and especially the descendants
of Osman, pride themselves on being the only true believers. A
sect among the Turks bears the name of Fatimid. It is so named
after Mahomet's daughter Fatima, who is held in great respect
among Mussulmans. It is related that as Mahomet was lying at
the point of death in his harem, the most prominent of his lieuten
ants assembled outside. They were anxious to hear his last instruc
tions. Fatima came out to them bearing the Prophet's standard.
She handed it to them, saying :
" This is Mahomet's last wish. Take this standard and march
forward !"
This standard is still preserved in a golden case in the Impe
rial treasury at Constantinople. It is of a green color. It is torn
to shreds and attached to a kind of bayonet. It is never brought
out except on occasions of great emergency, when a sacred war is
declared. Then every true Mussulman is expected to take his
place in the ranks and fight for his religion. The last time it
was displayed was when the Sultan, Mahmoud IL, destroyed the
Janizaries. The Mussulman religion accepts and acknowledges the authen
ticity and truth of the Holy Scriptures. It recognizes Christ as a
prophet sent by God. It altogether rejects the history of his Cruci
fixion and Resurrection. Islam has borrowed many religious usages

PRA YER, ABLUTION AND FASTING. 2 I ''
from the Old Testament; such as the circumcision, ablution before
prayer, and others. A true Mussulman must make his ablution
and perform his devotions five times a day. The washing before
prayer is called in Turkish apti, and the prayer itself namaz.
The five daily prayers are styled: Sabah namaz, morning prayer;
Oili namaz, noon prayer; Kenti namaz, afternoon prayer; Axam
namaz, evening prayer ; and Guedje namaz, night prayer. At the
time fixed for each service the Hodja, or priest, ascends to the
minaret of the mosque and calls the faithful to prayer. If prevented
from going to the mosque, a Mussulman performs his devotions
wherever he happens to be at the moment the Hodja's call is
heard. In his house, in his shop, or even in the public street, he
is wholly indifferent to the curious sight he may present to
passing strangers. Boatmen, with passengers on board, will often,
on hearing the call to prayer, leave their oars and go through
their devotions. They will do this quite regardless of the incon
venience of passengers or the danger from passing steamboats.
Ablution must inevitably precede prayer. The hands must
be washed first; then the arms up to the elbows; then the face,
the ears, the mouth, the top of the head and the feet. If boots
difficult to take off are worn, then the boots must be washed.
Where there is no water, as, for instance, in the desert, the ablu
tions may be performed with fine sand. This washing before
prayer is a religious rite. He that washes is cleansed from sin.
He is thus rendered worthy to address himself in prayer to God.
The Mussulmans keep Friday as a day of rest. As stated,
this was ordained by the Sultan, Osman I., the founder of the
present dynasty. Of other religious festivals, the most important
are the Bairam, which is as nearly as possible an equivalent for
our Easter. It is preceded by a whole month of fasting, called
Ramazan, or sacred month. This fasting is observed only in
the daytime, say from 4 a. m. to 8 p. m. At the latter hour, every
day during Ramazan, a cannon announces its end. The daily fast
is generally broken at sunset with an olive and a cigarette. Then
follows a rich repast. This is succeeded by another at 2 o'clock
in the morning. At 4 o'clock in the morning another gun is fired
to warn the faithful to cease eating. Then the day's fast begins.
The fast is made obligatory by law. The law prohibits not
only eating, but drinking, even of water. Smoking is also for
bidden. Under such conditions, it can be understood that

2 14 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
little or no work is done during this month. The government
offices are open, but business is practically suspended. On the
15th day of Ramazan occurs the ceremonial of the Hirkai Sherif,
or 'Worshipping of the Sacred Mantle of the Prophet. On the
morning of that day, the Sultan, according to immemorial cu&tom,
proceeds in great state to the palace of Top Capou in Stamboul.
He is followed by the royal cortege, the procession being lined
on either side by troops. The palace is the ancient residence of
the Byzantine emperors. The sacred relics and treasures of the
empire are kept here. Here, in a special apartment, enveloped
in precious covers and safely locked in a magnificent coffer of
ebony, is preserved what is believed to be a mantle worn by the
Prophet on state occasions. On his progress to the palace, the
Sultan is accompanied by the Imperial princes and the dignita
ries and officers of state. He is conducted to this sacred apart
ment. Here, after the recitation by the Imams of the prayers
appropriate to the occasion, the Padishah, in , his quality of
Caliph, proceeds to open with his own hands the coffer containing
the mantle. He takes it out from its many covers. He presses
the sacred relic to his lips. He then steps aside, while all his
followers, including the Grand Vizier, the ministers, the members
of the Imperial household, the superior military and naval
officers, and the civil employees up to a certain rank, go in turn
and according to the order of their rank, through the ceremony of
kissing the mantle. When the Sultan retires, the faithful, if they
desire, are admitted to make their devotions to the sacred relic.
It is kept exposed for this purpose fifteen days.
The Ottoman code, with the exception of certain concessions
made in recent years regarding judicial cases between Ottoman
subjects and foreigners, is based entirely on the religious law or
precepts of the Cheri. Jurisdiction in all strictly religious matters
is in the hands of the Sheik- Ul-Islam, who is the Primate of
Turkey, and of his subordinates. Among the latter are the Muf
tis, or bishops ; the Imams, or priests ; and the Hodjas, teachers
or professors of theology. The administration of civil and
penal law is entrusted to the body of Ulemas. These are men
learned in the law. From among them are chosen the Mollahs,
or religious judges ; the Mudirs, or mayors ; and the Kaimakams,
who are prefects or sheriffs. To the religious order belongs a
body called Hafouz. These learn the Koran by heart. They are

MONKISH MOSLEM ORDERS.

:i5

considered as the guardians of the Sacred Book. As in the
Christian Church, so also in the Mussulman religion there are
several orders of monks ; they are called dervishes. Their mon
asteries are called t^kh in Turkish. Unlike the Christians, who
seek the most secluded spots whereon to build their monasteries,
the dervishes prefer to erect their houses in the very centres of
the large towns. There is also an order of wandering dervishes.

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A MOSLEM READING THE KORAN.
These have no fixed place of residence. They go about bare
footed and bareheaded; they never comb their hair or beard ; they
live mostly on alms, which are freely bestowed upon them by tha
faithful. The mosques are neither built by the state nor by subscription.
For the most part, they are built by the Sultans or the Validd
Sultanas; that is, the mothers of the reigning Sultan. This Sultana

2 1 6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
is venerated as the veritable Queen. The Padishah's consorts
are only secondary to her.
Mosques, of smaller size and less imposing, are often built by
private individuals. There is said to be a mosque in some part
of Turkey (I forget the name of the locality) called Sankim
Yedim Djami. It is called " The mosque of the-same-as-if-I-had-
eaten-it." This curious appellation the mosque owes to the fact
of its having been built by a thrifty individual, who confined his
expenses to the most absolute necessaries of life. Whenever his
eye caught anything that tickled his palate, but which he con
sidered that he could well do without, he would go up to the
vender of the article, and bargain hard until he obtained his own
price, then he would walk away home. There, taking out the
money he would have had to pay had he bought the article, he put
it in a separate box saying, " Just-the-same-as-if-I-had-eaten-the-
thing !" By this method he economized in ten years sufficient
money to build a mosque of fair size and structure.
What came from this strange race of soldier-nomads and
zealous religionists, or, rather, from the creed of Islam established
by the camel-driver, of which they were the champions; what
came through that " pure religion revealed by God to Abraham' ' —
may be observed more in detail as we particularize in the next
chapter. How far the adoption of Monotheism — with an authorita
tive prophet, from whom there was no appeal — alienated the faith
of the East from the Law of Moses and the teaching of the Naz
arine, will appear in the sequel. If we should judge of a faith by its
successes, it has a wonderful virtue. When the Prophet began his
sacred war in a. d. 623 by rallying 314 followers against double
that number of Meccans, who could have dreamed that in the
beginning of the eighth century his disciple, Abderrahman, would.
rally a force of 400,000 men upon the plains of distant France; or
that in the middle of the iifteenth century another devotee should
conquer the finest physical and commercial centre and political
and religious capital of the world ! Who could have believed
then that this faith, under successive Caliphs, would refine the
nations of Europe by the introduction of mathematics and chem
istry, chivalry and art, and dominate over at least 160,000,000
people of our earth ! True, this faith may have allured, by its per
suasive and sensuous appeals, and glowing and extatic visions of
the unknown world, and it may enchant the pagans of Central Asia

MOSQ UES IN AMERICA . 2 I 7
and interior Africa, but was it less potent amidst the culture, gal
lantry and intellect of Europe in its mediaeval centuries ? Now,
what do we perceive on the horizon of its future ? In the regions of
the Soudan, Borneo, Ghana, Tookroor, Boosa, Berissa, Wawa and
Kiama, even unto Timbuctoo, it is the established religion. It
encroaches upon the domains of European powers in western
Africa. Its schools and mosques light the pathway of the De
Brassas and Stanleys through undiscovered countries. Fresh
tribes flock to the standard of the Prophet, whose religion to
them is better than — none.
If this faith is failing in Europe, if Algiers and Tunis succumb
to France, if Persia should yield to Russia, Egypt to England,
Morocco to Spain, Zanzibar to Portugal, and Abyssinia to Italy,
the Mahometan still holds the sacred cities of Jerusalem and Mec
ca, and the water-ways of the Bosporus and the Euphrates. He
predominates in Asiatic Turkey, Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Ara
bia, a great part of India, and bids fair to control what there may
be of religious faith in Africa. Surely this is a spiritual realm,
extensive enough for one Father of the Faithful.
The Sultan, rather in his capacity of Caliph, once asked the
author :
"Are there no Mahometans in America? Could I build a
mosque for them in your country ? ' '
My response was rather nebulous and diplomatic. I replied :
" I am not aware of any Mahometan body of people sufficient
to constitute a mosque. If there be any, I should find them in —
in — in — San Francisco. Your Majesty, under our institutions,
would find no impediment to building a mosque, for our code
allows the exercise of any religion. It tolerates even the atheist.
In this regard it is based on the liberalities of Your Majesty's
'Capitulations,' which forbid any constraint from the state upon
the conscience and soul."
Thereupon I mentioned to the Sultan that I had read some
accounts of the bad treatment of the Moslems in the south of
Africa, from the bigoted incursions of the Dutch or English.
He made a memorandum of the incident, as a faithful Caliph
of an extensively accredited faith.

CHAPTER XIX.
RELIGIONS OF THE EAST : MOSLEM.
It will not do for the Puritan, the Calvanist, or the Catholic —
Anglican or Roman — or any one who boasts of the simplicity
of his Christian faith, to criticise too harshly the faith of the
Mahometan. The Calvinist wiirfind much to encourage him by
the study of the Koran. So with any one who believes in the
unity of God and discards the Trinity. The mind which accepts
the idea that God gave tables of commandments unto Moses, at
the time of the destruction of the golden calf, cannot well deny
that there was something sublime in the divine rage of the icono
clastic Moslem when, with cimeter and battle-axe, he destroyed
the splendid effigies of Greek art and the colored pictures of tjie
Egyptian tombs and temples.
Without preface, let me give the main prescripts of the code
of Mahomet. The Rev. Dr. Hamlin's book, "Among the Turks,"
has a fair summary. If the code be not worthy of a God, it is
worthy of a prophet It is as follows :
The first article asserts the fundamental principles and sources
of knowledge, and the creation of the world ; and the second,
that the Creator of the world is God, Allah ; that He is one and
eternal, that He lives, is all-powerful, knows all things, fills all
space, sees all things, is endowed with will and action ; that He
has in Himself neither form, nor figure, nor bounds, nor limits, nor
number, nor parts, nor multiplications, nor divisions, since He
is neither body nor matter ; that He exists of Himself, without
generation, dwelling-place or habitation ; outside of the empire
of time ; incomparable in His nature as in His attributes, which
without being exterior to His essence, do not constitute it.
Thus God is endowed with wisdom, power, life, force, understand
ing, regard, will, action, creation, and the gift of speech. This
speech, eternal in its essence, is without letters, without char
acters, without sounds, and its nature is opposed to silence.
These teachings of the Koran — its angels and genii, its peris
and fates, its heaven and hell, its predestination, death and

SENSUOUSNESS OF THE KORAN.

219

resurrection, and the duties of its devotees to spread the doctrine
of Islam, with its pious practices, such as prayer, ablution, fast
ing, pilgrimages, abstinence from unclean meats and from intoxi
cating liquors — these elevate, almost as much as the promised
sensual enjoyments depress, the Mahometan religionists. Is it
owing to some infirmity of our nature that the body of mankind
are predisposed to the enjoyment of sensuous ideas ? These
ideas, in a large measure, control their action, and give to it
impulsive force. When, therefore, Mahomet charged his devotees
to pursue the infidel even unto death, with force and arms, he
gave them roseate promises. While these promises have done
much to promote the temporal power of his religion, they have
done more to forward its dissolution. The inquiry has .often
been made, "What part of the Koran promises paradise to the
triumphant Mahometan ? " I make the best quotation possible as
an answer :
"The whole earth will be as one loaf of bread, which God
will reach to them like a cake ; for meat they will have the ox,
Balam, and the fish, Ndn, the lobes of whose livers will suffice
70,000 men. Every believer will have 80,000 servants and sev
enty-two girls of paradise, besides his own former wives, if he
should wish for them, and a large tent of pearls, jacinths and
emeralds ; 300 dishes of gold shall be set before each guest at
once, and the last morsel shall be as grateful as the first. Wine
will be permitted, and will flow copiously, without inebriating.
The righteous will be clothed in the most precious silks and gold,
and will be crowned with crowns of the most resplendent pearls
and jewels. If they desire children, they shall beget them, and
see them grow up within an hour. Besides the ravishing songs of
the angel Israfil, and the daughters of paradise, the very trees
will, by the rustiing of their boughs, the clanging of bells sus
pended from them, and the clashing of their fruits, which are pearis
and emeralds, make sweetest music."
To the sensuous races of the East there are here promised,
perhaps, more of the delights of a paradise than are afforded by
sitting on a cloud tuning a golden harp. Besides, it has a sub
jective humor that can be appreciated by those whose domestic
felicity is not all that could be wished for in this worid.
Although the religion of the Turks has many strange fea
tures, it is a mistake to suppose that it is verv distinct from

^

2 20 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
that of other civilized nations. Whatever we may think of its
founder ; however unacceptable may be some of his doctrines ;
how much soever he may have drawn from the Mosaic and the
Christian writings, in matters pertaining to the Unseen World ; »
yet, as a scheme of religion, influencing as many if not more
millions of people than Christianity, is it not worthy of being-
considered by other peoples than those immediately in the neigh
borhood of Turkey ?
The ordinances of the Mahometan faith are strictly observed
wherever the Prophet is accepted. A Mahometan, when the
time arrives for his prayer, has no business with worldly affairs
until his prayer is ended. To him no earthly business can com
pare with the duty of prayer.
The tourist does not see Mahometanism unless he passes over
the Galata Bridge, into old Stamboul. There, in and around the
mosques, if not in the latticed houses upon the Sea of Marmora,
he will meet the old Turk, who retains his ancient dress and
ideas. His head still swells with an immense turban, and, what
is most striking, it is uniformly of a green color. Those who
wear a turban of this color are Emirs. They are the descend
ants of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, who was the wife
of Ali, his disciple. In one respect these green-turbaned Mos
lems are like the ancient Egyptians — they carry the certificate of
their descent upon their persons. Nearly every Mahometan in
thirty is an Emir. He is entitled to respect. He may enter
exalted callings. Any career is open to the Emir. The Emirs
have a chief. He has sovereign authority. He decrees punish
ments. As the Janizaries kept alive the military enthusiasm of
the Turk, so the Emirs arouse the religious spirit of Islamism.
This simple faith believes in the angels and in the Scriptures.
It teaches immortality, resurrection and judgment It shakes
hands across the abyss with John Calvin. It is fatalistic to the
extent only of holding fast to God's absolute decrees and pre
determination both of good and evil. Mahomet did not split
hairs, like Calvin ; so he accepted the predestination of evil as
well as of good. He was logical. Leaving dogma, his logic
believes in good works and religious observances. Its first test of
belief is prayer. Mahomet called prayer "the pillar of religion
and the key of paradise." In this view wherein does he differ
from the Christian ? He would accept no submission without

MODEL MOSLEM PRA YERS. 2 21
that -' key." Prayer may be silent, except on great occasions in
the mosque, when it is repeated aloud. It is no new thing to pray
toward some particular sacred spot. Before the Christian era
religion had its points of the compass, and before the veiling of
women, and their exclusion from the mosque, or, at least, their
isolation behind the lattices in the mosque, other and Christian
churches shut the women as closely behind their jalousies as
the Turk shuts his behind those of the harem. The Mahome
tan idea is that the presence of women in the mosque during
worship is incompatible with prayer, as their presence might
inspire a different kind of devotion than that which belongs to the
faith. The first chapter of the Koran is a prayer. It is a prayer
which is held in great veneration by the Mahometans. It is
considered the quintessence of the Koran. It is often repeated.
It is the Lord's Prayer of the Moslem. There has been much
discussion as to its recondite meaning, for, be it known that there
have been many contentious theologians in the Orient ever since
the time of the early fathers. The fathers defined closely the
true meaning of certain words and phrases upon which an eter
nity of happiness or misery depended. This prayer to which
I refer is a sample of the very best meaning of this wonderful
Mahomet: "Praise be to God, the Lord of all creatures! The most
merciful, the King of the Day of Judgment ! Thee do we wor
ship, and of Thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right
way, in the way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, not
of those against whom Thou art incensed nor of those who
go astray.'' The foregoing are the words of the Moslem common prayer,
without any of its wearisome repetitions, which protract it to a
great length. Some portions are repeated three, six and even
nine times at each course. The same repetitions are to be found
in our Christian Litanies.
This prayer will remind the reader of the Psalms of David :
" O God most high, there is no God but God. Praises belong
unto God. Let thy name be exalted, O great God. I sanctify
thy name, O my God. I praise thee; thy name is blessed, thy
grandeur is exalted, there is no other God but thee. I flee to
Thee against the stoned demon, in the name of God clement and

2 2 2 DIVERSIONS OP A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
merciful. Praise belongs to God, most clement and merciful.
He is sovereign of the Day of Judgment. We adore thee,
Lord, and we implore thy assistance. Direct us in the path
of salvation, in the path of those whom thou loadest with thy
favors, of those who have not deserved thine anger, and who
are not of those who go astray. O God, hear him who praises
thee. O God, praises wait for thee. O God, bestow thy saluta
tion of peace upon Mahomet and the race of Mahomet, as thou
didst upon Ibrahim and the race of Ibrahim, and bless Mahomet
and the race of Mahomet, as thou didst bless Ibrahim and the
race of Ibrahim. Praise, grandeur and exaltation are in thee
and to thee."
While praying, the pious Mahometan uses his chaplet of
beads. This habit was, no doubt, derived from the Buddhist or
Christian ceremony. It is an aid and ally in devotional exer
cises. Edwin Arnold, in addition to his exquisite "Light of
Asia," has written a book of poetry containing ninety-nine lyrics,
strange in form and wierd in spirit. Each one is garnished with
a quotation from the Koran, and each one of the ninety-nine
' beads on the chaplet, or string, which the devout Mahometan
carries, recalls one of the divine attributes and names of Allah.
.These chaplets are sometimes made of pearls, coral and amber.
Sometimes fragrant wood constitutes their material.
The most solemn sight connected with any religious ceremony
that I have ever witnessed was the one upon which I looked from
the gallery of St. Sophia. Below me were thousands of human
beings in regular lines, all looking toward Mecca while they
prayed. Not a single suppliant connected with this devotion
failed to bow his head to the floor, as by one impulse, when the
shrill chant of the priests died away among the pillars and in the
dome of the vast temple. Occasionally there was a pause, as
between the summons and the judgment.
Sometimes I have wished that the Greek and Turkish priests
were more harmonious in their chanting. Their wild, shrill, deliri
ous outcries seem to have been inherited from some ancient
pagan orgies and not from the gentle religions of later times,
which voicelessly enthrall, by their subtle effect, the spiritual
nature. The Turk has at least an outward show of piety. If he be a
good Moslem, his life is regulated by his faith. He moves with a

THE MUEZZINS CALL. 2 2^
humility which belongs to a reflective mind. He may be rich
and live in luxury within his konak or palace, but when he enters
the mosque there is for him no worldly pomp. He is in the
presence of the unseen God. Pie prays without ceasing, aligned
with others, some of whom may be beggars, water-carriers or
charcoal venders. Here he feels that he is but one of the atoms
among the many which make up a remarkable and infinite con
gregation of souls. Certainly such humility is in strange con
trast with the complacent luxury of Western churches, with their
richly cushioned pews, their carved pulpits, their gilt-edged
hymn-books and their sometimes pompous clergy.
The call to prayer is a picturesque feature of this remarkable
faith. Morning, noon and night that shrill cry echoes over these
wonderful cities and waters:
"Most High! There is no God but the one God! Mahomet
is the Prophet of God! Come to prayer! Come to the Temple
of Life!" This speaks of a devotion which must have its response from
the other world. It is the daily, almost hourly, recognition of
God by a whole people who acknowledge his Everlasting Name
and their dependence on his Providence. No need here for " put
ting God in the Constitution," for the One God is as much their
king as he was to the Jews in the days of their theocracy.
It is a singular phase of the Oriental life in the " Land of the
Sun" that the day begins when the sun goes down. Then it is
the first time of prayer; the second is two hours after sunset, and
the third is at the dawn. Each time the chanting of the muezzin
from the minaret calls the faithful to prayer. The most
important time of prayer is at noon. The Sultan recognizes this
when he comes out to the mosque on Fridays. The fifth and last
prayer is about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It is determined when
away from human reckoning, as in the desert, by the length
of the shadow either of a stick, a dromedary, or other object.
The shadow must be of the right length; that is, of its own height
upon the ground.
Alms-giving is a chief part of this faith. It is a part of all the
religions coming from the Orient. It is not peculiar to Mahome
tanism. Begging is a passport to every place, from the Sultan's
palace to the seventh heaven of paradise.
Fasting also is an observance of the Mahometan. His Lent,

2 24 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
from one moon to the other, is kept with religious regard while
the sun is above the horizon. How often have I looked over and
seen the wonderful beauty of Stamboul in that Ramazan season, '
when the mosques are burning their countless lamps, and from
minaret to minaret there is a profusion of brlHiant lights ! It is
during this month that the worship of the Prophet is celebrated
with a splendor only limited by Moslem skill in illumination.
When the electric light shall appear in the East, to penetrate the
dark places of Stamboul and shed its refulgence through St
Sophia, Suleiman, and the other grand mosques and structures of
the capital — with their immense interiors filled with surging and
kneeling forms and bowing foreheads — the splendors of the
Roman ritual in St. Peter's, and the glories of Westminster Abbey
and St. Isaacs, will be eclipsed before those of Islam.
I will not now undertake to compare with others the festal
days and rites of the Turkish religion, nor the obligation of pil
grimages, nor the ablutions with water, nor other fundamental
practices of this faith ; nor can I augur as to the abstinence from
wine and strong liquors, and the other restrictions which Mahomet
evidentiy copied, if he did not improve, from the Levitical law ;
but I think it will not be unprofitable to allude to one of the gen
tlest features of Moslem life — it is kindness to the brute creation.
This seems an institution of the East. It is derived, doubtiess,
from the Egyptian or Hindoo ideas of metampsychosis. Every
bird that washes its wing in the Bosporus, every donkey which
with sorrowing step, works up the hill of Pera, loaded to the
earth ; the cooing ring-doves of the mosque, which feed freely
from the open grain boats of the Straits; the horse with thunder
in his neck and gentieness in his eye; and the ox which treadeth
out the corn in the provinces — all would, if they could, speak of
Moslem kindness toward the brute creation, which becomes
mutual, blessing as it is blest.
The usury which is practised by the Armenians and others, and
eating the flesh of swine, or of any animal that has died a natural
death, are as severely avoided by the Mahometan as they were by
the ancient Hebrews. Gaming too, is not in vogue. They have
their dice and their backgammon, and many, other games for
amusement, but not one for gain.
When the adherents of the Greek orthodox Church make com
plaints of the Mahometan, because he does not love art, and be-

CIRCUMCISION OF MOSLEM CHILDREN.

225

cause he will not have pictures, only mottoes from the Koran, in
the mosque, it would be well to ask the orthodox people as to the
quality of the painted and smoked pictures in the Greek churches,
as well as their vaunted miraculous qualities. If it be a question
of superstition, let the miracles of their holy spiings and wells be
analyzed, with the chemistry of the water. It would be well also
to ask them, when they come to the remarkable attributes of the
priesthood, why relics still perform such cures as are attributed to
them. I have been myself at a witching monastery, in a lovely
grove near the castle of the Seven Towers in Constantinople,
where the Greeks pass certain holidays in dancing and praying.
I have seen the miraculous fish in its fountain. It is an old and
trite story about the last Emperor Constantine and the broiled
fish which leaped out of the pan and swam about in the water,
in order to fulfill a prophecy about the fall of the city.
It is impossible to give a very minute description of the Ma
hometan rite of circumcision. It is more sedulously regarded in
the Moslem economy than in the Hebrew, from which it was
taken. The ceremony calls for grand preparations at the konak,
or house, of the family. All the Faithful within the range of the
family acquaintance are invited to the feast which accompanies
the ceremony. The sons of the poor families of the vicinage are
collected to undergo the rite, on the same occasion with the rich
man's sons. Was it not Montesquieu's father who made a beg
gar the god-father of his famous son, to remind him all his
life that the poor were his kith and kin ? The incident has an
Oriental tinge.
Only one sex ventures into the salon where the circumcision js
to take place ; the other is excluded pro tempore. Behind bars and
curtains, and with a superfluity of rich dresses, jewelry and confec
tionary, the ceremony begins. Upon the little mattress coverlets
are laid down, stiff with golden embroidery; then the silk or satin
pillows are strewn about profusely ; toys, oranges and jDresents of
all kinds, including fruit and flowers, artificial and real, are brought
to attract or distract the attention of the children. Wild Arab
music appeals to the ear, for the same purpose. The cymbals
clash, the tambourines rattle, and the drum adds its thumping
unmelodiousness. One after another the young children, aged
from five to ten, are borne into the appointed chamber. A com
pany of actors or mountebanks, in fantastic array, with musical

226 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
instruments, fill up the swelling scene. All this happens before
the dinner, which is served at sunset. The dinner does not differ
from the general Turkish dinner, such as I have described, where
no knives and forks appear ; but there is more than the usual
richness and abundance of viands, whose climateric is the famous
pilaf. When the spectacular ceremony begins, various modes are
improvised by both women and men to peep into the sacred cham
ber. While it is going on, the buffoonery, jugglery and jesting
proceed, together with the performance of a Turkish band, which
adds to the clatter and distraction.
Strange people, strange religion, and strange ceremony ! yet
there is, doubtless, a sanitary value in the practice; although it
may be also a strictly religious rite.
The contest of Mahomet for supremacy in Arabia and the
East, considering his environment, was lofty and sublime. It
matters not whence he received his dogmas ; he certainly em
braced the salient points of Theism, Judaism and Christianity.
Whatever may be believed of his revelation to-day, it has a
theological sublimity. What though his doctrines inspired his
followers with predatory impulses ! They were promised a para
dise, if they fell battling under the banner of the Prophet. How
could it be otherwise, than that the Crescent should wax over a
church militant, and the symbols of another religion wane in the
Semitic East ? The decree announced by Mahomet for the pro
mulgation of his faith, to slay all those who refused to accept it,
has long since passed away from the Mahometan mind, as it
'has from that of the Christian. The student may read Hallam's
History of the Middle Ages. He may ponder upon the revolu
tions which followed the Ishmaelitish religion. He may analyze
the passions and temper of the Arabic race ; but one thing can
not be ignored, and that is : that the " People of the Book," as
they were termed in the Koran — the four uni-theistic sects, the
Christians, Jews, Magii and Sabeans — were recognized everywhere
by the Mahometan with toleration. Can it be said that all these
sects tolerate the Mahometan ? Would any of them draw the
sword against him, because of his creed ?
There is more toleration among the Turks than we have been
accustomed to believe existed. They tolerate many sects in their
•own creed. There are several orders of Dervishes. These are

MOSLEM FAITH-CURE.

227

distinguished one from the other by the canons of their faith.
There is a sect that is materialistic. There is another that
worships the Virgin Mary ; and still another that believes in the
Saviour and the twelve apostles. Each of the various orders has
some peculiar characteristics, but all are tolerated. Some are
known as howling and some as dancing Dervishes. It is impos
sible with the pen to represent the former, but the pencil does
something in the sketch to give an idea of the latter. Of course
there is more or less of superstition in connection with the

DANCING DERVISHES.
Dervishes. They pretend to cure diseases. So far as I could see,
with my fallible sight, they succeed in the mind cure. I have
seen long rows of patients lying horizontal — babies and soldiers
among them — and the Dervish walking upon their bodies. They
arise — well. Is it faith that cures, or what ? These Dervishes
are versed in astrology. They have quiet, and perhaps I might
say cunning, manners. They are skillful enough never to be
enmeshed in the intrigues of the court or the cabals. How
rarely have I read of any scandals connected with the Mahometan

2 28 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN lURKE Y.
religion ! Our own journals are full of scandals in the Church,
both in America and elsewhere. Only one such Moslem instance
can I recall : at Broussa, in a certain quarter, there was a Tekk^.
This is a name for a quasi mosque. Its Imam yielded to certain
temptations of the flesh and the devil, and made his place the
resort of Bacchanals and worse. It was not long before he was
removed, for such practices cannot exist in a Mahometan country.
The Turk has always admired intellectuality, or the "Men of
the Book." One of the most celebrated of the Mussulman
saints had a tender attachment for a Christian monk. At the
request of the Mussulman, they were buried together. Their
twin-tomb still exists at Iconium. The Christian head of the
Iconium monastery possesses a privilege superior to that of all
the Ottomans, viz., the girding on the sword of Osman, the Con
queror, upon the Sultan, in the mosque of Eyoub, upon his acces
sion to the throne. There are evidences in history of Christian
nuns asking and receiving the kindly regard of the Moslem ;iand,
at times, for some adornments in the shape of carpets for their
chapels. A few months ago, there were reciprocities, presents
and assurances of friendship between the Sultan and the Pope.
Those who inveigh so strenuously against the alleged bad
faith of the Moslem, must remember that there are always two
sides to a question, and more especially when it is one of a relig
ious quality. In the year a. d.. 1444, after the sword had been
flashing over the Balkans, and through Greece and Asia Minor
and along the Bosporus and the Danube, it was agreed that it
should be sheathed and have an absolute rest for ten years. The
Hungarians, through their leaders, among whom their grand cham
pion, Hunyades, was prominent, gave the sanction of soldieriy
honor to this truce. Cardinal Julian also confirmed it, by the
rites of the religion of which he was an exalted representative.
It was signalized by oath upon the Gospels — the most sacred oath
possible to a Christian. On the part of the Turks, the Sultan
Amurath, in the presence of his civil and ecclesiastical servants,
swore to the pact upon the Koran. This peace was stricriy
observed by the Turk. How was it observed by the Christians ?
As they never intended to keep it, they broke it Its breach was
made on the plea that there was no faith to be kept with the
Infidel. In disregard of its sanctity, the Christian Powers move
upon the East. It seems as if the Ottoman would be swept- out

MOSLEM REVENUE FOR CHRIST 229
of Europe. But what is the result ? The Moslem starts the
old war-cry. He has the morale of the issue. In every mosque
there are solemn appeals to Allah. The Sultan leads the hosts
of the Faithful against the invaders at Varna; and at the head of
the Janizaries, on a truce and in a field between the two armies,
he reads aloud the violated treaty. It is held aloft upon a
lance-head within sight of the Christian armies, and with a thun
derous voice the Sultan utters this most singular invocation :
" Oh, Thou insulted Jesu ! avenge the wrong done unto Thy
good name, and show Thy power upon Thy perjured people."
It is not necessary to say upon whose banner victory alights.
The perjured are routed. The Turk is dominant over the field.
The Moslem faith has, by this victory, a new lease of power and
a larger dominion ; and that too, through the intercession, as
believed at the time, of the Jesus Christ to whom the Moslems
appealed. The Mahometans have always reverenced our Saviour as a
great judge and prophet. Even at the great mosque in Damas
cus, which I have seen, there is a minaret dedicated to the name
of Jesus Christ.
As one among many examples of the toleration of the Sultan
toward those who do not accept the Mahometan religion, I may
state that, in the Ministerial changes recently effected, Agop
Pasha, a non-Mussulman, became Minister of Finance. He was
chosen for his merit as a financial administrator, which had been
well attested, by the orderly methods of his books, as a man of
business, and his clear conception of the fiscal future of Turkey.
To what extent are the Turks fatalists ? I might answer this
question by saying : Not to any greater extent than our own
Calvinists. I might illustrate this by many examples of their
mode of making their calling and election sure. They have a wild
invocation in battle. It is this : " Heaven is before you ; hell
behind you ; fight bravely, and you will secure the one ; fly, and
you will fall into the other ! " There is not much fatalism in this,
for if the soldier be destined for Hades, then, according to
Calvin, not all his heroism can save him from perdition.
I recall another instance — not without some shuddering. I
made a visit one Friday to the howling Devishes. A company of
this sect was established below the hills of Pera on the north-
-west. To reach the spot we had to pass through the neigh-

230 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
borhood of Kassim Pasha. It is the home of pestilence. It
is known by the unpleasant and malodorous name of the
Cloaca Maxima. It was such places that made the plague and
the cholera a scourge in earlier days. Since leaving Constan
tinople I have heard that the authorities are taking drastic
measures in regard to filling up this terrible drain. The en
lightened Turk, like the enlightened predestinarian believes in
" using means " to work out the decrees, and to give them the
most favorable turn he can. Another example of this kind is
their life-saving service and their quarantine.
Sad indeed are the accounts which passengers, anxious to
reach Constantinople, give of the quarantine at Cavak, at the
head of the Bosporus. They are compelled, without distinction,
to pass their time on the vessel at this station, in sight of
all the wonders of the Bosporean waters and shores, upon which
they are forbidden to land. The Sultan makes no discrimination
between those who are his own Ministers or those who are foreign
Ministers, and the ordinary traveler. All alike are placed in the
common jail-bounds of the ship, waiting for the lapse of the four
days of confinement. Sometimes our launch used to ply around
the quarantined vessels with our healthy flag flaunting, and
many were the anxious inquiries from American tourists, to
which we responded as best we might, when we could not go on
board to welcome our countrymen. Indeed, these vessels were
in one sense prisons — without, however, the meagreness of prison
fare, or the healthy labor of the galley-slave. I have heard some
wails about the way the precepts of Vatel, if not those of Soyer,
were disregarded. The question of quarantine is really neither a
culinary nor an international question. It is a question of "Kis
met." One of these prisoners once said to me :
" I can understand how a noble murderer at the gibbet should
feel a pride in the moral example which his death would afford,
but the imprisoned victim of a quarantine has no such consolation.
Its hindrance vindicates no principle ; it affords no example ; it
can have no pretense to any prophylactic character."
Yet, Mahometan quarantine defies Fate. It laughs at Kismet
It scowls at Calvin and the Koran. The Turk undertakes by this
imprisonment, more strict than that of any other port of Europe,
to make provision for the future of this life, at least. He does not
trust to fate, nor practice on the precept, " what is writ, is writ"

IRVINCS TESTIMONY TO MAHOMET. 2 ''I
Could the author of this religion be the gross impostor he has
been often represented ? Did he fabricate his faith for purposes
of ambition and universal conquest ? A wealthy merchant, he
drops into a bankrupt ; and leaving Mecca a ruined man, he has
but one thought, and that is to build a little mosque in which to
harrangue his hearers. He has rare dashing spirits to aid his
career. When most exalted by his conquests and power, he is
most simple and humble. He dies poor.
"He left," says Irving, "neither a golden divan nor a silver
dirham, neither a slave nor a slave girl, nor anything but his gray
mule, Daldal, his arms, and the ground which he bestowed on
his wives, his children and the poor."
Here is self-abnegation without alloy. At the death of a
beloved child, he is resignation itself. In the article of his own
death he proclaims his hope of salvation through the compassion
of Allah and his trust in His mercy. Does he bow before his
Destiny as if it were written in the everlasting decree ? Yes.
Not a word escapes him in derogation of his uniform teaching
and his inviolable faith. In summing up his character, I adopt
the language of our countryman, Washington Irving, who made
the life of this strange, prophetic man a study for his gifted pen :
"It is difficult to reconcile such ardent, persevering piety
with an incessant system of blasphemous imposture, nor such
pure and elevated and benignant precepts as are contained in the
Koran, with a mind haunted by ignoble passions and devoted to
the groveling interests of mere mortality; and we find no other
satisfactory mode of solving the enigna of his character and con
duct than by supposing that the ray of mental hallucination which
flashed upon his enthusiastic spirit during his religious ecstasies in
the midnight cavern of Mount Hara continued more or less to
bewilder him with a species of monomania to the end of his
career, and that he died in the delusive belief of his mission as
a prophet"

CHAPTER XX.
THE ORTHODOX GREEK CHURCH — ITS ORIGIN.
Adherents of the orthodox dogma consider their Church
as the great trunk from which the other branches of the Christian
faith have sprung. To ascertain how far this belief is sustainable,
it is necessary to cast a short retrospective glance into the history
of Christianity from the time of its foundation, a. d. 33. In that
year the first church was established in Jerusalem by the apos
tles. Two years later came the persecution against Stephen and
his followers. The apostles were then obliged to quit Palestine
and betake themselves to the adjacent countries. Philip the
Deacon went into Samaria proclaiming Christ and the gospel.
Peter, having traveled through Judea, made a vast number of con
verts, and among others the Roman Cornelius and his family. In
A. D. 36-40 the first church was founded in Antioch. There for
the first time believers in Christ were called Christians.
The work begun by the apostles was steadily continued by
their successors. As far back as a. d. 170, Christianity had
already spread over a large portion of Asia. It included Persia,
Armenia and Arabia. In the latter country the gospel was inter
preted by Origen and Pantenos, the great teachers of the School
of Catechism of the new faith founded in Alexandria. Much
success was obtained in Neo-Cesaraea by Gregory the miracle-
worker. His last words before dying were to express satisfaction
at leaving only as many infidels (17) as he had found believers
on his coming into the country. In Africa, and especially in
Alexandria, Christianity was largely taught. Here it found
many converts. But the firmest hold obtained by the new faith
was in Europe. There the apostle Paul taught with much
success. It is most painful to read of the fearful persecutions to which
the apostles and their successors were subjected while carrying
on their great work of preaching the gospel. The Jews were the

PERSECUTIONS OF EARL Y CHRISTIANS. 233
first to rise against them. They were irritated to the highest
degreeby the teachings of our Saviour developing so rapidly through
the exertions of the apostles into a regularly established faith.
Of the persecutions inflicted on the apostles, prominent are the
cruel imprisonment of Peter and John, the stoning of Stephen, the
Protomartyr, the butchering of Jacob, the son of Zebedee, and the
throwing of Jacob from the height of the temple.
Other cruelties were perpetrated on the rest of the apos
tles and their followers. These continued until the taking of
Jerusalem in a. d. 70, when the Jewish power and influence
seemed to be effectually destroyed. For a time the Jews were
obliged to cease their persecution of converts to Christianity.
They had their own misfortunes. The respite, however, was
but very short, for their inveterate zealotry again found vent,
and in a yet more cruel manner, on the occasion of the Jewish
insurrection in a. d. 132. The revolt was headed by the false
messiah Varhova. On his defeat by the Roman Emperor Adrian
the Jews ceased to exist as a nation.
To these persecutions of the primitive Christians succeeded
those by the pagans. In every country into which Christianity
was introduced its converts were subjected to every imaginable
species of cruel treatment. Their houses and property were pil
laged, and themselves put to death after suffering the most agoniz
ing tortures. Many Christian communities with their elders
were obliged to abandon their homes and seek refuge in caverns
in the desert and in woods. Even there they were exposed to
hunger, thirst, cold and to being devoured by wild beasts. The
fiercest of these pagan persecutions were during the reigns of the
Emperors Nero and Domitian. Traianus, who succeeded the last-
named emperor in a. d. 98, issued an edict against all secret
societies. This was aimed against the Christian religion mainly,
which at the time had to be practised in secret. The Christians
having thus come under the ban of the law, their persecution
became even more oppressive and systematic than before. Yet
Tinder sufferings the most terrible, those early converts to the
¦Christian faith displayed a heaven-born courage and perseverance
of which it would be impossible in this short sketch to convey
any accurate idea.
Rome had then the whole world under her rule. As emperor
succeeded emperor, each one appeared anxious to surpass his pre-

234

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

decessor in the excesses inflicted against Christians in every part
of the empire. The most violent of these persecutions took place
in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, a. d. 284-305. Instigat
ed by his brother-in-law Galerius, Diocletian issued in a.d. 303 a
decree ordering all Christian churches to be pulled down and the
Holy Scriptures to be destroyed. This was followed in a. d.
304 by another edict, to the effect that all Christians who refused
to worship and sacrifice to idols should be forthwith put to death.
The consequences attending this latter order were fearful. In Asia
Minor alone 15,000 Christians were massacred in one single
month. In Egypt 140,000 were put to death. It is computed
that 700,000 died in prison. These massacres continued until
the year a. d. 310, when Galerius, being attacked with an incurable
disease, issued in a. d. 311 a decree ordering all further persecu
tions of the Christians to be stopped, and desiring them' to pray
to their God for the salvation of his soul.
This was the condition of the Christians until a. d. 311.
Constantine the Great was then proclaimed emperor in Brittany.
He succeeded his father Constantine Chloros. In a. d. 312, the
new emperor declared war against the Roman Maxentius. The
latter was a bitter enemy of the Christians. His power was
utterly crushed by Constantine, who thus became sole emperor
and absolute monarch of the West. From the moment he mounted
his father's throne he showed a marked leaning toward the
Christian religion. Upon taking the reins of the government of
the East and West into his hands his first care was to give the
Church of Christ his powerful protection. He suppressed with a
strong hand the evils to which it had for three whole centuries
been subjected. He extended to it every posfjible support that,
under the circumstances, the state could then afford.
In A. d. 323, after his victory against Licinius, Constantine him
self embraced the Christian faith. Consequently it became the
state religion throughout the Roman empire. The property that
had been confiscated was returned to the churches. He also, by
special decree, dedicated Sunday to the worship of God. He
ordered that day to be kept as a day of rest. Later on Constan
tine removed his seat of government from Rome to Constantino
ple, or Byzantium, as it was then called. He rebuilt the city and
adorned it with many exquisite works of art and a large number
of magnificent churches.

THE HIERARCHY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 235
Upon this adoption of Christianity as the religion of the
Roman empire, it became incumbent upon the state to establish
rules for the government of the Church. Reforms were intro
duced in quick succession. These tended to constitute the Church
a distinctly separate establishment, having no direct communion
or relations with the state. The latter, however, undertook
to make all necessary provision for the proper maintenance
of the religious communities. Livings were appropriated to
the use of the churches. It was made lawful for churches to
accept legacies. Church property was made inalienable, and the
clergy were freed from taxation. Legislation upon ecclesiastical
matters, both temporal and spiritual, was made over to the
local, or in cases of supreme importance, to CEcumenical synods,
or assemblies of the superior clergy. The resolutions of these
bodies were invariably submitted to. They received the sanction
of the Emperor. They thus became invested with the authority
of law. Finally, the right of trying the clergy, whether for
religious or criminal offences, was invested in the bishops, and
ecclesiastical courts were established for the purpose.
The hierarchy, or graduating offices in the Church, were allowed
to remain at this time as origiftally ordered by the apostles. The
clergy were elected. This appears from their name in Greek, mean
ing -"vote." All ecclesiastics before receiving ordination were
chosen by vote. They were divided into three ranks : First — the
bishops, who were and are still considered as the immediate suc
cessors of the apostles, and who were also styled shepherds,
vicars, popes and patriarchs, according to the different countries
in which they resided. Second — the elders, or priests ; and Third,
the deacons
Originally all the bishops ranked equally. But as each circle
from the centre of which the Christian faith was being prop
agated began rapidly to widen, it was found that the bishops who
occupied those few centres did not suffice for the wants of the
daily increasing communities. Consequently power was given
them to appoint, each in his own radius, other bishops, acting
under them. This arrangement rendered it necessary that some
distinctive title should be given to the bishops at great centres, to
distinguish them from their subordinate bishops. They were
accordingly at first styled Proti. This title was subsequently
— on the occasion of the first CEcumenical synod held in Nicaea

236 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
— changed to Metropolitan. The latter title came from the
centres from which the other Christian communities had received
admittance to Christ's church. The Metropolitan Church was
looked up to by their communities. It was held in estimation
as that of a mother of their own churches. The first to receive
the title of Metropolitan were the bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch,
Alexandria, Ephesus, Corinth and Rome.
These Episcopal sees were also styled apostolic thrones, as
having the gospel direct from the apostles. The most promi
nent among these Metropolitan or Episcopal sees were those
of Antioch, Alexandria and Rome. To toe latter see all the
Churches of western Europe were subjected. The Bishop of
Constantinople — the capital of the great Roman empire^received
by courtesy the title of Patriarch. At the time, however, he did
not actually rank higher than the other Metropolitans. Then the
latter only recognized as their Master and the Head of the whole
Church, the Saviour Jesus Christ.
It is maintained by the orthodox that the first symptoms
of a desire for supremacy came from Rome. It was vehe
mently resented by the other prelates, and especially the
successive Patriarchs of Constantinople. It culminated in the
separation of the Western Church from the Eastern. All the
Christian communities dependent upon the Metropolitan see of
Rome were then collectively styled the Western, in distinction
from the Eastern Church. This separation, or schism, took
place in the year a. d. 1054. The Papal see of Rome was at the
time held by Leo IX., and the patriarchal throne at Constan
tinople by Michael Kiroularius. The latter had been for
some time most vehemently protesting against the innovations, as
he regarded them, which were being daily introduced into the
Western Church by the Popes. He considered them as in direct
violation of the ecclesiastical laws laid down by the aposties and
the successive synods. He denounced the manner in which the
observations addressed on this subject to the Popes, by himself
and the other Metropolitans, were received. Being apprised of
a new " violation " of the precepts of the Church on the part of
Rome, he sent by the Bishop of Bulgaria a letter to John, Arch
bishop of Trania, in Italy, in which he bitterly complained of and
condemned the Pope's conduct as schismatical.
When the bearer of this letter reached Trania he found there

ATTEMPTS TO UNITE EAST AND WEST.

237

an envoy of the Pope, Cardinal Humbert. The envoy, having
read the Patriarch's letter, sent a translation of it to Pope Leo.
The latter, in reply, wrote a long missive to the Patriarch. He
denied the right of the Patriarch to question or condemn the
conduct of the Church of Ronje, "whose actions could be
judged by no mortal." The Pope ended his letter by calling
upon the Patriarch to hasten to repent and beg forgiveness, for
his sin, " lest he be incorporated in the tail of the dragon who
had swallowed up the third part of the orbs shining in the
heavens." Notwithstanding the tone of this letter, both the
Patriarch and the emperor replied in very conciliatory terms.
The former urged the necessity of a perfect accord among the
churches ; the latter directed that the Pope should send an
embassy to Constantinople, to discuss the different questions
with the local synod.
In compliance with this request the Pope sent an embassy,
with Cardinal Humbert at its head. Immediately on its arrival
in Constantinople the embassy was admitted to audience of the
Emperor, to whom Cardinal Humbert handed a letter from the Pope.
This contained many bitter complaints. The foremost was that the
Patriarch should have presumed to adopt the title of CEcumenical
Patriarch. On leaving the Emperor, Cardinal Humbert paid an
official visit to the Patriarch. He omitted to give the Patriarch
the usual brotherly salutation or greeting. With a stiff bow he
handed him a copy of the letter he had already delivered to the
Emperor. The Patriarch, after attentively perusing the letter and
examining the seals attached thereto, began to entertain a suspi
cion. It was to a certain extent confirmed by the inconsistent
utterances of some of the members of the embassy. He sus
pected that the letter was a forgery, and that Humbert had
no special powers from the Pope. He concluded that the envoy
was simply the organ of a conspiracy concocted by a Byzantine
duke by the name of Argyros, who had settled in Italy. He
thought the object was to derive political advantages from a
separation of the Churches. He therefore refused to hold fur
ther parley or communion with Humbert and his followers. In re
venge, Humbert, on July 16, a. d. 1054, went to the Church of St.
Sophia and placed on the communion table an aphorism excommu
nicating the Patriarch, the bishops and the communicants collec
tively of the Eastern Church.

238 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
The Patriarch, on being apprised of this extraordinary pro
ceeding, called immediately a meeting of bishops. It was then
and there resolved that a petition should be addressed to the
Emperor denouncing Cardinal Humbert and his suite as impostors,
and demanding their expulsion from Constantinople. The peti
tion was duly presented to the Emperor. He replied in writing,
stating that, having gone carefully into the matter, he was himself
inclined to believe that there was some intrigue at the bottom of
the affair. But, having no positive proofs, he felt bound to treat
Cardinal Humbert with the respect due to a person invested with
the office of ambassador. Consequently, he would not consent
to the Patriarch's demand for the expulsion of the mission. On
receipt of this reply of the Emperor, the Patriarch Kiroularius
again called together the synod of bishops present in Constanti
nople at the time. A minute was drawn up in condemnation of
the proceedings of the embassy. The synod, by way of retort,
placed under anathema both the proceedings and all those who
might approve or adhere to them. This minute was afterward
signed by all the other prelates of the Eastern Church. This
served to consummate the complete separation of the Church of
Rome from the Church of Constantinople.
Besides this struggle for supremacy, the primary causes which
led to the separation were certain alleged reforms introduced
into the original doctrines of the Church by the Popes of Rome.
These reforms the churches in the East refused to admit. The
Eastern Church condemned them, as being opposed to the teach
ings of Christ and the apostles. The principal among these
reforms, introduced long before the severance between, the
churches became accomplished de facto, were:
The insertion of the word "filioque" in the Nicsean
Creed. The substitution of unleavened for leavened bread in the
celebration of the Lord's Supper.
The belief in the existence of the " purgatorium " as a half-way
house between earth and heaven, or hell; and
The infallibility of the Pope.
These are still the essential points of difference between the
Church of Rome and the orthodox Greek Church. The latter
regards herself as remaining firm to all the traditions of the
Church originally established by the aposties, down to the most

GREEK DOGMAS. 2 "' g
minute particulars. Its doctrines are to be found in a number of
articles of faith. These comprise:
The Nicaean Creed, so called from its having been drawn up
by the first CEcumenical synod held at Nicaea in a. d. 325.
The Creed of St. Athanasius, which establishes two different
but inseparable dogmas — that relating to the Holy Trinity, and
that explaining the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.
The Holy Catechism of the orthodox Church, as taught in
their schools.
The other dogmatic teachings contained in the canons of the
ten topical synods; and
The canonical epistles of the elders of the Church, which
were fully discussed and confirmed by the Sixth CEcumenical
Synod. Moreover, a full exposition of the doctrines of the Eastern
orthodox Church is to be found in the Patriarchal epistle, which
was approved as a true confession of the orthodox faith at the
synod held at Jerusalem in a. d. 1672. A copy of this, bearing the
signatures of all the orthodox prelates, was sent in a. d. 1723 to
England, by way of reply to the overtures made by the Protestant
clergy for a closer intimacy with the Eastern Church.
The spiritual government of the Eastern orthodox Church is
in the hands of the CEcumenical Patriarch, assisted by a synod of
twelve bishops, chosen on the demand of the different sees subject
to the throne of Constantinople. The title of Patriarch comes, of
course, from the Old Testament. It was originally conferred on
some of the most eminent only of the prelates of the Church. It is a
token that they were worthy to be held in the same kind of respect
as the ancient Patriarchs mentioned in the Scriptures. The first
prelate to receive the title of Patriarch was the Bishop of Antioch,
in Syria. It was subsequently conferred in succession on the
Bishops of Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Constantinople.
The bishops of Rome and Alexandria, before they received
this title, were styled Popes. On the separation of the Churches
they retained only that of Pope.
Before the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches
there were, therefore, five prelates of the whole Catholic Church
bearing the title of Patriarch. The right to bear this title was
duly confirmed to each of these five prelates at the first and
second CEcumenical synods. The following is the order of pre-

240 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
cedence then settled: Rome first, styled " first among equals;"
Constantinople second ; and then Alexandria, Antioch and
Jerusalem. These five Patriarchs were likened by some of the Byzantine
theologians to the five senses of the body. This may be seen from
a letter addressed by Peter, Patriarch of Antioch, to the Bishop of
Venice, in which he says :
" It is nowhere written, and consequently inadmissible, that
the Bishop of Venice shall be styled by the title of Patriarch, for
we only know of five Patriarchs in the whole world : those of
Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. For,
as our body is governed by five senses, so the Lody of Christ,,
our Holy Church, is governed, like unto the five senses, by the five
patriarchal thrones."
After the severance of the Churches, when the Bishops of
Rome dropped the title of Patriarch, they went back to the origi
nal title of Pope. The Patriarchs, after this, numbered only four,
until the sixteenth century. Then Russia, under the Emperor
Vladimir, having entered the fold of the Eastern Church, the
number was raised to five by the consecration of a Russian pre
late, with the title of Patriarch. He was to govern the Church
of Russia and rank fifth in the order of Patriarchs, i. e., after the
Patriarch of Jerusalem. This Russian patriarchate continued
until the year a. d. 1700. Then the tenth Patriarch, Adrian by
name, having died, Peter the Great suppressed the patriarchal
office. He appointed instead^ a synod of bishops to govern the
Russian Church. This change was effected with the full consent
of the Patriarch of Constantinople, in whom, after the separa
tion from the Church of Rome, the supreme power of the
Eastern Church had become vested.
The Church of Constantinople, or Byz?ntium, was established
by the apostle Andrew. He built the first house of worship there,
in the place then known as Argyropolis. It is now called Foon-
dooklo; or, literally, hazelnut village. It is situated on the Euro
pean shore of the Bosporus, and is the third village on the west
bank, and next to Tophane, which, as an artillery factory and
depot, is in contrast with this peaceful association of its neighbor.
In A, D. 36 the same apostle constituted Byzantium an Episco
pate. He appointed his disciple, Stachis, as first bishop. Of him
mention is made by the apostie Paul in his Epistie to the Romans.

THE ARYAN HERESY. 24 I
Paul consecrated him with his own hands. Stachis governed the
Church of Byzantium for sixteen years. He was suceeded by Onis-
simos, who died in a. d. 53. From this period up to the building
of Constantinople by Constantine the Great, there were eighteen
successive bishops of Byzantium. Simultaneously with, or, rather
in consequence of, the removal of the capital of the Roman em
pire to the shores of the Bosporus, the Bishops of Constantinople
assumed the title of Patriarch. The first to do so was Metro
phanes I. Two years before, he had succeeded Bishop Trovos in
the Episcopal see of Byzantium. The patriarchate of Metrophanes
I. was marked by the holding of the first CEcumenical synod. It
was, by order of the Emperor Constantine, assembled at Nicaea
in A. D. 318 to pronounce judgment on the heretical teachings of
Arios. Arios was a native of Libya and a distinguished mathe
matician. Before this he had gone to Alexandria, which was still at
that period a great seat of learning. There he was ordained a bishop
by Peter, the Holy Martyr, Bishop of Alexandria, and was deemed a
very important acquisition to the Church. Soon after his ordination,
however, he most painfully surprised and alarmed his friends by
attacking, both by word and writing, the Church in its most
fundamental doctrines. He caused it to shake to its very
foundations. In the midst of the prevailing enthusiasm for the sublime
religion of Christ, which had now spread over the whole of the
civilized and even over a great part of the uncivilized world,
Arios came forward to cast a gloom over the Christian world by
denying the divinity of Christ. He stamped upon the doctrine
relating to the Holy Trinity. For these teachings, then regarded
as blasphemous, Arios was excommunicated by Peter, Bishop of
Alexandria. But soon after he received absolution, and was again
admitted to the Church by Achillas, the successor of Peter in the
bishopric of Alexandria. Achillas also ordained Arios as High
Priest of Alexandria, and made him a professor of sciences.
During the Episcopate of Achillas, Arios remained perfectly
-quiet He showed a sincere repentance for his former transgres
sion. No sooner, however, was Achillas dead than he again com
menced his heretical teachings, and this time with such force and
argumentative persuasion that he soon began to draw to his side
many converts, even among the higher clergy. Seeing this, and
fearing the evil might take still larger dimensions, the new bishop

242

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

of Alexandria convoked a synod of bishops from different parts
of Egypt and Libya. They solemnly excommunicated Arios and
his followers. Meanwhile the dissensions in the Church arising
out of this proceeding on the one hand, and the anti- Christian
teachings of Arios on the other, came to the knowledge of the
Emperor Constantine. He first despatched the Bishop of Con-
trouva, Osios by name, to Alexandria with a mission to effect a
conciliation with Arios. This mission was a failure. The Emperor,
unwilling to resort to extreme measures against the Arionites, in
his quality of "summus pontifex"of the Church, sent word, ac
cording to the historian Photius, to every town and country, over
the whole world, for all the bishops and elders of the Church to
assemble in a sacred synod in the fortified town of Nicaea. The
purpose was to hear the arguments brought forth by Arios, and to
pronounce sentence accordingly.
The synod was held in a. b. 318, and, either by a noteworthy
coincidence or by premeditated arrangement, this was also exactly
the number of clergy who took part in the deliberations. Among
the prelates present were the Pope Sylvester of Rome, Alexander,
Patriarch of Alexandria, together with St. Athanasius, Eustace,
Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Spiridion, Bishop of Treithuntos, St.
Nicolas, the miracle-worker, and Paul, Bishop of Neo-Caesarea.
The latter attended in a dreadfully mutilated condition. His
lower limbs had been burnt a few years previously by order of
the Emperor Licinius. Many others of those present also bore
marks of the martyrdom to which they had been subjected in
the reigns of the emperors immediately preceding Constantine
the Great.
The Patriarch of Constantinople, Metrophanes I., was unable
to attend the synod, owing to his old age. He was at the time
over one hundred years old. He was represented by one of his
suffragans. The convocation was presided over by the Emperor in per
son. The deliberations lasted about a month. The most noted ¦
speakers on the side of Greek orthodoxy were Eustace, Patriarch
of Antioch, and Osios, Bishop of Controuva. On the side of
Arios were ranged Eusebius, Metropolitan of Nicomedia,
Paulinus, Bishop of Tyrus, the Metropolitan of Caesarea, and
others. Both parties contended with zeal and ability in support
of their respective doctrines. Ultimately the result of the dis-

SUPPRESSION OF ARYAN CONTROVERSY.

243

cussion was to deprive Arios of many of his late supporters. The
august assembly, with only a few dissentient voices, solemnly
confirmed the sentence of excommunication already passed upon
him and his followers. As the only and very simple answer to the
teachings of Arios, the synod drew up the creed of the Chris
tian religion, known as the Nicaean Creed. The synod, before
dissolving, determined also the manner of fixing Easter Sunday
in each year. They passed other resolutions having reference
to the temporal and spiritual government of the Church.
Notwithstanding the sentence of excommunication passed by
the synod, and other subsequent endeavors for its suppression,
Arianism, while yet in its cradle, took deep root Some years
later it had grown so much that in a. d. 371 the Arionites, favored
by the then Emperor, Oualentus, obtained by a large majority the
election of one of their own sect as Patriarch of Constantinople.
They then proceeded to drive the orthodox clergy out of all the
offices of the Church, and even out of their principal places of
worship. This state of things, however, only lasted a few years.
Upon his accession to the Byzantine throne in a. d. 378, the
Emperor Theodosius the Great took up the cause of orthodoxy
with a strong hand. He succeeded in stamping out the Arion
ites. He thus put an end to the dissensions in the Church in
respect to their doctrines.
In this difficult work the Emperor was very ably assisted by
two of the most brilliant luminaries of the Eastern Church, St.
Athanasius, some time Bishop of Alexandria, and Gregory, the
theologian. The latter, on the dismissal of the Arionite Patriarch
elected in a. d. 371, was appointed to the patriarchal see of Con
stantinople. This appointment was conferred by the Emperor with
out regard to the law concerning the election of Patriarchs and
other prelates of the Church. It was characterized by some of the
bishops as anti-canonical. Theodosius therefore called together,
in the year a. d. 381, in Constantinople, a convocation of bishops,
which received the name of the Second CEcumenical Synod. This
assembly confirmed the nomination of Gregory to the patriarchal
thrcne. It afterward occupied itself with re-asserting the doctrines
laid down by the first synod. It affirmed the triumph of ortho
doxy against Arionism and other teachings regarded as heretical.
Though the nomination of Gregory was confirmed by the
synod with only a few dissentient voices, the dissenters, towards

244 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
the close of the sitting, received large reinforcements. They
ultimately developed into so strong an opposition that the
Patriarch found it necessary to tender his resignation. This was
accepted. Then the synod, at the request of the Emperor, sub
mitted a list of names for the office to the Emperor. The latter
had reserved to himself the right of choosing from them the new
Patriarch. How the successor to Gregory obtained the patriarch
ate is an incident worth relating.
It had been arranged that each member of the synod should
send in the name of the prelate in whose favor he wished to vote.
Thereupon a list was to be drawn up of those who had obtained
the largest number of votes. This list was to be submitted to the
Emperor. The list being in due course presented, the Emperor's
choice fell on a person named Nectarius. This was a surprise to
all. The Emperor's attention was attracted to Nectarius because
his name appeared last on the list He was altogether unknown
to the Emperor.
When the name of the Patriarch-elect was communicated to
the members of the synod, they began to inquire among them
selves as to the identity of Nectarius. It then came out that not
only was he not a member of the synod, but neither a priest nor
yet a member of the Church. He had not even been baptized !
He was, in fact, a native of Tarsus. He had held for some time
the office of praetor, or prefect, in Constantinople. Being anxious
to return to his own country he had called, previous to his
departure, upon the Bishop of Tarsus. His object was merely
to ask for letters of introduction, which would help him on his
way back. The Bishop had been for some time pondering as
to whom he should give his vote for the patriarchate. The
venerable aspect of Nectarius so impressed the Bishop that
he at once determined to vote for him. Tarsus, being on terras
of intimate friendship with the Patriarch of Antioch, prevailed
upon that prelate, who at first laughed at the idea, to place
Nectarius' s name on the list. When, however, it came out that
the nominee was not even a true Christian, there was great com
motion among the clergy. Notwithstanding this, the Emperor
remained firm to his choice, and ultimately Nectarius was bap
tized, consecrated, and unanimously elected Patriarch of Con
stantinople in the month of May, a. d. 381.
Nectarius remained at the head of the Church of Constantinople

CHRYSOSTOM -THE GOLDEN-.MOUTHED. 245
for sixteen years. He was succeeded on his death by John the
Chrysostom, or Golden-mouthed. Chrysostom, while yet vicar of
the see of Antioch, had obtained a world-wide fame as an emi
nent preacher and writer. He was called to the patriarchal throne
by the Emperor Arcadius in a. d. 398, on the recommendation
of the all-powerful eunuch Eutropius. John, by his eloquence
and exemplary life, soon drew to himself in Constantinople, as he
had done in Antioch, the entire sympathies of the great multi
tude. From the court itself he for some time continued to
receive many tokens of the honor and respect in which he was
held. His gift of persuasion, and the influence he had acquired
over both the people and their rulers, was particularly demon
strated on the occasion of the disgrace of Eutropius. Sentence
of death had been pronounced by the Emperor upon this eunuch.
John succeeded in saving his life. Eutropius, hearing of his
condemnation, sought refuge in the cathedral church of St.
Sophia. Here the guards were sent to arrest him. The eunuch
was anything but a favorite of the people. They were ready to
drag him from the sacred edifice. They were about to do this,
when they were suddenly stopped by the Patriarch. The latter,
mounting the pulpit, and pointing with outstretched hand toward
the late powerful Minister of State, who lay cowering and
trembling at the foot of the great altar, preached extempore, and
in the best Greek style, that famous sermon beginning with the
words "Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas." The Patriarch
ended with an appeal to those in power and to the people not to
violate the sanctuary of the Church. He warned them to lay no
violent hands on the sinner who had sought refuge therein. His
pleading had the desired effect. Eutropius was allowed to go free.
John's frequent allusions in his sermons, in condemnation of
the immorality and extravagance prevailing at that time among
the higher classes and those about the court, at length brought
about his downfall. His preaching became so irksome to those
against whom his strictures were addressed, and even to the court
itself, that gradually a strong party was formed against him.
This consisted of those high in office. Nearly the whole of the
nobility were arrayed against the Patriarch. They determined
to obtain his removal from the patriarchal throne and from Con
stantinople. In this they succeeded ; but how ? By abusing him
to the Empress Eudoxia. They charged him with having in one

246 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
of his sermons spoken in disrespectful terms of her vanity.
It is the old story. The woman, more than the empress, re
sented the affront. She immediately began a correspondence
with the Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus, as to the necessary
steps to be taken for the deposition of John. There was danger of
arousing the indignation of the people and those of the clergy
who were devoted to the Patriarch.
By Theophilus' s advice, in answer to the Empress's appeal, a
meeting of bishops was called. These were chosen entirely from
among those who had grievances against John. The meeting was
held in the year a. d. 403, under the presidency of the Patriarch
of Alexandria at Chalcedon. John was summoned to attend, to
hear the charges and to defend himself against them. John
refused to obey a summons proceeding from an ecclesiastical
court which had been convoked without his knowledge. He
was thereupon deposed from the patriarchal office for dis
obedience. The imperial sanction was obtained to this sentence, through
the influence of the Empress. She exercised absolute sway over
her husband, the weak-minded Arcadius. The execution of the
sentence was entrusted to a palace functionary. This officer
broke by night into the Patriarch's palace and arrested him.
The latter was conducted with all speed over the Bosporus to the
Asiatic shore of the Black Sea. Here a further journey inland
was stopped. On the morrow, when the news of what had taken
place became known among the people, they rose up in a body
and demanded the instant recall of John. The army itself took
the side of the people.
The Empress and those about her at first refuse to entertain
the demand of the multitude. The Empress sends a body of sail
ors, whom the Patriarch of Alexandria had brought with him, to
quell the insurrection. The people, however, fight with deter
mination. They soon obtain the advantage over the armed
force sent against them. They march against the palace, with
the intention of breaking into it. The Empress takes fright. She
asks Arcadius to order the recall of John. This happy news
quickly spreads among the people. There is a general rush
to the shore. The Bosporus is rapidly filled with hundreds of
ships. Boats full of people go to meet their beloved Patriarch.
And thus John of the Golden-mouth is brought back in triumph

CHARACTER AND ORATORY OF CHRYSOSTOM.

247

and placed on the patriarchal throne in the midst of general
rejoicing. After this the Patriarch John occupied the see of Constanti
nople for another year. Again he afforded matter of displeasure
to the court. This was in the year a. d. 404. This time he was
definitively deposed. His enemies had prepared for this. They
had employed foreign troops to frustrate any action of the people
in his favor. John was first exiled to Concousos, in Armenia, and
thence he was sent farther inland to Pityus. It was on the journey
to the latter place that he died, November 14, a. d. 407, at the
age of sixty.
Four hundred and fifty of this Patriarch's sermons have been
preserved. They are convincing proofs of the deep knowledge
and the shining rhetorical powers possessed by this eminent pre
late of the Greek Church. John, along with his two contempora
ries, Gregory the theologian, and Basil the Great, Bishop of
Caesarea, are honored as saints by that Church. It has bestowed
upon them the distinguished appellation of the three great lumi
naries of the Church.
I once asked a professor of Greek in the East :
"What is the distinguishing feature of Chrysostom' s elo
quence ? Why does he come down to us as the ecclesiastical
Cicero?" The reply was :
" His descriptions of the grandeur of the soul, and its quality
of permanence and immortality ; these furnish most frequently
the theme which, like molten gold, came glowing from his elo
quent lips. And, with it all, his earnestness and honesty gave
emphasis to his terrible phillipics and his lofty ideas."
It is hard for any one — scholar or churchman — in the West
to recognize how this Patriarch is still revered by the orthodox
devotees and scholars of the East
John, the Golden-mouthed, was succeeded on the patriarchal
throne of Constantinople by Arsakius, the brother of the Patriarch
Nectarius. He was highly respected, both for his many vir
tues and his very old age. He died a year after his election.
Atticus was elected in his place. The only distinguishing char
acteristic of his patriarchate is that he continued uninterruptedly
to occupy the throne for twenty consecutive years. This is the
longest term on record. Next after Atticus came Sismius I. He

248 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
died two years after his election. He was succeeded in a. d. 428
by Nestorius. The latter was surnamed " The Heretic," because of
his adoption of a new doctrine closely allied to that put forward
by Arios. According to this doctrine, known as the Nestorian
Creed, there is a clear distinction between the human and divine
nature of Christ It admits that the Virgin Mary is to be revered ;
but only as the mother of Christ. It repudiates any claim of sanc
tity for her as having given birth to God himself or the Son of God.
The reason given for this is, that the human nature adopted by
Christ on his coming into the world was only the outer garment
or temple within which his divine nature was enclosed. In plainer
terms, the impression it was intended to convey by this doctrine
was that Christ was only human. It admits that he was endowed
with supernatural gifts and power. Still, he was only human, and
not co-substantial with the Father.
The gradual propagation of this doctrine naturally caused a
violent commotion among those anxious to uphold the precepts of
orthodoxy as originally laid_down by the two CEcumenical synods.
A division ensued in the Church. The greater part of the clergy
of Constantinople, the Patriarch of Antioch, and the Emperor
himself, Theodosius the Less — so called in contrast to his grand
father, Theodosius the Great — openly avowed this creed and sided
with Nestorius. In defense of the orthodox dogmas were ranged
the Patriarch of Alexandria, Kyrillos, with his chapter, and the
entire Church of the West. The latter succeeded in enlisting to
their side the sister of the Emperor, Pulcheria. During her
brother's minority she had been acting as regent. She still con
tinued to exercise great influence in the conduct of state affairs.
Though only a very young woman, she had, during her regency,
displayed ' a wonderful talent for government. She had given
many proofs of very sound judgment. Her efforts in this instance
to persuade the Emperor to withdraw his support from the Nesto-
rians proved unavailing. She pleaded that at least a synod of
ecclesiastics from all parts of the world might be summoned to
consider the question at issue. This, she said, would put an end to
the existing anarchy in the Church. Her plea was successful. On
November 19, a. d. 430, an imperial edict was issued summoning
all the bishops in every part of the world to assemble at EphesQs
in the week before Pentecost of the following year. The convo
cation is known as the Third CEcumenical Synod. It met on the

THIRD AND FOURTH SYNODS. 249
22d of June, a. d. 431. There were present about two hundred
bishops from different parts of the East, including Egypt. The
Pope of Rome, Celestin, was unable to attend personally. He
sent three exarchs to represent himself and the other prelates of
the West,
The presidency of this synod was given to the Patriarch of
Alexandria, Kyrillos, who, as already stated, was at the head of
the orthodox faction. The debates lasted only a few days. They
ended in a resolution, carried by an overwhelming majority, con
demning the new doctrine as heretical, and Nestorius and his fol
lowers were placed under anathema. In pursuance of this resolu
tion and anathema, Nestorius was shortly afterward deposed. He
was exiled to an African oasis, where he died.
Hardly, however, had the commotion to which this eventful
occurrence had given rise subsided when another heresiarch. Archi
mandrite Eutychius, appears on the scene. His doctrine is
even more pronounced than that of Nestorius in opposition to the
canonical precepts of the Christian religion. He enlarges upon the
idea of Nestorius as to the two different natures of Christ. He
declares that the divine nature of Christ had undergone a com
plete change through the process of incarnation.
To condemn in an authoritative manner this new doctrine, it
became necessary to have another convention. Accordingly the
Fourth CEcumenical Synod was convened by the Emperor Mar-
cianus, the husband of Pulcheria, the Emperor Theodosius the
Less having died the year before, in a. d. 450. This synod
assembled at Chalcedon, now known as Kadikeui, on October 8,
A. D. 451. It is on the point almost opposite Stamboul, on the
Asiatic side. The synod was attended by 630 bishops, or, accord
ing to some writers, by 520. The Eastern Church attaches great
importance to this synod. It was the most largely attended coun
cil in the history of the Church. Weighty resolutions were
passed by it The doctrine of Eutychius was unanimously con
demned as heretical and blasphemous. The synod then proceeded
-to deal with other important matters. It passed a resolution
intended to suppress abuses of the monkish orders, by forbidding
•them to take any active part in matters ecclesiastical or political.
It passed a measure confirmatory of that already adopted by the
Second CEcumenical Synod, conferring on the Patriarch of Con
stantinople the right to rank second after the Pope of Rome in

250

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

the hierarchical order of the Church. The reason for this is
stated in Article 28 of the Acts of the Fourth Synod, as follows :
" Constantinople being the second capital, the new Rome, of
the empire, it behooves that the bishop of this city should have
the place of honor next after the Pope, to whom the first place
belongs by right of Rome being the place of residence of the
Kings." This latter part of the wording of the resolution was at the
time opposed by the clergy of the West present in the synod.
They objected to it as laying down the rule that the first place of
honor was given to the Pope, not by any special ecclesiastical
right, but simply because Rome happened to be the capital of the
empire. It followed that if at any time Rome were to be deprived
of this honor — which actually did take place when the Eastern
and Western empires were united some time after — the precedency
of the Popes would become extinct and precedence be given to the
bishop of the new capital.
It is essentially this article that gave rise to the dissensions be
tween the Churches of the East and the West. These culminated
in the schism, or separation, to which reference has already been
made. The synod in question granted to the Patriarch of Constanti
nople full jurisdiction over the churches of the whole of Asia,
Thrace and the Black Sea. This jurisdiction is maintained up to
the present time. It should here be stated that the bishopric of
Constantinople was originally a mere dependency of the Metro
politan see of Heraclea. It was in a.d. 318 that Constantine the
Great removed his throne to Constantinople, and then the patri
archate was constituted into an independent see. The right,
however, was reserved to the Archbishop of Heraclea of ordain
ing each newly appointed Patriarch. Up to the present day the
Patriarchs are, as a general rule, chosen among the Metropoli
tan and bishops of the Church. This dispenses with the necessity
of ordination. But it is still the custom, as a memorial of his
former office, for the Metropolitan of Heraclea to hand the patri
archal crozier to the Patriarch-elect on his enthronement. Hera
clea is now a little station for steamers on the southern coast of the
Black Sea, about 120 miles from the Bosporus. There are 300
Turkish and but seventy Greek houses. It hardly rivals Nicaea as
a place for hunting snipe, and certainly not Chalcedon for Chris-

THE TITLE OF "CECUMENICAL.

251

tian culture, and these — with Constantinople — are the eminent
seats of early ecclesiastical renown and power.
Though enfranchised from his subjugation to the see of Hera
clea in A. D. 318 the Bishop of Constantinople enjoyed no special
privileges. According to strict ecclesiastical canons, he did not
rank any higher than the other bishops of the East or of the West.
The title of Patriarch and his right to the second place after the
Pope in the hierarchical order was hitherto accorded to him by
courtesy merely. It was a courtesy in compliment to the court
by whom he was, as a rule, appointed.
The Fourth CEcumenical Synod, however, raised at once the
dignity of the patriarchal throne of Constantinople into one of
great eminence. It brought under the patriarchal sway all
the churches in the East, with the exception of those of Alex
andria, Antioch and Jerusalem. These only were allowed to
preserve their independence. Furthermore, the synod confirmed
to the Bishop of Constantinople his right to the title of Patriarch.
It also conferred the same title on the three other independent
sees mentioned.
The annex of CEcumenical to the title of Patriarch was
unknown at this time. It was for the first time adopted by the
Patriarch, John II. , on his election to the see of Constantinople
in A. D. 517. The annex was confirmed by a local synod ; that is,
a convocation of the Bishops subject to the patriarchal throne.
This was in the patriarchate of John IV., in a.d. 582. This pro
ceeding gave rise to vehement protestations on the part of Rome.
It greatly conduced to widen the gulf between the Churches of
the East and the West
The Pope contested the right of the Patriarch to the annex of
CEcumenical. He did this on the ground that this annex con
veyed an idea of predominance over all the other prelates of the
Church. He was naturally anxious to preserve the title to him
self It had been duly accorded to him by. previous synods.
The Patriarch, on the other hand, and the whole of the clergy
of the East, regarded the annex as bearing a different meaning from
that attributed to it by the Pope. According to them the term
CEcumenical, as employed by the early Church, was synonymous
with that of Christian. This view was on the theory that Chris
tianity was destined to extend over the whole of the inhabited
earth. The Greek, word otnouiievtbz, the root of which means a

252 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
house, could, in this sense of the inhabited world, only mean Chris
tianity. It was in this sense that it had been assumed by the Patri
arch of Constantinople. In support of this interpretation they
referred to Basil the Great, John the Golden-mouthed, and Greg
ory, the theologian, to whom successively in former times the title
of CEcumenical,!. e.. Christian teacher, had been given.
The Greeks insist, and they are supported by several European
writers, that it was merely in this sense that the annex in question
was assumed, and continued to be held until the final rupture with
Rome. This interpretation was adhered to by the Greeks up to
the time Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks. Then
it was that the Patriarch became the supreme head of the Chris
tian community in the East. The title CEcumenical came thence
forth to be regarded as carrying with it the interpretation objected
to by the Popes of Rome. It was then regarded as expressing
a real predominance over all the other clergy of the orthodox
Church. While on the subject of titles, it may be interesting to give
the full titles — or encomiums, as they are styled in Greek — of the
different Patriarchs. These are read in church when any one of
the Patriarchs is officiating in person. The titles are announced
by one of the deacons, just before the reading of the Epistle for
the day. They are chanted by the two choirs successively. The
ceremony is quite scenic and impressive. The Patriarch is in full
canonicals, with mitre and crosier. He^ is surrounded by the
bishops and the clergy who are taking part in the service with
him. He stands on a throne by the Communion table and blesses
the congregation. The encomium appropriate to the CEcumenical
Patriarch is very simple and short, running thus :
"Of  (the name of the Patriarch), the most holy
and CEcumenical Patriarch, God have mercy and grant long life."
That of the Patriarch of Jerusalem is as follows :
"Of  (the name), the most blessed Patriarch, of
the Holy City of Jerusalem and of the whole of Palestine, Syria,
Arabia, beyond the Jordan, Cana of Galilee, and of the Holy
Sion, God have mercy and grant long life."
The Patriarch of Antioch is prayed for thus :
"Of  (the name), the most blessed and holy
Patriarch of the great city of God, Antioch, of the entire East,
our Lord and Master, God have mercy and grant long life"

PRA YERS FOR THE: PA TRIARCHS. 253
But the most curious piece of composition is the encomium
given to the Patriarch of Alexandria. The following is a literal
translation: "Of  (the name), our most holy and blessed
father and shepherd. Pope and Patriarch of the great city of
Alexandria, Libya, Pentapolis, Ethiopia, and of all the land of
Egypt, father of fathers, shepherd of shepherds, high priest of
high priests, thirteenth of the apostles and judge of the earth, God
have mercy and grant long life."
How ceremonious are these grand officials of the Eastern
Church, and how tenacious of their titles, and especially that of
CEcumenical, may be seen by their signatures. The signatures of
two of these Patriarchs I present in fac-simile. One is that of
¦"Simeon, by the mercy of God Archbishop of Constantinople, New
E,ome, and CEcumenical Patriarch.'' He was the Patriarch in a. d.
1474, before Columbus discovered America. The other is that
of " Metrophanes, by the mercy," etc. He was of the year a. d.
1567. The necessities of this volume require these signatures to
be diminished in size. They are mammoth in extent in the orig
inal — in fact, two or three feet long — and the cabalistic letters
measure an inch each. The features of the Patriarchs — for I
have seen two of them — are as imposing and classic as the sign-
manual is grand and gigantic.
The Patriarchs of the Greek Church, like the Pope of Rome,
are elected ; but the Patriarch for five years only. Ihey are
chosen by the clergy in common with the laity. Joachim IV.,
the recent Patriarch, was a man of splendid presence and scholar
ship. I have seen him going up and down the Bosporus in his
caique, the admired of all admirers. Much dissension seemed
imminent, pending the election of his successor, but it was suc
cessfully accomplished with the aid of the — Moslem and the Sul
tan ! The election took place on the 12th, or, in the new style,
the 24th, of January, 1887. The delegates had been elect
ed amid much contention. About the virtues and faculties
of Monseigneur Dionysius the Fifth, late Metropolitan of
Adrianople, who was elected, I shall speak in the next
chapter. If the question be asked, What to us in America is Joachim,
or Dionysius ? I would answer, Are Gibbon and the history of the
great Greek Church obsolete with our people ? Have we forgot-

- \

y

X

[TRANSLATION.]
Simeon, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and the CEcumenical Patriarch
., ¦> ' err
FACSIMILE SIGNATURE OF THE CECUMENICAl, PATRIARCH, SIMEON J., A- p. I474.

s
i CoobII

ELECTION OF PATRIARCH

255

ten the grand history of this Church, which has given so much
of the fatherhood of the Church to our own era ?
Its personnel may not attract our Western world, but its rela
tion to the early eras of Christianity should give to each organ
of its wonderful polity a reflected and splendid effulgence.
Preliminary to the election of the Patriarch is the issuing of
the Bouyourouldon. It would require the assistance of the Grand
Logothete, Aristarchi Bey, the younger brother of the former
Turkish Minister to the United States— who is the translator for
the Greek Patriarch — to render this word into English. It signi
fies a document to be read before the holy synod. When this
document is read, the Monseigneur replies in that synod in Turk
ish, for his majesty, the Sultan and his Ministers. Then a meeting
of the synod and the council is held at Phanar, to arrange for
the election of a new Patriarch. In doing this they pursue the
old patriarchal method coming down from the ancient times, as
fixed by the councils which once met in this patriarchate.
Is it not strange, in the light of Paul's Epistles, to read the
names of the diocesans to which the Bouyourouldon is addressed
— under the sanction of the Caliph and ruler of Islam ? How
pregnant it is with ecclesiastical wrangles, canons, synods, con
ventions and history ! Here are some of the names :
Caesarea, Ephesus, Cyzicus, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Chalcedon,
Dercos, Salonica, Adrianople, Amasia, Janina, Broussa, Bosnia,
Crete, Trebizond, Phillipopolis, Smyrna, Mytilene, Varna, Scio
and Uskub. Here, in these localities, the Gospel of Christ was
first preached. Here his churches were first organized. Here,
through the centuries down from the beginning of our era,
remained unquenched the candles of the Eastern Church, that
claims to be the only orthodox expounder of the Gospel of the
New Dispensation.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE ORTHODOX GREEK CHURCH — ITS ARCHITECTURE, SYNODS,
PROGRESS, CONDITION, AND SEVERANCE FROM ROME.
In the preceding chapter the writer has given an outline of the
history of the Eastern Church from its foundation up to the early
part of the sixth century, and especially of its councils and con
troversies. Passing over minor incidents, the next important event in the
history of the Eastern Church of which we have record, is the
building, or, more properly speaking, the restoration, of the church
of St. Sophia. This was done by the Emperor Justinian in a. d.
532. The church was first built by the Emperor Constantine the
Great, in a. d. 326. He dedicated it to the supreme Wisdom,
Logia, of God, Jesus Christ. It is from this that the church derives
its name of St. Sophia. In a. d. 358, either because it was found too
small or had suffered by earthquakes, the church of St Sophia
was rebuilt on a larger scale by the Emperor Constantine. In a. d.
404 it was set on fire by the people in revenge for the exile of the
Patriarch, John the Golden-mouthed. The roof and part of the
chancel were then destroyed. It is stated that the throne of this
Patriarch and his pulpit were saved from that fire. They are still
preserved in the present patriarchal church at Constantinople.
St. Sophia was again restored by the Emperor Theodosius in a. d.
415. It was again set on fire and entirely destroyed at the time of the
revolt of " Vmca," in a. d. 53 i. This was in the reign of the Emperor
Justinian. On the suppression of that revolt and the re-establish
ment of order m his capital, Justinian decided to restore the church
of St. Sophia. To him is due the exquisite style in which we .see
it at the present day. The work of restoration was confided by
the Emperor to two architects, Anthemius Tralliainus and Ysidore
the Melisian. This unparalleled production of their genius
speaks, and will continue to speak, their fame for ages. While
these architects and engineers were drawing up their plans and dis-
256

BUILDING OF ST. SOPHIA.

257

cussing the various scientific questions connected with the work,
the Emperor, with that energy and activity which formed the
principal traits of his character, was busily occupied in getting
together the necessary material and having the space cleared for
the erection of the wonderful edifice. It is related that immense
sums had to be paid as compensation to owners of the property
that had to be pulled down. As an instance, we are told that a
widow of the name of Anne had a piece of property valued at
eighty- five litres of gold — equal to about twenty thousand dollars.
This she persistently refused to give up for less than five hundred
litres of gold, or one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
The matter was reported to the Emperor. He arose at once and
proceeded in person to the widow's house, with the object of per
suading her to reduce her demand. When the woman heard of
Justinian's approach she ran out to meet him. She fell at his feet.
She there and then made a free grant of her property, on one con
dition only. It was this: that at her death she should be buried
beneath the entrance to the new church.
Meanwhile messengers were despatched in different directions
by the Emperor to procure the finest colored marble and other valua
ble material. All the museums and treasuries of the state were
ransacked for works of art and treasures of every description with
which to adorn the church. It was intended to be a lasting monu
ment of Christianity and of Byzantine architectural taste and art.
Everything having been got ready, the foundation-stone of the new
edifice was laid by the Emperor on the 23d of February, a. d.
532. The work was completed in about six years. The expense
amounted to three thousand Roman quintals of gold, or about sev
enty million dollars.
Pure gold and precious stones were, so to speak, strewn about
in every part of the interior. The edifice presented such an im
posing and magnificent aspect that the Emperor Justinian, when
entering it on the day of its consecration, gave vent to the exul
tation he felt in these words :
"I have surpassed thee, O Solomon!"
The resolutions passed by the four CEcumenical synods and
the efforts of the emperors of the eastern portion of the Roman
empire to suppress heresies in the orthodox Church were not
entirely successful. The opinions propagated by Nestorius, and
afterward by the Archimandrite Eutychius, had taken root in

f

[TRANSLATION..]
Metrophanes, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and CEcumenical Patriarch.
FAC-SIMILE SIGNATURE OF CECUMENICAL PATRIARCH, METROPHANES IIT,, A. D. I567.

OTHER HERESIES.

= 59

several parts of the empire. This was principally in Syria and
Egypt. In these countries the faction that had embraced the
teachings of Eutychius was daily increasing in number. Jhey
were known by the name of Monophysites. As the word implies,
they were believers only in one (the human) nature of Christ.
They were also called Jacobites, after one of their principal re
formers, Jacob Baradasus.
In the larger towns of Syria and Egypt, however, which were
under the immediate influence of the Byzantine monarchy through
its political and ecclesiastical representatives, orthodoxy still reign
ed supreme. It was principally in the more distant provinces that
these heresies found the larger number of converts. Imperial and
patriarchal edicts, which it would take too long to enumerate,
were made to induce these dissenters to return to orthodoxy. Cer
tain concessions were offered on the part of the Established
Church. These attempts, and the efforts of the Fifth CEcumenical
Synod, convoked in Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian in
A. D. 553 for a similar purpose, proved abortive. Syria and Egypt
were lost to the Byzantine monarchy and taken by the Arabs in
A. D. 640. Thereafter, all attempts at conciliation having been
considered useless or unnecessary, these dissenters were left to
establish a Church of their own. This Church is still existing. It
constitutes the only non-conformist community of the orthodox
Church. The attempts made, up to the time of the Arab conquest,
to bring back the Monophysites to the orthodox creed had the
opposite effect. They largely contributed in producing a new
doctrine. This carried away many of the orthodox who had
shown a willingness to make a concession to the Nestorians. They
were willing to acknowledge that Christ, though endowed with
two different natures, had only one will. These concessionists
received the name of Monothelites. This name distinguishes them
from the Monophysites on the one hand, and the staunch ortho
dox on the other, who were opposed to any concession. This
doctrine of the Monothelites first made its appearance in a. d. 639.
It did not begin to attract any attention until the year a. d. 678,
in the reign of Constantine Pogonatos. This emperor determined
to root it out effectually. After taking the opinion of the Pope
of Rome in the matter, he called together the Sixth CEcumenical
Synod. It was held in Constantinople in a. d. 680. There were

260 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
present at this synod 289 prelates, including the Patriarchs, of
Constantinople and Antioch, and representatives of the Pope,
of all the Bishops of the West, and of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The synod passed a solemn resolution to the effect that the
orthodox had always acknowledged, and would continue to
acknowledge, Christ as endowed with two different natures,
united, but not to be confounded. These two different wills
the council held to be distinct from but never opposed to each
other. The Emperor sanctioned this resolution. He issued an edict
forbidding all further discussion on the subject, upon pain of
degradation as regarded men in Holy Orders, and confiscatory of
their property and exile as regarded laymen.
After this the slight bonds which still existed between the
orthodox Church and the dissenting communities in Syria,
Egypt, Armenia and Persia were entirely broken asunder.
Orthodoxy then became strictly confined to the Greek nation.
There it continued for several ages afterward, until it was
propagated among the neighboring Slavonic race.
The Sixth Synod, like its predecessor, the Fifth CEcumenical
Synod, had occupied itself exclusively with the discussion of dog
matical questions. These were the most pressing- and ostensibly
the only object for which it was called together. But there were
at the time other matters of no less importance that required atten
tion. There was especially need of certain reforms. These were in
regard to ecclesiastical discipline and the private life of the clergy.
The laxity in both became sadly felt by the Church itself. Ac
cordingly the reformers prevailed upon the Emperor to call another
synod. This was done in a.d. 691, in order to complete the
work of the last two convocations. This synod goes by the
name of the Trullus or Arched Chamber Synod. The chamber
in which it was held had an arched roof The synod voted 102
canons. Six of these the Roman Church subsequentiy refused
to acknowledge. Two among these six resolutions deserve
special mention. They afterward exercised great influence in
the relations between the Eastern and Western Churches. These
two are the 13th and 86th canons. By the first, marriage was
made permissible to the clergy ; by the second, it was determined
that thereafter the bishops of Rome and Constantinople should
enjoy equal rank in Church hierarchy.

WRANGLES OVER IMAGE WORSHIP. 26 1
These two resolutions subsequently became very important
factors in consummating the entire severance of the two Churches.
They have always been most resolutely upheld by the Greek
and denied by the Latin Church. Nearly ten centuries after the
Trullian synod, these two resolutions were the first to be inscribed
on the standard raised by the founders of the Protestant religion.
For some time after this synod the Eastern Church may be
said to have enjoyed comparative tranquillity. In the year a. d. 754
the question of the worship of the images and pictures of the
saints was suddenly started. It culminated in a resolution passed
by a synod called by the Emperor Constantine V. This resolu
tion required that all such images and pictures be removed from
the different churches, monasteries, public places and private
houses. It, not only forbid their worship, but rendered it an
offense to make- an image or paint a picture of Christ, the Virgin
Mary, or any of the saints.
This resolution was sanctioned by the Emperor. It gave rise
to repeated disturbances. It was afterward canceled by the
Seventh CEcumenical Synod. This synod assembled at Nicaea
A. D. 787, in the reign of the Empress Irene. It was under the presi
dency of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Tarasius. By the deci
sion of this synod the pictures of saints were restored to the
churches, "as contributing," according to the words of the deci
sion, " to a more appropriate adornment of the places of wor
ship, and as lasting memorials of the martyrs of the Church,
from whose lives the people might derive profitable lessons."
The synod further determined that, though it was right to bestow
a certain veneration on such pictures, worship was due to God
alone. This was the last of the CEcumenical synods that are acknowl
edged by the Greek Church.
The writer has referred to the CEcumenical synods at some
length. This he has done in chronological order, while entering
into most of the details which preceded and followed them. Upon
their decision actually rests, up to the present day, the whole
edifice of the Eastern orthodox Church, both as regards its doc
trines and its government in general.
Having submitted my manuscript on this head to those
learned in the ecclesiastical lore of the Greek Church, it has re
ceived approbation as a just and temperate disquisition upon one

262 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
of the most important movements of the human mind, in \i\
search after spiritual truth and salvation.
The severance of the Church of the East from that of the
West was (/^/aiT/i? accomplished in a. d. 1054. Among various
causes which, the orthodox allege, were instrumental in bringing
this about, there was one principal cause, namely : the persistent
striving, from the earliest times, of the Popes to obtain absolute
dominion over the whole Christian Church.
In the West the Popes scarcely met with any obstacles in
effecting their purpose. By the ninth century all the Churches
in Europe, formerly independent or otherwise, except that of
Ireland, had already acknowledged the supremacy of Rome.
The different Churches in the East, however, held firmly to their
ancient traditions. They opposed at all times a determined
resistance to the efforts made to subrogate them to the Papacy.
The Popes naturally seized every possible opportunity to assert
their position. They denounced the Eastern prelates as disobe
dient churchmen.
It was for this reason that the relations between the two
Churches were never of a very friendly nature. But up to the
ninth or tenth century amicable relations were at no time actu
ally interrupted.
In A. D. 857 the Patriarch of Constantinople, Ignatius, was
deposed by the Emperor, Michael III. The Patriarch had been
in great disfavor at the court. This was owing to some v'olent
language that he had been using concerning the prevalent immor
ality. The Emperor, to make up to the clergy and the people
for this arbitrary measure, offered the patriarchal throne to
Photius, a layman. The latter had great renown and universal
respect, because of his learning, his eminent qualities and his
aristocratic descent Photius at first declined the offer. At last
he was obliged to accept. The clergy and the people loudly
clamored in his favor. He was duly promoted, in the space of a
few days, through the different ecclesiastical grades. He was
ultimately ordained a bishop and raised to the patriarchal office.
This was not the first instance of a layman having been at once
raised to the highest dignity in the Church. There was no special
law to the contrary at that time. This practice had to be resorted
to on certain special occasions. On this occasion there was a
faction comprising the friends of the ex-Patriarch. They

EIGHTH SYNOD. 263
declared the election unlawful. Furthermore, the disturbances
' resulting from the two respective decisions relating to the worship
•of images had not yet entirely disappeared.
Under these circumstances Photius and the Emperor Michael
agreed to convene a synod to discuss Church matters in general
Among the prelates invited to attend was, as usual, the Pope of
Rome. Nicholas was then Pope. He took this opportunity to
•assert his claim to supremacy. He replied to the invitation by
letters addressed to Photius and the Emperor. He expressed
in lofty terms his disapproval of the arbitrary deposition of
-Ignatius, and of the uncanonical election of Photius. He did
not, however, refuse to send representatives to the synod. This
synod assembled in Constantinople in a. d. 861. It declared, by a
large majority, the election of Photius to be perfectly valid. This
decision exasperated the Pope to such an extent that he called
immediately a synod of his own bishops at Rome,and obtained from
them a decision placing Photius under the ban of excommunica
tion. Photius retaliated in A. d. 867 by convoking another synod.
This, in its turn, pronounced excommunication against the Pope
-Nicholas and his adherents. At this point, Basil, the Macedonian,
usurped the empire by the murder of the Emperor Michael III.
Basil deposed Photius and recalled the Patriarch Ignatius. The
latter, in revenge for the humiliation he had been made to suffer,
called a synod in Constantinople in a. d. 869, Under the pressure
brought to bear upon it by Ignatius and the numerous represen
tatives of the Pope, the synod decided in favor of the right of the
latter to exercise absolute rule over the whole Christian Church.
This synod is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as the
Eighth CEcumenical Synod. Its action was, however, denounced
ten years later, when Photius was reinstated in the patriarchal
•dignity. This was done by another synod, very numerously
•attended. It also ratified the acts of the synod convoked in a. d.
867 by Photius. Thus the severance of the Churches, or schism,
as it is called, was brought about Thenceforward, the relations
between the Churches of the East and the West became practi-
¦cally, though not yet officially, interrupted. They were broken
off entirely in a. d. 1054 under the circumstances already related.
Subsequently, attempts to effect a reconciliation were made at
different times by some of the Byzantine emperors. Being hardly
pressed by barbarous incursions from Asia, they thought that by

264

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

conciliating the Pope they might succeed in obtaining assistance
against these enemies from some of the European states. These
attempts were opposed by the orthodox. To secure the aid of
the Pope would involve a sacrifice of the independence of the
Eastern Church and its traditions. The clergy and people of the
East raised such a cry of indignation that all further attempts of this
nature had to be abandoned. The last of these attempts for
reconciliation was made by the Emperor John Palaeologos VII.
This was in the middle of the fifteenth century, at a time when
the Emperor was very hardly pressed by the Turks. The latter had
already conquered the greater part of the Byzantine empire. At
this time they were threatening the capital itself. The Emperor in
this emergency went, a. d. 1439, to Florence, with the avowed pur
pose of effecting a reconciliation of the Churches. With him were
the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Bishop of Ephesus and other
noted prelates of the Eastern Church. The Greek dignitaries
expected to discuss freely all questions and settle all differences
Instead of this they were, it is said, compelled to sign an agree
ment acknowledging the rule of the Pope and the doctrines of the
Roman Church. When the news of this capitulation reached
Constantinople there arose a fearful clamor among the clergy and
people. They loudly protested against union upon such terms, or
any union at all.
Two synods were then called, one in Jerusalem in a. d. 1443,
and the other in Constantinople in a. d. 1451. Both synods stoutly
denounced the agreement in question. It was declared null and
void, on the ground that it had been forcibly extracted from the
prelates who accompanied the Emperor to Italy. This action
aided the Turkish capture of the city.
From its establishment, up to the time to which we have arrived
in this short sketch, the Eastern orthodox Church had always been
governed strictly in accordance with the rules laid down by its
various synods and its principal law-givers. The interference of
the Byzantine emperors in questions both dogmatical and adminis
trative, was considered proper. It was in imitation of the like
privilege enjoyed by the kings of Israel. Following their example,
the emperors on taking possession of the throne were solemnly
anointed. They thus considered themselves as becoming invested
with a certain sacred character. Hence the Emperor, as we have
seen, called together the synods. He sanctioned the election of

CONVERSION OF THE SLA VS.

265

the Patriarchs. He reserved to himself the undisputed right, on
certain occasions, of deposing them and appointing others of his
own choice. When the Patriarch happened to be in favor at court
he became all-powerful.
In the mean time the extent of the jurisdiction of the Patriarchs
of Constantinople was daily increasing. Especially was this the
case after the neighboring Slav nations, and notably the Bulga
rians and Russians, had embraced Christianity and had become
members of the orthodox Church. On the other hand, the juris
diction of the Patriarchs of the East became sadly curtailed after
Egypt, Syria and Palestine fell into the hands of the Arabs. The
patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch were subjected to consid
erable oppression on the part of the Crusaders. The latter drove
out the Patriarchs and appointed Latins in their stead.
Although efforts had been made in former times to turn the
Slavonic races to Christianity, little was accomplished until the
ninth and tenth centuries. The Bulgarians were converted by
two monks from Salonica, named Methodius and Kyrillos. This
was during the patriarchate of Photius. He largely contributed to
their conversion. The monk Methodius persuaded the barbarian
king of the Bulgarians, Bogore, to embrace the Christian religion.
In order to convert the king, this monk displayed before him a
picture representing in striking colors the Day of Judgment. It
also portrayed the felicity of the just in paradise, and the tortures
to which the wicked were to be subjected in the future state. The
king, it is related, was so impressed with the picture and so fright
ened at the sight of the tortures, that he forthwith consented
to be baptized. His example was followed by the whole of his
people. The Russians were admitted to Christianity about one hundred
years after the Bulgarians. This was in the reign of the Empress
Olga. She came expressly to Constantinople in a. d. 955, to be
baptized. It is related of Vladimir, her grandson, that he sent a
mission, consisting of a number of Russian nobles, to different
countries to study the different religions. The members of this
mission, after visiting other parts, came to Constantinople. Here
they were wonderstruck with the splendor and impressiveness of
the Greek worship. On their return to Russia they recommended
the orthodox faith to their emperor, as the most preferable. The
king accordingly hastened to adopt it. Vladimir received baptism

266 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
in a. d. 988. He at once compelled all his subjects to be bap
tized. They were baptized in groups in the river Dnieper.
For several years the successive Metropolitan bishops of Russia
were Greeks. They came from and were ordained in Constanti
nople. At first they made Kieff their cathedral town. Afterward
they removed to Moscow. The Russian Church remained under
-the immediate control of the patriarchate of Constantinople until
the sixteenth century. About this time the Patriarch Jeremiah
II. happened to go to Russia in order to collect subscriptions in
aid of the poverty-stricken churches under Turkish rule. At the
urgent request of the Czar and the Russian clergy, the Patriarch
conferred upon the Metropolitan of Moscow the title of Patriarch
of Russia. Notwithstanding this, the Church of Russia still con
tinued dependent upon the CEcumenical throne of Constantinople.
We have already related how Peter the Great suppressed the pat
riarchal office in Russia in a. d. 1722. He then appointed a
synod of bishops. It has since been governing the Church of
Russia. We now come to a new, and the last, period in the history of the
Greek orthodox Church. In a. d. 1453 Constantinople was taken
by the Turks. The Greek Church had hitherto enjoyed all the
privileges of a state religion. Now it suddenly found itself in the
power of foreign rulers of a widely different creed. But the con
queror, Mahomed II.,was as clever as a politician as he was daunt
less as a warrior. He carefully considered and fully understood
the truth of the axiom, " Parcere subjectos et debellare superbos.'
He was anxious to quiet the fears and stop the further exodus of
the panic-stricken citizens, who were flying in every direction. He
immediately turned his attention to the Church. Being apprised
that the patriarchal throne was vacant in consequence of the death
of its late occupant, this Sultan orders the election of a new Patri
arch. He directs the election to be carried out in strict accord
ance with the forms hitherto observed on such occasions. Undei
the Byzantine emperors it was the custom to install the Patriarch-
elect with imposing ceremony. After his election in the Patriarchal
Church by a conclave of the higher clergy and representatives of
the people, the Patriarch proceeds in state to the palace. There
he is received by the Emperor surrounded by his court. The
Emperor presents him with a golden staff. It is ornamented
with precious stones. He receives a high-bred gray horse out of

THE SUL TAN AND THE NE W PA TRIARCH. 267
the imperial stables, richly caparisoned. On leaving the palace,
after his audience with the Emperor, the Patriarch mounts this
steed and, attended by a numerous suite, proceeds in great state
to the Cathedral Church. Here his enthronement takes place.
Mahomed the Conqueror determines to follow the example of
the Byzantine emperors in this respect. The election of the new
Patriarch, Gennadius by name, is announced. The Sultan then
requests the Patriarch to come, in the usual manner, to the pal
ace. Upon his arrival at t'ne palace the Sultan receives him with
great honors. He invites the Patriarch to luncheon. When the
Patriarch rises to depart, the Sultan presents him with the usual
golden staff. He accompanies him, notwithstanding the Patri
arch's protestations, down to the outer court of the palace. Here
a magnificent steed is waiting. The Sultan actually aids the
Patriarch to mount He orders all the court officials and a large
body-guard to accompany him to the Patriarchal Church of the
Holy Apostles. Here his enthronement takes place, with all the
former pomp and ceremony. Here was indeed a clever con
queror. He knew how to hold, by gentleness, what he had won
by force !
This custom of the Sultan's reception of the Patriarch-elect
continues to be observed until the year a. d. 1657. It is then
interrupted, and the ceremonial is confined to a visit of the Pat
riarch-elect, accompanied by twelve bishops, to the Sublime
Porte. At this place they are received by the Grand Vizier.
This lasts until a. d. 1840. Then the former custom is revived
by the Sultan, Abdul Medjid, father of the present Sultan. This
•custom still continues to be practised on the election of a new
Patriarch. Now, an aide-de-camp of the Sultan attends upon the
Patriarch-elect, and accompanies him in court-carriages to the
palace. There he is received in solemn audience by the Sultan.
Instead of the former golden staff, the Patriarch-elect is invested
with the Grand Cordon of the Imperial Order of the Medjidie.
On leaving the palace, the Patriarch and his suite proceed m state
to the Sublime Porte. Here he pays official visits to the Grand
Vizier and the Minister of Public Worship. Thence, in the same
•state, he proceeds to the Patriarchal Church at the Fanar. There
the usual ceremony of the enthronement takes place. The Pat
riarch is received at the entrance of the church by the Metropoli
tan of Heraclea, who hands him the patriarchal pastoral staff.

268 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
Besides these honors, Mahomed the Conqueror conferred upon
the first Patriarch elected after the taking of Constantinople, by
letters patent, the dignity of Ethnarch, or head of the Orthodox
Community under Turkish rule. He also granted him judicial
powers in all matters coming under the jurisdiction of the Church.
The Patriarch and the archbishops and bishops under him were
further exempted from the payment of all tribute and taxes. By
this means the Conqueror succeeds in securing the sympathies
of the conquered people. The conquered Greeks thus preserved
their religion intact, and, through that religion, as they fondly
deem, their national character and their present social position
in the world.
The privileges thus conferred upon the Church and its head,
and especially the new dignity of Head of the Orthodox Com
munity, carried with them weighty responsibilities. The effects
of these were not long in being felt in the most acute manner.
As head of the Orthodox Community, the Patriarch was held
responsible for the acts of that community in every part of the
Ottoman empire. The Church of the East and its dignitaries had
often thereafter to atone for acts opprobrious to the state com
mitted by the Greek subjects of the Porte. The execution of the
Patriarch Gregory V. and of the members of his synod, in a. d.
1821, for their collusion with the Greek revolution, affords one
of many instances. The Patriarch Gregory was dragged forth by
emissaries of the Porte from the Patriarchal Church at the
Fanar. This was during the service on Easter Sunday in that
year. He was hanged by the neck to one of the gates of the Pat
riarchate. This gate has remained closed ever since. His body
was left hanging till night set in. It was then cut down and
thrown into the sea. Next day it was picked up by the captain
of a Greek merchant vessel, and carried to Odessa. There, by
order of the Czar, it was buried with regal honors. In a. d.
1 87 1 the remains were claimed by the Hellenic government. They
were given up and conveyed in a Greek man-of-war to Athens.
They are buried in the church of the classic Metropolis. This
act of the hanging of Gregory and his synod was the last of the
kind committed by the Turks ; but there are two sides to this
Oriental question.
The orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople is styled now
the Great Church. This name it simply derives from the Church

THE NEW PATRIARCHAL CHURCH. 269
of St. Sophia, in consequence of its size. St. Sophia was called,
in the Byzantine period, " the large church,'' After the taking
of Constantinople, when St Sophia was transformed into a
mosque, and the Patriarch removed his seat to another church,
the name was preserved to the Patriarchate. This was done as an
indication of supremacy over the other sees of the East. The
patriarchate was at first removed to its former locality — the
Church of the Apostles. The Patriarch Gennadius was soon
obliged to abandon it, owing to its distance from the Christian
quarters of the town. He betook him to another church, dedi
cated to the Virgin Mary. The Church of the Apostles was then
pulled down by order of the Sultan. Upon its site was erected
the magnificent mosque known to this day, after its founder, as
the Mosque of Sultan Mehmed. In a. d. 1607 the church which
then served as the Patriarchate was occupied by the Turks.
They transformed it into a mosque, under the name of Fetie
Djami, that is, " The Temple of Victory." The Patriarchate was
then removed to the Church of St. George, at the Fanar, on the
Golden Horn. Here it remains installed up to the present time.
The CEcumenical Patriarch, in his administration of the affairs
of the Church, was, up to the year a. d. i860, assisted by a synod
of twelve bishops. In that year a number of reforms were intro
duced. One of these provided for the formation of a repre
sentative council. It consisted of a certain number of clerical
and lay members. The former were to be nominated by the
Patriarch, and the latter to be returned by ballot from the differ
ent parishes of the capital. This council still exists. There are now,
therefore, two different bodies sitting at the Patriarchate — the
synod of twelve bishops, and the mixed council. The synod
occupies itself exclusively with spiritual matters. The discussion
of administration and financial questions is reserved for the coun
cil. The Patriarch presides ex officio over the sittings of both
these assemblies. The Churches of Russia, Greece, Servia, Rou
mania and Bulgaria were formerly both administratively and spirit
ually under the immediate jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople. Now they are self-governed, but with a due
regard to the decisions of the Patriarch in all spiritual matters.
The list of bishops and Patriarchs who, from the time of the
apostle Andrew up to the present, have occupied in succession
the episcopal throne of Constantinople, comprises in all about

270

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

two hundred and fifty names. Its present occupant, Dionysius
v., just elected, is reputed to be a man of sound learning, and
excellent administrative qualities. He was elected in February,
1887, on the resignation of Joachim IV., who has since died.
The ritual, or form of worship of the Greek orthodox Church,
has ever remained intact. Under the Turks, owing to the dimi
nution of the means of existence, the ritual has been divested of
some of the imposing splendor with which the services were con
ducted in the Byzantine period. The service comprises a number
of hymns and psalms appropriate to the various festivals and the
liturgy. During the service, the Eucharist is conducted with im
posing devotion by the officiating priest.
Prominent among the doctrines of the Greek orthodox Church
is the belief in the transubstantiation or the transformation of
the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This is
attributed to the invisible co-operation of the Holy Ghbst. The
Greek Church is said to possess one great advantage over the
other Christian communities. It is this: the Gospel is read in its
places of worship in the Greek language, in which, it is generally
admitted, it was originally written.
Baptism, according to the rites of the Greek Church, involves
, complete immersion in the water. The immersion is repeated
thrice, " In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost." After the third immersion the child is anointed with
the Holy Chrism. This ointment is specially prepared by the clergy
and blessed by the Patriarch. This form of the rite conforms to
the philological meaning of the word BaTzrl^o, and is often ad
verted to by the great body of the Protestant Baptists in confirm
ation of their creed.
Confession forms one of the sacred rites of the Greek Church.
It is not inculcated in the sense or the form in which it is exer
cised by Roman Catholics. Confession, according to the ortho
dox ideas, takes simply the shape of a conference between the
member of a congregation and the minister. Of coui-se, this is
an attenuation of the Catholic con,fession. The subject of the
conference is as to the former's competency to partake of the Holy
Communion. Confession must always precede this rite.
Besides the festivals common with all the other Christian
Churches, such as Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and Epiphany,
the Greek Church has only one other festival particularly its own.

DIONYSIUS v., THE GREEK PATRIARCH— RECENTLY ELECTED.
271

272

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

That is the festival of Orthodoxy. It is observed on the first
Sunday in Lent. It is in commemoration of the restoration of the
pictures of the saints to the churches.
There are fixed days in the year on which the Patriarch officiates
in person. These are Christmas Day, Epiphany, Good Friday,
Easter Sunday, the festival of Orthodoxy and the feast of St.
Andrew, the founder of the Church of Constantinople. The service
as performed by the Patriarch is most imposing. Twelve bishops,
six priests and six deacons, all in full canonicals made of rich
stuffs, lake part with him in the celebration.
The Greek Church dictates but does not now actually impose,
except on the clergy, the observation of a limited number of fasts.
Of these the principal are, one of forty days' duration preceding
Christmas Day, and another extending over the seven weeks in
Lent. There are no monkish orders in the Greek Church, as they are
understood and organized. by the Roman Catholics. During the
Byzantine era there was a large' contingent of men in Holy Orders
who chose to live in seclusion. A great number of monasteries
were gradually established by these devotees. They were richly
endowed by the state and private individuals. Most of these
monasteries were destroyed at the Turkish conquest. Their property
was confiscated. Since then the number of orthodox monks has
greatly decreased. At the present day it has dwindled to only
a few hundred. They are concentrated at Mount Athos. This
has always been the great and is now the only centre of orthodox
monastic life. From this circumstance it is largely known among
the Greeks as the Holy Mountain.
The first monastery at Athos was founded in the ninth century,
in the reign of the Emperor Basil, the Macedonian. There are now
about forty monasteries on the Holy Mountain. . Each has its
own separative organization. They constitute one great and
united federation. The monasteries existing in different parts of
the empire in the Byzantine period, and especially those within
the precincts of the capital, are found, on close examination, to
have been nothing more than great seats of learning. At these the
orthodox clergy were mostly educated. They were thus enabled
to rank high in the worid of culture and science. After the Con
quest, these monasteries, or academies, were suppressed. Soon
after, learning became almost extinct among the Christians in the

GREEK CHURCH— NATIONAL.

27i

East The greater part of the inferior orthodox clergy con
tinued for many years, as they are now, to be immersed in crass
ignorance. Commencing with the present century, however, and more
especially since the granting, after the Crimean War, of the charter
in favor of the Christian population of the Ottoman empire, the
condition of the clergy has improved. The larger portion are now
attaining to the eminent position occupied in the Byzantine
period. As attempts were made, both before and after the final rupture
in a.d. 1054, to effect a reconciliation between the orthodox and
the Roman Catholic Churches, so also attempts have, at different
times, been made to draw nearer the Greek orthodox and the
Protestant Churches. The barriers are much less insurmountable
than those separating the Protestant Churches from that of Rome.
Hitherto these attempts have proved futile. This is owing to the
stern refusal of the orthodox Church to agree to any concessions
which, even indirectly, might affect its own doctrine or its ancient
traditions. Not only the Church, but the Greek nation itself, holds
firmly to the doctrines and traditions of the Church. This strict
adherence has preserved the national character and language. It
has enabled the Church and nation to hold their own through
many centuries of foreign rule. The Greek race regard the
orthodox Church in a double sense : it is an anchor of salva
tion, in a religious and a national point of view. It has harbored
them safely, as a Christian people and as a nation, amidst all the
tempestuosities of revolution.
The extent of the civil authority exercised by Christian relig
ious communities in Turkey, through the graces of governmental
toleration, is remarkable. I have seen myself — so as to verify the
statement — that there is a prison connected with the Greek patri
archate. I will not vouch, as some have done, that minors who have
attempted to turn Mussulmans are here confined for their apostacy.
I believe the statement to be true to some extent While the Turks
threaten or banish those who discard the Mahometan religion,
they allow the Greek Church the like privilege. Out of this tolera
tion comes much of the trouble to the Protestant teachers from
America. They are striving nobly to elevate the races of European
and Asiatic Turkey, and that too despite the bigotry, not of the
Moslem, but of so-called Christians.

2 74 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
We have seen that under the decree of Constantine the Great,
Christianity became the state religion of the whole Roman empire
in A. D. 323. Then was established the see of Constantinople,
with its Metropolitan bishop, equal in dignity with the Metropoli
tan bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Cor
inth and Rome. At the present day much remains of the formula,
ceremony and organization which the orthodox Greek Church
perfected and perpetuated through the centuries following this
foundation. At the end of last year. His Holiness, Monseigneur Joachim
the Fourth, owing to ill health, asked leave to resign his office
as the Patriarch of the Greek Church. The Ottoman govern
ment was asked, according to prescriptive regulations, to confirm
the resignation. His Holiness desired to retire to the island of
Scio, his former home. The requests were granted. The Metro
politan of Caesarea was made the locum tenens of the patriarchal
throne. Joachim IV. always received much attention and kindness
from the Sultan. He was elected in 1879. He was only fifty-
eight years of age when he retired from the patriarchate. He
built the grand school at Fanar, on the banks of the Bosporus.
The Porte once attempted to restrict the rights of the Patri
arch Joachim, who was suspected of doubtful loyalty to the Porte
and of having too much Greek patriotism. This was inconsistent
with the loyalty due to the Turk. It was some time before the jeal
ousies were settled and the relations of the Porte and the Church
reconciled. Joachim protested, and then tendered his resignation.
As he represented five millions of Greeks in the empire, to say
nothing of the Greeks outside of it, and as the Church of Russia
was a cognate religion, the moderation and good sense of the present
Sultan prevailed. The matter was satisfactorily settled. The
ancient rights, recognized and confirmed by Mahmoud the Con
queror of Constantinople, were restored to the Greeks.
The Sultan is potential in these matters of ecclesiastical con
trol, even when it does not affect his own religion. Questions
preliminary and otherwise, as to the recent election of a Patriarch,
had been mooted at the meetings of the subordinate councils.
These concerned the delegates to the Supreme Council An
appeal was made, as in the olden time, unto Caesar. The ques
tion was submitted to the Porte and the Council of State for de-

GREEK MONASTERIES.

275

cision. Thus, at the present day, Mahomet controls the Greek
Church in the last appeal, as to its ecclesiastical personages and
polity. In the last interview which Joachim had with his sovereign, an
additional fifteen thousand piastres were given him to defray the
expense rf the voyage to the Grecian islands. On his departure
from the Sultan he was given the special honors of the palace.
Honors were again heaped upon the ex-Patriarch on his retiring
to seek health among the islands and at the Broussa Spas; not
withstanding this, the election of his successor had already taken
place, and all the salutations consequent thereupon had been ex
changed. Surely this is an example of toleration not unworthy
of the attention of some Christian sects and countries.
In these modern days, the hierarchy of the Greek Church is di
vided into three classes. These are the patriarchs, the archbishops
and the bishops, who cannot be married, and are chosen from the
monastic orders. Next follow the parochial clergy, who must be
married men. Then the monks, who, as stated, are not allowed
to marry. There are many divisions of monks. Some are ascetic. The
latter live apart in cottages. They approach the condition of
Anchorites. Some are Cenobites. The latter are more social in
their retirement. The communities have various governments.
In some the government resembles a commonwealth. A monetary
consideration is sometimes given on entering a fraternity. Then
the admitted monk becomes part proprietor of the possessions.
Many of the monks do their own work. In the monastery of
Mount Sinai the brethren have serfs. These are taken from the
Arab tribes. Most of the monasteries are in a state of decay.
None of them are what they used to be in the former times of
monastic power.
In a little volume called the " Isles of the Princes," published
contemporaneously with this volume, by the Putnams, the author
has endeavored to picture the life and habits, as well as the
structures and localities, of these institutions.
It may be that the .modern orthodox Greek is thoroughly
pious. If his phraseology, in some parts of Turkey, is competent
evidence in his behalf, it will be hard to prove that he is not
always thinking of his Maker. When you bid him good by, he
says :

276

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

"In the name of God, Farewell,"
If you ask for water at dinner, an orthodox gentleman will
reply :
" By God! I will give it to you, for God's sake."
If some one should ask whether the cook has boiled the vege
tables sufficiently, the probable answer is :
" In the name of God, he has not"
This is not pure profanity. It emanates from the habit of
orthodox veneration. Still, it grates on Occidental ears.
The devotion to the Greek Church of the peasant, especially if
he be a Slav, is something astounding to Western Christians. If the
banner of their Father, the Czar, were to be raised to-morrow
against the Turk, there would be another Crusade, with all the Mid
dle Age fanaticism. The number of pilgrims who passed through
Odessa in the year a. d. 1886 for Jerusalem, Mount Athos, and
other sacred places was five thousand. These were mostly of the
agricultural class.
Yet sometimes this Church, even in the midst of the Greeks,
has its little drawbacks. In the spring of a. d. 1887 a strike was
going on in the island of Scio — Homer's own island. It was
a strange strike. The people did not promptly pay their tithes
to the Church. The priests refused to exercise their office. The
priests appealed to the Bishop. He tried to help his clergy by
putting the excited parishes under his interdict The ecclesi
astical interdict was a new thing at this time. It was familiar
enough in the Middle Ages. When it occurs, the clergy must
abstain from the exercise of their ministry. There is no baptism,
no marriage, no masses and no burying of the dead with the rites of
the Church. In this dire extremity some of the laity perform the
most pressing offices, such as burying the dead. Still, the departed
are buried without ecclesiastical aid or ceremony. It is not a
satisfactory burial for the corpse or its friends. The people
become more or less restless and confused. The women are un
happy. What do they do ? They request the secular governor,
a Turk, to make the Christian priests who are on a strike, return
to their duty ! The governor asks the Porte for directions. Thus
it is again, that even in a quarrel between a Christian priest and
his flock, redress rests in the hand of the Caliph of Mahomet !
It is very hard, however, to be rid of ritual. It is apart of
that symbolism, art and commemoration which sways all souls

PERMANENCY OF THE GREEK CHURCH.

277

that look to a future world; for there will ever be a class of
minds which require architecture, music or ceremony, even at
the grave, to lead them up through and despite of the contam
inated reason of man to a higher world, whose peace passeth all
understanding. It is owing as nluch to its ritual as to its fixedness, that the
Greek Church has become so powerful and permanent. Its
obedience is more passive than that of the Latin Church. It is
less restless than that Church. In Russia it claims immortality
because of its immobility. When the Latin Church was contend
ing in politics and fighting evils in the moral realm, the Greek was
contending over frivolous questions, such as, " Did the Saviour
ascend in his robes, or naked?"
But for its logomachy, it might have held Constantinople to
day, by a generous unity with Rome.

CHAPTER XXIL
THE LATIN CHURCH — THE ARMENIAN-CATHOLIC — THE ARMENIAN
GREGORIAN CHURCHES  BULGARIAN AND OTHER CHURCHES.
To the general reader, in America and Europe, it is unneces
sary to give either an analysis or a history of the Catholic Church.
Its tenets and annals are discussed in the Occident with fullness
and freedom. Its life in the East, where it is known as the Latin
Church, as distinguished from the Greek Church, it is not a part
of these Diversions to portray. Originally championed by
France, inspired by the Crusades, the companion of the commer
cial enterprise of France, Spain, and especially Italy, it has left
an indelible impression on the land of its early apostles. The
conflicts between the Greek and Latin Churches for supremacy
and for the guardianship of the Holy Places, and other subordi
nate contests, mark the importance and strength of the Latin
Church and the dominancy of the Holy Father at Rome over the
Latin religionists of the East. It requires no prolonged residence
in Constantinople, Jerusalem, Smyrna, Alexandria or the other
prominent cities in the Turkish dominion, to ascertain that the
good and learned men and the unselfish and devoted women of
the Latin Church have a field for their exertions in the East
which every tolling bell and melodious vesper, from its every
church and convent, echo with solemn, sweet vibrations.
The present Pope has followed the plan of his predecessors m
reference to those Eastern communions which had been alienated
from the Church of Rome. The heresy of Nestorius, which is
as old as the fifth century, gave to Christ two natures, one divine
and the other human, and which held it to be an abomination to
call Mary the Mother of God; and that of Eutyches,the contem
porary of Nestorius, which denied this double nature of Christ,
holding that he was entirely God previous to the Incarnation, and
entirely man during the Incarnation — these, together with the
278

CATHOLIC RELATIONS TO THE EAST.

2 79

schism of Photius, gave to an earlier Leo — viz., Leo III. — infinite
concern. He began the work of reconciliation, and he suc
ceeded. The Holy See was thus strengthened in the East. But
it was attacked by the Russians or its Greek co-religionists. This
was as late as a. d. 1871-72-73 and '74. The vengeful Cossack
whip was used to scourge the Catholic devotee. That failing,
fines were tried. In a. D; 1875, ^^ will be seen in Father
O'Reilly's "Life of Leo XIIL," page 382, fifty thousand per
sons and twenty-six priests were forced to abjure the Catholic
communion and join the orthodox Greek Church. These facts
are authentic. They were plainly told to the Czar Nicholas when
he visited Rome, and by the Pope himself, with great excitation.
During the Turko-Russian War of a. d. 1877-7 8 some mollification
of this persecution was made by the Czar; but it was made out of
politic motives. After the war ended, the road to Siberia was
again thronged with Catholic martyrs, and the vengeful Cossack
whip began to scourge anew.
How did this treatment of Catholics by Russia affect Turkish
Catholics ? In this way : The Czar is the father of the Slavonic
orthodox Church. Many of its members reside in the Turkish
dominions. Pilgrims from Turkey go to Rome and lay at the
feet of the Holy Father their devotion. These signs of sympathy
led to practical measures to unite the Slavonic Catholics closer to
the Papal see. The hierarchy was established in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. A college founded at Rome in a. d. 1577, known as the College
of St. Athanasius, is a nursery for Greek students. Therein is
taught the Catholic liturgy and the Catholic chant in Greek,
together with the graces of Greek oratory. Through this medium
the Greek colonies and isles, and other places along the Mediter
ranean where the. Greeks reside or their language is spoken, are
furnished with Catholic teachers, and its churches are inspired
with the ritual of St. Peter.
Catholic churches farther east, even to the borders of Persia,
have been in great straits. It is to these venerable churches that
special attention has lately been given by Pope Leo XIII. The
Chaldean Church had been widowed by the death of a Patriarch.
He had been contumacious in his allegiance to the pontificate.
But he returned to his duty. After his decease a new Patriarch
of " Babylon of the Chaldeans," Monsigneur Abolionan, was

28o DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
elected. The Sultan confirmed his election. The Porte ratified
what St. Peter had done. It was a guaranty of protection and
toleration. Thus old Mesopotamia was reinstated in its early
Christian allegiance, the Moslem consenting.
It would seem, from the history of Catholicism in the East,
that the dogma of infallibility had created division there, as it
had in Bavaria. The Armenians led in this dissent. This schism
left some heart-burning and scars. An attempt was made, with
measurable success for a time, to enlist the Sultan on the side of
the schismatics. The prudent course of the present Pope has not
only healed up the old wounds, but has enfolded, through the aid
of the Sultan, those who had been recusant.
It was a great gratification to the Catholics of Turkey when,
on the nth of December, 1880, the Pope rewarded Monseigneur
Hassun, who had received much ecclesiastical buffeting, by
bestowing upon him the Roman purple. After four centuries the
Orient secured another cardinal. The Sultan was honored by
the choice. He acknowledges this tribute to his Armenian subject.
The Sultans have never lacked in the hospitalities of the Orient
In furtherance of his plan, the Pope has instituted an Armen
ian college in Rome. Education is progressing amidst the
Armenians and Chaldeans. The Dominicans have a college at
Mossoul, on the Tigris. Where Abraham was born, where Babylon
rose and fell, where empire came and went in luxury and con
quest, and in these domains where the past predominates — the
living word, according to the Catholic faith, is being taught
to the descendants of these historic people.
It is not this Latin Church to which this chapter is assigned.
There is a branch of the Latin Church peculiarly Oriental,
which is in close association with the Papal authority at Rome.
It is of the Armenian branch that I propose to -speak. But this
Armenian Catholic Church is itself an offshoot of the Armenian
Church proper ; and therefore it is that I begin with a full state
ment of the system and history of the latter. This statement
may have its interest enhanced by the bold attempt of the Rus
sian White Father — the Czar — to capture the land of Armenia,
as well by force of arms and steam locomotion as by educational
influences and religious propagandism. It is the belief of the
writer that Russia would be willing to forego her entrance into
Constantinople, and would be content with seeing the Crescent

THE ARMENIANS. 28 I
float for many years yet over St. Sophia, provided she could absorb
the land about Erzeroum and Trebizond. Nay, Russia would
not, question the title of the fresh prince of Bulgaria, or the con
trol of that country by its own Sobranje, or its own autonomy,
provided she controls the lofty plateau whence the " four great
rivers " pour down their waters in various directions. Then she
would have and hold the nucleus of the mountain system of West
ern Asia, and thus be forrified for the great struggle for which
she is preparing, against all comers who challenge her magnificent
Asiatic career of conquest.
The fact that the brightest of the Armenian race is being
instructed in Robert College and in the United States, and
return to the Armenian people as teachers in theology and mor
ality, is significant of that future when the question shall be,
raised, " Shall it be Cossack or republican ? "
The Armenians are a very ancient race. Before their conver
sion to Christianity they were Fire Worshippers, like many of the
other Asiatic nationalities. The Christian faith was introduced
into Armenia by the apostle Andrew, toward the end of the
third century. This was in the reign of King Tiridatis. From
him the new religion received all the patronage and support in his
power. Tiridatis subsequently sent Gregory, an Armenian of
staunch religious principles and much learning, to Leontius, the
Greek Bishop of Caesarea. The king requested that Leontius
would ordain Gregory as a bishop. This request was complied
with. Gregory on his return to Armenia baptized the King. The
King then ordered the entire population to be baptized in the
river Euphrates.
Besides the Armenians, Gregory baptized a large number of
Persians, Medes and Assyrians. History gives the number as
about four million persons. He founded several churches, and
appointed a number of bishops to administer the affairs. Aros-
tanes, a son of Gregory, had been ordained by his father
Archbishop Catholicos of the whole of Armenia. Arostanes
accompanied King Tiridatis to Nicaea at the time of the assem
bling of the First CEcumenical Synod. In this synod the Archbishop
took a leading part During their stay in Nicaea, he and King
Tiridatis were entertained with special honor by the Emperor
Constantine the Great.
In after years the Armenian Church was exposed to severe

282 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
trials and tribulations at the hands of the kings of Persia, to
whom Armenia had become a tributary. The worst persecutions
of the Christians in that part of the world were in the reign of the
Persian King Savor. By his orders ten thousand persons were
put to death. Men, women and young girls suffered the most
horrible tortures. Neither this nor subsequent measures, how
ever, were effectual in suppressing the passionate attachment of
the Armenian and Persian Christians to their faith. This attach
ment to it was so strong that they voluntarily submitted to a
royal edict that was issued, ordering every one who acknowledged
the Christian religion to be forthwith put to death. The poor
Armenian devotees came before the authorities, of their own
accord, to declare their faith in Christ. They fea,red that by
remaining silent they should appear to deny Him. At last the
Emperor Constantine the Great was apprised of their sufferings.
He wrote a strong letter on the subject to Savor. This had the
effect of persuading that monarch to cease his tyrannical oppres
sion of the Christians in his dominions.
The doctrines, ritual, and general organization of the Arme
nian Church were borrowed originally from the Eastern Church.
The Armenian Church grew up under the see of Cffisarea. It
remained under the partial jurisdiction of that see for nearly a
century. The successive Catholicos, or Archbishops, of Armenia
were invariably appointed and ordained during that time by the
Metropolitans of Caesarea. Afterward, the Catholicos solicited
and obtained his franchise from that see. The Armenian Church
then became practically independent. It continued to be in direct
communion with the Eastern Church until the assembling of the
Fourth CEcumenical Synod. This synod was held in Chalcedon
in A. D. 451. The Armenians were unable to attend it, owing to
an invasion of the Persians under their king, Toudigerd. This
king laid waste the whole country. He carried off the Catho
licos and a large number of the Armenian clergy to Persia.
They refused to worship the Sacred Fire, and he put them
to death. The Armenians, owing to the narrowness of their
tongue, did not appreciate the precise meaning of the doc
trine of the Incarnation as established by that synod. They
imagined that the synod had admitted the Nestorian theory on
the subject. This theory, they knew, had been already condemned
as heretical. They therefore rejected the decisions of the synod.

ARMENIAN DIFFICULTIES. 283
and broke off all further intercourse with the other Christian
Churches. Subsequently, however, they received satisfactory
explanations from a mission sent expressly from Constantinople.
They then agreed to reconsider the matter. A grand conclave of
the Armenian clergy was, accordingly, held in Erzeroum, in the
year a. d. 628. The question at issue was carefully considered.
Ultimately they decided to withdraw their previous rejection of
the decisions of the Fourth CEcumenical Synod. Thus the Arme
nians recognized the validity of that synod and accepted the
precepts laid down by it. But these proceedings do not appear
to have met with general approval in Armenia. Shortly after
ward a faction headed by a theologian named John Vartabet
called another convocation. This assembly unanimously de
nounced both the Armenian synod, held at Erzeroum, and the
Fourth CEcumenical Synod. They refused to accept the decisions
of either. The Armenians thus became divided among themselves
into two factions.
The strife between these factions lasted for a considerable
time. At length the Catholicos Narses — a man of great adminis
trative ability, with a strong leaning toward the decisive union
of the Armenian with the Eastern Church — wrote on the subject
to the Emperor of Constantinople, Manuel Comnenus, in a. d.
II 70. He requested the Emperor to send some noted theo
logical scholar to Armenia, to discuss the matter and find a means
of bringing about the desired union. The object was to put an end
to the internal dissensions of the Armenian Church. The Empe
ror, desiring this, promptiy responded to the request of the
Catholicos. He sent Lucian Theorianus, a distinguished professor
of theology. Narses went to meet him at Roum-Kale, a small
town on the Black Sea. For several days the two learned men
were engaged in discussing the different points on which the
Greek and Armenian Churches were at variance. Theorianus
argued that the difference had arisen out of erroneous interpre
tation, on the part' of the Armenians, of some of the decisions of
the synods and of certain passages of the Scriptures. Narses was
deeply anxious for the removal of the difference. He therefore
admitted tRe arguments of the Greek. On the latter taking his
departure, Narses entrusted him with letters to the Emperor and
the Patriarch of Constantinople. These letters admitted his entire
acceptance of the precepts of the Eastern Church. He expressed

284 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
his ardent desire to seethe bonds which formerly united the two
Churches drawn closely together. He promised to call, at an
early day, a general synod of the Armenian bishops. This was
for the purpose of arranging the return of their Church to com
munion with the Eastern Church.
Before this promise could be carried out Narses died. At first
his successor, Gregory IV., showed an eager disposition to follow
the course pursued by Narses on the question at issue. The tak
ing of Constantinople by the Crusaders at this juncture caused a
break in the negotiations. A turbulent state of affairs in the
East followed this event. The Catholicos changed his views or
policy. He approached the Armenians with offers of a tempting
nature. He persuaded them to agree to a union with the Roman
Church. This proposal was first brought forward at a Synod of
the Armenian clergy, held at Adana in a. d. 13 14. Subse
quently it was discussed more fully at another convocation which
assembled at Sis, the capital of the Armenian regency in Cilicia,
in A. D. 1367. The union was finally decided upon at a grand
synod, held m a. d. 1370 at Erzeroum. At this convention the
Armenian Church adopted the doctrine and, to a certain extent,
the ritual of the Latin Church. It at the same time placed itself^
under the jurisdiction and protection of Rome. But this defer
ence to Rome does not appear to have been based upon very
strong foundations. Shortly afterward the great body of the
Armenians returned to their own persuasion. They re-affirmed
their ecclesiastical independence. A small number, however,
remained faithful to Rome. This offshoot still survives. Its
adherents are known as Armenian Catholics, to distinguish them
from the Gregorians. The latter are the followers of Gregory,
the first bishop of Armenia. He was the founder of the Armenian
Church. The supreme authority of the Gregorian Church is still, as in
former years, in the hands of the Catholicos. He resides in the
monastery of Achmiadjin, near Erivan, in Russian Armenia.
This monastery covers a large area. It contains three magnificent
churches, built close together in the form of a triangle. Next in
dignity after the Catholicos comes the Armenian Patriarch of Con
stantinople. He has a palace at Coum-Capon, in Stamboul. He
is acknowledged by the Turkish authorities as chief of the Arme
nian com.munity. On state occasions he is allowed to take rank

THE ARMENIAN-GREGORIAN PATRIARCH, MONSEIGNEUR VEHABEDIAN.

28s

286 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
next after the orthodox Greek CEcumenical Patriarch. The pres
ent incumbent is Monseigneur Vehabedian. He is a man of most
imposing appearance. I am happy in securing a most superb
picture of this prelate. It is presented herein. His features,
character and function cannot ^but interest the American readers,
who, if not attracted by the history of the remarkable race of
which he is a type, are interested in the progress of that race in
the Christian faith, evidenced by so many of their number now
sojourning for education in the United States.
Politically, the Armenians ceased to exist as a self-governed
nation, as far back as a. d. 223. Armenia was invaded by Alex
ander the Great. Afterward it was invaded by the Roman legions,
under Vespasian. It was subsequently annexed to Persia. It
remained thus until a. d. 852. Then it was conquered by the
Arabs. In a. d. 1079 it passed into the possession of the Byzan
tine emperors. It was taken from them in a. d. 1357 by the
Mamelukes. Finally, in a. d. 1402, it became a part of the Otto
man empire. It is now dismembered and apportioned between
Turkey, Persia and Russia.
The Gregorian- Armenians number 3,725,000 persons. Of
these 2,325,000 live in Turkey, 1,000,000 in Russia and 400,000 in
Persia. The Catholic Armenians number 80,000 persons. They
are mostly in Constantinople and in the larger towns of Turkey.
This small community comprises the wealthiest and most respect
able families among the Armenians. It is the remnant of that
portion, of the Church which broke off and remained faithful to
Rome when the great body of Armenians denounced the conven
tion signed at Erzeroum and re-asserted the independence of
their Church.
Although the Armenian Catholics acknowledge the supremacy
of the Church of Rome, they preserve much of the Gregorian form
of worship. Their Church is administered quite independently of
Rome. Originally, they had but one spiritual chief, bearing the
title of Patriarch. He had his seat in the town of Bagarsabat.
Then he removed to Sis, in Cilicia. He now resides in the mon
astery of Vzomar, on Mount Lebanon. But until a. d. 1832
neither this chief nor the community itself were officially recog
nized as a separate religious institution by the Turkish authori
ties. It was through the intercession of the French Ambassador
in Constantinople that they then obtained permission from the

ARMENIAN CATHOLICS.

287

Sublime Porte to perform openly and freely their religious duties.
After this time they had churches of their own. This was a
privilege which had before then been denied them. Until this
privilege was allowed them, it was necessary for them to have
recourse to the Gregorian- Armenian priests for the performance
¦of the rites of baptism, marriage and interment. Their divine
service had also to be conducted in the Roman Catholic churches.
Upon their official recognition by the state, as a distinct religious
•community, they obtained the right of electing a second spiritual
chief, entirely independent of the one at Mount Lebanon. This
is the chief who has his residence at Constantinople, bearing the
title of Patriarch. He is described in Turkish, in the Imperial
Firman, as Millet Bashi Ermeni Catolic. This title is conferred
upon him on his election as chief of the Armeno-Catholic com
munity. The present holder of this office is Monseigneur Azarian.
He is a highly distinguished prelate. He belongs to one of the
most noted Armenian families. Recently he was the bearer of a
superb ring from the Sultan to the Pope. The other spiritual
chief of the Armenian Catholic community, who resides on Mount
Lebanon, holds, in addition to his other title, that of "Peter."
This was conferred by Pope Benedict XIV. On Sundays and
great fete days the French flag floats over the Armenian Cath
olic churches. This is done as a sign of the protection afforded
to them by the government of France.
The well-known convent of St Lazare, in Venice, belongs to
the Armenian Catholic community. It is inhabited by the order
of Mectarist monks. It is thus called after its founder, Mectar,
who died in a. d. 1740. From this convent missionaries used
formerly to be sent into Armenia to make proselytes. Their
efforts met with such determined resistance, on the part of the
Gregorians, that the movement had to be given up. Since that
time the Mectarist monks have turned their whole attention to the
development of Armenian literature. They have published many
useful and very ably written works relating to their national history.
It is not the object of the writer to dilate in this volume upon
the religious aspects and divisions of the various Churches of the
East, or to express any opinion upon their dissensions. It may
be permissible, however, to express the hope that a closer affilia
tion and unity may soon take into its embrace the whole Church
of Christ

288 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
Bulgaria has become prominent in the Oriental question. Her
Church is only identical with the Greek Church in doctrine and
ritual. It is not now in communication with that Church. It
long since rejected the Church of Rome. A quarter of a cen
tury ago it ceased to harmonize with the Greek Church. After a
controversy extending over twenty years it illustrated its inde
pendence by severing its relation with the Patriarch of Con
stantinople. The Bulgarian Church has now its own Exarch.
He is the spiritual head of the Church. Like the other Patriarchs,
he resides at Constantinople. His name is Monseigneur Josif
His independence of spirit was shown even against Midhat. Pasha
at the time the latter was paramount in the councils of the Nota
bles and Reformers. It is one of the strange things connected
with the career of Midhat, that he persecuted and was about to
imprison the Exarch and his friends up to the very last moment
of his power. Midhat was dismissed from the sovereign favor of
the Sultan. It is a part of the history and treatment of the
Exarch of Bulgaria, that he was banished to a fortress, because he
declined to sign a statement that the Christians were opposed to
their deliverance from the Turks by the Russians.
The service of this Bulgarian Church is conducted in the
Slavonic tongue, which is regarded by the Bulgarians as a sort of
religious language. It is the same language that is used in Russia
and other Slavonic countries.
Greek Christianity is not the only religion in Bulgaria. Much
religious dissent has appeared recently in that country. This is
attributable to the spirit of investigation which comes from edu
cation and freedom of speech. In fact, there is a reformation
growing out of the relations which Robert College has for several
years sustained with Bulgaria. This is the only case of American
intervention in the East that has come under my notice. One
thing is certain: the Bulgarian Christians have been more or less
influenced by the large roundabout liberalities and learning of
Robert College. I should signalize the grand work of Doctor
Long, of that College. He has translated the Bible into the Bul
garian language. He is an American, from West Virginia. He
is one of a class of men of rare scholarly minds. He does not
allow his devotion to the medical profession and his love of phy
sical science to detract from the earnestness of his faith or his
reverence for the Deity. In the future history of the reformation

THE WASHINGTON COAT-OF-ARMS.

289

in Bulgaria, much of its impulse will be traced to Robert Col
lege and to this distinguished American. Upon this phase of East
ern life it will be my pleasure and privilege to enlarge hereafter.
There is one romance connecting America with the Orient,
and religion with patriotism, which should be recorded. It involves
the " Star Spangled Banner." I warn my reader that with this se
date subject of religion I am about to associate a patriotic incident.
The Washington family has been traced back to the time of
the Norman Conquest, and to the north of the Humber. The
princely see of Durham had a prelate who was a feudatory of the
Conqueror. He was a warrior-priest, and had many feudatories
under him. Among the rest was the knightly William De Hert-
burn, who, in exchanging his village of Hertburn for the Manor
of Wessynton, gave not only the first recorded link in the family,
but the immortal name of Washington, "further West."
The Ottoman dynasty had risen to a formidable power ; and
Richard the Lion Hearted had pawned his patrimony for a Crusade,
and had been imprisoned on the shores of the Bosporus ; the
story of the Plantagenets had been played before the world ;
stately and warlike scenes in the West and East had come and
gone ; and the name of De Wessynton, after illustrating many
heroic qualities, had died out from the chivalric rolls of Durham;
but it was preserved in the cloister by a doughty abbot The
stock was divided into various branches. It was scattered
over England. About the time the great-grandson of the Con
queror of Constantinople — Suleiman the Magnificent — had raised
his realm to its acme of fame, one of the Washingtons, Laurence,
was practising law at Gray's Inn. When the Sultan Ibrahim was
trying to foil the intrigues of the Eunuchs, Colonel Henry Wash
ington was defending the city of Worcester for King Charles
against Cromwell. Happily for America, England became
uncomfortable for the Cavaliers who had fought for the Stuarts,
and the brothers John and Andrew Washington emigrated to
loyal old Virginia. John settled near the Potomac. His grand
son Augustine was there born. There he lived, married and
died. Of his sons, George was the eldest. But, as the genealogy
shows, although he was out of the direct line, he had inherited
the stamina of the stock.
What of all this, now and here ? There is another George
Washington living at Constantinople. He is the chaplain of the

290

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

British Legation, and by no means mute, if not so glorious as
his American namesake. He is in the direct line from the De
Wessyntons of thg Conquest. In his, keeping is the crest of the
family. What is the romance to which I have adverted ? Noth
ing less than the incomparable growth of a great Western nation,
directed, moderated, energized and inspired by a descendant of
the martial and priestly family whose stock is traced in the stal
wart folk of Northumberland, and whose branches are as widely
apart as the Bosporus and the Potomac.
The Rev. George Washington is an accomplished gentleman
and scholar. He is quite friendly to Americans, as, of course,
he should be. I cannot refrain from inserting here a little note
which he sent to my wife. It contained his own card, and, doubt
less, the arms on that card, as has been often surmised, if not
proven, gave the first idea of the American " Star Spangled
Banner." " Pera, January 19, 1886.
" Dear Mrs, Cox : It might interest Mr, Cox to see these quarterings, of
which I was speaking to you the other evening. You see the ' Stars and
Stripes ' are there. I have always heard that the story I mentioned to you
was correct, viz.: that, casting about for a flag when independence had been
declared, the Americans thought that they could not do better than take tbeir
General's family quarterings as a foundation.
' ' Hence the Stars and Stripes !
" With kind regards, believe me, "'Vours, very truly,
" George Washington."

CHAPTER XXIH.
AMERICAN MISSIONS IN TURKEY  THEIR MAGNITUDE,
OBSTACLES AND RIGHTS.
The long continuance of the Ottoman empire is a more difficult
problem than its decadence. I have attributed this continuance
to "liberal institutions and laws." If the decadence has set in,
it is because the Ottoman is beginning to repent of these liberal
ities, and to resort to a system of persecution quite alien to his
earlier modes and " Capitulations."
There is a class of citizens in Turkey called " rayahs." They
are Christians of various races — Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian.
When Constantinople was taken by Mahomed the Conqueror,
he did not commit one tithe of the outrages or illustrate one-
thousandth part of the wrath of the Christian princes who broke
down the Greek empire in a, d. 1203. He elevated the Christians
and Jews. He created an imperium in imperio of ecclesiastical
dignitaries and functions. He gave Greek and Armenian patri
archs for Greeks and Armenians, and a Jewish chief-rabbi for
the Hebrews. The Sultan himself invested them. They were
civil chiefs as well, and they remain as such. To-day there is
nominally a head for the Catholic or Latin Church, and one also
for the Protestants. The office of the latter is vacant. As one
sign of the times, the vacancy remains unfilled, despite protests.
These respective heads of the religious sects tend to make
Christians and Hebrews free in their consciences and souls.
Imperial irades confirm these grants. Education is also guaran
teed. In the division of the municipal authority, the Christians
are not omitted. Most of these grants were called " Capitulations,"
not because they indicate a capitulation on the part of the Porte
after conquest, to Christians and Jews, but because they are em
bodied in a code of " Chapters," or " Heads," from "caput."
Recently the Porte has endeavored to get rid of some of these
" Chapters ; " but they remain, like our bills of rights or the
291

292

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

Spanish fueros. If not executed, they remain as codes, to which
appeal may be made when persuasion fails and force is near.
These Capitulations were of special service to the American mis
sionaries. These men began their life work as early as a. d. 1831.
When Messrs. Goodell, Dwight, Shauffler and Holmes came here,
they did not meet opposition so much from the Turk as from
their fellow Christians. Dr. Hamlin began in 1837 as an agent
of the American Board. He took charge of a school which was
located at Candilli. In time, through the aid of Mr. Robert and
other Americans, it became the Robert College. It now dominates
the European side of the Bosporus, half-way between Constantino
ple and the upper mouth of the Straits. The vicissitudes of these
early American missionary heroes were, and are, those of a peace
ful crusade, full of Christian effort, and, at all times, of danger.
Commodore Porter, the naval hero, father of our Admiral, was
then United States minister, and the great Englishman, Sir Strat
ford Canning, was then potential at the Porte. The Sultan
Mahmoud, who destroyed the Janizaries at one sanguinary coup,
had ]ust died when Dr. Hamlin began his work. Abdul Medjid, a
youth of sixteen, came to a tottering throne. Mehemet Ali, the
all-powerful Viceroy of Egypt, had been stopped in his career in
Syria. Reschid Pasha, who died in exile in Arabia a few years
ago, was the foreign minister. He gave impulse to civil and
religious freedom. Shortly after Abdul Medjid's accession the
prescript was issued known as Hatti-Cherif of Gul-Hane. Like a
bombshell it fell among the muftis. It is called Hatti-Cherif
because it is an " illustrious writing," and called Gul-Hane, or
Rose Garden, after the usage of the East, where names are given
with significant associations. The Rose Garden was the name
of the place within the walls of the old Seraglio Point, where this
happy augury of Christian progress and protection was proclaimed.
That garden is now a government printing-office. Where once
the houri of the padishah were cribbed, the type-setters and
pressmen fabricate journals and volumes. Standing at the
case, or distributing type, may be seen a hundred printers, with
deft fingers, having the hand of "little employment, and there
fore the daintier sense."
Eheu ! Postume ! Postume — labunter anni — how the years
have glided since, as a tourist, on my honeymoon, I visited this
garden, then blooming with roses. It was in a. d. 1851 — five

THE ROSE GARDEN.

293

years before the Magna Charta for rayah and Christian — that I
saw Constantinople for the first time. I can say of the Seraglio
and the Rose Garden, as Burke said of Marie Antoinette, "Never
upon this orb appeared so beauteous a vision." Its beauty is
fadeless, though it is only a memory.
The garden of roses which I was then allowed to see is no
more. My memory of it was that of an Eden, luxuriant in tree
and shrub. The cypresses waved, ever green and fresh, the
vine clung to the wall, whose bare face it decorated with green
tendrils. Tender-eyed gazelles peeped out of leafy coverts, like
odalisques of large sad eyes. Arches and pyramids of green
foliage bent and rose in every vista. There was then a mimic
lake occupying the centre of this garden of pleasure. It is now
only a lake in a garden of pleasant memory, for a railroad makes
its practical curve around the seraglio site. There were isles,
and rustic bridges, and shell walks, margined with roses which
the nightingales wooed. Orange bowers were pendant with golden
fruitage. Fragrance filled the air from rare shrubbery, whether
imported or exotic I then never cared to know. It was in life's dawn.
The garniture of nature screened each charming bower.
I did not surmise then that this garden of roses would ever
give to the long-suffering rayah and Christian, guarantees of
justice and freedom. Yet from this Rose Garden came the " thought
of the public good," and the recitations of trust in Allah that the
subjects of the Sultan should be ensured " perfect security for
life, honor and property, fair taxes and honest methods in their
collection, and deliverance from the scourge of monopolies."
Hear ye this, oh America! No venal concessions, no soldiering
to destroy agricultural industry, fair trial of the accused, no death
secretly or publicly, by poison or by any other form; in fine, a
council of justice. In the presence of the relics of the Prophet
and of all the Ulema and grandees of the empire, the Sultan took
an oath to observe these grants to the people, with a penalty for
their violation. And the roses, in their sweetest attar, effloresced
an "Amen !"
This was a splendid tribute to the genius and order of Turkey
in the afternoon of its existence.
Was this Magna Charta regarded ? Is it obsolete now ? Yes,
and no. It accomplished much to elevate and advance the
public service and popular well-being. In spite of '¦ old Turkey "

294

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

there was opened the path to schools, to printing, to reparation of
wrong and the vindication of right, and, above all, to the rele
gation of all religious thought to a Higher Power than the state.
That which the Christians had struggled for, and against native
prejudice and intolerance, had come to pass. The Koran had
recognized a lofty place in its theologicaf history of Jesus, son of
Mary, born at " Beyth'ul Cahhm " — cattle market — ofavirginby
the breath of the Archangel Gabriel, on the 25th of December,
5584, under the reign of Herod, Rauhh UUah — " Spirit of God."
This recognition, once a part of the Moslem faith, was renewed in
a practical canon of liberal polity, amidst obloquy, and with
prayerful thanksgiving.
Following this second recognition of the Saviour, Jesus Christ,
was the repeal of the Mohammedan law as to apostates. A Mus
sulman was formerly condemned to death for apostasy. A Moslem
woman was condemned to be beaten at prayer-ttme, five times a
day, for the same crime. All that was changed.
The progress of physical science, with its practical advance
ment, struck Turkey as well as other lands. The Turk was not
impervious, especially to mechanical inventions. No better
artisans ever lived than those who made, and yet make, Damas
cus and other Eastern cities famous for steel, textiles, leather,
iron and wood. I have not been unobservant of the atten
tion of the juvenile Turks, who, when the American launch in
which I steamed stopped at the quay, would regard, not the per
sons on the boat, but the movement of the engine in the hold,
and of the screw in the clear water. The child was father to the
man. The Crimean War came not merely to stop Russia's aggran
dizement or kill off the canines of Constantinople: it stirred the
sediments of the empire. Its boil and bubble brought much scum
to the top. It was not unlike our own war in the United States,
which brought the essentials of life and liberty. It gave added
impulse to the schools and churches, Bible-house and colporteur-
age. After the Crimean War Robert College became not only pos
sible ; it became a tangible force. There it stands, a cynosure
of all eyes, above the Bosporus, with its towers of pride and
power. What influences enabled the Americans to obtain this
superb site, and the building permits, and to begin the structure,
are not unknown to diplomacy. Mr. Robert, a New York mer-

PROGRESS IN TURKEY.

295

chant, furnished most of the money, $200,000, and the name.
Mr. Seward and Edward Joy Morris, formerly the Minister here,
¦and John P. Brown, dragoman, inspired, along with occasional
help from tourists like General Grant and Admiral Farragut, the
impetus to consummate the work. The dedication of the College
was a polyglotical arrangement, for English, French, Turk, Ameri
can and Bulgarian, each and all, gave their tongue and tone to the
celebration of the enterprise.
Whatever may be the codes which have prevailed during the
reigns of the thirty-seven Sultans ; whether from the Koran or
from the " six revered books," the Fetvas, or from the report of
decisions of the head of Islam, or from the fifty-five volumes of
Ibrahim Haleby, called the "Confluence of the Seas,'' because
it was such a multitudinous and tumultuous concourse of the
jurisprudence of the empire, containing everything civil, criminal,
religious, military, economic, judicial, sumptuary and agrarian —
one thing remains : a sober, industrious, kindly and forbearing
mass of people, whose influences may be on the wane because of
a domestic canker, and whose rulers may be too tardy in accept
ing the new conditions of an advanced era.
In spite of this improgressiveness as compared with Western
progress, the Scriptures have been translated, and the Bible-house
stands eminent in Stamboul, with its accumulations and printing
establishments. Schools, churches and literature proceed. No
¦one need live or die in Turkey without education or' such 'light as
to the unseen existence as the Word of God gives. The Catholic
and Protestant missions have permeated and leavened the social
and domestic order. Fundamental changes and new laws have
come, along with the steam ferries, tunnels and street-cars, The
•Christians and Jews have better hopes of the temporary future
and less fear as to their faith in eternal life.
As an evidence of this remarkable progress, and from an
American standpoint, let me make a resume of the monied, moral
and religious interests here invested. They are the facts in this
.great Oriental programme. They are the results of the American
missions in Turkey.
The societies or other chartered organizations in the United
States which carry on missionary or educational operations in the
Turkish empire are the following :
I. The American Board of Missions '(Boston), occupying

296

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

European Turkey, including the part of Bulgaria south of the
Balkans, and Asiatic Turkey except Syria.
2. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (New York),
occupying Syria.
3. The United Presbyterian Mission Board (New York),
occupying Egypt
4. The Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church
(New York), occupying Bulgaria, excepting the portion which lies
south of the Balkans.
5. The Foreign Mission Board of the Reformed Presbyterian
Church (New York), occupying the territory of the tribe of Nusar-
iyeh pagans in north Syria.
6. The American Bible Society (New York), furnishing the
greater part of the Scriptures used in the fields of the above
Society. 7. The trustees of the Constantinople Bible House (New
York), controlling the buildings used by several of the above
Societies at Constantinople.
8. The trustees of the Syrian Protestant College of Beyrout
(New York).
9. The Trustees of Robert College at Constantinople (New
York). 10. The Baptist Publication Society (New York), supporting
a missionary and his wife in Constantinople.
II. The Church of the Disciples, supporting a missionary and
his wife in Constantinople.
Here are some statistics of the operations of these Societies
and associations within the Turkish empire :
Cities, towns and Villages occupied  394.
American citizens, men and women, engaged in the work of the
Societies  254.
Turkish subjects employed as assistants or agents in various depart
ments  1,04^
Number of high schools and colleges  35
Number of girls' boarding-schools  27
Number of common schools  50S
Pupils under instruction in the educational institutions of these Societies 25,171
Of these, 13,750 pupils are in the schools of the American Board in Euro
pean and Asiatic Turkey, 6,075 ™ tl^ose of the Presbyterian board
in Syria, and 5,106 in the schools of the United Presbyterian Board
in Egypt 

AMERICAN BENEFA C TIONS.

297

Preaching places (about)  400
Average aggregate attendance at each Sabbath service  50,000
Organized churches  13S
Number of church members  10,776
Average sale of Scriptures and parts of Scriptures, per annum (copies) . . 50,000
Average sale per annum of religious books, tracts, school-books, etc.,
about (copies)  100,000
Number oi newspapers or other periodicals pubhshed by the Societies . . 13
Some of these figures are under the actual numbers. The
increase in the missions of the American Board in Turkey has
been 39 per cent, in number of pupils, and 47 per cent, in number of
church members in the last eight years.
The property and business interests of these Societies in the
Turkish empire are as follows : The value of real estate, book-
manufacturing machinery and material, book stock on sale, school
apparatus, etc., which belongs to these different Societies is about
$1,000,000 in various parts of the empire.
The annual expenditure of the Societies within the Turkish
empire for the support of schools and colleges, for rents and
repairs of buildings, for taxes on real estate, for manufacture of
books and newspapers, and for the salaries of the 1,303 persons
employed as above stated in the various operations of the Societies,
is $360,000. This sum, annually sent from America to Turkey, may be
regarded as the proceeds of 3 per cent, of American capital set
apart for the purposes of these Societies, and amounting to
$12,000,000 I
These devoted Americans, while they feel it to be their duty
to preach evangelical Christianity to all who choose to listen, and
to sell books to all who will buy, do not seek to gain adherents to
a sect They would arouse our kind to conform their lives to
good and Scriptural principles. They are not proselyting agents
in any other sense than that which is implied by the simple edu
cation of youth and the public declaration of Christian truth to
the consciences of men.
It is to be regretted that there are any divisive movements
among the Protestants who are ameliorating the condition of the
Turkish empire. Although there may be a multiplicity of sects
and a variety of councils, it is not altogether certain whether this
muhiplicity and variety tend to utility and strength. The Baptists
and Campbellites have as much right in Turkey to make their

298

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

own movement, and to make baptism a capital question, as the
Presbyterian, the Methodist, or any of the other American foreign
missions have to propagate their own peculiar doctrines with their
own means. That will not be disputed. But it is certainly to be
regarded as a portion of the past strength of the Protestant move
ment in Turkey that there has been so much unity among the
brethren; and when the annual May meeting at Constantinople
brings forth the active and intelligent missionaries, it is to be
regretted that all Protestants are not in one phalanx to meet the
combined attacks of the Greeks and Armenians, who, more than
the Moslem, controvert their faith and persecute their follow
ers. This persecution, especially by the Greek Church, or
its bishops, is one of the anomalies of Christian warfare.
In many regions, notably in the Trebizond field, there was
an attempt made to collect the episcopal dues of such
Greeks as became Protestants. When the protesting folk
refused to pay, they were imprisoned. This led to discussion in
assemblies. The Protestants were charged with being children of
the Devil; and their New TestamiCnt was denounced as apocryphal.
Out of these controversies grew the old spirit of inquiry. It is
this spirit which not only gathers into the Protestant fold many
Greeks and Armenians, but attracts the attention of the intelligeni
Turk. Whenever there is a probable increase in the Protestant
flock, an Armenian is found to hint to the Turkish government
that there is a lurking conspiracy. Then, as in the aforetime, the
conspirators are driven to private houses. Then the proprietor is
imprisoned. And so out of persecution, as of old, comes the
power which energizes this new Protestant crusade of the East
One result is that in the collisions between the so-called Christian
sects of the East and the American Protestants, the Turks gain
information and prejudice dies out. In some portions of Turkey
the missionary is preferred in the Armenian-Gregorian churches,
for the old Armenian has his picture of the saint, the same as the
Greek. He kisses the picture, but the protesting disciple in his
Church refuses. That drives him to the Protestant. The Turk,
who does not believe in pictures, takes note of the nearness of the
relation between his unseen God and that of the Protestant who
is also an Iconoclast.
Now and then we read of a few Mahometans who are baptized
in the Protestant faith. But it is a truth that very few Turks

AMERICAN MISSIONS. 2QQ
have ever gone into that association. There are many discourage
ments connected with these missions. They grow out of differ
ences and divisions. They are attended by the withdrawal of
members. It has gone out that in the matter of spiritual life the
cities, and especially Constantinople, though set on hills, are not a
shining light. If I were to be asked what is the chief utility and
^ strength of the Protestant missions of Turkey, which are fed by
\ American money, I should say the educational institutions. They
are not evangelizing, but they aie elevating. They have no trouble
in filling their halls and churches with patient and attentive audi
tors, and doubtiess the streams are well watered at these sources.
The effect of these missions is seen especially in the schoolrooms
of the lower class of people, and in the readiness with which the
native girls sympathize with educational movements. The educa
tional work in Turkey has for its thinking head and active mem
bers Robert College and the Home School for giris at Scutari.
Of these I shall speak in another chapter, giving an account of
their Commencements in 1886.
To be more precise, let me say that the American Foreign
Missions for Turkey are divided into four departments. The
European-Turkey Mission has as its head the venerable Dr.
Elias Riggs, with many assistants. It is a sample of many
others. It has its stations, out-stations, churches, missionaries,
physicians, female assistants, pastors, preachers, teachers, church
members, Sabbath- schools and pupils. During the Bulgarian
excitement of last year, the cloud of that war which, though
impending, was fringed with much luminous beauty by the
ministrations of these American missionaries to awaken new life
\ among the Bulgarians in their struggle for national unity. At
Constantinople Monastir, Phillopopolis and Samokov, our Ameri
can missionary heroes and heroines, notwithstanding the political
prejudices of the Greeks and others, fought the good fight of their
faith. The Western Turkey Mission, which has its headquarters
at Constantinople, and its presiding director, Dr. Pettibone,
assisted by Dr. Henry O. Dwight and Henry S. Barnum, has
been incessantly at work. Nor should I fail to mention Dr. and
Mrs. Wood, who have retired after fifteen years of service at Con
stantinople, and fifty years of honorable work as missionaries,
followed by the grateful recollection of friends in Turkey and
America. They, like Dr. and Mrs. Bliss, are seeking a rest after

3 GO DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
the burden and heat of their service. In the Western Turkey
Mission, which comprehends Broussa, Caesarea, Constantinople,
Marsovan, Nicomedia, Sivas, Smyrna and Trebizond, the Ameri
can forces are well marshaled by those who give spirit and health,
activity and success. Their labors may be found recounted
in the reports made to the American Board in every recur
ring year. Without going into detail, I may say that the pub
lications in this department are simply enormous. There were
twenty-one issued in the past year in the Armenian language,
amounting to 2,362,900 pages ; the same number in Armeno-
Turkish, 3,817,600 pages ; three in Arabo-Turkish, 1,539,000
pages ; twelve in Graeco-Turkish, 975,200 — in all, fifty-five publi
cations, 8,694,500 pages, making an aggregate from the beginning
of 394,556>7i2 pages.
In an old country like that of Turkey, where old forms of
religious faith exert such an influence, it requires an intense exer
tion, such as only these types illustrate, to gain the trust and
confidence necessary to direct the pupil and the neophyte within
the path marked out for their deliverance.
Another department is the Central Turkey Mission. It com
prehends Marash and Pantab, where Dr. Trowbridge is the
superior. This is a most interesting mission. It is gaining in
influence. Its professors were educated in the United States.
It has only one limitation on its influence — its accommodations.
Its seminaries and hospitals give aid to the work ; yet with all
these gentle and humanizing influences, and amid the Armenian
community (so-called Christian), the priests of the Armenian
religion were not slow to see that the Protestant gospel, accord
ing to the American tenet, was sapping the foundation of their
authority. Upon the plain of Isis, near the very altars of Alex
ander the Great, from which Cicero dated his letter to Atticus,
near the remains of the two walls, which in the time of Xenophon
constituted the gates of Syria and Cilicia, upon the very point
where archaeology locates the trophies of Alexander, after the
battle of Isis — here mobs of men and bovs led by fanatics, club in
hand, beat the American people unmercifully, and despoiled them
of their goods. Where could they look for protection ? There
were no American Consuls near. The Minister was remote — at
the capital. When the littie flock of pastor Hatcher and his fam
ily were dispersed, they found refuge in the house of a Moslem

NO PROSELYTISM. on I
Aga. Thither the Armenian rabble drove them for asylum.
This happened in the very region where St. Paul was born, and
where the hope of Protestant success was most sanguine.
And last, the Eastern Turkey Mission : The farther we go
from the seat of power on the Bosporus, the more difficulties, are
' encountered. Such missionaries as make Erzeroum, Harpoot,
Mardin, Van and Bitlis fortresses of the Protestant crusade,
have to struggle against poverty, native Christian hate, and
sometimes Mahometan persecution, inspired by Greek and Arme
nian, only equaled in bitterness in the early days of the Church.
Taking the religion of the Saviour as their standard, it would
naturally occur to the Christian men of Constantinople of diverse
creeds, that they should unite in some evangelical union. This
has been done. Many congregations up and down the Bosporus
have united. The Dutch Legation seems to be one of the
nuclei of this unity, and its chapel is often used for evangel
ical purposes.
Recognizing the fact that the institutions which they establish
can only be of permanent importance so far as their roots are
planted in the soil of Turkey, the missionaries aim to make
every church and every school self-supporting and independent
of foreign funds. Where they expend funds upon existing
churches and schools, it is as an aid to the pastor's salary, or for
the construction of buildings, or such auxiliary purposes.
As a rule, the missionaries fully recognize the delicacy of
the work in which they are engaged. They endeavor, by the
use of discretion and tact, to avoid offending the religious suscep
tibilities of the people among whom they live. During a period
of nearly sixty years since the first of these missions was opened
in Turkey, the Turkish government has never, it is believed, pre
sented a single specific charge against American missionaries or
their employees for illegal or offensive conduct If any such
charge has ever been made, it has never been sustained. Their
relations with the Turkish government have sometimes been
severely strained, but never broken.
The expenditure of a large sum annually within the Turkish
empire by these societies is naturally an indirect advantage to
the Imperial treasury. Moreover, the missions pay annually a
considerable sum directly into the treasury, in the way of taxes
on real estate and customs duties on material for use in book

302 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
manufacture, and other imports. Furthermore, high officials of
government have repeatedly borne testimony to the services to
civilization rendered by these various Societies. Nevertheless,
the missionaries are not always treated with due regard to their
rights, as engaged in lawful occupations and as the citizens of a
republic friendly to the Sultan. In such cases they are forced to
appeal to the representative of the United States near the
Sublime Porte.
The direction on which the protection of the United States
government is most frequently sought is the book trade. The
Societies engaged in this business conform to the law of the land.
No book is published or offered for sale without authorization of
the Board of Censors at the Department of Public Instruction.
Nevertheless, officials of the government sometimes arrest the
agents, seize the books, or impose whimsical restrictions upon
the right to sell what the central government has distinctiy
authorized to be sold. Such illegal interferences with the trade of
American citizens are vexatious, costly and very difficult to redress.
Another line on which the protection of the United States
government is sometimes required, is in case of attempts on the
part of Turkish officials to close the schools of these Societies.
Most of the existing schools were established before the existing
school law, and have continued for many years with the knowl
edge and tacit consent of the local officials. In some places offi
cials have demanded the suspension of the schools, because they
have not the formal authorization required by the new law.
When such authorization has been applied for, great reluctance
has been shown in granting it, and once or twice the application
has been made an excuse for summarily closing the school. The
missionaries are perfectly willing to submit their schools to
government inspection, but they are unwilling to submit the
question of the existence of long-established schools to the
caprice of an official who may prefer, without valid, reason, to
withhold the required permit.
It is hoped that the United States government will defend the
missionaries in their claim. According to all precedent, these
schools have acquired the right to exist, and the large investments
of capital, made in good faith under former laws of the empire,
should not be put in jeopardy by the interpretation given to
more recent decrees.

AMERICAN PROTECTION NEEDED.

30;

The missionaries are occasionally obliged to seek aid from the
Legation, as in cases of robbery and personal violence. Of course,
those whose business requires them to travel do it at their own
risk. But the Turkish government becomes responsible when it
uses its power to protect the robbers who have attacked American
citizens on the highway, or when it permits its provincial officials
to release such criminals without punishment, or to refuse to
make the attempt to recover stolen property when its whereabouts
is known. Cases of such negligence or bad administration on
the part of provincial officials have so often occurred that it is not
difficult to understand how the robbers are forming an impression
that Americans can be robbed without risk.
In concluding this brief outline of this department of Ameri
can interests in Turkey, it is hardly necessary to say that the
" missionary interest'' thus described has a warm hold upon the
hearts of Americans in all parts of the United States. The sum
of $360,000, contributed annually for these institutions in Turkey
by thousands of American citizens, north, south, east and west,
and of every political party, represents the popular vote of a
great constituency which has studied the work of these Societies
and believes in their benefactions. The influence of the various
Societies acting together, therefore, is not small, and will be sure
to come to the support of the Minister of the United States,
who is charged with the protection of the legal rights of the Socie
ties in the Turkish empire in any crisis in which he may desire
such influence to be exerted at Washington or at the Porte.
Protection, thus far, has not been stinted. The recent troubles
in the Turkish empire, by withdrawing soldiers from Syria and
Asia Minor, have lessened the protection to life and property;
and Puck well pictures the hopeless impotence of the United
States, without a navy, in these remote complications involving
her citizens. But a better day is dawning. The " Alliance " of
Protestants is coming to the aid of the Foreign Ministers, who,
like the British, Swedish, Dutch and American, have immense
and growvig evangelical interests under their aegis.

CHAPTER XXIV.
TURKISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.
The Turkish language is not a difficult one to learn. Its
system of orthography and pronunciation is by no means compli
cated. It has ten vowel sounds. It does not employ combinations
of two or three consonants to represent a single sound, as in other
languages. The written language is not subject to any standing
rule as to accent. Accent and quantity are not to be confounded
in the Turkish. Linguists praise the beautiful characteristics of
this tongue for its melody and euphony. Its rules are a guide to
the tones of all the subordinate and inflectional parts of words.
In its etymology there is no definite or indefinite article. Its noun
knows no gender. It has singular and plural numbers, but not pro
perly any inflections of case. It has, however, a declination of
nouns. It has a preposition which follows the noun, and which
should be called a /^j-/-position.
No one, in a few paragraphs like these, can give an idea of
the Turkish grammar. Its adjectives, like the English, are
invariable, whether they qualify a noun, singular or plural. They
precede the noun. Even for the degrees of comparison there is
no change of termination. An adverb signifying '¦'¦more" is
placed before the adjective to make the comparative, and another,
" most," for the superlative. An adverb, chok, signifies 7nuch. It
is always upon the Turkish lip. We have, probably, the same
word for the same idea when we say chock-i\A\ ; it means much-
full. The Irishman from Waterford appreciated the word when
he said that the Celt of that country never drank anything, for he
was "always chock-full."
No nation or race which has asserted itself so prominently as
the Seljukian Turk could avoid the egotism of the personal
pronoun. This they have in various forms, as well as the demon
strative, interrogative, relative and indefinite pronouns.
It is the verb which indicates the refinement of language.
304

'ghit!" WITH THE KAVASS,
30s

306 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
In Turkish it is simple and regular in its formation aLnd in the
modification of its meanings. Generally, every verb is formed as
regularly as the ramifications of a tree. The system has thirty-
six verbs, twelve being affirmative, twelve negative, and twelve
impotential. Six of the twelve are active, and six passive. Of these
three are simple, and three causative; and one of each three
is determinate, one indeterminate and one reciprocal. The original
verb has something like the Greek root. It is the stalk upon
which all the other verbs grow. The moods, tenses, numbers and
persons are generally formed by the regular addition of special
letters or syllables. The adjective even plays the part of the
adverb. It qualifies both verbs and nouns. All adverbs of place
and time are merely the nouns used with or without a preposition
affixed. The conjunctions and interjections are quite unlike the
English. There are many conveniences in the Turkish language; as, for
instance, the addition of the syllable "//," which indicates an
employer, a workman, or a man engaged in a peculiar work; as in
the case of the word shekir, which means sugar; the dealer in
sugar is simply a shekerji. The word ydldm means a lie"; but
ycillxnji is a liar. By a curious turn of speech the interrogative
ne, which means what 2 when it is neji means what trade or occu
pation of the person. Sometimes / is changed into d; as, for
instance, the word ghit means "go," and the word ghidiji means
" a goer. " There is no more useful word to a man in Turkey than
"Git." It is useful in America also. It is generally used with
" Haidi, git." Literally, "Git up and git !" Take this sentence:
Al, kuzum ; ish-ta Hamal inyengizi ; ush^kala beraber ghit— 1
Being translated, it means, " Here, good fellow, take your porter
age and go with the servant" But, generally speaking, the word
ghit has a meaning which trips on the American tongue in Turkey
with homely vehemence. In a city which seems to be abandoned
to trade, and where there is no way of compelling cleanly habits,
and which is only saved from cholera by a strict quarantine,
Euxine breezes, and running water, and within whose narrow and
illy paved streets you are liable at every step to tumble over a
tawny cur, and where refuse heaps and foul spots make no impres
sion upon the custodians of public health and locomotion, you
are often, in such surroundings, saluted by beggars — able-bodied
beggars — who ought to be forced to sweep the city from one end

BEGGARS— A NUISANCE. -.07
to the other. These filthy beggars are allowed to touch and even
pull your garments, calling a halt on your promenade. But for
the protection of the Kavass, all strangers and the Ministers are
oftentimes at the mercy of these vagabonds. Indeed, as I have
shown in another place, there is a chartered fraternity of mendi
cants, who, the more pestilential they look the more audacious
they are. A licensed beggarly ruffian levies a tribute of a piastre
upon a pedestrian. What can the pedestrian do ? He can only
be ransomed from contagion by prompt payment In these cases
the word "Ghit!" has a sanitary and solacing signification. Even
in the wide streets of Pera, where tramway cars are drawn up in
the middle of the streets, and while the ha7nal deposits his load
on the narrow pavement, and itinerant passengers are comparing
notes in the midst of these impediments —and the confusion is
increased by a dozen pack-horses laden with sacks of charcoal —
in such an emergency, what is the poor pedestrian to do ? He
cannot use a revolver. He cannot use a cane. His only resource
is the Turkish word, "Ghit." It is effectual, if backed by the
sword of the Kavass and the obsolete pistols in his sash; for the
Turkish and other denizens of the capital respect authority,
even when backed by the weakest sign of means to enforce it
The Turkish language is said to be identical with the
Arabic in its alphabet. It has, however, some additional letters.
Like most languages it has many foreign words. The wonder is
that it has not more, since Constantinople is polyglot. It is easy
to speak, but difficult to read it The reason for the former is
that it is expressive, soft and musical. The reason for the latter
is that the vowels are generally omitted in writing or printing, and
there are no marks of punctuation. This is a Semitic peculiarity,
I believe, as to the vowels. Thirty-five years ago, when I was in
Constantinople, there were many scribes sitting cross-legged around
on the corners of the streets who did writing for the passers-by.
These professional characters are now rare. Almost every one
here can write and read now. In writing, the characters run from
the right to the left, and rather diagonally. They run up more
obliquely toward the end of the line.
The Turk when he writes takes a small piece of paper in his
hand; and then, with a little stick of reed, sharpened at the end, he
makes his characters with great fluency. There is no slit in this
reed. He does not move the hand in writing; he moves the paper.

¦io8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
There are various kinds of handwriting in Turkey, as there was in
Egypt in early days. One kind is applied to sacred litera
ture, another to official documents, and a third to the ordinary
correspondence. The Arab is not a musical, though it be a scientific, roman
tic, eloquent and poetic language. It has harsh, inharmonious
sounds. It is high-pitched and guttural, as compared with the
euphony of the Turkish tongue. In fact, the Turk has been
called a gentlemanly man because he speaks with a softened and
hushed enunciation, but this is by no means his only title to that
designation. It is a historic indictment that the Mahometan Turk and
Saracen was a destroyer of literature, and that the great library of
Alexandria, with its works of inestimable value, was burned by
order of the Mussulman army. Is it not well to ask whether the
tale thus circulated be really true ? The JMoslem writers are
unanimous in denying it. The unsophisticated remark attributed
to Omar the Caliph, when appealed to concerning the Alexandrian
library, is often quoted to show the vandalic quality of the Maho
metan. It was thi J :
' ' The contents of the books are either in conformity with the
Koran, or they are not. If they are, the Koran is sufficient
of itself. If they are not, they are pernicious. Let them
burn! "
Perhaps the hugest lying ever written to throw obloquy upon
a race or a religion, is the allegation that the baths and furnaces
of Alexandria were for months fed with the books of this library.
Without proof of this charge it must fail. It would be enough to
say that the Mahometan always respected the " Men of the
Book," meaning at the same time, among others, the men of
letters. The American student has not to venture farwithin the arcana
of Oriental science and mystery, in order to learn what the Arabic
mind has done for civilization and advancement. Dr. John Will-
, iam Draper has collected and analyzed the learning on this sub-
('ject. Although he may have variated, as some consider it, the
modes of thought by which the Arabian mind treated the accumu
lations of fact, without the essential generalizations which make
) philosophy and science; still, in regard to astronomy he shows us
who first discovered the motions of the sun's apogee, and who

ARABIAN LITERA TURE.

309

demonstrated the third irregularity of our satellite. Their names
are lost in the rushing crowds who fill the observatory and labora
tory of science and the niches of the temple of fame. There are
names like El Hazen, Wefa and El Batini, that are worthy of being
classed in the same category with Copernicus, Newton, Priestly
and Lavoisier. It has been said that the Arabian philosophy
merely copied after the Greek masters, Plato and Aristotie. If
this be true, is it not all the more creditable in the Arabians ?
Indeed, without the aid of Plato and Aristotle, the splendid com
mentaries of the Western mind in philosophy, science and religion
would be but shining dross and useless inaptitudes.
It is said that the Arabians have no literature of their own,
that they gave their mental as well as physical energies to the con
quest of sea and land, and that they have been destroyers and not
restorers. To offset this charge, it must be confessed that they
have a wonderful place in the world's history, by means of a genius
for government, if not a taste for art and literature. Why is the
Turkish pen a stubbed stick without a split ? It must be under
stood that the reed makes a tolerable pen. Besides, it is cheaper
than our wooden-holder pen, in a country where the forests have
been eaten off by the goats and destroyed by the peasantry.
Although the pen of the Turk has not been as mighty as his
cimeter, it must be taken into account that with such a poor stick
of a pen he has done wonderfully well.
To any one who has read Sir Walter Scott's " Robert of Paris,"
the grandiose style of chronicling the events of the Greek empire
will provoke a smile ; and yet, long before his day, such chroni
cles were the only source of knowledge as to these border lands
between the Occident and the Orient. There was much nebu
lous light burning over the Danube, the Euxine and the Bospo
rus. They were faint, flickering beacons, to which the Western
Powers looked, and by which they were guided in giving encour
agement and help to the East in the struggles of the Greek and
the " Barbarian." When the Turkish conquest came, there had
been littie of literature and less of art cultivated by their predeces
sors. The Turk added nothing to the advancement of those years,
except the art of war, and something from the fragmentary poems
of the Arab and Persian. The Turk was a peasant and a
soldier ; and, I may add, a ruler. Before the conquest, Greek
history was an alternation of palatial assassination or monastic

3 I O DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
retiracy, and a mass of demoniac intrigue. The literary light
which, like an aureole, surrounded the Arab brow at Bagdad, and
as far west as Cordova and Granada, and as far east as Delhi,
never irradiated the conquerors of Constantinople. Many of the
Sultans were conspicuously grand in their thoughts and deeds
of conquest They planted the foundations of the empire.
Their successors gave it permanence through education, litera
ture and the arts. But most of the amenities were limitedj and
almost lost in the contamination of a sensuous faith.
Sulemian the Magnificent stands first among the Ottoman
rulers ; but in balancing the probabilities as to the advancement
of our race, there is not very much connected with the Turkish
supremacy to show that even he gave to it any great impulse,
like that gained from the Arabian invasions along the Mediter
ranean. The Turkish tongue is enriched by many Arabic and some Per
sian words. These came into the language along with the religious
dogma. Besides, the terms of luxury and art that belong to the
Orient, and which were unknown to the Tartar ancestry of the
Turk, have their place in the Turkish language. You can hear
them dropping like bubbling honey from the mouths of the Turk
ish ladies who are shopping in the bazaars, or in the smooth
words of the shopkeeper who responds. The old tongue of the
Turk IS not unknown to many uncivilized people, who roam over
the plains of northern Asia, just as the language of the border of
Scotland is heard among the Norse descendants of Scandinavia.
It is said that the language is similar to that of the Latin. In
its softness, yes ; but in its copiousness, no.
The Turk in his litigations has no " advocate." He is his
own attorney and speaker. He tries his own case. He does his
own work with his own tongue. He practices rules and arts of
rhetoric with grace and skill. His crescendo, toward the climax,
complies with the rules of Quintilian and the practice of Cicero.
You may not know the object of a Turk's speech from his
proem. It is the end that clinches the discourse. His con
clusion is the key to his meaning. To listen to him in the
bazaar, as he expands upon the glories of his broadcloth and silks,
you are at a loss which to admire most, the exquisite broidery
of his phrases and praises, or the elegant texture of his fabrics.
Yet there is not so much of the advocate as the judge in his

"FOUNDATIONS" OF EDUCATION. 311
manner. He does nothing, not even in the sale of a chibouque,
without dignity. His frequent response of "Yok," which means
" No," advises you that his mind is determinately made up.
In balancing these merits and demerits of the Turk, I am
¦endeavoring to separate him from his Arabic friends and co
religionists, and to be discreet in laudation. Nevertheless, it is
true that the Turkish people have adopted many of the finer ele
ments of the Arabic character, if not the literature. It is within
my own personal knowledge that many of them, in a half-monastic
way, take to themselves, as other less cultured Turks take a harem,
the rare volumes of Arabic literature, to read, cherish and love,
There is such a scholar, with a rare library, upon the eminence
near the American college. He is devoted to his rare old vol
umes. Many of his treasures are manuscripts which record the
scientific triumphs of the Arabian people.
Out of all this has already come a respectable literature in the
Turkish language. Some of it is from other languages, but much of
it is original. A part is poetical, as nearly all Oriental literature must
be. It is historical, because there are no such fields for history as the
Balkan and Asia Minor peninsulas, Mesopotamia, Syria and Judea.
As a general thing, letters, although appreciated, are not cultivated
in Turkey to-day. The body of the Turkish people are not
highly educated, but they are not uninstructed. The ordinary
Turk, however, is free from vices, and the Turk who seeks pro
motion in the state invariably seeks an education outside of
'Turkey. To a limited extent, those who would expound the
Koran, or who would seek government employment, disdain to
be entirely ignorant of or aloof from the tlegant life of lettered
¦ease which is led by some of the diplomatic and other people in
and around the Porte. The Turkish colleges and schools have
large funds for their endowment. In fact, there is a minister
specially dedicated to look after all the "foundations" of educa
tion. It is to be regretted that his duty is mostly connected with
the foundations of the mosque. The studies are under the guid
ance of the ulemas. I do not think the literature taught by the
ulemas is practical. It is rather the result of metaphysical sub-
tiety. It comes out of the old school, of which Aristotle was the
best teacher, and of which Scotus himself was the best scholar.
The rhetoric and logic which the Arab drew out of the Greek
manuscripts in their crypts have been applied to philosophical

3 I 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
questions of a most simple and insignificant character. It has struck
others than myself that the physical science, with its enginery, its
telescope and microscope, and its machines for the transmission
of sound and words by electricity, are regarded by the average
Turk either as miracles or as toys for childish curiosity. When
Dr. Hamlin, of Robert College, first introduced into the palace
the magnetic telegraph, and demonstrated how intelligentiy
words could be transmitted to a distance without talking, the
scene was very diverting, but not more so than the wonder over
new discoveries in our own home. The curiosity of the Turks was
childlike, but it was the curiosity of those who desired to learn;
and they have learned. In Turkey to-day the telegraph is in con
stant requisition among all classes of the people, and at a cost
infinitely less than that of any other country in the world. The
government controls it. The effect of this control is not in the
direction of centralization of power.
There are among Oriental, and especially Armenian, tales, a col
lection from the East Indies, called the "Five Books," as well as
the "Arabian Nights," with which we are familiar. They defy
scientific analysis. They are stories of Oriental Cinderellas,
about the Snake Child, and the Brahmin's Enchanted Son, and
others. There are stories from Albania, in which physical and
animated nature is personified, like those of the Danish Andersen.
These make up abundantly a literature of the lower classes within
the dominion of Turkey, irrespective of race.
In the comparative absence of books and newspapers in Turkey
in earlier times, the tombstone was considered a vehicle for the
communication of sentiment. This consists with the gravity of
Ottoman character. As the cemetery was ofte'7, sought by prome-
naders, picnic parties, condoling acquaintances and friends of the
deceased, there is much obituary literature worked in upon the
stones. In the great burial-ground of Eyoub, on the tomb of^an
infant, it is said:
" This is a flower that has scarcely bloomed. It is prematurely
torn from its stem. It is removed to those bowers whose roses
never languish. Its parents' tears will supply refreshing moisture."
Again, this is written of a young lady :
' ' The chilling blast of fate caused this nightingale to wing its
course to heaven."
Of a lady who dies in child-birth it is said:

NE WSPA PERS IN 7 'URKE Y. 3 I 3
"Tree and fruit are both transported to the gardens of
paradise. '
On a child's tomb:
" Here below is but a frail rosebud ; the bitter wind of destiny
blew upon its stem."
Here is a mother's lament for her daughter:
" The bird of my heart has flown from my soul for the gardens
of paradise." On a mother's tomb we read:
" Traveler, I ask of thee a prayer; if to-day it is needed for
myself, to-morrow it will be required for you."
The following epitaph is a remarkable specimen of literature,
al fresco: " Here lies the man who eats no onions."
Was he a Lazarus or a Dives ? Onions were the food of the
opulent. One might write a chapter about the newspaper press of this
capital, buc it could not be written with much satisfaction by
those who believe in John Milton's " Plea for Unlicensed Print
ing." The newspaper in Constantinople began nearly half a
century ago. Oscanyan Effendi, ex-Consul-General Ottoman at
New York, now a member of the Press Club of that city, and a
rare linguist, was its progenitor. It was called the Byzantine
Advertiser. It had a native name, Aztarur Bizantian. It strug
gled manfully for existence, but it could not long survive the inclem
ency of the government and the indifference of the people. While
the Turkish newspaper press still lacks the freedom which the
American, French and English press enjoy, yet it has grown into
a power, as the number and variety of its issues indicate. There
are a score of dailies and as many weeklies in this capital. Even
the resident Persians have a Star Aktar. These papers copy the
French methods. They are all compelled to be reticent on news
as well as on public questions. The newspapers of Constantinople
which circulate most among the English, German, Italian and
Levantine population are printed in English and French ; such as
the Levant Herald and the Oriental Advertiser. There is a
French Journal de Constantinople. The authoritative paper is the
Tarik. The latter is the organ of the Turkish government.
There is a Greek paper, the Neologos — well named. There is an
Armenian and a Hebrew paper; but the most independent paper

314 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
of them all is, perhaps, the Levant Herald. The sign of its vitality
is that of its constant overhauling by the censor. I am inclined
to believe, from my knowledge of this censorial performance, that
much of the work is superserviceably and ignorantly done. The
portion expunged by the censor is generally that which is the
least obnoxious to the government of the Porte. Frequently, my
friend Mr. Edgar Whitaker, of the Levant Herald, has had his
best lucubrations cut in whole or in part On such occasions
this little item appears:
Notre article politique d'aujourd' hui reste, sur la demande de
la censure, en portefeuille.
No one can rely upon any of these papers for fresh news.
During the time the Conferences were held in Constantinople,
and of the short war between Servia and Bulgaria, we were indebted
to the London papers for the only particulars. As to any news
from America, it was like angele' visits, few and far between.

CHAPTER XXV.

TURKISH WIT AND HUMOR.

It is commonly thought that the Turk has no humor. To be
as cross as a Turk is an apothegm. The Turk is always sup
posed to be as solemn as Pythagoras, and as sedate as a Scotch
Presbyterian. If he be allowed to have any humor, it is regarded
as that of a grim sort, which is more akin to North Albion than
to Attica. There is some injustice done the Turk in this matter.
He can fit his fancies for humorous ideas, and give them racy
application on occasions fit, but, unlike the Frenchman, he is not
given to the manufacture of jeux d' esprit. Turkish humor is
generally free from the coarseness which belongs to the isolated
Englishman. The national characteristics of gravity and reflec
tion are too strong to admit of the irrelevant hilarity in which the
Greeks and Italians indulge ; but the Turk is never backward in
being forward when the least sparkle of humor is illustrated.
Especially does he exercise his quiet and sedate quality of fun at
the expense of foreigners.
Of course, the Turk indulges somewhat in masquerade while
moving through the mazes of diplomacy at Pera ; but when he is
by himself, he is really fond of pleasantries. He can play off the
weaknesses of others. He makes prey of unsophisticated foreign
ers, with all the soberness of a Rocky Mountain stage-driver
expatiating to a "tenderfoot" from the States. His advantage
consists in a droll exaggerative quality, which, if it do not evoke
a guffaw, tickles like a feather. These exaggerations have expres
sion in tropes and figures, and frequently in piquant and pertinent
stories. But the Orient is rich in something else besides humor; it
abounds in abundant metaphor, and which is akin to fun. The
Turk is never stinted in phrases of a superlative character. The
metaphorical exaggeration of the Orient reaches its climax in a
burst of enthusiastic gratitude, when one of the new Pashas

3 1 6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
acknowledges an honor conferred upon him by the Sultan. One
of these favored Pashas exclaims :
" Your sublime favor has been as a southern sun-breeze, even
to the remote corner of my insignificance ! Had I all the various
voices of the universe for pens, and the condensed stars of heaven
for a page whereon to describe your bounties, I should still lack
both space and means to record them."
The exaggerated expressions of the Orient are to be accepted
with much allowance. There is no malice in the big stories, and
no intention to pervert the truth ; but from the very constitution
of the language itself there are, from the Arabic, Hebrew and
other languages, roots, from which grow luxuriant amplification
and ramification.
The Turkish or Oriental mind has not that intense, condensed
and expressive sense which French and Americans regard as wit.
Occasionally in public places, you may meet a company of
players and singers, who, in addition to other performances,
indulge in buffoonery. Sometimes this is grotesque, but it is not
funny to us, or witty to any race. It is often a caricature upon
the prevalent manners.
The subject of a favorite performance, for instance, is a
mysterious beauty — a princess. Her charms, like all Orien
tal charms, are enhanced by the veil. The play in which
she is the heroine is a sort of al fresco festivity. It is played
as Thespis played — in the "open." There are no scenic
aids except a tent, which represents a harem. The spectacle is
upon an area of beaten ground under the shade of trees. The
ground is covered with a carpet, upon which sit cross-legged spec
tators. There is an open shed for the female portion of the audi
ence. The humorous characterization consists of some young per
son smothered in a veil inside of the tent, or harem, whose door is
open. Through the open door the lady is seen, affecting the
languishing attitude and duck-like waddling habitual to the ladies
of the East The mimicry is well done. It produces a piastre's
worth of hilarity. Inside of the tent, the heroine sits entranced,
while her lovers play, beneath her supposed lattice-window, the
gusle — a sort of goose-neck banjo. The suitors are as numerous
as those who wooed Penelope. The coy beauty is superbly
rouged upon the cheek, and charcoal gives additional darkness to
her eyebrows. She cannot be wooed by aliy goose music; Oh, nol

TURKISH DRAMA. -, j y
Her slaves come forth and pummel the suitors with cudgels. This
"brings down the house." In the next scene, a funny old man
enters disguised. He it is who is behind the canvas, per^
sonating the adorable beauty ! He sings in falsetto the most
tender airs, which delight the audience. Shades of Gilbert and
Sullivan ! They never struck notes like these in their most
comic operas ; for of all the music which can be caricatured on a
high pitch with a shrill whining, the airs of the Orient furnish the
climax. This mummy of an old man, with his tender trills and
squeaky treble, is, to the suitors, an houri; and his song and melody
that of paradise. The audience know all the time that the beauty
is that discordant, ugly old man. In that lies the raciness of the
performance. To the Turk, contrast is the essence of dramatic
vivacity; hence the old man's amative words and high pitch of
admiration produce tumbling oceanic swells of fun.
It may not be generally understood, but it is a fact, of which
I have had some diplomatic experience, that the Turkish language
is extremely susceptible of conundrums, puns and double enten-
dres. A little shade here, or a little more color there, and the
whole sense of a word or sentence becomes changed with surpris
ing facility. It is therefore easy to be comical in Turkish, since
the comic is defined to mean a sudden jerk of the understanding
from one extreme to another. The player is not backward in
taking advantage of this trait of the language in the al fresco per
formances. When acting the parts of lovers — as in the play to which I
have referred — they get into all sorts of strange positions. Some
swing their bodies, and others caper about with fantastic exclama
tions that remind one of the opera bouffe. The lover has a
lantern on the end of a pole ; this, in his amorous agony and
awkwardness, he pokes into all sorts of faces and places. The
result is, a whack here, and a kick there, and a tumble all around
the stage. At last the denouement takes place. The conquering
hero, who is always the tenor, appears. To him the beauty
yields, with blushes. Her veil drops, and she responds in a deep
bass voice ! Then the chorus becomes excited. Beauty surren
ders to the Beast, and the play ends. The whole performance
is very much like a conflict among ducks and geese.
In fact, such ornithological fights are not unknown in the
East. They furnish sportive recreation. I have often been struck

A GOOSE-FIGHT NEAR ADRIANOPLE.

SCENE TROM THE CADT. CHAPTER XXVII., PAGE 349.

GOOSE FIGHTS. 3I9
with the prominent part which the goose plays in Oriental coun
tries. In Montenegro it used to be common for the nobility to
play upon the banjo already referred to — the gusle. It is so
called from the Slavic word gusj — a goose. It comes from the
same root as our English word. The instrument is so called
from the goose-like neck. The Montenegrins play a variety of
tunes on this rude violin, although there is but one string drawn
over the bridge. It is played with a bow, and by pressing the
strings with the left hand. When thus evoked it has, for one
string, a wonderful number of notes and variations of sounds.
Its expression is not exactly artistic, but it is truly pathetic in
its monotony in ordinary hands.
The most conspicuous part which the goose plays in the Orient
is in a fight ! In some parts of Turkey in Europe the bird is
trained for fighting, and a goose-fight is looked upon with more
interest than any cock fight ever was in Cuba or New Orleans.
The goose that has the longest and strongest neck wins in the
duel. The fighting is done by twisting one neck round the other.
A goose main, therefore, depends for its victory on the main
strength of the neck.
The Ottoman or Mahometan literature, whether it be v,?ritten
or oral, often takes the form of story or parable with a moral.
In fact, local names are associated more or less with some phase
of morality. Midway between Therapia and Buyukdere there is
a beautiful terrace overlooking some stones, against which the sea,
surging in from the entrance to the .Bosporus, beats violently.
I often visited these stones, and endeavored to draw a sermon
from them. One of them was formerly called Dikfea, which
means the "Just Stone." It has its legend. Two merchants
agree, before a journey over the Euxine, to place what gold they
have beneath this rock. They swear that should one return before
the other, he who first arrives will await for the return of the
other before taking possession of the money. One of them is
intent upon breaking the engagement. What is the result ?
The very stone prevents the perfidy. On looking for the gold
the first who returns can find the gold nowhere. When the
partner returns, he is informed of the loss of the money, when
lo! the gold appears in the very spot on which it had been depos
ited. Here is proof, upon a rocky foundation, of a fidelity beyond
that of ordinary brick and mortar bank-vaults.

320

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

If it be true that maxims, stories, fables and parables are
typical of the characteristics of a race, there can be no doubt of
the honesty of the Turkish character; for all through their legends
and traditions, the honesty and justice of the Ottoman is
celebrated. Oriental stories have endless variety. They are often used
by our Occidental litterateurs and poets to give grace to their
numbers and elevation to their ideas. I glance into an Ameri
can magazine; I find a story in six verses. It is Oriental, for it
is about a dervish. It points the moral in the first verse — it is
the virtue of fasting. But this enables the devout to come
only half-way to God. The second verse indicates prayer; but
this is not sufficient ; neither are pilgrimages; for God does not
come to the devotee who is only prayerful or a pilgrim. The
third verse suggests alms-giving, but this of itself is not sufficient.
The dervish becomes discouraged. He toils along the road with
his one coarse loaf. In the fifth verse he meets a crippled beg
gar; the cripple craves charity of the dervish; the loaf is given —
in God's name. Then — then, the Mighty Splendor fills the desolate
air. A light divine overflows from a heavenly place, and he knows
that it is the light of Allah's face!
Take another analogue. It is also about beggary. A cripple
sits in the city's gate. The grand folk pass through it, seeking a
sacred shrine in the forest near by. They deny the beggar alms.
His need is sore. " We seek to find out God," is their answer to
his petition, as they pass on to the shrine. The beggar dies ; he
realizes the prayer. He alone has found out God!
A diligent searcher after the folk-lore of Turkey could bring
forth many odd, not to say funny, superstitions. Some of them
have fun for us, but not for the Turks. The stories have their
roots in old legends of infinite interest, as coming from the Orient
and associated with our Scriptures. Let me mention a few:
Many are connected with the Evil Eye, and the attempt
to exorcise it or prevent it. Children are especially guarded
against the Evil Eye. A word from the Koran is a sufficient
defense, or some beads, or a littie garlic, or an herb of some kind.
Incense is often used as a precaution against this terrible Evil
Eye. The Weelees of Egypt and the Ghinns of Bagdad, and other
evil spirits, are still as active as they were during the Thousand
and One Nights in forming many of the qualities of the lower

TURKISH SUPERSTITIONS.

321

classes of Turkey. Many people' use what is called dog-bread as
a charm. It is thus named simply because little bits tied up in
a handkerchief passed over the head of the child are afterwards
given to the dogs. Again, many designs in a dress or coverlet are
slightiy irregular or imperfect. They are made so for a purpose.
It is thus intended to show that nothing but Allah can be perfect
Sometimes you will notice persons spitting very much while in
conversation with you. This is a superstitious mode of cultivat
ing the salivary glands to protect the expectorator against the
Evil Eye. The donkeys in the island of Prinkipo are always
decorated with blue beads, and so with the horses and oxen; and
even the ugly buffaloes have similar decoration. These adorn
ments are supposed to divert, by their attraction, the evil looks of
the envious.
A superstition among the Turks is that nothing should be
wasted that might be used as food for dogs or fish. Another is
that no paper should be left lying around loose; iQxnonconstat,\>n'i
that it may bear the name of Allah. Oftentimes a piece of
paper with Allah on it, is swallowed in water by the sick.
These are Oriental customs; and there are a thousand more that
might be picked up. In Moslem lands these customs have a
religious aspect. The visitor must beware not to enter the house
for the first time with the right foot. He must use certain days
that are not unlucky. The Sultan, as we have seen, observes
this custom in giving or postponing his dinners. The proper
time for his hospitalities depends on astrological calculations;
hence, the first day set may turn out to be an unlucky one. We
may smile at these superstitions, but the Turk does not. Some
times they are quite as inconvenient to him as to others. It is
said that the office of Muned-gim Bashi, or astrologer to His
Majesty, exists, and that it is filled by an intelligent and eminent
man. It is his duty to calculate the propitiousness of times and
seasons: when should the hair be cut or the nails be pared; when
be doctored or go on a trip; or when is it best to rest All these
are ciphered out by the official Zadkiel. It is hinted that Sir
Drummond Wolfe's mission about Egypt failed because the
times selected for the negotiations were unlucky. Whatever
truth there may be in these asseverations about astrology — and
doubtless they are exaggerated — there is a sobriety regarding
them which, to the irreverent American mind, is related to the

322 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

THE HIRSUTE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 323
humorous. These superstitions have been carefully collated by
authentic writers, and if we should add to them others which
come down traditionally, it would only amplify what is already
well known, and that is, that the Orient, the land of religions, is
the land of strange and weird fancies about Evil, and of remedies
supposed to be salutary and potential against its influences. But
most of all, and related to these traditions, are the " moralities "
which are their companions.
One of the odd things of the East is the devotion paid to
certain vegetables and certain trades. For instance, the onion,
which is not held in high esteem by Western nations, is called
by the Kurd, "Your Excellency." To dine on the inside core of
the onion is considered evidence of high dignity and immense
opulence. One of the strangest of all the Turkish stories is one current
about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The Turks have no
nebulous or indefinite dramatis personcB. They personify them
as well as other creatures by both name and trade. The Queen of
Sheba' s name is Balkiss. She is the twenty-second queen of
Yeman, which is a seaport on the Red Sea, When she calls on
Solomon, she has a wonderful reputation for beauty, but there
is one defect for which nothing can compensate. It is more
than hinted to Solomon that Her Majesty's nether limbs are
¦covered with hair like unto that of a she -ass. What did this
wisest of men do in order to settle this question? Why, he
arranges, with the aid of a mirror, and running water under it,
to find out whether, as reputed, her ankles are hirsute. When
Queen Balkiss steps into the room where the great King Solo
mon is sitting in state, she raises her robe to avoid the water.
The plan is a success.
Queens did not wear stockings until Elizabeth of England
,set the fashion. Sheba's secret was thus revealed. But, like
most Oriental troubles, a magical paste was manufactured by the
king's apothecary, so that the feet as well as the legs of the fair
Balkiss become as downy as the cheek of a new-born infant.
There are a great many singular, if not witty, mottoes in the
Turkish tongue. Sometimes they are written, as I have shown,
¦•upon old gravestones, and sometimes upon the tablets of the
baths. In the latter place there is one which says, appositely:
"Do not be quite so shy of taking off your clothes; for

324 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
what is life if not a place where each one must drop the robe
of flesh ! "

Here is another:
" Send provisions to be placed in your tomb, for no one will
take you in after you are dead." '
In the old cemetery below our hotel in Constantinople, there
is a tomb of a man who had been buried by the falling of a house.
He makes his own epitaph:
" I was walking leisurely, when, good Lord ! what evil befell
me! I was reduced to ashes, and beneath this stone you will
find them."
There is a wine, almost a syrup, made by the Arab from the
date. It is a favorite drink of the Bagdad gourmand. A story is
told of it:
A famous Caliph loves this brew. In one of his wanderings,
he enters the cabin of a peasant. The peasant is so pleased with,
the Caliph that he produces, not merely milk, but a bottle of the
date-wine. The Caliph takes a drink, and says to the peasant:
" Do you know who I am ? ' '
"No," replies the peasant.
" I am a eunuch of the court," says the Mahdi, or Caliph.
" Allah! bless you !" replies the peasant.
Then the Caliph takes another pull at the magic bottle. After
a slight hesitation he again asks;
" Do you know who I am ? "
"Yes," responds the peasant, " you are the guardian of the
harem." " No," says the Caliph, " I am one of the Mahdi's generals."
The peasant is duly respectful. The Caliph takes a third
draught with a delicate hurrah.
" Do you know who I am now? I am the Commander of the
Faithful," says he, with a magnificent Oriental hiccough.
The peasant makes no remark at this third drink. He takes
the bottle away. The Caliph demands it back.
" Not a drop!" says the peasant. " When you first drank, you
were a eunuch at court; when you drank next, you were a gen
eral ; and at the third drink you were the Commander of the

326 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Faithful ! One more drink, old fellow! and you will be the
Prophet himself."
He drew the line on Mahomet.
Beyond all doubt, the triple walls of Constantinople, with their
towers and massiveness, are the most interesting of her monu
ments. They are in excellent preservation, especially on the two
sides of the triangle bordering the Sea of Marmora and the
Golden Horn. Upon the land side of the triangle, running five
miles across, from the Seven Towers on the Sea to the port of
Haidanhaissar, the walls are a perpetual scene of wonder. They
are majestic. They are everywhere overspread with luxuriant
and wandering foliage In the old dry moat there are gardens
and trees, the terebinth, cypress, sycamore and other species.
You want to walk thither and ponder, properly to investigate these
walls. You should read up their remarkable defensive history.
It is not my purpose now to describe them, or to dwell upon them,
except to recall one little story which has all the moral fragrance
of the Orient :
One day, in the year a. d. 549, Justinian, the emperor, is
rnaking progress across the city. He loses from his crown its
most splendid jewel. It is a diamond of twenty-five carats. It is a
great loss. No search discovers it until after nine hundred years
of remarkable vicissitudes. Then the diamond again gives its
light to the sun. It is found amid the rubbish of the wall by a
little shepherd-boy while attending his goats. He uses it in some
game with his playmates. The boy's father sees it He ob
serves its beauty. He obtains a hearing from the Sultan,
Mahomed II., the Conqueror. The father is made Chief Shep
herd in return for the imperial jewel. The story runs that the
child is brought up and educated at the expense of the Sultan.
The diamond is known as the shepherd's stone. It is among
the rare gems of the treasury in the Porte. It has another fatality
not so felicitous:
In the time of another Sultan this gem is sent to a jeweler to
be reset The jeweler is an Armenian of great skill. He is
exceedingly solicitous, too careful perhaps, in his work. His hand
is tremulous, and it slips! Voilk! he observes a crack in the
jewel! He falls back and dies, for he has not sufficient sight to
see that it is only a hair from his eyebrow which has fallen upon
the diamond.

CHAPTER XXVL
stories of the east — THEIR MORALITIES.
There is a moral flavor and natural justice pervading most
of the Eastern tales. Endeavoring to collect such of them as
have not hitherto seen print, I place, as among the best, the
following :
The story is told of a Sultan — whether in Egypt or Turkey, I
cannot tell — who, calling all his Ministers together, directed that
each one should come fully robed. They came, clad in their rich
est Persian and cashmere shawls and garments. When this cab
inet meeting was over, the Ministers retired in the order of their
rank. As each guest retired, he was conducted to a chamber and
stripped of his magnificent robe of state. The despoiled garments
were ultimately returned to the Ministers — for a consideration.
This was one of the ancient modes of replenishing an exhausted
exchequer. No doubt some of the ministerial wealth had been
acquired by a stripping process from the people. The Sultan's
mode was retributive. It tended to a decrease of vanity, and it
was a tax on luxuries.
Turkey is not without its reformers, but even the best of them,
Midhat Pasha, was the hero of the following narrative :
When he was Governor at Rustchuk, on the Danube, he made
many enemies. A band of these engaged in a conspiracy to assassi
nate him. They went to Rustchuk, and were followed by one of
Midhat' s Wallachian spies. This spy informed the Pasha of the
plot When the assassins arrive at Rustchuk they are arrested.
Being brought before the Pasha, they at first deny, but at length
admit, that they have been commissioned to kill him. He
asks them :
" How much were you to be paid ? "
They answer : "Twenty-five thousand piastres."
" What !" replied Midhat, " is my life held so cheap ? If you
will kill the man who sent you, I will give you double that sum."
327

328 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
The would-be assassins willingly consent to the more liberal
offer. They are paid twenty-five thousand piastres down. They
are requested to return for the balance as soon as they should
despatch their former, employer. They soon after return, with
sufficient evidence that they had performed their contract They
demand the other twenty-five thousand piastres. They are asked :
" Have you indeed killed your first employer ?"
They admit the deed, and produce the evidence of it
" Then," says the noble reformer to his retainers, " these men
have committed murder. Hang them ! "
Both assassins are at once strangled.
It seems, from this story, that Midhat was engaged in the
strangling business before the fall of Abdul Aziz.
*******
Many stories are told of Turkish generals who manage bodies
of men with great cunning, as well as cruelty. One is told, of a
Bey, whose underlings revolt at his cruelt)'. He cajoles them
with promises, and they return to his palace, bringing with them
their purses. Around him are the officers and Kavasses, whom
self-interest has attached to him. The moneys which he had
taken from the revolters are conveniently near his grasp from the
divan on which he is seated. He tells them :
" If you will divide yourselves into two parties and fight
against each other, I will graciously pardon the victorious party
and present them with all the moneys and permit them to depart;
but if you do not agree to this proposal I will kill you all."
They consent to these conditions, since they can do nothing
else. It is Hobson's choice. Half their number are soon welter
ing in blood. Then the conquerors claim the reward. But the
Bey has his loyal officers around him. He commands them again
to divide, and to fight against each other. They know their fate
in case they fail to fight Being in the power of the Bey, they
fight until only one of their number remains. The Bey kindly
orders him to approach, commends his valor, tenders the prom
ised gold, and with a grim smile makes a sign. The head of the
young man rolls at the tyrant's feet. This is one of the dramatic
stories which used to be told, by which a reputation of cruelty was
established for the Turk throughout Europe two hundred years ago.
* * * * * * *
In former times, more than at present, the Sultans of Turkey

THE BUFFOON AND THE SULTAN. 320
had in their court, dwarfs and buffoons. These were allowed
more liberty than any one else in the empire. Sultan Ahmet the
Second had a buffoon who had a wide reputation for his skill in
repartee. The Sultan and his officials endeavored in vain to em
barrass him with intricate questions. He was always on his
guard, however. He smiled whenever they tried to confound him.
One day the Sultan said to this buffoon :
" I want you to commit an offense, and find a reason to excuse
it that will be more reprehensible than the offense itself."
"Very well, your Majesty," said he, "I will serve you rightly.''
Two hours later the Sultan went into his garden to take a walk.
He was accompanied by his followers, the buffoon being of the
number. After many turns in the garden, the buffoon found
occasion to be near the Sultan, and, all at once, gave His Majesty
a severe pinch on his side. The Sultan turned upon him and said :
"You wretched creature ! You deserve to be hanged. You
shall swing for this presently."
He calls for the executioner. The buffoon, without losing his
presence of mind, says :
" Just as it pleases your Majesty. I am your slave; dispose
of me at any time ; but the act which you resent so much is a
mistake. I pinched you, thinking it was the Sultana — your wife."
The Sultan thereupon recollects his curious proposition. He
acknowledges that the excuse for the offense is far worse than the
offense itself. He countermands his order to the executioner,
and resolves to make no more foolish propositions to the buffoon.
There is always a moral, in the form of a maxim, to these
stories. In this latter case it is this : " If you care to have peace
in this world, do not give confidence to ignoramuses or idiots. Either
from their hand or from their tongue, some evil never fails to come !"
*******
The reports, generally oral, of cases before the Oriental
judges, or cadis, have a quaint sense of humor.
I have the record of an old trial before a cadi : It is the
exceptional case of a hot-headed young Turk who was found
intoxicated. After the case had been heard by the cadi, a com
promise was proposed and accepted. Everybody is relieved.
The foreign parties present are not a little astonished at the
mode which the released Turk took to show his delight Select
ing with care, a particular hair in the whiskers of his adversary.

^ ^O DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
who had prosecuted the case, he gives it a sudden jerk, drags
it out, and assures his opponent that he is his best friend ! The
prosecutor — a Frank — rubs his cheek, accepts the comical com
promise, and is rejoiced afterward to learn that the peculiarity
of the action is considered in Turkey as a mark of great con
descension and amity.
The moral is — that upon a hair compromises depend. Maxiina
e minimis suspendens.
*******
While on a diversion, two friends, Mustapha and Shemsi,
become tipsy. They start for home. As they are going
through the streets of Pera, ready for any adventure, Mustapha
notices a big Janizary going along, who wears an enormous
turban like some of those pictured in this volume. The Janizary
has a wide, fat neck. It is all exposed. Mustapha takes a fancy
to him, and says to his boon companion:
" I have a good mind to slap, with the flat of my hand, the nape
of the neck of that jolly old Janizary."
All the efforts of Shemsi to prevent him from so doing are
useless. Shemsi reasons with Mustapha:
' ' You are going to do a very risky thing. The least that may
happen to you will be endless trouble."
"No," said Mustapha, "I feel like doing it. How can I
resist my feeling? "
Then he runs after the Janizary and gives him an immense
resounding slap on the neck. The Janizary is astounded and
indignant. He is terrified, too, all at once. He hesitates, not
knowing what course to take to resent the indignity to his person
and office. He is especially puzzled, as Mustapha keeps on
laughing like a fool. One moment of reflection is suflicient, how
ever, for the Janizary. He draws out his yataghan and pursues
the tipsy fellow. Shemsi intervenes. He begs the Janizary to spare
his friend. He pleads first the irresistible impulse, and next that
Mustapha is insane. Finally he succeeds in persuading the Jani
zary to refer the matter to the court of the cadi.
They all go together to the cadi. The defendant confesses
the assault. The cadi takes down his code, and after a long,
solemn search he pronounces a decision. It is this:
That the defendant shall pay to the Janizary two paras (about
fifty cents), m full reparation for the insult and injury.

CRAZY DIVERSIONS. -, -, t
The Janizary feels his blood running up to his eyes. He
addresses the cadi:
" Is this the law, your honor ? Are you not mistaken ? "
" No,'' says the cadi, "there is no doubt of it."
" But," says the Janizary, " read it again. There must be some
mistake." "Know ye not, sir," says the cadi, " that whatever comes out
of the cadi's mouth is undebatable; because the law I am giving
you is the law of Allah ! "
"Yes," replies the Janizary; "but, O cadi ! I hear that the
least finger-cut done in accordance with the sacred law does not
ache ; while in this case my neck doth ache, and I would like to
see the law."
" Here is the law," remarks the cadi, showing the book.
While the cadi is bending over his volume to show the law to
the Janizary, the latter, under the pretext of reading it, approaches
the cadi. He administers to the learned judge a sound whack on
the nape of his neck.
" What do you mean by this ? " shrieks the cadi.
" It means," says the Janizary, " that, it being the sacred law —
the will of Allah — I want you to be the recipient, according to
law, of the two paras in which you mulct my assailant."
The cadi has no more to -say. He is estopped. He abides
by his own construction of the law.
* * * * * . ¦* *
I can hardly call it a Diversion ; but a singular adventure hap
pened at the Legation during one day in mid-summer. The
Legation building is situated on the Hue Petit Champs. While
looking over some despatches one morning, a card is sent up, in
the latest style of pasteboard. On it was the name of a Turkish
gentleman. I cannot recall his name, but he was an Effendi,
if not a Bey. He enters with a distinguished air. He is invited
to be seated. He is admirably dressed. His toilette has an
elegance that shames the personnel of the Legation, and the ordi
nary or even the extraordinary Turk who affects the European
costume. He desires to know from me, in French, if I speak
Turkish. I tell him that I do not. He then begins in French
with the greatest calmness ; but the glazed and wild eye, or some
thing, leads me to suspect before he talks long that he is distrait.
I send to the chamber of the dragoman ; I ask him to translate

332 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
for me from the Turkish into the English in a quick way. I
remark to the visitor with much suavity :
"You desire to see the American Minister?"
He replies : " Yes, Excellency " — the common appellation of
all Ministers, whether " excellent " or not
" I have been to the English Legation; I craved its protec
tion, but I have failed. I now desire the protection of the great
republic of America, which never fails to be just to the unfortu
nate." I bow politely to the compliment. He resumes :
"I am a man of property, unmarried, and have been living at
the Hotel d'Angleterre, but for the summer I have moved from
that hotel to the Hotel Bellevue, at Buyukdere. While at the
Hotel d'Angleterre, I was constantly pursued by persons who
desired to take my property and my life."
His eyes shine with a wild, demoniacal lustre, so that I look
about me anxiously for the Kavass, with his unloaded silver-han
dled pistols, and the capoujii, with his big spoon. They are looking
in on the scene with Ottomanic gravity.
" When I went to the Hotel Bellevue,'' resumes the visitor,
" I was still pursued, and by the same parties ! I am pursued
for another reason than simply to get my property ; I am the son
of the highest personage in the Ottoman empire. I am the next
inheritor of the throne of Suleiman and other Sultans. I am a
descendant lineally of the race of Mahomet. I am the Caliph
of the Mussulmans and the Ruler of the people ! "
He did not become violent. He was singularly and trem
ulously apprehensive of death from the pursuit of his enemies.
The dragoman was disposed, at first, as I thought, to smile
ironically ; but I gave him the hint, and we both commiserated,
in two or three languages, the unfortunate situation of this heir
to the throne. We lamented the impotency of the United States
to protect a Turkish subject, even though that subject had royal
blood in his veins. We remitted him to that palpable law of the
Koran, which shields the faithful in all the emergencies of this
present life and makes his future beatific.
The Mahometan generally respects the beard. This man had
none. His face was smoothly shaven. His eyes had an unnatural
brightness in them. His cheeks were ruddy with health, and he
seemed in every respect sane. After the interview ended, he

"SUNSET" IN THE EAST. 333
thanked us politely for our sympathy and departed. He never
returned. It is nothing new for our citizens abroad to become crazed
about some apparent lack of sympathetic action on the part of
their Government I read the other day of • an American making
a raid with a pistol through the State Department at Washington,
because our Consul at Lisbon had received his salary as a circus
performer. As he was unable to collect his salary from the cir
cus manager, he had appealed to the Consul, who had received it.
This lUnatical incident has been accounted for. Owing to the
peculiarity of his performance in the circus, which consisted in
placing a paving-stone on his head, while another gentleman struck
it with a sledge hammer, the claimant had become embarrassed.
Perhaps the other gentleman, in one of his blows, struck too low I
If such incidents occur in the Legations of the Occident, how
much more frequently are they likely to happen in the Orient,
whither the stragglers of all lands venture !
I cast the veil of reticence over many of these cases. It is a
wise provision of the Turkish Foreign Office to have a mute act
as messenger. It was a comfort to me, on one occasion, to know
that no one but a mute could see, not hear or talk of, my embar
rassments in the anteroom of the Porte. A little backsheesh
makes of him a silent and cautious friend. At one particular
time, when much depended upon my entrance to the chamber of
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the mute in charge of the ante
room came out to see me. With wild, acrobatic gestures, and
such inarticulate noises as Dr. Johnson made over his tea, this
silent servant of the Porte indicated that I was expected. He
did more. He made his salutations — not as a Giaour or Parsee,
to the rising sun — but to the western orb of day. This, to me,
was a puzzle until the Dragoman, Mr. Gargiulo, explained its
meaning. How this mute knew me and my nam de plume, I
never could learn. He had a sign for all the Ministers. The
English Minister he indicated by a motion over his cheek —
plainly signifying mutton-chop whiskers; the Russian Minister,
by a shake, as if the Russian bear and Arctic frost had chilled
him. When he referred to the American Minister, he pointed to
the glorious West — evidently meaning "Sunset" — my pet name,
and that of our launch.
It seemed to me at first, upon going abroad, that diplomacy

o 1

14 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.

ought to be a happy and peaceful means of furthering all
the gentle interests of mankind. Was it not the guardian of
commerce, the pioneer of science, the messenger of peace, the
destroyer of discord, the instructor of nations, and the angel of
good-will to men ? In many ways, the well-being of mankind
might be more or less enhanced by an honest and vigilant diplo
matic service. But perhaps the most feather-headed and callow
geniuses whom we love to weep over upon our star are those
diplomats who, with a small range of intellect and a limited rank
in the service, undertake to direct the world in its career of
advancement

hodja's PICTURE.
(This likeness is taken from a Turkish journal.)

A curious history might be written of the frivolous quarrels
of diplomats, both ot ambassadors and ambassadresses, who have
had their Diversions abroad. I must reserve that history for
another occasion.
I cannot refrain from publishing to the Western world a few
Turkish fables. They introduce the famous Narr-ed-din Hodja.
He is an imaginary person ; not a Sawney or a Joe Miller, but the
embodiment of that Turkish humanity which suits the humorous
Ottoman sensibility. He holds the same rank with the Turks as
^sop with the Greeks. It is a fictitious name, under which a
large number of anecdotes have been collected and compiled.

THE HODJA.

•> -I r
oo5

Narr-ed-din Hodja, as the titie (Hodja) implies, is supposed to
be a man learned in religion. He is the representative and
exemplar ot Turkish humOr, pure and simple. He is represented
as living at Bagdad. All the surroundings attached to his anec
dotes are Turkish. He is not supposed, like ^sop, to have
written them himself, but he is simply connected, supposititiously,
with humorous sayings and doings. He is the Mrs. Harris of

HODJA WITHOUT HIS LATCH-KEY,

the Ottoman Sarah Gamp. He is clever, homely and deep ;
but more often he is the victim, as will be seen from the follow
ing :
One night, before retiring to rest, Narr-ed-din says to his wife:
" If it rain to-morrow, I shall go to my field. If it do not
rain, I shall go to my vineyard."
"Say, if it please God, Hodja," suggests his wife.

336 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
"Whether it please God or not," replies the Hodja, "I shall
go to one or the other."
" Hodja," says his wife, " say, if it please God."
"Nothing of the kind," says Narr-ed-din; " I shall go."
Next day it is not raining, and the Hodja starts to go to
his vineyard. He has not gone far, however, before he is stopped
by the king's troopers. They compel him to work all day, to
repair the roads. It is quite late at night when he is set free.
By the time he arrives at his house, every one is fast asleep. He
knocks at the door. His wife, putting her head out of the window,
asks who it is.
"Wife, "replied Narr-ed-din Hodja, "if it please God, it is I."
The moral which this tale teaches is exquisite for its suggesiive-
ness of the necessity of dependence upon the Divine and not upon the
selfish human will.

When the Hodja made up his mind to marry, his neighbors
came to him and told him that if he married, his " wife would
turn his house upside down."
" Very well," says he, "I will take care of that."
A few days after, he began building his house. Instead of
beginning at the foundation, he surprises his neighbors by pre
paring the tiles for the roof. The neighbors come again and
inquire of the Hodja :
"What are you doing?"
" I am building my house," he responds.
" But," they reply, "you cannot build a house, starting from
the roof."
" Yes," says the Hodja, " but did I not tell you I am going
to marry ?"
" What then," say the anxious neighbors, fearing he had gone
clean daft
"What then? Did you not tell me that if I married, my
wife would turn my house upside down ? Now, I build it so that
when she turns it upside down, it will be right-side up. If what
you say to me be true, I advise you to follow my plan toward
your wives. As they never agree with you, give them the oppo
site of what you wish, and you will always have your own
will."

THE HODJA' S PRACTICAL WIT. 337
The moral whereof is : that often by indirection and tacking,
•we bring the ship into port.

The Hodja having built his house to his own satisfaction and
that of everybody else — offers it for sale. He makes a bargain,
but asks of the purchaser, as a favor, to be allowed to drive a nail
on the wall of one of the rooms ; the nail to be his own property.
This is granted.
The buyer is soon established in the house. Shortly after mid
night, the owner hears a knock at his outer door. He descends
to inquire :
"Who is there?"
" It is I," says the Hodja; " I wish to tie a string on my nail."
Two or three days pass, when again the knock is heard about the
same hour. Again the demand is made :
"What is wanting?"
The answer comes, " I pray you, good friend, I should like to
untie that string from my property." This performance being
repeated several times, compels the purchaser to abandon his
purchase for a song.
The moral of which is : to make sure of the character of the
vender, when you become the vendee.

The Hodja was considered the most learned man in his town.
Every one called on him for information and advice. One day a
number of people called, and demanded of him a reply to this
question :
"When, O Hodja ! will be the end of the world?"
" Oh ! " says he, " ask me something difficult. That is very
easy to answer. When my wife dies, it will be the end of half of
the world ; when I die, then the whole world will end."
Moral by Sir Boyle Roche : Single misfortunes never come
alone, and the greatest possible misfortune is followed by one
greater.

Another story is told of the Hodja : He used to teach in the
parish school. He had taught his pupils that, whenever he

338 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
happened to sneeze, they should all stand up, and, clapping their
hands together, should cry out :
" God grant you long life, Hodja ! "
This the pupils regularly did whenever the Hodja sneezed.
One day the bucket gets loose and falls into the well of the
schoolhouse. As the pupils are afraid to go down into the well
to fetch up the bucket, Narr-ed-din Hodja undertakes the task.
He accordingly strips, and tying a rope round his waist,
asks his pupils to lower him carefully into the well, and pull
him up again when he gives the signal. The Hodja goes down,
and having caught the bucket, shouts out to his pupils to pull
him up again. This they do. The Hodja is nearly out of the
well, when he suddenly sneezes ! Upon this, his pupils immedi
ately let go the rope, begin to knock their hands together, and
shout down -the well :
" God grant you long life, Hodja ! "
But the poor Hodja tumbles down to the bottom of the well
with a tremendous crash, breaking his head and several of his
bones. The moral of this story is — too neat for explication.

One day Narr-ed-din Hodja is too lazy to preach his usual
sermon at the mosque. He simply addresses himself to his con
gregation, saying :
" Of course ye know, oh, faithful Musslumans, what I am
going to say to you ? "
As the Hodja stops, evidently waiting for an answer, the
congregation cry out with one voice :
" No, Hodja Effendi, we do not know."
" Then, if you do not know, I have nothing to say to you,"
replies the Hodja, and immediately leaves the pulpit.
Next day he again addresses his congregation, saying :
" Know ye, oh, faithful Mussulmans, what I am going to say
to you ?"
Fearing that if, as on the previous day, they say "No," the
Hodja would leave them again without a sermon, the congrega
tion this time, replies :
" Yes, Hodja, we do know."
" Then if you do know what I am going to say," quietly says

THE HODJA S DONKEY ON HIS VERACITY.
339

340 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
the Hodja, ' ' of course, there is no need of my saying it. He
again steps down from the pulpit, to the consternation of the con
gregation. On the third day, the Hodja again puts the question :
" Know ye, oh faithful Mussulmans, what I am going to say
to you ?"
The congregation, determined not to be disappointed again,
take counsel among themselves on the question. Accordingly
some of them reply :
"No, Hodja, we do not know," while others cry:
"Yes, Hodja, we do know."
" Very well, then," says the Hodja, "as there are some of
j-ou who do know, and others who do not know, what I was going
to say, let those who do know, tell it to those that do not know;"
and he quickly descends from the pulpit.
The moral of this story is not always in the mind of the clergy.
It is this :
If you can find nothing worth saying, do 7iot trespass on the con
gregation by trying to say it.
*******
The Hodja borrows from a friend a large copper vessel, in
which to do his washing. A few days afterward, the vessel is
returned clean, washed and polished. Inside of it is another but
much smaller copper vessel.
" What is this, Hodja?" asks his friend; " I lend you one
vessel and you bring me back two ! "
" It is very curious," says the Hodja. " It appears that your
vessel is with child when you lend it to me. While in my pos
session it must have given birth to this baby vessel. Of course
both belong equally to you."
" Oh ! thank you, good Hodja," says the man, laughing, and
without more parley agrees to receive back both vessels.
Some time after this, the Hodja again applies for the loan of
the large vessel^ — the mother vessel, as he describes it. The
demand is readily granted. Before leaving, the Hodja inquires
after the health of the " baby vessel." He expresses his pleasure
at hearing that it is doing extremely well.
A week, then a month elapses, buc no Hodja appears to bring
back the borrowed vessel. The proprietor at length, losing
patience, goes himself to obtain it.

THE HODJA AS A DOMESTIC PERSON. 34 1
" Very sorry," says the Hodja, " but your copper vessel is
dead." " Dead, Hodja ! " cries the other in surprise; "what do you
mean ? "
"Just what I say," replies Narr-ed-din Hodja; "your vessel
is dead." " Nonsense, Hodja !'' says the man — irritated at the Hodja's
quiet manner; " how can a copper vessel die ? "
"Read up your natural history, my good friend," answers the
imperturbable Hodja," puffing quietly at his long pipe, "and
you will see that everything that gives birth to a child must inevi
tably succumb in due course to the fate of all mortals. You
were willing enough to believe that your vessel had given birth to
a 'baby vessel;' I do not see, therefore, why you should now
doubt my word as to its being dead."
Although the Hodja could prevaricate in speech, and appro
priate to himself his neighbor's chattels, he nevertheless teaches
in this fable that it is not wise to take unfair advantage of
your neighbor.
The biter will sometimes get bitten.
*******
A mendicant knocks at the Hodja's door.
" What do you want, my friend ?" asks the Hodja, putting his
head out of an upper floor window.
" Come down, Hodja Effendi, and I will tell you," replies the
mendicant. The Hodja obeys, and coming down to the door, asks again
of the man what is wanted.
"Alms," is the answer.
" Oh! very well," said the Hodja, " come with me up-stairs."
Leading the way, the Hodja conducts the man to the top
most floor of his house. Arrived there, he turns round and
remarks :
" I am very much distressed, my good friend, but I have nO'
alms to give you."
" Why did you not say so down below ? " inquires the man
angrily. "Why did you not tell me what you wanted when I asked you
from the window ? Did you not make me come down to the
door?" retorts the Hodja.

542

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

The moral whereof is :
Be polite a7id considerate when you beg favors.

A friend calls on Narr-ed-din Hodja to borrow his donkey.
" Very sorry," says the Hodja, who does not want to lend the
animal, " but the donkey is not here ; I have hired him out for
the day."
Unfortunately, just at that moment the donkey begins to bray
loudly, thus giving the direct lie to the Hodja.
" How is this, Hodja ? " says his friend; "you say the donkey
is away, and here he is braying in the stable !"
The Hodja, nothing daunted, replies in a grave manner :
" My dear sir, please do not demean yourself so low as to
believe the donkey rather than myself — a fellow-man and a ven
erable Hodja with a long gray beard."
The moral of the last fable some people never will perceive.
It is this:
An ass will ahvays reveal hi7nself by so7ne inappropriate re
mark. Asses should be seldo7n seen, a7id na>er heard. The wise
man hideth his ass 7vhen the borrower cometh arou7id.

The story-tellers of the East are a literary guild of their own.
Their practice is as old as Homer. Most of their tales, as I have
shown, have a moral. In the early training of the child, by its
nurse or tutor, wonderful stories are told to the children. Some
of these tales are at the root of that education which is necessary
to form the character of a true believer. As an instance, the
child is taught not to be afraid of death ; not to be astonished at
anything, no matter how wonderful; and not to say in conversa
tion anything but what is necessary to promote its own interest
All this is given to the children in allegoric stories. I will under
take to give here some of these stories.
We have often been told of the justice of Solomon, as to the
two babies who were brought before him. There is a better case
of that before a cadi in Egypt A pair of women come before
him. They complain that one of his Kavasses had seized a cup of
milk without payment, and had swallowed it. The man is recog
nized. When the cadi is through with the case, he adjudges

THE KAVASS AND THE MILK. 343
that the accused shall be ripped open. The moral is in the
ripping :
Per curiam: If milk be found in the stomach of the Kavass the
plaintiffs shall receive their five paras, the price of the milk; but if
there be no 7nilk, they shall be ripped up in turn, for accusing one of
the household unjustly."
The Kavass is ripped; a little milk is found in him, and the
women receive their money.
I desire to place upon record the fact that at no time in the
history of the American Legation was my Kavass ever so wanting
in milk as to cheat the milk-woman. He is a Moslem, and has
been trained in the moralities of the story.
********
There was a man who, in despair on account of his pover
ty, decides to commit suicide. He procures a rope ,and goes to
the top of a mountain to hang himself on a tree. When he is
near the tree he finds the Devil waiting for him. The Devil asks :
" Why do you want to die ? "
The man, whose name is Ezek, answers:
" I have nothing to live upon; I am tired of life."
"Why?" says the Devil; " do not do anything of the kind; I
will give you the means of making money."
"What means ?" answered Ezek.
" Now look here,"' says the Devil ; " I am going to transform
myself into a donkey. You will mount the donkey and go to the
city. You will pass through the main street. When you get
near the house of Ahmed Bey, you will make your donkey go as
fast as possible. Ahmed is a gi;eat amateur of fast-running don
keys. He will call you in ; but do not stop ! Go on ! Larrup your
donkey. Be sure Ahmed will find you, and then, make your
bargain." Ezek mounts the donkey. When he comes near the house of
Ahmed, he lets the bridle loose. The donkey starts with a dash.
Ahmed, seeing the donkey, knocks on the glass of the window.
He opens the window and shouts to Ezek. It is of no use. Ezek
will not stop. Then, in a great hurry, Ahmed calls for his serv
ants. He orders them to rush after Ezek, and bring him forth
with, with his donkey. The servants give chase, and with the great
est effort Ezek is brought back. He is asked :
" Will you part with your donkey ?"

344 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
He replies : "I do not want to sell the donkey."
Ahmed then treats him more graciously, and asks him what
he would sell his donkey for.
Ezek says : " I have no intention of selling."
Ahmed offers him $300. Ezek refuses. $500 ; he says
"Yok!" $1,000; still no. Finally, the bargain is conclud
ed for $2,000. Ezek receives his money and delivers the
donkey. One may imagine the care that the Bey would take of such a
precious donkey, which cost him such a price. He arranges a
separate place in his stable for the donkey. He buys a new sad
dle and bridle, and as there is in the courtyard of his house a
fountain, he himself insists upon taking the donkey every day
to the fountain. He does so for several days, opening the
spout, filling the basin, and allowing the donkey to drink freely.
One day, Ahmed is holding the bridle in front of the fountain
and the donkey is drinking. All at once, the donkey slips into^
the spout, leaving Ahmed Bey with the bridle in his hands. At
first, Ahmed is astounded.
" Can I believe my senses !" he exclaims. Yes ; the donkey
shows him his two ears, sticking out from the spout ! The ears
are in motion. The poor Bey would call for help, but he is voice
less. After many efforts he screams out ; the servants appear.
He relates what has happened. While he is telling his story, the
donkey still wags its ears, but only to the Bey.
"Why, master," say the servants, "it must be a mistake.
How can a donkey go through such a small spout as this ?"
" Why," says the Bey, " there it is, moving its ears; look ! look 1
look!" " Oh, what a pity ! " say the servants. " Our master is crazy."
Then they take the Bey into the house, hoping to quiet him.
It is useless. He tells his story to everybody, and in the most
emphatic way. Finally, it is decided to place him in an insane
asylum. ¦When he is taken out of his house he has to pass before the
fountain. He looks on the spout He notices the ears of the
donkey. They are still moving. He cannot resist He screams
out :
" There it is, still ! I see its ears ! "
When he is at the asylum, his friends go to see him. They

EZEK AND THE DEVIL

345

ask for his story. This he repeats. Then the friends conclude
that he is still crazy.
But after a few days Ahmed thinks about his condirion. He
makes up his mind to get out of the asylum. So he changes his
policy, and when a friend asks him:
" How did that donkey manage to slip through the spout,"
he answers: " Now, my friend, how can you imagine such nonsense ! Can
a donkey go through a fountain spout? "
By giving this answer he is freed. He goes home; but as
soon as he enters the court of his house, lo! the donkey shows its
ears again. Ahmed sighs, but is careful not to say anything. Had
he spoken, he would have been returned to the asylum.
There is a moral to this, as to all Oriental tales. It shows
that when a man makes a statement which may militate against
him, he must afterward change it, with such skill as to turn it in
his favon
As the analogue, fable or parable is a favorite mode of teach
ing in the East, I relate the foregoing; but truth is still a better
teacher. A true story, therefore, I will now deliver :
For some twenty-five years the Turkish government has been
doing its best to have roads built in Asia Minor, and, although
the people in the interior have been at work all this time, not
one road has been completed. There was a Governor-General of
Castamouni some fourteen years ago. He was a good Turkish
scholar. As soon as he reached Tueboli, a seaport on the Black
Sea, he forwarded a telegram to Constantinople as follows :
"The roads from Castamouni to Tueboli are finished. I
have come over them with my carriage."
The Governor-General comes from the latter town in his car
riage. There is general praise in the papers and in official quar
ters. Has he not finished the road ? When he arrives at Constan
tinople he is received with great honor. Some time later it is
found that there is no road between the two places except the
original pathway. In examining carefully the telegram, it is
found that the expressions used in it meant with his carriage, not
necessarily in his carriage. The Pasha did not lie. Those who
read the telegram did not understand it; that was all.
There is a way of writing in the Turkish language which is
very elastic. The Turks are masters of this style. Their children

146 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

TURKISH LITERARY STYLE.

547

are taught in this style early. There are a great many Turkish
scholars among the Christians. Some of these manage the
language quite well, but never better than the Turks. Any docu
ment written by a Christian, no matter how well written, the Turk
detects its source immediately. It lacks the Ottoman elasticity.
And yet there are few nations who seem to give out really fewer
ambiguous voices than the Ottoman.

CHAPTER XXVIL

AMONG THE CADIS — MAHOMETAN JUSTICE — HUMOROUS ILLUSTRA
TIONS.

,i,iMh,iH'.i' ,,ii  "if I* ^-^ ',',.,!,,,'''' .

|,|,lMh,«',«,,|l ,|f

A MODERN CADI.

The police administration of the present day in Constantinople
is very unlike that of the past. Look upon the picture of the
ancient cadi, and compare him with the judicial personages in the
348

3 5 O DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
companion sketch. The difference in costume is not greater than
in the code that they administer.
No longer in Pera or in Stamboul does the judge sit turbaned
and cross-legged to administer to offenders his own will as the law.
The police business is modeled upon that of Paris, and the tribu
nals have the same mode of procedure. Barring the red fez cap
which the police justices wear, and an occasional cigarette and cup
of coffee, their courts are the same as those of the Occident The
Tribunal Correctioncl de Pera takes care of the police matters
of this suburb. Important cases, involving felonies of high
degree, are sent to the higher tribunals in Stamboul. In such
cases the tribunal at Pera is only an examining and committing
court. Taking along our dragoman, I make a call at the Court House
in Pera. It is in the centre of the thronging population on the
Grand Rue. When we enter, the court has not convened, but
the Chief Judge, Hilmi Effendi, is upon the bench reading
papers. He is a Turk. He has had great judicial and police
experience in the interior before he came here. He is noted for
his shrewd knowledge of the kind of characters who come before
him — a veritable Judge Dowling of the Tombs of twenty years
ago. He speaks French, but not English.
We are invited to a seat by his side, and pass the time in
talking about modes and codes of criminal practice in various
countries. We agreed that it was a cruel fate to be imprisoned
simply because one happens to be an observer of a crime. In
fact, we agree that it is one of the ridiculous eccentricities of
human order thus to punish the innocent, that society might have
security. One thing leads to another, until our talk takes the direction
of the whims of the elder day of the old cadis, who, like our
Western squires in America, substituted their own sense of equity
as the rule of right. Between cigarettes and coffee I relate a story
of a Hungarian justice, doubtless of Oriental origin :
*******
In the interior of Hungary a Turkish agent is sent to buy
cavalry horses to recruit for the then probable war with Bulgaria
and Greece. While there the agent desires that the proprietor of
a village, with whom he was contracting, should show him a spe
cimen of the Hungarian mode of proceeding.

POLICE OF THE ORIENT.

551

"Wait a few moments," says the proprietor, who is also a
magistrate, " and I will see who is in the town jail."
Calling his constable, he is informed by that officer that a goose
thief had been apprehended during the night, and is in confinement.
He sends for the criminal.
" Are there any witnesses ? " asks the judge.
"Two," is the answer; "the man who owns the goose and a
man who saw the theft"
After hearing the evidence, the judge, in his fierce and harsh
Hungarian-Finnish-Tartaric tongue, calls up the culprit and says:
" You have been found guilty, and I fine you ten kreutzers
and ten days' imprisonment for stealing the goose!'
Thereupon the judge summons the owner of the bird:
" I fine you ten kreutzers and ten days' imprisonment for
allowing your goose to be stolen! "
Having thus disposed of the parties, the judge, turning to the
witness, says:
" Sirrah! I fine you ten kreutzers and ten days' imprisonment
for not minding your own business! "
Hilmi Effendi listens with interest to this story of Slavojiic
justice, and remarks that almost as odd a case recently came
before one of the courts of Stamboul.
A creditor comes to the judge to have a note sued. It is for
1,500 piastres, and not due until three years after the complaint
is made. The judge entertains the suit, and condemns the
creditor to confinement for three years.
"For," said his honor : " How do I know where you will be
three years hence, so as to pay you the piastres, unless I hold
you ? ' '
We agree that this is an improvement on the American
custom of the imprisonment of witnesses in criminal cases.
*******
In Egypt, long before the Turkish rule in that region, there
were struggles between the Mamelukes and the Circassians. A
Circassian chief, through the advice of a servant, who, though
ignorant, was naturally astute, happened by accident to discover
the weak points of the ruling government in Egypt. Upon these
points, as upon the rounds of a ladder, he ascended to the throne.

352

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

Formerly the Circassian had promised the servant that if ever he
obtained that eminence, the servant should receive the appoint
ment of Chief Judge. The servant's name was Caracoush, mean
ing "black bird." So, as soon as the chief was enthroned, he
gave Caracoush the promised post. Among the many cases that
came before him was the following petition :
" Being a burglar by profession, and compelled by want to
rob a house, I select that of a tailor. To enter it I must make
my way through the courtyard. This is surrounded by a high
wall. In jumping from this wall I am caught on the spikes the
tailor had fixed in the wall to suspend ropes for the washing. The
result is, I lose an eye. I now demand that my eye be restored,
and that the fellow who drove the spike shall be punished."
The judge reads the petition, and concludes that justice is due
the petitioner. He summons the tailor, to whom the matter is
explained. The tailor argues that the thief has no business to
jump into his yard in the night, so that if he lost an eye, it is his
own fault But the judge remarks:
" The thief is only practising his profession, and the law only
punishes robbers."
"If," he says to the tailor, "you had not driven the spikes in
the walls, the thief would not have lost his eye ; therefore your
eye must pay the forfeit."
The poor tailor begs and cries in vain. The verdict is pro
nounced. It must be executed. After a long struggle, the tailor
seizes the knees of the judge, kisses them vigorously, and with
tears in his eyes exclaims:
" Oh ! mighty judge. Your decision is sound, but consider.
Am I not supporting a large family — my old mother, my wife,
and my seven young children ? They all depend on me, and I
myself depend on my two eyes. Am I not a tailor ? Do I not
need my two eyes ? If I lose one, how can I pass the thread into
the needle's eye ? How can I do my fine sewing ? My reputa
tion will suffer and all of us starve !"
Seeing some sign of relenting in the judicial countenance, the
tailor is encouraged. He resumes, brightening :
" I have a neighbor who is a sportsman. When he aims at
the game he shuts one eye. Why, great judge, his two eyes are
an embarrassment for him ! Had he but one, it would save him
the trouble of shutting the other. Moreover, what difference

THE TAILOR AND THE BURGLAR.

-» r ¦
OO.

¦does it make to this robber ? All he wants is an eye pulled out
Whether it be mine or that of the sportsman's, what matter ? It
is all one to him."
The argument sounds plausible. The judge considers a mo
ment, and then sends for the sportsman. In spite of protests he
•decrees the loss of the sportsman's superfluous eye. The verdict
is carried into execution, and judicial logic is vindicated !

After this recital, coffee and cigarettes are brought into the
•court and placed before us on the bench, and we resume our
^ood-natured confabulation. We are joined by one of the asso
ciates of the court, Sabit Effendi.
Finding my hearers interested, I entreat them to listen to one
more of my Egyptian stories, illustrative ot Arab justice. I had
heard it from a story-teller in Cairo in my recent rambles in Egypt:
I had been trudging about with our Kavass, Hassan-Hassan,
-when I note a crowd in front of an Arab coffee-house listening
to an Arab story-teller. Hassan is good in Arabic, and seeing
me much interested, he translates the story faithfully. It inter
ests me the more, as it had some incidents quite familiar to the
readers of Shakespeare. It was all about a poor Arab soldier,
-who had a young and pretty wife, whom he loved passing well.
An old and wealthy Jew becomes suddenly enamored of her. The
soldier, being out of employment, is in great need and distress,
and his wife almost starving. She proposes a plan for work. He
is to buy a hatchet and ropes, and repair to the forest. There he is
to cut wood and sell it, while she takes to needlework. He goes to
the Jew for a loan to set up in business. The Jew sees his oppor
tunity, and, after the usual haggling, loans the money on a bond.
The penalty of the bond is the same old " pound of flesh." It is
the Shylock story with some variations. The soldier risks the
penalty, but fails on pay-day. The parties are summoned before
the judge. Half the penalty of the bond is tendered.
"Produce all the cash, or prepare to die ! " cries the Jew.
A scuffle — not set down in Shakespeare — ensues. The sol
dier vanishes, and the Jew and the officers start in pursuit. Here
Shakespeare fails again, and the Orient comes to the fore. In
running away, the soldier tumbles over a woman in the street.
She is in an interesting situation. Trouble unmentionable en-

554

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

sues. Her husband joins in the pursuit. A little farther, the
soldier runs against a horseman and a horse. He strikes the
horse to clear the way. It is a valuable horse, and the blow puts
out one of its eyes. The horseman then pursues the fugitive.
The soldier escapes out of the city, and seeing a stone quarry,
prepares to hide by leaping into it.
" Bismillah ! " he cries, and tumbles in. He falls on a shed,
under which an old man is lying. The rafters give way. The
old man is killed, and the old man's son seizes the runaway, ties
him, and brings him before the cadi.
The soldier is of an observing turn of mind. As he is drag
ged along to court he notices an old man staggering and drunk.
Further on he observes a shrieking man tied on a bier en route to
the tomb to be buried alive. These observations terrify the sol
dier. When he reaches the judicial presence he trembles and
perspires at every pore. The witnesses for the state are called —
Jew, husband, horse owner, and the son of the old man. The
reporters take down the evidence, and the lawyers argue ; and
thus per curiam :
To the Jew : " Bring out your scales, sirrah ! Sharpen your
knife ! Cut off the pound of flesh ! It is a foolish bond, but the
soldier must pay the forfeit. But, mind you, no bone, no skin,
shall be touched. One cut only. No additional torture by more
than one cut Neither " — and here comes in our own Shakes
peare — " neither exceed nor come short of the exact one pound !
If you do, the Koran hath a retribution in its law."
The Jew gives up his claim, and is fined five silver pieces for
unreasonable prosecution.
To the relative of the disabled woman : " Let the woman be
made over to the defendant and restored to her health and her pre
vious condition, and then to her injured husband.
The relative is shocked, and especially so when the family is
fined ten pieces for taking up the time of the court.
To the horseman : " Send for some sawyers ! Divide the
horse longitudinally, from the middle part of his head to the end
of his tail. You, complainant, take the sound half The other
part to the defendant, who must pay loo pieces for the loss."
As this sum would not be equal to the loss of the animal, the
horseman is allowed to withdraw on paying twenty pieces.
To the son of the old man who was killed : " Let the offender

A COMPLICATED CASE.

355

be dragged to the stone quarry, placed on the spot where the old
man lay, and let the son jump down on him."
The young man thereupon modifies his original statement, and
says : " On second thought, the affair was an accident."
On this phase of the case, the son is fined forty pieces for
bringing the suit before the learned tribunal.
The story-teller does not stop here. With all the marvelous

sequences and imitations of one
of the thousand and one tales, he
holds his audience eager to know
the rest. One of the excited
auditors cries out in Arabic,
while a murmur thrills through
the crowd :
" What of the drunken man ?
What of the burying of the live
man ? What has that to do
with it ? "
"Well," resumes the story
teller, "well, the soldier-prisoner
being reluctant to leave so good
a judge, and seeming anxious to say something, the judge asks
him to talk.
" ' Oh ! learned judge,' he says, ' you are so wise that I won
der at seeing in your bailiwick forbidden liquor and a drunken
old sot'
" ' Thank you,' says the judge. ' The law is, that forbidden
things are lawful in cases of necessity. I appointed that vener
able man to test the spirits brought here for sale. It disguised

TURKISH lex talionis, OR JUMPING
ON THE OLD MAN.

556

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

him in his lawful duty. Therefore I now know its poisonous
adulteration. As to the burying case, the burial was ordered by
the court, for know that six years ago that man's wife was mar
ried to another man according to the statute, two witnesses hav- ,
ing sworn that the husband had died at Bagdad. The first
husband appears, claims that he is not dead, and advances a claim
for the restoration of his wife. I send for the two witnesses.
They stand to it that they attended the funeral and saw the man
buried. Therefore this is not a real man, only his image or
ghost. There must be an end of trouble and litigation.' "
The soldier has some misgivings, but dissembles them. He
praises the cadi's equity and retires.
*******
The justices seem to suppress with difficulty considerable
hilarity over this story. After resuming our cigarettes and refill
ing our dainty coffee-cups, the chief, Hilmi Eft'endi, remarks that
these Arabic precedents are often quoted in the interior — meaning
Asia Minor — and that he would call on me some time and take
up the Egyptian thread, and follow the clue until its labyrinth
led us to the sacred precincts of Mecca.
Our dragoman, Mr. Garguilo, who is well versed in the Koran
and familiar with the courts here, breaks the reserve in which he
had indulged. After a few whiffs of his cigarette and a twinkle in
his big Levantine eye, he gravely remarks that not only is the
administration of justice conducted with a curious and humorous
turn in the East, but the detection of criminals often displays a
cunning that a Vidocq might envy, or a Gaboriau long to describe.
In illustration, he says :
* * * * * * *
" Let me give, not a romantic incident, but a veritable narra
tive — as it was told to me some years ago, when I was trying a case
at Kharpoot." As the police court is not to convene for a hour, the patience
of the Ottoman is called to the front, and the dragoman begins
his recital, as follows :
" A few years ago," said he, " on the occasion of the anni
versary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne, Mr. J, H.
Skene, English Consul at Aleppo, gives a dinner. He holds an
evening reception, where the crS77ie of the society at Aleppo is

ORIENTAL JUSTICE. -y ry
gathered. A large number of guests are invited to the Constil's
table. Great pains are taken to make the dinner as pleasant as
possible. In Aleppo nothing speaks so eloquently as display.
Flowers in profusion decorate the table and the apartments.
Every piece of silverware is brought out to add to the splendor of
the festivity. The table service is of solid silver. The Kavasses of
the Consulate wear their gorgeous gold-trimmed clothes and bear
their inlaid pistols and yataghans. After dinner the party leaves
the dining-room. They go into the salon, where a large number
of guests are assembled. The party is a success.
" The servants of the house have been occupying themselves
with serving the guests — passing coffee to one, tea to another, a
narghile to a third, and a chibouque to a fourth, and so on, so that
everything in the dining-room is apparently trusted to the care of
the Kavasses. But what is the surprise of the Consul when, on
the day after the fete, he finds that the silverware has disappeared.
Search is made in every part of the house. Not a single piece is
discovered. There is general consternation, not so much on the
part of the Consul himself as on the part of those in his service.
After mature reflection upon the mishap, the ^Consul calls the
most intelligent of his Kavasses. He questions him. The
Kavass insists that he did not steal the silver, and that he does
not know who did.
" But the Consul is a good detective, and ready in his knowl
edge of men and things. He is also a cool-tempered man. He
says to his Kavass :
" ' There is no use to swear. I am not going to change my
opinion. I have good reasons to suspect you to be the thief, and
I mean that you shall bring my silver to me within twenty-four
hours, else you will be put in the hands of the authorities, and
you will not get away until I find my property. There is no
alternative.' " ' Mr. Consul,' said the Kavass, ' I have already told you that
I did not steal your silver.'
" The Kavass begs for two or three hours' time, and leaves. In
an hour he returns, bringing with him by the bridle a littie don
key. This he presents to the Consul, stating that the donkey
would find the thief, if he would allow the animal to be placed in
one of the rooms and the window shutters to be closed, so as to
darken the room.

358 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
" ' Do so!' said the Consul, who is curious to see what would
result. " After the donkey is placed in the dark room, the Kavass
asks the Consul to call everybody in the house — masters, em
ployees, Kavasses and servants. They come. They are placed
in front of the door of the room where the donkey is.
"When all are present, the Kavass says :
" ' Now we are to enter this room one by one, and as soon as
we get in, we are to take a pull at the donkey's tail. The donkey
will make no sign. It will say nothing unless the robber is
among us. Then you may depend on it he will bray, and indicate
who has stolen your goods. Oh, do not laugh. I have had occa
sion to make use of that remedy. It never fails.
" ' Now,' says he to the Consul, 'you go in first and pull the
tail. We will all follow you, one by one.'
" The singular procession begins, the Consul in the lead. Every
one enters the room and pulls at the donkey's tail, but the don
key does not bray. After the performance is over and all come
out, the Consul asks if all of them have really pulled at the tail.
All respond emphatically, 'Yes.'
" ' How strange it is,' said he, ' that the donkey did not bray !
It seems that the thief is not to be found among us. I cannot
explain it otherwise.'
" He then forms them in a circle around him.
" 'Now, gentlemen,' he says, 'hands up, please.'
" Every one obeys.
" ' Here is your man, Mr. Consul,' says he, aU at once, point
ing at one of the party — a servant. ' You see, every one who
entered the room pulled at the tail, and thus got his or her hands
blackened, while this man did not pull on the tail, as he was sure
the donkey would bray. Consequently his hands are clean.'
*******
"The fact is," said our dragoman in conclusion, "there is so
much superstition among the common people of the East that
such devices are sure to make an almost supernatural impression.
However, the man confessed, and the silver was returned."
We generally concurred in the opinion that such modes
of detection would not operate successfully in London, Paris,
New York or Constantinople, where no such childish ruses
would produce the required results ; but the simple Arab of the

360 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
interior shrank from the experimentum crucis, as if it were not a
donkey's tail powdered with charcoal, but an ordeal of fire, under
the judgment of Allah.
What is the principle lying at the foundation of these simple
proceedings and strange rulings of the old Oriental officers and
cadis ? Some general thought must be their base. This question
we agreed to reserve.
We bade our judicial friends good by, and carried with us the
memory of a happy hour, amusing and instructive.
May I attempt a commentary as the conclusion of my string
of anecdotes ?
From the time of Solomon's decision as to the proprietorship
of the disputed baby, to the case of the bad Manhattan husband,
who was paroled in charge of his wife by Justice Power, there
have been many rare touches of this homely equity, after which
law is said to limp. The Orient is the/owj et origo of these wise
tests, which are applied by sagacious judges to the affairs of men.
The idea which lies nearest to the corner-stone of Mahometan
power is the idea of justice, honestly administered, without tech
nical hindrances. An incident in the history of this capital city
will serve to test this remark.
After Mahomed II. had conquered Constantinople, he was^
told that the fall of the Greek empire had been predicted by two
Greek priests two years before, and that these priests were still
in the city. Mahomed sent for them. He asks :
' ' How did you know that I would besiege and take Constan
tinople?" They respond :
" It was not a guess, nor a prophecy, your Majesty I It was
by close observation of the lack of administration, and especially
of justice, by which we formed our opinions."
"How long is my power over this country going to last?"
asks Mahomed.
" We cannot tell now," respond the priests. "We must have
three months' time in which to make investigations as to the
administration of justice, and for that we require a firman from
your Majesty, so that we may be allowed to visit the courts, and
also 5,000 piastres for our traveling expenses."
The Sultan grants all they ask, and they leave.
During their tour they find themselves in a village where a

STRANGE DECISIONS IN THE EAST. ^6t
certain Mehemed had bought a horse from a man of the name of
Osman. He paid for it three hundred piastres ; that is, one
hundred cash and two hundred on time, to be paid two or three
days later. Mehemed took the horse home, but, to his surprise,
it refused all food. The animal was sick. In the morning
Mehemed took the horse back to Osman, protesting against the
bargain. He had intended to buy a sound horse. This one was
sick. He wished Osman to take it back and return the one hun
dred piastres paid. Osman answered that he had sold a sound
horse, and declined to take a sick one back. He insisted on the
payment of the balance due. The neighbors interposed in vain,
and the two parties concluded to apply to the court. Mehemed
and Osman start for the chief town to see the judge. When
arrived at the court they find the judge absent — gone to his bath.
As the hour is late they decide to return home and come back
in the morning, bringing the horse with them. Unfortunately,
during the night the horse dies in the hands of Mehemed.
The second day they go to see the judge again. Both sides
state the case. Osman insists that he can produce witnesses to
testify that the horse was sound. Mehemed asserts that the best
evidence of the horse being sick is that he died the previous night
" Oh," said the judge, hoping to find a clue on which to found
a decision, " when did the horse die ? "
" The second day after it was taken by Mehemed."
" Why, then, did you not come while the horse was alive ? '
asks the judge.
" We came, but you were at the bath."
"Now I see," rejoins the judge, and, turning to his servant,
orders him to bring a box wherein his documents and moneys are
kept. The box is brought and opened.
" What is your claim, Mehemed ?" he asks.
"The restitution of the hundred piastres. "
The judge, taking the sum from the box, hands it to Mehemed.
He then asks Osman:
"What is your claim?"
The payment of the two hundred piastres, the balance of the
price for the horse."
Taking from his box this sum, it is paid over to Osman.
On being asked, "What does all this mean?" the judge
replies :

-162 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
" Had I not been absent when the two men came the first
time, I would have been able to decide justly, in accordance
with the sacred law; but my absence from the bench, at the bath,
postponed the trial, and meanwhile the horse dies. I cannot give
any decision. It is my fault, and that is why I pay these sums."
The two priests return to Constantinople. They state what
they had seen.
"Well,' said Mahomed, "what is your opinion now as to the
durability of my power ? "
"Your Majesty," said the priests, "as long as justice con
tinues to be administered as we have witnessed it, your reign here
will be everlasting !"
If one should look for the idea of Oriental justice underiying
the stories I have narrated, it would be found in the reality or
simulacrum of that rule which is written in the Mosiac code — the
lex talionis.
Kind, hospitable and trusting as are the Orientals, they have
ideas of revenge not based on passion or malignity. It is a part
of their system. There is a story at the end of the "Thou
sand and One Nights," which illustrates in a whimsical way this
law of retaliation. The story is thought by some annotators to
apply to Moses; but it has a varied application in literature. It is
found in a certain form in Parnell's "Hermit," but its true
source is in the Koran, or, rather, in the Pentateuch, from which so
much of the Koran is derived. Here is the story abbreviated :
A prophet goes into a mountain, beneath which is a spring of
water. During the day he sits on the summit, and the people
who come to the spring see him not. He sees them. One day
he perceives a horseman dismount at the spring. He puts down
his leathern bag, rests, drinks, and retires He leaves the bag
behind him. It is full of gold pieces. Another man comes,
drinks and departs. He takes away the bag. Then there comes
a third man. He is a wood-cutter. He rests and drinks, when
lo! the first man dashes in, distressed for the loss of his bag of
gold pieces.
" Where," he exclaims, " is my leathern bag of gold pieces?"
The wood-cutter replies: " Truly, I know nothing of it"
The horseman draws his sword and slays the wood-cutter. He
searches his clothes, but finds nothing, and departs.
The prophet upon the mountain observes these incidents. He

OTTOMAN JUSTICE AND PERMANENCY. 363
addresses Allah to resolve the mystification of his mind about the
divine justice of these proceedings. Allah says to him:
" Occupy thyself with thy devotion ! One thing is thine ;
another is mine. You are limited in your knowledge. You see
but in part, and hence you fail to reason. The father of this
horseman had forcibly taken a thousand pieces of gold from the
property of the father of the supposed robber. I only put the son
in possession of his own. The wood-cutter had slain the father
of the horseman. Wherefore — the retaliation !"
Then the prophet exclaims: "Extolled be Thy perfection!
There is no Deity but Thee, Keeper of genealogies and All-wise
Dispenser of justice !"
After all, are not most of the codes. East and West, to say
nothing of human conduct, founded upon this natural law of
Moses and Mahomet — the law of retaliation ? Were this not an
element in human action and jurisprudence, would we not lack
many serious and humorous illustrations of the better side of
that nature ?
Thus philosophizing, we return to the Golden Horn. There
we take our launch for the isle of Prinkipo, where we are passing
our second summer in the East.

CHAPTER XXVIIL
THE dragoman's STORY — "WHICH OF THE TWO, THE BAD OR THE
STUPID MAN ?"
Several years ago the dragoman of our American Legation
at Constantinople was asked to act as arbitrator in a dispute
between a foreigner and an old Turkish doctor in law and the
ology. After several meetings with them, the dragoman con
cluded that the doctor was an ill-natured and unmanageable
person. The latter had served for some years as cadi of the
Civil Court at Smyrna. The dragoman related a story for his
instruction. The story as to its place was in old Stamboul. As to its
time, it does not matter much. Its moral is for every place and
for all time. But it took place at the end of the sixteenth cen
tury, when the Turkish power was well established and growing.
In other words, it was during the reign of Amurath III., the sixth
emperor of the Ottomans, and grandson of Suleiman the Magnifi
cent. This Sultan was not, as the sequel of the story shows,
the worst of the Ottoman emperors. He was a tall, manly man,
rather fat and quite pale, with a thin long beard. His face was not
of a fierce aspect, like other Sultans. He was no rioter or reveler.
He punished drunkards, and as for himself he indulged only in
wormwood wine. His people knew that he loved justice, and
although, according to an old chronicle, he caused his brothers to
be strangled, ' ' at which so tragicall a sight that he let some teares
fall, as not delighting in such barbarous crueltie, but that the
state and manner of his gouernment so required," still, he was,
as the time was, a good prince.
But to the dragoman's story. Its moral had its uses, as the
sequel reveals. This is the story, as it was told in one of the
leisure hours at the Legation last summer:
" There was a man, Mustapha by name, who lived near the
Golden Gate. He was well off, and when about to die, he called
his son to him and said:
"' My dear boy, I am dying. Before I go, I want to give you
364

A STRANGE WILL.

365

my last will. Here are one hundred pounds. You will give it to
the worst man you can find. Here are one hundred pounds more.
This you will give to the sfupidest man you can discover.'
" A few days after, the father died. The son began to search
for the bad man. Several men were pointed out, but he was not
satisfied that they were the worst of men. Finally he hired a horse
and went up to Yosgat, in Asia Minor. There the population unani
mously pointed out their cadi as the worst man to be found any
where. This information satisfied the son. He called on the
cadi. He told the story of the will, and added:
" ' As I am desirous that the will of my father be accom-
phshed, I beg you to receive these hundred pounds.'
" Said the cadi, ' How do you know that I am so bad as I am
represented ?'
" ' It is the testimony of the whole town,' said the son.
" ' I must tell you, young man,' said the cadi, ' that it is con
trary to my principles to accept any bribe or present. If I ever
receive money, it is only for a con-sid-er-a-tion. Unless I give
you the counter-value of your money, I cannot accept it.'
" This reply of the cadi seemed just. It puzzled the young
man. However, as he desired to fulfill his father's will, he con
tinued to urge the cadi :
" ' Mr. Judge,' said he, ' if you sell me something, could not
the will of my father be fulfilled ? '
" ' Let me see,' said the cadi, looking around to find out what
on earth he could sell to the youth, without destroying the spirit
of the will. He reflected for a long time. Then all at once he
was struck with a bright idea. Seeing that the courtyard of his
house was filled with snow, about two feet deep, he said to the
youth :
" ' I will sell you yonder snow. Do you accept the bargain ?'
" ' Yes, ' said the youth, seeing that there was nothing of value
in the snow.
" The cadi then executed a regular deed, the fees of which
were paid, of course, by the purchaser. The son then paid
the hundred pounds for the snow.
"The boy went home; but he was not quite certain that he
had strictly fulfilled the will of his father; for, after all, the cadi
did not appear to him to be so very bad. Had he not decidedly
refused to accept the money without a legal consideration ?

366 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

THE BAD MAN. 367
" His perplexity was of short duration.
" The second day, early in the morning, the scribe of the cadi
called on the youth and told him that the cadi wished to see him.
" ' Well, I will go,' said the youth.
" ' No,' said the scribe ; ' I am ordered to take you there.'
"The youth resisted, and the scribe insisted. Finally the
youth was compelled to submit, and went
" ' What do you want of me. Cadi Effendi,' said the boy.
" ' Ah! you are welcome,' responded the cadi; ' I wanted you to
come, because you have some snow in the courtyard which bothers
me a great deal. The authorities cannot shoulder such a responsi
bility. Is not the deposit exposed ? Can it be put under lock like
other property ? Besides, does it not occupy the road to which
the people have the right of easement ? What follows ? The
result is, that your snow will be trampled or stolen, or it will
melt, and then all the responsibility will rest on me. I am
not prepared to assume it. I request you to carry away your
snow.' " ' But, Cadi Effendi,' said the boy, ' I do not care. Let it
melt; let it be stolen; let it be trampled on; I will make no claim
for its value.'
"' Nothing of the kind,' said the cadi. 'You have no right
to close the public way in that manner. Unless you take away
your snow, I will confine you in prison, and make you answer for
the nuisance, and for the decay of the property, which may be
claimed by your heirs at some future time.'
"'Let it be swept out,' said the youth; 'I will defray the
expense.' " ' Nonsense! ' indignantly responded the cadi. ' Am I your
servant ? Besides, will it not take a great deal of money to have
the snow swept out ? '
" ' I will pay the expense, whatever it is,' said the youth.
" ' Well, it requires twenty pounds,' said the cadi.
" 'I will pay that sum,' said the youth.
" Thus the cadi squeezed out twenty pounds more from the
son of the deceased.
" The youth is, however, content He is glad to find in this
cadi a man of the meanness so indispensable to the fulfillment of
the will of his father.

368 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.

THE PROCESSION.

569

" After this experience the youth goes in search of the stupid
man. He must filially fulfill the second clause of the will.
" While engaged in this search for stupidity, the son limits his
efforts to his own fair city of Stamboul. He is on the street
leading up to the Sublime Porte. He hears a band of music. It
is moving toward the Sublime Porte. He is curious to know
what it all means. He walks toward the music. When at a short
distance he discovers a grand procession, with a display of
soldiers. He notices a comparatively old man riding a white
Arabian horse. He is dressed in a magnificent uniform. His
breast is covered with decorations of every size, color and de
scription. The trappings of the horse are covered with gold
embroideries. The old man is surrounded by a dozen high
officials of the government of Amurath III. They, loo, are
dressed finely; they have recently returned from the Caucasus
laden with riches, and they display their grand robes and jewels.
They have gorgeously embroidered uniforms and ride splendid
horses. They are followed by an immense crowd. All Galata,
as well as Stamboul, is afoot to see the sight. Murmurs in three
score dialects rise on the sunny air. The son of Mustapha fol
lows the crowd. He asks a pedestrian in a green turban, who sits
by the fountain :
" ' What is the procession about ? '
" He is informed that the old man is the newly appointed
Grand Vizier of Amurath. The Vizier is going to take possession
of his post. He is thus escorted with the usual solemnity.
"When the procession arrives at the gate of the Sublime
Porte, the Grand Vizier dismounts on the foot-stone in front of
the entrance, and, strange to say, there on that very foot-stone
is a big tray; and on the tray, a human head freshly decapitated.
" The sight is blood-curdling. The youth is struck dumb
with horror. Then, recovering his senses, he finds out the meaning
¦of the usage. He is told that the bloody head is that of the
preceding Grand Vizier, who had acted wrongfully, and was there
fore beheaded.
" ' Will his successor succeed him in the tray also ? ' asks the
youth, of a zaptieh who was standing near to police the procession.
"'Nowadays, it is difficult to escape it,' is the answer of
the policeman.
" After this answer, the youth makes immediate inquiries.

370 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
He discovers the ' Kiahaja ' of the new Grand Vizier, for every
Grand Vizier has a factotu77i. He goes to the Kiahaja and
requests him to deliver to the Grand Vizier the hundred pounds
which his father had willed. The Kiahaja, after inquiring the
name of the youth and his whereabouts, receives the money.
Later on, he takes the hundred pounds to the Grand Vizier. This
high official is puzzled.
"'Who,' he inquires, 'is the friend that left the money to
me, and why ? '
" He calls for the youth. The youth comes. The Grand
Vizier asks him about his father. The boy replies :
" ' His name was Mustapha. He lived near the Golden
Gate; but you did not know him, my lord I '
" ' But he knew me ? '
" ' No, my lord, he did not.'
" ' Then why this bequest to me ? '
" The youth then gives the Grand Vizier the story, and adds
that he could not expect to find a more stupid man or a greater
idiot than the Grand Vizier; therefore, he, concludes that the hun
dred pounds are due to that official, under his father's will.
" This puzzles the Grand Vizier, "vyho says:
" ' How do you know that I am a stupid man ? Neither you
nor your father knew me.'
" ' Your acceptance of the position of Grand Vizier,' says the
youth, ' in the presence of the dead head of ygur predecessor,
speaks for itself. It needs no explanation.'
" The Grand Vizier can make no rational answer. He takes
hold of his beard, strokes it, and considers for a minute.
'' Then he says to the youth : ' Son of the good and wise Mus
tapha, will you not be my guest for to-night ? To-morrow morning
I must talk with you.' The boy accepts the invitation.
" In the morning the Grand Vizier calls the youth. He in
forms him that he is going to the palace of Amurath at the
Seraglio Point. He desires the youth to accompany him. The
boy objects. It is no use. The Grand Vizier compels him to go
with him.
" They reach the palace. The Grand Vizier goes straightway
to the Chief Eunuch, and thus addresses that beautiful Arabian:
" ' Your Highness: I am aware that His Majesty, in bestowing
on me the responsible and confidential position of Grand Vizier,,

THE GRAND VIZIER IS THE STUPID MAN.

3,71

did me the greatest honor a man can ever expect in this world.
I am grateful to him for such a rare distinction. But, Highness,
here is a young man who came to see me yesterday, and spoke to
me in such a wonderful way that I f^el bound to tender my
resignation. After my conversation with him, I feel incapable of
sustaining the dignity which His Majesty deserves.'
" The Eunuch is thunderstruck ! Up to that time no Grand
Vizier had ever dared to resign. But the action of the Vizier
seems so strange to the Eunuch, that the latter at once goes and
reports it to the Sultan. The Sultan is amazed and indignant. He
demands the presence of the Grand Vizier and the youth. When
they appear they find that Amurath is not in one of his best
moods. The Janizaries have been threatening him. His wife,
sister and mother, on whom he relies for comfort in his poor
health and mental distress, have in vain endeavored to placate
and pacify him. His pale face grows scarlet with anger. He
hotly addresses the Grand Vizier:
" ' How is it, sirrah ! that you presume to dare to tender your
resignation ?
" ' Your Majesty,' says the Grand Vizier, 'I know that I am
doing a bold act ; but it is this boy,' pointing out the simple
youth, ' who compels me to do it. If your Highness wants to
know the reasons, the boy will give them to you. I am sure that
after hearing them you will acknowledge that, as I am considered
the most stupid man in your empire, it is not becoming to your
dignity to retain me as your immediate representative.'
" The boy is then called. He gives his story. The Sultan
smiles. His innate sense of justice returns. He issues an irade
that henceforth no Grand Vizier shall be beheaded."
Thus ends the dragoman's story. He has recited it for a
moral purpose. At its conclusion he addresses the old doctor of
Moslem divinity and law, as follows:
" Now, my dear Mollah, you do not wish me to see in you the
bad cadi of Yozgat I shall feel exceedingly sorry if you com
pel me thus to designate you. I have known you twenty-five
years. I have always held you in great esteem. Let me continue
this esteem, if possible."
" As to your opponent," resumed the dragoman's arbitrator,
" I am willing to place him in the situation of the Grand Vizier;

372 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
because he has stupidly placed himself within your claws. I will
then take the position of the youth who, by his courage and
frankness, succeeded in extirpating a usage which worked to the
disadvantage of the Sultan's government and our country."
*******
The dragoman having thus concluded his tale, the Mollah
changes color ; from crimson to blue, from blue to yellow, and
from yellow to green. He tries to smile. He desires to go
away; but as the dragoman expects this movement, cuffee had
been ordered.
In the Orient no breach of etiquette is so indecorous as that of
declining a hospitable cup of Mocha.
The coffee is brought in. It is swallowed, and two or three
cigarettes are smoked. The Mollah is cooled down. Finally he
accepts reasonable terms in the dispute.
On this, as on other occasions, an amicable understanding is
arrived at by the application of a timely story with an Eastern
moral. The moral is this:
How useful a7-e, so77ietimes, these odd i7icidents of life, discreetly
narrated, which, whe7i you hear the7n, seem to amou7it to little, but
which, when you know hoiv to use the7n at the proper ti7iie, are a
great relief and a positive benefaction.

CHAPTER XXIX.

DIVERSIONS AT THE LEGATION.

The word "diplomacy" appears first upon the tapis at the
end of the eighteenth century. It is derived from the Greek word
"diploma." It may be defined, according to the law of nations,
in an, extended sense, as signifying everything connected with the
administration and negotiation of foreign affairs.
I never had occasion to use what diplomats call the inter-
• territoriality, which is vouchsafed by the law of nations. It is laid
down that a foreign ambassador is entitled to demand a special
guard to assure his safety. This is usually done, say the writers,
by the representatives of the Christian Powers in the East, and in
the Barbary states.
Other officials besides the Kavass are associated with the
American Legation. Their personalities are a constant diver
sion, whether in or outside our chambers. One of our officials
is a little caffiji. He was promoted from the position of coffee
vender in the alley below our rooms, where he lived in harmony
with the dogs which were born beneath the escutcheon of the
United States. He was kind to the dumb brutes, and it was
through his ministrations that a dozen of them lived from puppy-
hood to maturity. He is promoted to be capouji, or door
keeper, when the messenger and Kavass are absent. He is a good
Moslem. His salary is equal to seven dollars a month, but that
was cut off by our ever-vigilant First Comptroller and Department
of State, yet we had not the heart to discharge him. He desired
to be married — again; to add a younger lady to his home. He
came to me in distress for a couple of lira turque, to aid his
marital desires. This was bestowed. The Legation, however, is
not responsible as a particeps criminis in polygamy. Besides,
presents are made to him. Does he not assist Mehmet 'the Kavass
to sustain the American dignity ? When assaulted by unjust,
crazy or importunate folk who call on us, doth not his eyes snap
373

374 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
fire, while his coffee cools, as if anxious to take a hand in vindi
cation of the magnificent American inter-territoriality, though it
cuts off his stipend ?
Let me instance some of our Diversions when all the members
of the Legation take part in the dramatic performance :
With wild demonstrations, after the manner of Orientals,
except the Ottoman, a Greek fisherman seeks reclamation, in
money, for the destruction of his nets upon the Bosporus, into
which the screw-propeller of our launch had made havoc. It was
quite a comfort to know that, irrespective of rank, it was possible
to plead the relation of a Foreign Minister to a claim founded in
the wrong-doing of the claimant himself; for was not the Bosporus
our easement, our own waters, under the law of nations ? 'And
when the fisherman gave us his infernal jabber, had we not two
native Moslem guards to protect our sacred person ? It was not
Greek meeting Greek about our tug, but Greek and Turk con
tending. Thus, in our subordinates, we find safety and succor,
and, at the same time, one of the pleasantries of the Legation.
Another pleasantry is occasioned by a call from an American
citizen of Greek descent. Whether he is descended from Leoni-
das or Themistocles I do not inquire; probably the latter, as he
has much to do with fighting the marine elements. He presents
himself and his case. He is a diver. He has been at Chios, old
Homers isle. While diving to raise a vessel in the harbor, he is
arrested by the authorities for illegally diving for sponges. He
has no license. He is jailed. He appeals to the American Cfesar,
i. e., the Legation. It hears his case in full council. As he
speaks no English, little French, some Turkish and much modern
Greek, we call in all our aids to assist the dragoman to interpret
" Have I not seen you before," I ask him, after his complaints
are understood, and the talk takes a social air.
After much explanation he says:
"Oui; I was in America."
" Which America ? "
"Nord!" "Bien!" " Ever in New York or Washington ?"
"Oh! oui, oui," he promptly rejoins.
"Do you ever smoke?" I blandly ask, tendering him a
¦cigarette. He smiles a fishy smile and illumines the weed.

376 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
I know him by that smile. Dressed in spangled tights, and
in an embroidered Greek jacket, I had myself seen him in a
tank, under water, smoking.
" You are Kippapaporos, the famous diver, are you not? "
He looks surprised and pleased at the recognition.
" You are the man who drank schnapps under water? How
are you, Kippapaporos ? "
He becomes at once genial, and in his muddled style tells his
troubles in the Homeric isle — all over again.
I ask him how long he can stay under water. He shows us
how to do it. He clutches his nose by his thumb and index
finger, and gathers into his capacious chest a surplus revenue of
atmosphere. His wheezy noise makes the Legation tremble.
The dragoman is astounded, the capouji alarmed and the Kavass
confounded. When his performance is over, I ask for his passport, as
evidence of citizenship and as warrant for our protection. But it
is not handy; so that the American Csesar cannot intervene, just
now, in the local laws as to the classic sponges; not even for a
descendant of Themistocles. Besides, he complains that he is
impecunious. He must have help or starve.
I suggest divers modes of accumulation, a pun he never sus
pects. " Why not work in the clear waters of the Bosporus, raise boats
and thus raise money ?"
He acquiesces and leaves.
Afterward he returns to say that he has had a job; had dived
for a sunken vessel in the Bosporus, but could not make more
than twenty piastres (a dollar) a day, and he had a family to
support. He could stay under water nearly as long as a porpoise, with
out a blow. What became of him I never knew, but he is a sam
ple which diplomats will recognize as a class of citizens who
belong to all flags and are really, by their vagabond life, under
none. What singular offices diplomacy has sometimes to perform!
Sitting in the Legation chambers upon a beautiful day in October,
1885, 1 receive from the Assistant Secretary of State a cablegram,
which requires me to look up Professor Sterrit. He has been
lost somewhere in Asia Minor. He is an archaeologist, and his

STRANGE DIPLOMA TIC FUNCTIONS. -^^j
friends have received no tidings of him for six months. He had
been permitted to explore the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates
and of the rivers adJEicent. This the records of the Legation
show; but, becoming sick, he drops out of his company, and is
left behind at his own request How to find this gentleman is
the question.
First, I inquire at the Bible-house, or of the missionaries. I
strike the right trail; for they know more about the interior of
Asia Minor than the Turkish officials, and are willing to impart
what they know. Following one clue after another, I happen to
remember Mr. Haynes, an American, who has been in the com
pany of Professor Sterrit. He had called upon us. He was the
photographer of the expedition; and, welcome news! he had just
received a letter from Professor Sterrit himself. That gentleman
is on his way from Smyrna to Athens. The anxiety of his friends
is soon relieved.
I mention this, not sO much to show the functions of the
Legation, which are various and multiform, but to refer to some
strange information about Asia Minor which the incident indi
rectly furnished. Mr. Haynes spent a day with us at Therapia.
He had a grip-sack full of photographs, and the most interesting
of his package were those from the ruins of ancient Cappadocia.
I venture to say that these are among the most interesting archser
ological remains of that country, if not of the world. They are
the pictures of two rock-hewn cfties. Descriptions have been
given of them in some of the itineraries of Asia Minor. These
ruins are in a valley, like our canon. They are upon the per
pendicular sides of the mountains. They are excavated into
a great number of chambers, grottoes, houses, tombs and chapels
of the Byzantine age. There are also in these cations remarkable
conical-pointed hills. They follow the valley so closely that they
are almost wedged together. They are not hills ; and whether
they are natural or artifical has not been determined. Most prob
ably they are natural, worn by the rains and shaken by the earth
quake. Mr. Haynes, who visited them, says that he was almost
lost in their cones and pillars of rock. There are miles on miles
of these rocky cones; many of them only fifteen feet high, others
a hundred, and some three hundred. Some are crowned with
boulders, which would indicate that time had eaten away most
of the foundations upon which they rested. In the interminable

3 78 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
confusion, they seemed like some great and ancient city which
had been deserted, and had been so carved -by time that their
strange, fantastic shapes, like the rocks I have seen in the mount
ains of Corsica, suggested every animal known to the fau7ia of
science. In our day, when traveling has become so easy, luke
warm, and almost idle, there have been no ample descriptions
written of these remarkable ruins. Mr. Haynes has promised to
supply the deficiency.
Many of these ruins are grottoes. They were once Greek
chapels. In them were found paintings of Christ, the Virgin and
the apostles, and of Bible scenes. The pictures are well preserved,
and some of them well done. In some of the pictures the saints
have beautiful scrolls in their hands; each scroll with a verse of
Scripture, well written in Greek. Some of these ruins were used
as mortuary chapels. Evidently there was in the midst of these
outre towns a communistic style of living. This is indicated by
large dining-halls. The passages to some of these chambers are
through narrow holes, so small as to lead to the belief that they
were like the Zuni caves of Arizona — fortifications as well as
homes; for in the upper stories, dedicated to the women, there
was evidence that no ingress was possible from below.
*******
Travelers who have been in Kurdistan, and who have trav
ersed its high, wild land, do not speak with much fervor about
the magnanimity and glory of its inhabitants; nor is its cultivation
a matter of eulogy. If a man became rich in that country by
raising handsome crops, it was the custom of the government to
lay on him the heavy hand of taxation. When the Pasha finds '
that the granary of the farmer is full of stores he exclaims :
" Mashallah ! I must have him. Inshallah ! I will force him
to pay well for his misdeeds."
Industry has no hope of reward; and, therefore, there is not
much content in Kurdistan; and yet its people are brave and
courageous. That reminds me of a little divertissement It illustrates the
marauding and excursive life of the Kurds. When I took charge
of the Legation, I found a case pending there against one Moussa
Bey. Moussa is Moses. But he was not a law-giver, but a law
breaker. He had robbed some American missionaries, and the
stolen property was traced to him. He had done worse: he had

380 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
attempted to outrage some of the women who were missionaries in
a remote district, where benevolence had been bringing forth its
fruits' in vain for his regeneration. Before I had reached my post.
General Wallace had tried his pious and diplomatic skill to bring
Moussa to punishment. Many promises had been made, but the
case had never been brought up or determined. No indemnity
could be had against him, and although the case was amply
proven, he had escaped punishment. I happened to learn, during
my prosecution of the matter, that Moussa had been actually
promoted from a lieutenant or lower magistrate to the higher
post of mudir, the governor of a kaza, which is a subdivision of
a sanjak ; a sanjak being a subdivision of vilayet, or province. I
laid this new matter before the Porte — especially before the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, who himself was a Kurd. How
Moussa knew that the American people, through its new Minister,
were again in pursuit of him, I do not know; but word came to
me soon afterward from the missionaries in that neighborhood,
that Moussa Bey had purchased a Bible ! He was behaving him-
self with wonderful exemplariness — so much so, that the mission
aries asked that he might not be pursued any further at present,
as everything was serene in his district. The matter of the rob
bery still hangs over him. His hypocrisy has enured to the
benefit of the missionaries. An Irishman would exclaim about
him, " Holy Moses! " — for he affects the Christian virtues, if he
has them not !
*******
Some of the Diversions of the Legation were quasi official.
Among them was one occasioned by a letter written from Minne
sota. In this the writer, a most religious reader of the Bible,
seriously desired to know whether the reports were true, that the
Ark had been found imbedded in some of the glaciers on Mount
Ararat. He premised his inquiry by stating that Armenia had
been divided between Turkey, Russia and Persia, but that Mount
Ararat, the monumental frontier of these empires, was within my
jurisdiction as Minister. He hoped, if I could not answer the
question which he propounded, so as to confirm the Biblical
account of the Ark, that I would make proper inquiries at Ararat
and give him the details in connection with the animals and
other paraphernalia of that remarkable vessel. The truth is, that
Mount Ararat is now strictly comprised in Russian territory.

ABOUT ARARA T AND THE ARK. -• 8 T
However, it is still a great object of reverence among the smartest
people of the Orient — I mean the Armenians.
There have been many volcanic and other excitations, politi
cal and social, upheaving and disturbing this Armenian country.
In fact, the whole country between and near the Euxine and the
Caspian shows signs of volcanic action, as well as of petroleum. It
is a table-land of great ele-vation. It has its sublime mountains.
Its temperature is lower than that of other regions of the same
parallel. These elements give to it a peculiar aspect and interest.
They fit it for the exhibition of some wondrous phenomena like
that of the Deluge and the Ark, or the preservation of its timbers
wA fauna amid the glaciers of the mountain.
I have no report to make as to this request of the pious Ameri
can citizen. I made no inquiry as to the Ark. It was not within
my function. I never happened to meet a tourist who had visited
the highlands there in search of nature or of the remnant of Noah's
navy. But it is a significant fact that the land is besieged by
sportsmen and naturalists, for the various kinds of birds which
feed on the great plain of Erzeroum. The flocks are so prodig
ious as almost to cover the earth in certain seasons. They give to
the ground the color of their plumes. Surely, here is an illus
tration, if not a proof, of a variety'of one class of animals some
what confirmatory of the scriptural account of the Deluge.
*******
Another Diversion, which comes near home. The names of
the dramatis persoTice are omitted:
One of our leading generals, and a man who had been high in
office in America, had been presented with several horses by the
Sultan. They were Arab steeds of the finest breed. There were
four of them. The dragoman was not a little disconcerted, when
calling at His Majesty's stables to look at the present, to observe
that one of the steeds — a fine black Arab — was incurably and
chronically lame. Here was a dilemma. Could he send a lame
horse to the General ? He will not disturb the a7nour propre of
the Sultan, or look his gift horse in the mouth or in the heel.
What does he do ? He has a confabulation with the Chief
Chamberlain, who is the medium of communication between the
Legations and the Sultan. After expressions of thanks for the
gift, he confidentially mentions that the. gift of a black horse is
looked upon in America as ominous. Disaster always follows its

382 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
presentation. Although nothing would be said about it, of
course, on the reception of the horse in America, still, would it
not be considered sinister to present a horse around whose color
hung such associations ? It is needless to say that, in the out
come, the black horse is turned out to pasture and a splendid
white horse presented in its place.
There are many diverting stories which only the reserve
of diplomacy prevents the outside world from enjoying. One,
which I have recently seen in print, has reference to the dra
goman of Lord Ponsonby, some time ago British Minister at the
Porte. He desires to make a presentation to the Sultan, but
being a man of leisurely habits, he requests his dragoman to
translate a supposed speech, which he is too lazy to compose
and deliver. The humor consists in this :
That the Minister, to save his own labor, is solemnly to repeat
in English the arithmetical numbers from one up to sixty, with a
grave and dignified air. The dragoman is then to deliver the
speech in Turkish, which he himself should commit to memory.
The affair goes off to the satisfaction of the Porte. The Sultan
responds in the most amiable manner. The labor of the head of
the Legation is thus considerably lightened.
During my incumbency as Minister, I am happy to chronicle
that no such performance as that of my Lord Ponsonby was ever
enacted or needed.

CHAPTER XXX.
THE LOWER BOSPORUS — THE COSMOPOLITAN AND KALEIDOSCOPIC
CITY  SCENES AT THE BRIDGE.

LVGDVNI B,A.TA.VORViVl ,
£x,00rcituL Elzevir isLtia.. Anno J632

JKussjtrim:, .^ y.

CONSTANTINOPLE IN A. D. 1632.

It matters not from what point of view you regard this city,
it has no peer. Is it history ? It is the rival of Rome. Is it
art? There are Greek remains here and hereabouts which thrice
pulverize the classic dust of Athens. Is it physical scenery?
From the Semplegades near the open mouth of the Euxine to the
Dardanelles, there are perpetual and happy surprises. Is it
architecture ? St Sophia has the spoil of all temples, the strata
of all geology, and the graces of all the arts of Greece. Is it
climate ? Dr. Henry Bennet, of Mentone — the arbiter on health
resorts — regards the Bosporus as the place of all others for
383

384 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
salubrity. Was it not here that Medea threw away her poisonous
drugs and grew wild in heartiness upon ozone ? Is it not here
that Therapia — which is philologically cousin-german to Therapeu
tics — gives her breezes to cool the summer heats, and her moist
ure to make the magnolia and rose bloom and the creeper cling ?
Is it the population ? Was there ever such a composite ? Liter
ally, here are Romans from Roumania, Scythians from Europe
and Asia, Africans from the Soudan, Arabs of the desert from
Damascus to Mount Sinai, Tartars from the steppes, Circassians
from the mountains, Greeks from the isles, Turks from the inte
rior, Italians, French, Dutch, Austrians, English, Germans, Rus
sians, and, in fact, all peoples from the mountains and plains of
Hungary, and the "swamp lands" of the lower Danube, Bess
arabia and the Dobrudcha to " silken Samarcand and cedared
Lebanon." Constantinople is not a new city. From the time the Greek
merchants from Megara chose this spot as the seat of rule
and commerce, she has been a factor in the influences for good
or evil which follow our race on this planet. For over six hun
dred years before Christ, she was a political capital, an entrepot
of commerce, and a strategical point in the conflicts of men for
empire and glory.
The leading quality which determines this prominence is the
geographical situation. Whether this situation be the result of
internal fires, volcanic upheavals, or shrinkage of the earth's
crust, the wonderful Strait is the grand effect It connects two
continents and two seas. It is this which gives unity and suprem
acy. It is empire. It is commerce. It is locomotion and trans
portation — both made easy by waters wonderfully related to lands,
and the genius of people adapted to both. By the Bosporus the
Black Sea is bound to the Mediterranean. The great rivers of
Russia, the Caspian and Azof seas, as well as all the coasts which
connect with them, pour their tributary values into this unexam
pled emporium. It was said by "Eothen," a half century ago,
that England had then planted one foot on Egypt and the other
upon India — avast span of the insular Colossus. It is truer now
than it was then ; but the nation that will stand here to overlook
these forming elements of advancement and power has a score of
Egypts and an India of unrivaled resources. Two continents
furnish a pediment for such a Colossus. Whether it be Russian

THE WONDERFUL SITE OF THE WORLD. 385
or Greek, Austrian or German ; whether it remain Ottoman or
become a " free town" — here the image stands, with its emblems
of authority. It dominates Asia, Africa, and almost Europe, and
with a power to move armies or goods, or block the transportation
of both, at its own supreme pleasure. The situation is such that
a littie dynamite, conveniently handled and placed — not the thou
sandth part of that which blew up Hell Gate — can guard it
from perilous intrusion against the nations of the world.
The city has an unparalleled harbor. It is tideless, but it is in
perpetual motion. Its beauty enamours the eye, and its resorts
_give tonic and comfort. Its history from b. c. 667— almost
coeval with the foundation of Rome — to this year of the Eastern
Roumelian revolution, has all the vicissitudes of the strangest
romance, but the climacteric of its fascination lies in the eminence
and glory of its situation, which is the procreant cause of all
its marvels. Is it a wonder, therefore, that Persian, Genoese, Venetian,
Greek, Roman and Ottoman have contended for and held these
places of interest, opulence and power, and have made and re
sisted sieges, to be " masters of the situation "? Do you wonder
that Constantine saw here a greater than Rome, and sought to
realize his ideal upon yonder Seraglio Point, where the Golden
Horn, with its cornucopia of wealth kisses the Sea of Marmora,
with its archipelago of loveliness and its transport of azure water ?
Few relics of this early reign remain to tell of the splendor of old
Byzantium. The brazen column of triple serpents from Delphos,
.some aqueducts, Cyclopean walls of massive strength, and castles
of later erection, catch and detain the eye, ever here on the out
look for archaeological wonders. But this city lives, moves and
has Its being in the active present. It is not of the dead past
altogether. Constantinople, like Rome, is situated upon seven hills ; but
opposite Constantinople proper, or Stamboul, there are plenty of
hills. They almost rise to the dignity of mountains. The trav
eler who lands from one of the Black Sea or Mediterranean steam
ers, or the tourist who finds himself upon the Golden Horn, or
the bridge which crosses it, seeking the hotels at Pera, will find a
steep ascent to overcome.
When I visited Constantinople in a. d. 1851, that ascent was
¦never overcome by means of carriages, much less by a railway.

^86 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
For, to a Turk of the old time, encumbered with his baggy
breeches, heavy turban, and immense sash, there is a great deal
of specific gravity to be worked off before he rises to those
heights of Pera where the Europeans dwell.
The hamals, whom we meet at all hours of the day bearing
their great burdens up these steeps, and the donkeys and horses
with their creels upon their backs, bearing by various methods
their loads of stone, timber and merchandise, have no easy ascent,
especially in mid-summer.
The hamal is generally an Armenian. He works with a view
to a release from hard labor after a few years. The Turk does
not work on this line. He leaves that to the animal and to the
Armenian. He prefers his pipe, or his black coffee, to cultivating
that levity which overcomes altitude. When it is known that
the streets leading from the Golden Horn to the heights of Pera
are crooked, ill-paved, narrow and filthy, many blessings should be
showered on the French engineer who built the tunnel by which,
with the aid of a stationary engine, a train every five or ten
minutes pulls and pushes up and down in the dark, to overcome,
by the aid of steam, the imminent disadvantages of Pera.
One of the disillusions of the stranger in Constantinople comes
upon him in the very streets, before he crosses the bridge of the
Golden Horn. If he has heard that the Mahometan is ignorant
as well as bigoted, and that he does not read, he will be corrected.
The cries of the newspaper venders, morning and evening, are as,
common as in New York. At the leisure hour, in all the shops,
which are always open, you should see how many are engaged in
reading the newspaper. There is scarcely any man of the em
pire who cannot read and write. Schools are as common as the
mosques. The very disposition of the Turk leads him to be a
reflective reader. Some of the best scholars of the world are
those with large Arabic libraries, who pass their lives in their liter
ary harems.
Before you enter upon the bridge, sometimes called " the Sul
tana Valide," which connects Galata with Stamboul, you have
to pass through a surging crowd. There you are likely to be
stranded if you are not well guarded. Vehicles and beasts of
burden; men on foot and on horseback; people rushing to the
ferry-boats and to the steamers ; pedlers screaming out their
wares; stock-brokers excited, from the Exchange, which is near

STAMBOUL BRIDGE AND ITS THRONG.

587

by — these are the preliminaries to that struggle, before you reach
the man who takes your toll when you are fairly upon the edge of
the rugged and ricketty bridge.
It is not uncommon for writers who are dazed with Constanti
nople and its variety, to stand on the Stamboul bridge and look
and look, and wonder and wonder. All this dual city passes there.
I suggested to a friend to have a photographer who takes pictures
instante, to stand on the Stamboul bridge and master the proces
sion by his sunlight and his machine. Of course I did not include
color in the programme. But the human currents had already
been caught in the endless eddy of this bridge. Before my
suggestion the Italian traveler, De Amicis, had already made a
pen picture of the scene. It is more print-worthy than my own
effort: " The crowd passes in great waves, each one of which is of a
hundred colors, and every group of persons represents a new type
of people. Whatever can be imagined that is most extravagant
in type, costume, and social class, may there be seen within the
space of twenty paces and ten minutes of time. Behind a throng
of Turkish porters, who pass running and bending under enor
mous burdens, advances a sedan-chair, inlaid with ivory and
mother of pearl, and bearing an Armenian lady; and at either side
of it a Bedouin wrapped in a white mantle and a Turk in muslin
turban and sky-blue caftan, beside whom canters a young Greek
gentleman followed by his dragoman in embroidered vest, and a
dervish with his tall, conical hat and tunic of camel's hair, who
makes way for the carriage of a European ambassador, preceded
by his running footman in gorgeous livery. All this is only seen
in a glimpse, and the next moment you find yourself in the midst
of a crowd of Persians, in pyramidal bonnets of Astrakhan fur,
who are followed by a Hebrew in a long yellow coat open at the
sides; a frowsy-headed gypsy woman with her child in a bag at
her back; a Catholic priest with breviary staff; while in the midst
of a confused throng of Greeks, Turks and Armenians comes a
big eunuch on horseback, crying out Larya! (make way), and
preceding a Turkish carriage painted with flowers and birds, and
filled with the ladies of a harem, dressed m green and violet, and
wrapped in large white veils; behind, a Sister of Charity from the
hospital at Pera, an African slave carrying a monkey, and a pro
fessional story-teller in a necromancer's habit; and what is quite

388 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
natural, but appears strange to the new-comer, all these diverse
people pass one another without a look, like a crowd in London;
and not one single countenance wears a smile. The Albanian in
his white petticoat and with pistols in his sash, beside the Tartar
dressed in sheepskins; the Turk, aside of his caparisoned ass,
threads pompously two long strings of camels; behind the adju
tant of an imperial prince, mounted upon his Arab steed, clatters
a cart filled with all the odd domestic rubbish of a Turkish house
hold ; the Mahometan woman afoot, the veiled slave woman, the
Greek with her red cap, and her hair on her shoulders, the Mal
tese hooded in her hl&ck faldetta, the Hebrew woman dressed in the
antique costume of India, the negress wrapped in a many-colored
shawl from Cairo, the Armenian from Trebizond, all veiled in
black like a funeral apparition, are seen in single file, as if placed
there on purpose to be contrasted.
It is a changing mosaic of races and religions, that is composed
and scattered continually with a rapidity that the eye can scarcely
follow. It is amusing only to look at the passing feet and see all
the foot-coverings in the world go by, from that of Adam up to
the last fashion in Parisian boots — yellow Turkish babouches, red
Armenian, blue Greek, and black Jewish shoes; sandals, great
boots from Turkestan, Albanian gaiters, low-cut sUppers, leg
pieces of many colors, belonging to horsemen from Asia Minor,
gold embroidered shoes, Spanish alporgatos, shoes of satin, of
twine, of rags, of wood, so many, that while you look at one you
catch a glimpse of a hundred more. One must be on the alert
not to be jostled and overthrown at every step. Now it is a
water-carrier with a colored jar upon his back; now a Russian
lady on horseback; now a squad of imperial soldiers in zouave
dress, and stepping as if to an assault; now a crew of Armenian
porters, two and two, carrying on their shoulders immense bars,
from which are suspended great bales of merchandise; and now a
throng of Turks, who dart from left to right of the bridge to embark
in the steamers that lie there. There is a tread of many feet, a
murmuring, a sound of voices, guttural notes, aspirations inter-
jectional, incomprehensible and strange, among which the few
French or Italian words that reach the ear seem like luminous
points upon a black darkness. The figures that most attract the
eye in all this crowd are the Circassians, who go in groups of
three and five together, with slow steps; big bearded men of a

THE BRIDGE AND ITS PEOPLE.

589

terrible countenance, wearing bear-skin caps like the old Napol
eonic guard, long black caftans, daggers at their girdles, and silver
cartridge-boxes on their breasts; real figures of banditti, who
look as if they had come to Constantinople to sell a daughter or
a sister — with their hands embrued in Russian blood. Then the
Syrians, with robes in the form of Byzantine dalmatic, and their
heads enveloped in gold-striped handkerchiefs ; Bulgarians,
dressed in coarse serge, and caps encircled with fur; Georgians,
in hats of varnished leather, their tunics bound round the waist
with metal girdles; Greeks from the Archipelago, covered from
head to foot with embroidery, tassels, and shining buttons.
From time to time the crowd slackens a little, but instantly
other groups advance, waving with red caps and white turbans,
amid which the cylindrical hats, umbrellas, and pyramidal head
dresses of Europeans, male and female, seem to float, borne
onward by that Mussulman torrent It is amazing even to note
the variety of religions.
The shining bald head of the Capuchin friar, the towering
Janizary turban of an Ulema, alternate with the black veil of an
Armenian priest; imaums with white tunics, veiled nuns; chaplains
of the Turkish army, dressed in green, with sabres at their sides;
Dominican friars, pilgrims returned from Mecca with a talisman
hanging at their necks, Jesuits, dervishes; and this is very strange.
Dervishes that tear their own flesh in expiation of their sins, and
cross the bridge under a sun-umbrella, all pass by. If you are
attentive, you may notice in the throng a thousand amusing in
cidents. Here it is a eunuch, showing the white of his eye at a
Christian exquisite, who has glanced too curiously into the carriage
of his mistress ; there is a French cocotte, dressed after the last
fashion-plate, leading by the hand the beloved and bejeweled son
of a pasha; or a lady of Stamboul, feigning to adjust her veil, that
she may peer more easily at the train of a lady of Pera; or a
sergeant of cavalry in full uniform, stopping in the middle of the
bridge to blow his nose with his fingers in a way to give one a
cold chill; or a quack, taking his last sous from some poor devil,
and making a cabalistic gesture over his face to cure him of sore
eyes ; or a family of travelers arrived that day, and lost in the
midst of a throng of Asiatic ruffians, while the mother searches
for her crying children, and the men make way for them by dint
of squaring their shoulders. Camels, horses, sedan-chairs, oxen,

590

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

carts, casks on wheels, bleeding donkeys, mangy dogs, form a
long file that divides the crowd in half.
Sometimes there passes a mighty pasha with three tails,
lounging in a splendid carriage, followed by his pipe-bearei?
on foot, his guard and one black slave, and then all the Turks
salute, touching the forehead and breast, and the mendicant
women, horrible witches, with muffled faces and naked breasts,
run after the carriage crying for charity. Eunuchs not on service,
pass in twos and threes and fives together, cigarette in mouth, and
are recognized by their corpulence, their long arms and their
black habits. Little Turkish girls dressed like boys, in green full
trousers and rose or yellow vests, run and jump with feline agility,
making way for themselves with their henna-tinted hands. Boot
blacks with gilded boxes, barbers with bench and basin in hand,
sellers of water and sweetmeats, cleave the press in every direction,-
screaming in Greek and Turkish. At every step comes glittering
a military division, officers in fez and scarlet trousers, their breasts
constellated with medals; grooms from the seraglio, looking like
generals of the army, gendarmes, with a whole arsenal at their
belts ; zebecks, or free soldiers, with those enormous baggy..
trousers that make them resemble in profile the Hottentot Venus;
imperial guards with long white plumes upon their casques and
gold-bedizened breasts; city guards of Constantinople, as one
might say, required to keep back the waves of the Atlantic
Ocean. The contrasts between all this gold and all those rags,
between people loaded down with garments, looking like walking
bazaars, and people almost naked, are most extraordinary. The
spectacle of so much nudity is alone a wonder. Here are to be
seen all shades of skin-colors, from the milky- whiteness of Albania
to the crow-blackness of central Africa and the bluish-blackness
of Darfur; chests that if you struck upon them would resound
like a huge bass or rattle like pottery; backs, oily, stony, full of
wrinkles, and hairy like the back of a wild boar; arms embossed
\vith red and blue, and decorated with designs of flowers and in-.^
scriptions from the Koran. But it is not possible to observe all
this in one's flrst passage over the bridge. While you are
examining the tattoo on an arm, your guide warns you that a Wal
lachian, a Servian, a Montenegrin, a Cossack of the Don, a
Cossack of Ukraine, an Egyptian, a native of Tunis, a prince of
Imerezia, is passing by. It seems that Constantinople is the same

RUG PEDLER.

uOMAN.

391

392 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
as it always was — the capital of three continents and the queen
of twenty vice-realms. But even this idea is insufficient to account
for the spectacle, and one fancies a tide of emigration produced
by some enormous cataclysm that has overturned the antique
continent. An experienced eye discerns still among the waves of that
great sea the faces and costumes of Caramania and Anatolia, of
Cyprus and Candia, of Damascus and Jerusalem, the Druse, the
Kurd, the Maronite, the Croat, and others — innumerable varieties
of all the anarchical confederations which extend from the Nile
to the Danube, and from the Euphrates to the Adriatic. Seekers
after the beautiful or the horrible will here find their most auda
cious desires fulfilled; Raphael would be in ecstasies, and Rem
brandt would tear his hair. The purest types of Greek and Cau- ;
casian beauty are mingled with flat noses and woolly heads;
queens and fairies pass beside you; lovely faces, and faces de
formed by disease and wounds; monstrous feet, and tiny Circas
sian feet no longer than your hand; gigantic porters, enormously
corpulent Turks, and black sticks of skeleton shadows of men
that fill you with pity and disgust — every strangest aspect in which
can be presented the ascetic life, the abuse of pleasure, extreme
fatigue, the excess of opulence and the misery that kills. Who
loves colors may here have his fill. No two figures are dressed
alike. Here are shawls twisted around the heads, savage fillets,
coronets of rags, skirts and under-vests in stripes and squares like
harlequins, girdles stuck full of knives that reach to the arm-pits.
Mameluke trousers, short drawers, skirts, togas, trailing sheets,
coats trimmed with ermine, vests like golden cuirasses, sleeves
puffed and slashed, habits monkish and habits covered with gold
lace, men dressed like women, and women that look like men;
beggars with the port of princes, a ragged elegance, a profusion
of colors, of fringes, tags, and fluttering ends of childish and
theatrical decorations, that remind one of a masquerade in a mad
house, for which all the old-clothes dealers in the universe have
emptied their stores. Above the hollow murmur that comes from
this multitude are heard the shrill cries of the sellers of news
papers in every tongue; the stentorian shout of the porters, the
gigglinglaugh of Turkish women, the squeaking voices of eunuchs,
the falsetto trill of blind men chanting verses of the Koran, the
noise of the bridge as it moves upon the water, the whistles and

TURKISH WOMAN FROM MECCA.

rT'MlfilJklK.;;*!

ARMENIAN FAMIT-Y

TURKISH WOMAN AND SLAVE FROM SAARIT.

KURDISH WOMAN FROM INTERIOR.

393

594

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

bells of a hundred steamers, whose dense smoke is often beaten
down by the wind so that you can see nothing at all. All this
masquerade of people embarks in the small steamboats that leave
every moment for Scutari, for the villages of the Bosporus, and
the suburbs of the Golden Horn; they spread through Stamboul,
in the bazaars, in the mosques, in the suburbs of Fanar and
Galata, to the most distant quarters on the Sea of Marmora; they
swarm upon the Frankish shore, to the right toward the Sultan's
palace, to the left toward the higher quarters of Pera, whence
they fall again upon the bridge by the innumerable lanes that
wind about the sides of the hills; and thus they bind together
Asia and Europe, ten cities and a hundred suburbs in one mighty
net of labor, intrigue and mystery, before which the mind becomes
bewildered." *******
But I must resume to say :
If you leave the bridge and go up the hill to Pera you are
saluted by the same cosmopolitan noises and groups. A Turkish
porter cries out :
" Get out of the way of the street-car! "
A donkey driver halloos, " Barada !"
Newspapers in Greek, Turkish, French, English, Armenian,
and some of several tongues in one pentecostal edition, make
that end of the bridge noisy with their cries and trade.
The grand bazaar is also a medley and motley microcosm.
Indian, Syrian, Arabian and Egyptian goods of every grade of
value, beauty and style are sold by polyglotical merchants of
unconscionable modes. This city, in fine, is the epitome of the
whole Orient, and the bazaar is a sample of the city. If the latter
be a camp — a fair — a bewildering variety of transient edifices,
with kiosks, lattices, tombs, palaces, balconies, churches, mosques,
trees, fa9ades, arches, bridges, and fragments and bits of form
and hue, the bazaar itself is an artful combination of all that
selfish skill can put together to gratify the taste, passions and
comforts of men of Eastern mold.
What a cosmos has this strange government of suzerainty
made out of the chaos of defunct and changing dynasties and
empires! Do you want to study institutions? Here is your
ground of vantage. Not only is the Sultan here the lord and
master, doing all things absolutely, but he allows a clever com-

THE GENIUS OF THE BOSPORUS.

395

pany of Arab scholars to interpret the law according to Mahomet
and the Koran. But that interpretation is subject to the old rule
of his grandfather, Mahmoud II., and that is:
If the Ulemas do not interpret the law according to the Sul-
tanic will, they are to be pounded to death in a (metaphorical)
mortar. Things are greatiy changed since the Janizaries were mas
sacred. With some exceptions toleration is the rule at the capi
tal. Still, some brutal bey or pestiferous pasha in the remote
interior makes havoc of an indiscreet American peripatetic teacher
or preacher. When such things happen, the American bird tries
to scream, but she is so far away from home that she is literally
a cowardly fowl, and cannot even rise to the dignity of a vociferous
and protesting crow.
It is impossible to tell, except by iterative intensity, the weird
and wonderful genius of the sky, seas and soil of this old capital
and its environs. That which makes it most interesting, and
which makes and determines its troubles and trials — social, eth
nographical, religious, military and political — is its unparalleled
situation. I have compared it with New York, but it is far more
superb in picturesque scenery and commercial advantages. Com
pared with old Jerusalem, it is more active and varied, if not more
pliant and potent, in its religious teachings. Compared with
London, its throngs of people that swarm in, around and over the
bridges of the Golden Horn, between Pera and Scutari, and the
city of Stamboul proper, who come and go on steam ferries up and
down the Straits and across into Asia and along the shores of
Marmora, it is, at least, more interesting, if not so populous.
Compared with ancient Athens, it cannot be said to be a teacher
in art or philosophy, but in early and mediaeval history, as
the Greek Byzantium, Constantinople appreciated, preserved and
circulated what Greece had provided for the instruction and
delight of our kind. Comipared with Paris, there is no luxury
— from a bouffe song and dance in a cafe chanta7it to the Italian
opera on the Grand rue, from the wild music of the Mediterranean,
as old in its monotone as the pyramids, to the thunder of the old
epic upon classic and rocky shores — which this unique and com
posite city has not Here absolute power lives with its many
wives, eunuchs and odalisques. Private liberty is without much
restraint under the shadow of autocratic power.

396 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
If it be said that the Sultan enacts over again the r61e of an
ancient Persian king, I can only point to the proprieties of his
court and the reserve of his domesticities. These do not occasion
any of the scandals of the London divorce courts or the ostenta
tious libertinism of the French and German capitals. If it be said
that polygamy is practised, may it not be well to scrutinize the
laws and customs of Mohametan marriage ? If it be said that
Mahomet was an impostor and that Christianity is its foe, would
it not be well to study more carefully the kinds of Christianity
which obtain in the East ? Certainly, one great virtue shines in
the Moslem faith. It tolerates no imagery made in the likeness
of saint or God. It consults the rituals of every faith, and I
doubt if the reader will find so spiritual a recognition of the
Unity and greatness of the Deity as that revealed in the prayers
of the Moslem.
I have heard in the chapel of the British Embassy prayers
quite as fervent and sincere as those of the Moslem to Allah ;
and among the rest, one which is printed in the English Episcopal
Prayer-book, which beseeches the Christians' God — for the safety,
preservation and succor of the Sultan, who is the Caliph of the
Mahometan religion.
Let me not be drawn from my present object. I was endeav
oring to describe the bridge over the Golden Horn. Its aspect is
awkward. It rests on iron buoys, and although not as graceful
as the Rialto, it is a significant structure, for it is a bridge between
two civilizations. It is really a bridge between Asia and Europe;
between twenty years of Europe and a cycle of Asia. If it
were not an anachronism, I would wonder if Addison took his
"Vision of Mirza" from this bridge. What motley groups
stand and what individual oddities pass between noisy, busy,
bustling Pera and the stately, serious and silent Stamboul !
Every nation and every tribe are represented : Soldiers that
are of every uniform; Persians from Astrakhan going to the
Persian Embassy, where Mochsin Khan, the minister of Persia,
rules as if in his own territory for his own Shah; Frank
ish diplomats and adventurers, passing carriages in which are
beauties of henna-stained fingers and painted eye-lashes and
brows, veiled to give the eye its glance of danger; Jews in black
dress and solemn turban, mOre Oriental than the Turk himself;
Armenian priests with dark robes and square caps, repeating as

ARAB FROM BAGDAD.

SYRIAN NOMAD.

398 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
they walk their orisons over sandalwood rosaries; a dervish nearly
as naked as Adam before the fall, looking as if in hopeless chads,
with limbs lank for lack of food; gesturing Italians; screaming
people from the Greek isles ; grim and lofty Arabs ; pistoled and
yataghaned Nubians, black as a starless night, some of whom are
tall, slim, long-armed and long-legged eunuchs and slaves; and
to crown all, the Turkish pasha in tasseled fez, and frock coat as
collarless as that of a Methodist presiding elder, and as clean as
the razor can shave him, except the fine moustache; water-car
riers, and firemen on a run with unearthly shrieks ; all in bustle
and confusion, and all intent and active as a crowd in old Broad
way. The soldiers here make the bravest aspect of themselves and
their uniforms. This is one reason why the Turks seem most
numerous, and why, being sent to the wars, they are not growing
in population as the Christians, who do not go to war. The
description given during the Crimean War of the Turkish soldier
is true to-day. Though ill-fed, and worse paid, he is ever devout
upon his prayer-carpet as it is turned Mecca-ward. He is power
ful in physique, high of feature and brawny of limb. He is
sprung from generations of warriors which once threatened to over
whelm the whole Western world in a tide that has long since been
at its ebb. Patient of hardship, devoted to the Sultan and to duty,
with a fierce and dogged resolution and childish obedience and
simplicity, he is the model of a soldier, and, so far as I have
observed, of courtesy and gentleness. If Greece or any other
nation presumes to try the wager of battle with him, as he is now
armed, it will go hard with the Turkish enemy. The Turkish
soldier is a peasant at home; and when soldiering, he is not
always a Bashi-bazouk, or the swaggering rowdy, as he is often
described. "Some kind casuists are pleased to say," once remarkea a
Mahometan to me, "that I have no devotion; but set those
persons down with me to pray, and you shall see who has the
properest notion."
Substitute " motion," and the Turk will outdo the Christian
ten to one. Some one has calculated the motions of his body
per diem. It gives him healthy exercise and grace of manner>
besides a good conscience.
I am not aware of any hostility existing now between cer-

WATER PEDLER.

PLATE MERCHANT.

399

400

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

tain sects of Christians and the Mahometan. If any, it has been
fostered by influences outside of this city. The Mahdi's cam
paign in Egypt is an illustration of the olden power of faith and
the sword. The enmity, to which I have adverted, to the exten
sion of Protestant and Catholic schools, churches and influences
is not of such bitter hostility as that of the anti-Semitic Germans,
Austrians and Russians against the Jews. Its bitterness has not
risen to the dignity of religious bigotry. It is not a demonstration
of unthrifty envy versus industrial providence. Nor does it spring
so much from fear of Moslem apostacy or proselytism by other
religionists. There is no fear of that in Turkey. The Turk smiles
— he does not laugh — at all attempts at propagandism. Not fifty
Moslem converts have appeared in as many years. But with the
spread of education, through American and other auspices, he
fears, almost without the courage to tell it, that a new political
state or social order may arise within some parts of his empire,
having its seat either in Judea or Syria, Beirut or Jerusalem.
Upon this clear morning in mid-winter, upon a May-like day,
from my balcony I can see the snow-topped heights of the Mysean
Olympus. From yonder melting snows the Sangarius flows
to the Euxine. Upon its banks a few hundred nomads, a few
hundred years ago, from central Asia, bivouacked. From a
few hundred, and with the aid of a force now potential among
two hundred millions of people — a religion with a cimeter — ^they
conquered, four hundred and thirty-four years ago, the finest
spot for capitalizing commerce and energizing empire, existing
upon this planet Without the arts of Greece or the eagles of
Rome, this Seljukian family pf Turks mastered many of the ways
and means which enable dynasties to hold what is taken. This
sway was crystallized as well by the personal qualities of Osman,
the Romulus of the empire, as by acts of toleration and mod
eration in matters of tax, conscription, land-tenure, citizenship
and religion. The institutions of this empire were greater than
the personnel of the Ottoman.
Broussa, which now sits like an Eastern queen in her silken
array at the foot of Mount Olympus, became the first capital of
these Turkish rulers. But Broussa was the threshold only to this
superb throne of Constantinople. Forty years before Columbus
found the new hemisphere, the Greek empire fell before this re
markable power. It fell without much contest for its sustentation.

IS TURKEY DECLINING?

401

It was not so much the Moslem faith nor the standing army of
Janizaries, trained with skill, recruited with Christian youth, and
uniformed compactly, nor the personal attachment of this race to
its rulers, that enabled this new power to sweep from the Euphra
tes to the Adriatic and from the Nile to the Pillars of Hercules.
The solution is found in the division of power and employment.
The local government with its cadi (or mayor) and council of
notables, was never lost sight of, even in the ambitions of foreign
¦conquest. The lands which were conquered were saved for till-
,age and grazing. All who came to the mosque received mercy.
¦Slaves were freed and goods restored. The rule was one of law,
and in the clangor of arms its voice was not hushed.
The Christian people of the conquered territory were as much
the devotees of superstition and rites as were the heathen who
worshipped the sun or fire. Byzantium was a pagan place before
Mahometanism destroyed its images and razed its temples. It is
thought that the fall of Byzantium was a calamity to the world.
Its existence certainly was not a blessing.
There never was a time when Mahometanism could have con-
¦quered and held Europe. Its lodgment even in Spain was dis
puted for seven hundred years. There was a perpetual barrier
•against it, as well by Alpine ranges as by chivalric courage.
It is doubtful if Turkey is now advancing. Her doctrine of
" Kismet " is applicable to her condition. The Christian people
of her empire are gaining upon the Turkish. War, plague and
•contention in and out of Europe — in Africa as well as in Europe
— have limited her boundaries and undermined her old and hardy
constitution. Why this unique empire, with its relics of polygamy and
slavery, should decay, is not so difficult a problem as -why it has
grown in four centuries to be such a power that the great land
animal, Russia, pauses before it lays its claws upon this capital.

CHAPTER XXXL
THE CAIQUES OF THE BOSPORUS.
My countrymen who visit the National Museum at Washington
will perceive a strange boat from the Orient. It is known m the
waters of the Bosporus as a caique, and in the Turkish tongue,
from which it is derived, as a caik. The Yankee boatmen laughed
at its Oriental workmanship, with its hull of tulip wood, battened
on the inside with small blocks of wood and deluged with pitch;
but he could not understand its utility of was not enamored of its
beauty. For its size-^thirti^-five feet long, with only a weight of
340 pounds — it was a marvel among boats when I rode in it upon
the Bosporus. May I not say something further about its utilities-
and graces ?
The boat belonged to the American Legation. It was pur
chased many years ago with United States money. It has often
been repaired since. It has served the purpose of a Legation boat
before steam became a motor upon the Bosporus. It was only
used in good weather, when the Legation was situated up the
Straits, and for purposes which the launch granted by Congress.
now supplies.
There are pleasing associations with it enjoyed by my prede
cessors, as well as by myself Upon one occasion, I rigged up
th's six-oared caique, to cross the Bosporus, with a view to pene
trating into the interior, a mile or so along the ' ' Sweet Waters
of Asia." One of the incidents of this trip into Asia was a visit
to the various potteries on the shore of the sweet little stream.
Halting our boat before one of the potteries, we are attracted
by a low musical chant Having along our Dalmatian servitor,
Pedro, we halt to examine the potteries and listen to the chant
The chanteur is intoning from the Koran. He shrewdly keeps
one eye upon us, as we are strangers. Not being his prayer
time, he is not quite so ceremonious as usual. Directiy he
stops his intoning, I ask with respect, through Pedro, that I

BUYING THE KORAN. ^O"^
may see his Koran. It is an old volume, badly worn. It once
had signs of gilt on the outside. It had a cover of morocco, once
beautiful. Inside, it was ornamented with bits of gold leaf for
periods, or pauses in prayers. It had many illustrations, all giv
ing quite a picturesque quality to the book. In the frontispiece,
which, Celtic-like, is at the end, there is the Crescent and the Star.
The first page — where we have our " Finis "—is like an illumi
nated missal in purple, and with various exquisite arrangements
of line and script These show that the book had once been of
value. I ask the owner :
"Will you sell the book ? "
This is in derogation of law and custom. The owner shrinks
from the negotiation. However, after much talk, I obtain his
confidence. With a little persuasion on the part of his brother
workmen, who are unbelieving Greeks, and who gather about
him, he gives a hesitating acquiescence and remarks :
" I would like to know how much you will give for it ? "
I ask, Yankee-fashion, " How much will you take ? "
He ponders long. He looks within the cover, as if loth to
part with his consoling companion and says :
" It is worth two mejidies, is it not?"
That is about two dollars. I leap for the book. I have the
silver ready, jingling it under the potter's eye. Am I too quick ?
He turns to his companions, and as Pedro interprets it, he says :
" I fear that these people are spying on me. They are detect
ives, perhaps. They may arrest me for the sale."
It requires some diplomacy to mollify and conciliate him. But
I had set my heart on the acquisition, and I feared, like the classic
female, Cassandra, that he might raise the price at each refusal to
clinch the bargain. I ask :
" Where are you from ? "
"From the city of Scutari in Albania."
" Will you be kind enough to write your name in the
book?" This he does with a pencil at the end of the book. His name
is Bairam. Whether named after the festive season or not, I do
not inquire. He is not a jolly person, although he bears a
happy name.
He then commences again, intoning piously some of the verses,
to which he longingly opens. Then casting his eyes on the

404 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
mefidih, he delivers over the precious volume to my wife. This
was on the 23d of October, 1885, on the Moslem Sunday, which
is on Friday. I still retain the volume, as one of the curious souve
nirs of my religious invasion of Asia, of my visit to the " Sweet
Waters" and of the elegant caique, now naturalized in America.
Besides, there is the association with Bairam, the gentle child of
Mahomet. His shrewd piety will not be forgotten.
What singular attachments these religionists — even from the
shores of the Adriatic, and almost beyond the borders of Greece —
still retain for the Islam of their fathers ! Perhaps this man had in
him the blood of those Moslems of the mountains of Albania, so
celebrated for prowess and endurance in the time of Scanderbeg,
or of those noted in the Suliote war under Ali Pasha.
When I first saw Constantinople, thirty-six years ago, there
were eighty thousand ca'iques constantly plying between the
European and Asiatic sides, and up and down the waters which
make Constantinople such an alluring resort and such a commer
cial capital. The gondola has almost been replaced in Venice by
the little steam 7nouches which fly over its limpid avenues. What
the gondola was once, and is, to the Venetian and the tourist, the
caique was, and is yet, to the Turk and his Oriental guests. There
have been great changes upon the Bosporus by the introduction
of steam. The number of the caiques has been reduced. There
are perhaps not more than twenty-five thousand now. The larger
number of these may be hired like cabs in New York. These are
called kirlangich, or "swallow boats." There is another bird
peculiar to the Bosporus which is suggested by these boats, even
more appositely than the swallow. I mean the bird called, from
its restless habits, "the condemned soul." These birds fly in
flocks constantly. They are never seen upon the wave, but always
upon the wing. They are in perpetual unrest. Going down to
the city from the upper Bosporus, I have encountered flocks
of them by the hundred. They fly just above the surface.
Where they nestle, how they live and what they do, are among the
questions which the tourist puts in vain to the native, and which
only a treatise on ornithology may answer. They suggest the
caique, because of their continually coming and going. Turn
which way you will upon the Bosporus, even when the ferry-boats
ply every ten minutes, up, down and about, you will see these
birds. They fly straight ahead, as if intent on business. They do

PERILS OF IHE CAIQUE. 405
not play around upon the waves and become domesticated, glut
tonous and noisy in the harbor, as the sea-gulls do. For be it
known that the birds of the Bosporus are as multitudinous as the
dogs of Stamboul ; and they are as much protected by the Turk
as the dog and other animals.
The Yankee who laughed at our boat has not described it
accurately. It is generally made of thin planks of beachwood,
with a neat finish and elaborate carving. It is sharply pointed at
both ends. The elegance of its construction, the levity of its
materials, the singular shape of the oars — being very thin, wide,
and light at the feather end, and bulbous at the handle — and the
dexterity and picturesqueness of the boatmen, give to it a rapid
ity of movement and a grace of form exquisite, unique and
Oriental. The boat, besides having long borne our starred ensign, is one
of the most graceful of its kind. It is six-oared, three oars on
each side, and guided by a rudder.
These boats can always be had for hire at the landing-stages.
The larger ones are used for parties of pleasure, families on a
picnic, and for passengers on business. As the waters of the Bos
porus are very deep and are always running, and in some places
with a swift current, much caution is required, not only in enter
ing the caique, but in trimming it after you are in. It is easily
overset. Two members of the brass band of the Kearsarge
the past summer, on the visit of that vessel to the Bosporus, lost
their lives because of their awkwardness in the ca'ique. The pas
sengers must sit in the bottom, upon a Turkish rug or crimson
cushion. The caiques are like our canoes in one respect. They
are long and very narrow, and sensitive to every motion of the
passenger. Nervolis people should never enter them. But the
Turkish lady has a cautious step, and an immobility when seated,
which exactiy suit the humor of the caique.
The water-men of the boats are dressed in white cotton-crepe
shirts. They wear on their heads a small scarlet skull cap. It is
no protection from the sun; and the amazement is, that such a
head-dress, which is no shade over the eye or the face, should be
acceptable in a country so thoroughly drenched with sunbeams.
There was some sense in the old turban, which absorbed the rays
of the sun and cooled the head, but now you will see nearly every
Turkish subject with a fez cap, worn somewhat on the back of

4o6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
the head, so that the eye must meet the glare of the pavement and
stream, or the blaze of the sun, and the forehead must be of
perpetual bronze. The idea of the brimless fez is, however, a
religious one. With a rim to the fez, or to a hat, how could the
pious Mussulman touch the earth with his forehead in his
prayers ?
The caiquejis are a muscular race of men. They are mostly
of the Greek race. Some of them have a disagreeable grunt as
they ply their oars, ovring to inordinate exertion when young,
which affected their lungs. These caiquejis are not garru
lous. They are mute and reserved. They are machines, in the
regularity with which they keep time with the oars. They neither
look to the right nor to the left, except now and then a rapid glance
to see that their onward way is clear. And yet the Greek boat
man, like the gondolier, will sometimes break into song, and the
song will keep measure with the plunge of the oar. The disso
nance of the singer may be somewhat drowned, if not harmonized,
with the delightful, dreamy charm of the motion and plash of the
oar. The songs are not only inharmonious but monotonous. They
require distance to mellow them.
When visits were to be made by the Legation, the caiquejis
are arrayed in cleanly white apparel, not unlike that of an ancient
Roman senator. Their bosoms and arms are bare. There is a
rhythmic music in their movement. This adds to the pleasure of
the trip and enhances the beauty of the boat, making it a living
picture upon a mobile element of lucent lymph.
The harbor of Constantinople is not only celebrated for its
natural advantages, but the immense and heavy shipping in the
harbor presents a striking contrast with these beautiful ca'iques.
Amid the ferry-boats, as large as those that ply between New
York and Jersey City, and the Austrian, French, Russian and
English steamers which crowd the harbor, these faerie boats, with
their arrowy points and precious burden of hanouw.s, are continu
ally darting with graceful rapidity hither and yon among the
heavier craft of a new civilization. They illustrate the fact that
the spell of delight and the dream of enchantment have not yet
entirely departed from the city of the Sultan. Amid the grand
scenery of the Bosporus the little ca'ique still holds its own.
Within the splendid harbor it still plays its petite part. Crowded
as is the harbor with its myriads of boats, it is yet deep and large

THE MOSQUE OK ORTAKEUI AND THE CA'IQUES.

408 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
enough to hold twelve hundred sail, and give hospitality to iron
clads, which moor in its tideless waters even up to the lintels of
the houses, as well as to the craft of every rig and nation — the
feluccas, xebecs and bragozzi of the neighboring isles, and great
ships of iron flying the red Crescent of the Sultan. Still the
caTque, amidst them all, is a living beauty and an active utilitj'.
Not merely the pasha in his fez, and his wives in their veils of
tulle, but the hundred nationalities which here assemble have
their story and experience with this fanciful caique. What tales
it could tell, if it were only sentient and voiceful! Would it not
speak of the "rage of the vulture, the love of the turtie," the
melodious voice of the nightingale, and of " the virgins as soft as
the rose's they twine "? Would it not sigh over the stories of the
Selims and Zuliekas of the fateful Orient ?
Upon Friday, which is a day of recreation as well as of religion,
when the crowds of the capital turn out on a pleasant afternoon to
visit the " Sweet Waters of Asia " opposite the Towers of Europe,
or the " Sweet Waters of Europe " at the head of the Golden Horn,
every caique is in requisition. In fact, every kind of boat upon
the Bosporus is then active. The vast and varied population of
the city and the suburbs of Pera and Constantinople, and of the
Golden Horn, are continually embarking or returning on these
and other festal days in these frail boats. Although steam ferries
run every ten minutes up and down the whole length of the Straits,
from Cavak to Seraglio Point, yet a considerable body of the
people go to and from the city and their homes by this old, fami'
liar method. The caique is, therefore, by no means obsolete
Now you will see in it a bevy of Turkish women, dressed in silks
of every hue, seated upon a rug or cushion smoking their cigarettes,
in full glee over their gossip from the bath. Or peradventure, you
will notice a company of Persians in their pointed caps, or of
Mollahs with white turbans and green, in tinted pelisses, or of
Nubian boatmen, with rose-colored jackets, and faces that shine
and eyes that sparkle. In the sunshine or in the shadow, dart
ing under the arches of the palaces and houses, under the helm
of some eunuch, who is in charge of a household, or between the
boats which form the pontoon bridges of the Golden Horn, you
see these boats perpetually skimming the clear blue water as if
propelled through the air like some fantastic, dreamy creation of
the Thousand and One Nights.

VARIETIES OF THE CAIQUE.

409

These boats are still affected by the pashas who can afford to
keep them. You may tell the boat of a rich Turk by the silken
gauze sleeves of the caiquejis, or boatmen. Their sleeves wave
in unison with the stroke of the oar upon the water. On festive
days, and especially among the Greek population, these boats are
filled with musicians and revelers, who use the liberty of the occa
sion to do much shouting, and make what they denominate music,
if not melody. The songs may be discordant, but the singers or
musicians do not know it. It is quite picturesque and exhilarat-

CAIQUE AT SWEET WATERS OF EUROPE.

ing to the Occidental taste to look down from the ferry-boat, or, as
I used to do, from the deck of our launch, upon the turban, the fez,
the caftan, the feridji and the yashmak, and other gear such as
the curly, black sheepskin hat of the Circassian, the felt hat of the
dervish, and the dark cap of the Montenegrin, dashed with crimson
and gold; or slyly peer beneath the gauzy veil of some lady of
large, liquid, dark and dangerous- eyes, under a red parasol, who is
by no means unwilling to be observed. These little incidents of
navigation give grace, as well as piquancy, to the scenes of the
Bosporus.

4 1 0 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
Sometimes the caique is so ornamented as to have all the hues
of the prism. But generally it is varnished and has a golden-
yellow hue. It is fretted and pointed with elegant tracery. There
are seldom any accidents to the caique upon the Bosporus,
although there seems, to a stranger, to be danger and confusion
in its movements. You would think that it was about to be run
down by some heavier vessel, or by the steam ferry or big steamer;
but the caiqueji has a quick glance and a cunning oar, and his
slender craft is out of the way in a twinkling.
The grand ca'ique of the Sultan is now almost out of use. I
have seen it but once upon the Bosporus. It is as skillful in its
graceful construction as it is gorgeous in its splendors. , Nay ;
call it not gorgeous ! Its beauty is rather that of simplicity. It is
immaculate, except that it is broidered with pink and gold. - It
has twelve pair of oars. These touch the water as if they were
feathered. The twenty-six rowers are dressed in white silk shirts,'
loose, white, baggy trousers and the scarlet fez. They make a
stroke every thirty seconds. There is a crimson velvet canopy
over the stern. It is embroidered with gold, upheld by four
gilded columns. Under this canopy is a sofa of velvet for His
Majesty. Near by are benches for his aides. The tiller is held
by an Arab dressed in scarlet and gold. At the stern is a big
gilded bird. It is not the American eagle ; for our bird is of
another beak and shape. Still, it has a resemblance to the eagle
in the outspread wings. It is not a bird of prey ; only a peacock !
This description gives a dim idea only of the exquisite beauty,
of this boat. That beauty is duplicated, by reflection, in the mir
roring Bosporus. It is enhanced by the retinue of ca'iques, which
dance after its royal eminence.
This leads to the remark that, our own ca'ique had upon its
bow what was supposed to be the American eagle. When I took
charge of the Legation, the eagle had lost the main part of its
beak. It had been denuded of several of its fierce tail feathers.
Its wings did not show the energy of an American spread. After
several amendments in the first and second degree to that eagle,
I had moved a substitute and had the original bird placed over
the Legation, in the alleyway which the American Congress gen
erously allows its Minister to furnish as headquarters. That bird
indicates to the American tourist the survival of our nation in the
East, in spite of the lamentable lack of appropriations.

WEDDING THE SEA. 4II
When, as Wordsworth sings, Venice, the Maiden City, bright
and free, took unto herself a mate, and espoused the Everlasting
Sea, did not Venice copy her custom from the gorgeous East,
which she once "held in fee"? It was about the time of the
third Crusade, while Dandolo was Ambassador at the Porte, and
before he wore the ducal bonnet made in the similitude of a horn 
from the Golden Horn, its prototype m the East — a few years before
the old hero led the way to the conquest of Constantinople, and
when Venice was full of republican pride and prosperity — that
the espousal of the Adriatic originated. The Pope, being grateful
for the services of Venice, presented the Doge with a gold ring. It
was a pledge of Venetian sovereignty over the sea. " Every year,"
said the Pope, "renew with this ring your marriage with the sea, that
all posterity may know that the Adriatic owes ',0 you the obedience
of a wife to her husband." For six hundred years this ceremony
was observed. The famous Bucintoro, or great state galley, leads
the way, with a dazzling retinue of craft, and amid the thunder of
cannon, toward the Lido. When they enter the open sea the
Doge unlocks his private chamber in the vessel, a priest sprinkles
holy water into the sea, and the ring is dropped on the sacred
waves, while the Doge utters in Latinity this sentence :
"We wed thee, O Sea ! in token of true and perpetual
sovereignty." There is a model of the Buci7itoro in the arsenal at Venice. The
original was stripped of its gilt ornaments and partly burned by
the vandalic French in a. d. i 797. Still, the hull survived as agun-
boat until a. d. 1824. The boat was a hundred feet long. It had two
stories and forty -two oars ; four men to an oar. It was profusely
ornamented, inside and outside, with gilt flowers and fruits, shells
and syrens, fish and tritons. It had a double prow, representing
rule over sea and land. Nymphs and caryatides upheld the
canopy of scarlet satin which covered the great saloon. The nobles
and ambassadors occupied the stern about the Doge, who sat on
a gilded throne. Behind this throne were the winged lions and
the gonfalon of St. Mark. These emblems betoken a most gor
geous display. These symbols, like the " properties '' in St.
Marks, were stolen from the Constantinople of the Greeks by the
'wily Venetian. The Doges who glided in such stately style out
of the lagoons into the blue sea, emulated but never surpassed
the splendor of the contemporary emperors of Byzantium

4 1 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
when, upon their festal days, they passed up and down the
Bosporus. Cleopatra in all her pageantry upon the Nile, with her boat of
curiously shaped prow, rigged, like Southey's ship of heaven, with
rainbows, never made a more elegant or royal figure than the
Selims, Amuraths, and Mahomets of the past when they crossed
the Bosporus to make their devotions in the mosques of the old
city of Stamboul, or in grand procession paid their devoirs to their
harems upon the Isles of the Princes. The royal caique was a
mass of gilding and glitter. It fairly gleamed in the sunshine. It
was more than a caique : it was a painted splendor — a poetic
creation which was etherealized by the elements, the water and
the air, and the exquisite lustre and shadow which it cast upon
the one element, and the graceful rise and fall of its movement
through the other.
No wonder our Legation boat, so fragile and so dainty, should
receive damage in crossing the vexed Atlantic upon the exposed
deck of a Cunarder. Generally these boats give the impression
of a light, buoyant, glittering image, hardly substantial. The
crimson drapery, fringed with gold, which hangs over its sides,
almost dipping into the water, and under the sweet light which
has its peculiar properties upon the Bosporus, by the richness and
variety of its color, gives a superb costume to the boat. This is
in harmony with the costumes of the people who grace it with
their languid and decorous dignity.
The boat is an evidence of progress. If you would know
how the world has moved, study the galleys of ancient history ;
or even the thousand-year-old Norse vessels which, after dis
interment, I saw on exhibition, in Christiania, Norway. I have
made a description of the latter in a volume called " Arctic Sun
beams," and instituted the comparison between them and the
boats of the Bosporus. There is much similarity ; but the poetic
and beateous levity is not a part of the Norse Yecht. During the
past summer I mixed much with the Greek sailors at Prinkipo.
I saw many curious caiques ; for I was eager to know what was
the shape, tonnage and size, the utilities and beauties of the old
galley — if you please, the Turkish galley — the galley in which
Barbarossa and Kairid-Ali won their splendid victories in the
Mediterranean. I find a description of this galley in Creasy. It
must have been the same kind of boat which the Turks used when

FESTIVE MELAN CHOL Y. 4 1 -.
they dragged their vessels overland from Dolma-Bagtche to the
Golden Horn, at the taking of Constantinople.
The galley was a long boat, provided with a main and fore
mast, which might be raised and strung as required.. She carried
large latteen sails, which could only be trusted under way in light
winds and smooth seas, while her great length must have exposed
her to foundering in a rough sea. In fact, the galley seems to
me to be an enlarged caique, swift to move, and yet uncomfort
able and dangerous.
Among the isles of the Archipelago known as the "Princes
Isles," where we sojourned in the summer of 1886, the chants
of the fishermen as they draw in their nets were quite as common
as they were musical — when remote. Summer before last, our
experience was not as pleasant with the fishermen of the upper
Bosporus. These latter toilers of the sea are of Italian descent.
They are quite independent of all national, Turkish or inter
national rules or laws concerning this greatest and grandest of
water-ways. Late at night, in their caiques, they set their surface-
nets. These nets are buoyed up by gourds or corks, and when
the Legations are making their nocturnal visits to one another
between Buyukdere and Therapia, or returning home from fetes or
dances — they use their steam launches. Woe to the Russian,
German, French, English or Italian "mouche," whose screw
makes an entangling alliance {eruhevitrement^ with these nets
upon the "fishy Bosporus." Oh, the wail which rises over the
dark blue water and penetrates to lacerate the heart of the unfor
tunate diplomat or launchman ! That wail still rings in my ears
— a rasping, howling plaint of agony, long drawn out — echoing
from shore to shore, and caught up in a succession of cries, as if
each one of the crafty " moonlighters " upon the public preserves
would warn his fellow-trespasser of the impending danger. It is
a cry of protest, piteous, indignant and despairing; and as long
as the bill which the unlucky fisherman presents the next day at
the Legation with grimace and lament for the loss of his only
means of living — his precious net
These troubles, however, had their compensations. When we
resided at Therapia, many a love-song floated on the evening air,
in the gloaming or in the moonlight, from some caique, as it
darted up and down the stream, or was moored idly in the shadow
of a palace wall. The music is sometimes accompanied by a

414

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

rude guitar, a small drum or tambourine. It is hardly a song
which is sung. It has no festive ring. It is a melancholy chant,
always in the minor mode. It is a recitation rather than a song
or a chant If there be any heroic lay sung upon the Bosporus,,
as Byron intimated about the songs of the degenerate Grecian
isles, " it is tuneless novi^ " — not more tuneless than the effigies
of the caiquejis, whose boat clothes have been imported along with
our Legation caique, and which are hereafter to be filled by the
plastic, waxen art of Professor Baird or his Museum employees.
I have frequently asked for the meaning of these songs, and
have received for answer that most of them have reference to
some heart that was breaking or some beauty to be won. Their
burden may be of some fair one who is about to leave her swain
for foreign parts ; and the wind blows, the sea is rough, the
sails are filled, and like the plumes of a little pigeon she is about
to spread her wings for that distant clime. "I weep not for
the boat, I weep not for the sails, but I weep for the fair one who is
going away." And as the singer intones the sentiment, the tears
are in his voice, if not in his eyes.
Again to our balcony near the quay, from the Asiatic shore
comes this lugubrious lay:
" Three months elapsed before I saw thee, Ma-ri-a-me-ne 1
Ma-ri-a-me-ne ! I thought they were three years. Three sharp
knives into my heart did enter, Ma-ri-a-me-ne ! Ma-ri-a-me-ne !"
Then there is another strain, still more lachrymose, seeming
to float out of the shadow of Jason's mountain:
"As many as are the stars in the skies, as many as are the
windows in Stamboul; so many are the damsels I have kissed on
the eye-brows and on the eyes ! "
Not a very sad experience, but sung ever so triste ! Then out
of the quiet bay of Buyukdere comes drawling this tender bar
carolle :
"Let us make our vows under the columns; and if I do not
love thee, Fatima, let them all fall and crush me. So, then, let
my lips say that I love you; that the rose leaves of my heart may
become conserves of sweetness ! "
In the National Museum at Washington, there is a collection,
not of these conserved sweet-hearts, but of the unstranded boats
of various nations, from Labrador to New Zealand. The time will
come when it will contain every variety of boat, from the catamaran

ANCHORED AT LAST.

4i5

of Ceylon to the coracle of ancient Egypt and modern Wales ;
from the caboose of the modern merchantman to the galley of
the ancient Roman; from the thousand-year-old yacht of the
Norseman to the skiff of the Buckeye raftsman of my early days
on the Muskingum.
In such a medley, where junks, pinnaces, punts, yawls, tillers,
rowlocks and gondolas may illustrate the variety and history of
national navigation, I resolve that the caique of Constantinople
should have its well-won prominence. Whereupon, after the
Department of State had directed me to dispose of the Lega-

ANCIENT GALLEY.

tion caique, as no longer necessary for the economic trans
portation of the Minister and his suite, and as -it required a
burden on the Federal Treasury of nearly three mejedies a quar
ter, or $12 a year, and as our six-oared boat was obsolete and
could not be sold for the price of its keeping for a quarter — it
occurs to me that it would make a useful if not a beautiful exhibit
amid the strange and curious boats collected in our Federal
capital. Mr. Bayard cheerfully acquiesced in my wish. As the boat
was difficult to ship and could not well be boxed, and as there was
no expense to the United States Treasury for its transportation.

41 6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
it again occurs to me to make it the companion of two emigrants
which I sent from Egypt, one of whom has now an isolated resi
dence in the National Museum. It did not irk, but it amused
somewhat that the enterprising American press had discovered
that my mum.mies, which were presented by a friend — Mehemet
Ali — at Luxor, were dead-headed home at the expense of the
United States Government. This was one of the many mistakes
which my remoteness from home did not enable me to correct.
However, it is a solace for my absence that I have been enabled
both by the mummy and the caique, to add something of interest
to the national collection. Certainly, for myself, whenever I
enter the Museum, I shall be reminded of the days which were
rounded out of the Crescent into the fullness of beauty, not only
amid the temples and tombs of old Egypt, but on the waters and
amid the scenes which make my memory of the Orient a joy for
ever!

CHAPTER XXXII.

DOGS OF CONSTANTINOPLE — A CANINE REPUBLIC — FIGHTS.

DOGS IN THE STREETS OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

Would there be so many cases of hydrophobia if it were not
for Pasteur? This was the question of a clever "medicine man"
here who has compassed the world in a scientific way. No doubt
Pasteur's remedy has called unusual attention to the subject of
rabies. Whether his theory of the microbe be correct or his prac
tice uniformly salutary, a layman like myself cannot presume to
discuss. Owing to my relation at this capital (of Constantinople),
and the presumption that a Minister does or ought to know " all
things and some others " in and around his post, I have received
many letters about the dogs of Constantinople. I have not stud
ied their statistics ; only their habits. I may say that they do
not number 500 dogs to the acre. Yet this is not such an exag
geration as some would suppose. In the old Turkish quarters of
Stamboul, where they are petted by the population, they are as
417

4i<

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

thick as leaves in fall. They do not seem to lessen in number.
Puppies of every degree, size and age are being constantiy turned
out There is, therefore, no better place than Constantinople to
study one type at least of the canine family in its relation to the
genus homo.
A correspondent from Wisconsin was anxious to know, from
some scientific standpoint, whether rabies prevailed among these
Turkish dogs. He had heard that they were ownerless and neg
lected. His inference naturally was that, being famished and,
uncared for, the)' were therefore likely to become mad I con
sulted Dr. John Patterson on these points. He is at the head of
the English hospital here, and well known in the East as a most
accomplished physician. He addressed me a letter, in -which he
rehearsed his opinions, formed in Labrador among the sled-dogs,
in Egypt among the shepherd dogs, and in Turkey among the
vagrant dogs. It was that rabies was much exaggerated. He
premised that in Constantinople, Asiatic Turkey and Egypt, where
pariah dogs abound, rabies was rare. The doctor was thirteen
years in Egypt and has been eighteen years in Turkey, and in-
each country in full practice. ' He never saw a case of rabies.
He had treated many dog-bites, and was anxious to see an un
doubted case of madness: During these periods he had only-
heard of three or four cases. He states further, that since Pas
teur's alleged discovery of a preventive, there has been reported
such an enormous increase of cases of hydrophobia in every
country of Europe as naturally to create doubt of the correctness
of the statements.
The only reasonable explanation of the comparative freedom
from rabies m these countries, where dogs abound and exist under
conditions presumably favorable to the development of the disease,
is that the animals live nearly in their natural state — i. e., in the
open air and sunshine — and are not over-fed and pampered. That
this may be the true reason, is probable from the fact that in
extremely cold countries, as Greenland and other Arctic regions,
rabies is also scarce amongst dogs, though they are exposed to
much hardship and privation. This is the report of the Danish
inspectors and intelligent natives. No one of them had seen or
heard of a case of hydrophobia. Against these statements is the
fact that an allied species, the wolf and fox (especially the
former), are in their natural state very liable to become rabid.

A DOG-BITE AND AN ESSA Y.

419

Without discussing the paradox as to the wolf and fox, or
entering upon the Pasteur theory, I may state that we moved to
the Isle of Prinkipo for the summer of 1886. It is in the Sea of
Marmora, a dozen miles below the city. There are several ferries
running there every day. Doubtless the number of dogs on the
island is owing to the easy communication. Most of them are
used as watch-dogs and hunters ; but many of them are vagrant,
and of the same kind as at Constantinople. It was one of these
dogs which gripped my wrist in our garden at Prinkipo. It was a
watch-dog. It is of a different breed from that of the vagrant
dog. He bit me in the line of his duty, as he supposed. He
had been guarding the premises from intruders before we
moved into the house, and having returned to his kennel and his
vigilance in the garden, he considered us to be interlopers. The
snap of his ugly jaw still makes my bone shiver. Luckily, the
grip was on the thick and polished shirt cuff. His teeth slipped
off the cuff and made but a slight abrasion of the skin. Any fear
of rabies ? Not at all ; for there is nothing of the kind here.
However, my bite got into the papers. It was just before the
Sultan gave us a dinner at Yildiz palace. My companion at the
table was Dr. S. S. Mavroyeni. Whether it was because his initials
were sweetly silbilant, like my own S. S. ; or because he was
unusually accomplished; or because he was the Sultan's chief phy
sician— for that monarch has twelve other doctors under the Mavro
yeni Pasha — or whether the Doctor was able to talk in some other
tongue than his vernacular Greek, his adopted Turkish, or his
favorite German, we became colloquial over the wine ; for be it
known that the Sultan gives his guests all the wine they desire,
whether it be according to the Koran or not. He abstains himself,
and thus keeps the law. Well, my dog-bite, came up for discus
sion. I found the doctor to be partial to dogs. He explained
that the vagrants were not watch-dogs, but by training, could
be made faithful and fierce.
The other day I received from the excellent Doctor a brochure,
in French, entitled, " Les Chiens Errants de Constantinople — Etude
de Moeurs." That my scratch could lead to such a learned discussion,
should engender a feeling of national pride. When, in its perusal,
I found the doctor to be a democratic-republican of the Amer
ican type, I was patriotically elated. In speaking of these errant

420 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
dogs, he says that they have an autonomy and are free ; they
have no wish to impose their will on any, but delegate different
services and functions to each dog, according to his capacity.
They have, I suppose, a sort of civil-service. What examination
they undergo for selection or preferment we are not told by the
Doctor. He finds their government comparable with a confed-
erative republic, and not unlike that of " la grande Republique
de r Amerique du Nord." These dogs are confederate under
mutual obligations. Each division governs itself in an indepen
dent manner.
It is the custom of travelers and authors always to mention
these dogs. Compared with the indolent and inconsequential
curs upon the streets and docks of Naples, and other places
among the lazzaroni, which have not yet attained to the dignity of
a literary and scientific study, they are honorably mentioned.
From Miss Pardoe down to Edmondo de Amicis, I find refer
ence to these dogs. In a. d. 1835, Miss Pardoe found them on the
threshold of her entrance into the city. She honors them in the
first chapter of her "City of the Sultan" by this mention:
" I could not avoid remarking the little straw huts built at inter
vals along the streets for the accommodation and comfort of the
otherwise homeless dogs that throng every avenue of the town.
There they lay, crouched down snugly, too much chilled to wel
come us with the chorus of barking that they usually bestow on
travelers. In addition to this shelter, food is everyday dispensed
by the inhabitants to the vagrant animals, who, having no specific
owners, are, to use the approved phraseology of genteel alms-
asking, ' wholly dependent on the charitable for support' And it
is a singular fact that these self-constituted scavengers exercise a
kind of internal economy which exceeds the boundaries of mere
instinct; they have their defined "walks," or haunts, and woe
betide the strange cur who intrudes on the privileges of his
neighbors; he is hunted, upbraided with growls and barks, beset
on all sides, even bitten in cases of obstinate contumacy, and
universally obliged to retreat within his own limits."
Thirty-five years ago I wrote a book entitled " Buckeye
Abroad," in which several chapters were given to the " Heart of
Mahometanism." That was in a. d. 185 i — before the Crimean War
had decimated the dogs. I can recall my first timid step as we
threaded the then, and still, "dirty, splashy, badly paved, narrow,

THE CITY BESIEGED BY DOGS. 42 1
doggy, donkeyfied, carriageless, up-and-down streets, in traversing
which you cannot look at anything for fear of having your head
cracked against the burden of some donkey or the load of some
head-shouldered carrier, or for fear of treading upon one of the
many thousand brindled dogs who act the part of scavengers by
day and play that of howling dervishes by night"
At that time the dogs were in the hey-day of Abdul Medjid's
reign, to whom all now refer as the Arab does to the good Haroun
Al-Raschid, of Bagdad. Little did I then think ol coming hither,
after thirty-five years, for a long stay, or that some day a bite of
one of these "brindles" would give rise to a learned study on
errant dogs by the " Hekim-bashi," or head of the medical pro
fession of the empire, and chief physician of the son and succes
sor of Abdul Medjid, of happy memory.
These dogs are of a peculiar race. They are a cross between
the jackal and the wolf, but without being as wild, cruel or mis
chievous as either. They are very intelligent and industrious.
They are sweet toward the natives ; they are hostile to strangers,
whom they recognize at once as such. This is most observable
in the retired quarters, inhabited by Mussulmans. They are
numerous, tumultuous and independent. They encumber the
streets. This has been so immemorially.
Constantinople has had twenty-four sieges. It has been taken
six times. Alcibiades, Constantine, Dandolo, Paleologos and
Mahmoud II. severally succeeded in entering its harbors and
gates, but the dogs have survived all these captures. Grecian
commanders and Roman emperors, Persian chosroes, Arabian
caliphs, Venetian doges and French counts, Bulgarian krales and
Avarian chaka^s, Slavonian despots and Ottoman sultans have
come and gone, have besieged and been repulsed, or have captured
and held the city; but the dogs go on for ever! No balance of
power, no Eastern imbroglio, has disturbed their republican
autonomy. Their " Home Rule " upsets no administration. It
disturbs no dynasty; but it remains stable for ever.
A veritable colony has been acquired by them in their encroach
ments. They have the right of domicile, which publicists and
architects have not contested. Whether or not, bon gr^, mal gre'y
the savants are forced to tolerate the colony. They do not know
what else to do. Besides, the dogs are so sugary and wheedling,
they so insinuate and flatter, that their work, patriotism and serv-

42 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
ices make them acceptable as the guardians of their quarter of
the city against robbers and malefactors. They make the streets
healthy by disinfecting them, not by the method of the learned
doctors Pettenkofer and Koch, but by devouring the carrion and
garbage, which is their fare. They do this without salary from
the municipality, and are thus an economical and sanitary police.
I am not equal to understanding the methods of the learned
Pettenkofer, or his medical brother. Doubtless these men are
some of Doctor Mavroyeni' s German friends, for he studied
when young at a German university. But I can understand
that when the terrific howls are raised, about sunrise, around the
Hotel Royal, at Pera, by the score of dogs which surround that
hostelry with their republican outcries, there is a contest going
on between the incursive garbage gatherers and the autono
mous dogs, as to which shall have the first examination of the
piles thrown out by the cooks at the early dawn. All Acheraunta
seems then to be aroused on these festive occasions. Sleep flies
from weary mortals. The sleeve of care remains raveled out in
a feverish agony of wakefulness. I often wish then that the
dogs were more economical — of noise.
The Doctor refers to the incident recorded of Mahmoud IL,
whom he properly calls the reformer of Turkey. He commends
him as the courageous exterminator of the savage horde of Jani
zaries. His biography is written on the" headless gravestones of
those enemies of the State whom he slaughtered mercilessly upon
the classic square of Stamboul ; for these gra-vestones were by his
order made ignominious by being made turbanless. He tried by
his irade to extirpate another race — the boisterous enemy of the
European — the dogs. He banished them to the deserted isles of
Oxia and Prati, whose rocks leap out of the Marmora, within five
miles of our villa and home at Prinkipo. But the dogs were in
sight of the Seraskier tower of Stamboul, the Genoese tower of
Galata and the graceful minarets of Sophia and Achmed. They
soon, by instinct, patriotism or hunger, found themselves en route
by sea to their old haunts.
The people murmured against the decree of banishment They
received the dogs on their return with huzzas ! This happened,
notwithstanding the Koran holds — like our Bible — that the dog is
an unclean animal. Is this a pious reason why these dogs are mas-
terless ? Is this the reason why they are republicans of the

CHAR.4CTERISTICS OF THE DOGS. 423
United States type — nameless, homeless and only bound by laws
of their own local domicile ? Is this the reason why the Turk
never thinks of disturbing them, whether howling by night or
sleeping in mid-street by day ? Why, donkey and dervish, horse
and hamal, passenger and carriage, invariably turn out to avoid
the all-dominating cur ?
When the dogs returned from the isles, the Sultan was not so
cruel as to make a massacre of these innocents, as he had of the
Janizaries. Besides, was he not preoccupied with the coming
war, which the Emperor Nicholas, of Russia, had just declared ?
So that the dogs were left out in the streets to work out their own
autonomy, regardless of Czar or Sultan.
Doubtless much may be said in favor of these animals, of
their docility and their training to charettes, or little wagons, and
barrows. They become useful m hunting, from their exquisite
scent. Their ratiocinative faculty is shown in their division of
quarters — following the divisions of the city. It is the same in
the suburbs and surrounding villages — in fact, in all the provinces
of the empire. When they were sentenced to the isles, they
showed sagacity by swimming to the mainland or introducing
themselves furtively on board vessels which touched at the
Isles. They become not only attached to their locality, but
to one another by reason of friendship and family ties. They
love and aid one another. They do not fight with those of
other quarters that let them alone. Those who invade them meet
a bloody reception or hospitable graves. Each group or little state
elects a chief. He is always the most valorous. He is generally
calm, haughty and grave ! His gravity changes in a fight. He
becomes unbridled when pursuing the enemy which invades
the territory. In this case the chief manages and acts as a mili
tary leader. Besides, he exposes himself first and prodigally,
which a general does not always do. It is body versus body.
Corps d, corps. He is followed by the whole tribe. Onp -f the
odd and comical performances in these clamorous fights is the
attitude of the conquered at the end of the struggle ; for the
whipped dog lies humbly on the ground, his tail between his legs,
stuck close to his belly, his rear drawn aside and bent, his head
cast down and his tongue protruding from his 'lips. This is the
white flag. It is the sign of absolute submission. Upon these
conditions the conqueror gives him freedom to depart to his own

424 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
quarter, or to inscribe himself among the citizens of the conquer
ing commonwealth. They do not impose ransom.
Those who are familiar with the dogs of Pera have noticed
certain peculiarities that belong to those in the precincts
between^ Karakany and Tophane. This precinct includes Galata,
where the dogs are numerous and various. Here they are best
nourished, or at least some of them ; for, strange to say, beside
the clean and strong dog, with sharp fang, bright eye and martial
air — ready for the fray — is another who is as thin as a jackknife,
dirty and cowardly, and cowardly because dirty. His tail is
between his legs. He quivers in a corner at the approach of
everything. How is this accounted for ? Some of these dogs
are favorites with the population. The butchers and the fish
mongers give them food. Being well fed, they are more belliger
ent. They actually make themselves the champion of the rights
of their human protectors. If any other dog approaches or any
harm menaces the shop, they yelp an infernal chorus of protesta
tion. This shows gratitude, but it is not comfortable. If they are
well fed and muffled in their thick and oily hair — cave ca7U7n !
Let those beware who intrude upon their demesne. Around the
butcher shops of this neighborhood, they understand their rela
tion to the butcher. They never touch any of his meats, except by
permission. Although the butcher sometimes treats them roughly,
using his boot and knife freely, when there is a bad day's sale, or
when the Ramazan season makes a poor profit ; nevertheless, his
dogs live like aristocrats on sheep and beef, and even pork, tur
key, goose and game. But the poor, miserable, maimed, blear-
eyed members of the canine community, draw from the stranger
more pity than contempt. They are the pariahs of the race.
The reader of Eastern poetry and history remembers how full
of contentions is the land of the Orient. Not to speak of the Tro
jan war ; not to recall the terrific strife of the frogs and mice,
attributed to the author of the Iliad ; not forgetting the Cru
sades and the Tartar scourges— it would seem as if all animated
nature in the Orient had caught the belligerent infection. You
pick up Mitford's "Greece" or Gibbon's " Decline and Fall,''
and the very scenes of battles between Greek and Turk, Slav (or
Scythian), Tartar and Persian, are repeated at certain strategetic
points in Thessaly, Epirus, in the Balkans, in Syria, or in Anatolia.
This part of the East is the chronic theatre of war. My bailiwick

ORIENTAL BELLIGERENCY.

425

has been, and is yet, in perpetual unrest In Albania and other
provinces, the domestic animals copy the heroics of Pergamos.
The donkey is of the Orient Biblical, classic and Arabic
literature praises him, as well for his industry as for his prowess.
In another volume — "the Pleasures of Prinkipo" — I have re
counted his deeds of daring. In California he fights successfully
the grizzly bear. In the East he has seldom to do more than his
daily labor. Being sure-footed and plucky, he is my choice
rather than the horse, for a ride over the rough streets of the city.
Disguised in a white English helmet, I have mounted this " meek
child of misery," to thread the dark and narrow avenues, and
have felt safe, in his company, from all canine attacks.

DONKEY RIDING IN THE ORIENT.

Our word "goose " in the Slav language, and, indeed, in all lan
guages, has as its forerunner and root the word " gus." That bird
has an ethnological and warlike history, only surpassed by the
Homeric mice and frogs. The Eastern goose is a belligerent.
Famous as it is for its sanguinary character, I have been informed
that the duck is quite plucky in a main. Those who attend these
duck and goose fights, as I have pictured them, insist that a duck
has the most pluck.
Upon the lake at Scutari, in Albania, the Skodari ducks are
bred in great numbers. The skins of their heads and necks are made
into linings of cloaks for the Pashas of that country. The plu
mage gives them loveliness as well as costliness ; but before their

426 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
heads are off and their plumage plucked there is many a fight
between these heroic birds. The mountaineers catch from the
very duck the courage to contend.
How tame are these heroic conflicts of man and beast com
pared to those of the dogs of Pera! Galata is their seat of war.
Not an hour passes without the miserable rout raising a quarrel
with a strange dog; or, if some one happens to pass swinging a
cane, or on horseback, or who is dressed in an odd garb — which is
not so rare, either, in that part of the city — the quarrel which thus
starts rages along the whole line from Galata to Tophane. It is
terrible. From every side the dogs rush upon the battle-field !
Large dogs, small dogs, strong dogs, weak dogs, nimble dogs,
lame dogs, hairlessdogs, tailless dogs, wheezy dogs, skin-and-bone
dogs, eyeless dogs — all come at the call of their canine captain
and the sound of battle, and prepare for its consequences. Can
the passenger pursue his way on such occasions in these nar
row streets ? No : he is blockaded. The broil which results is
enough to give the nightmare to any one unaccustomed to the
tumult. It can be heard for miles around. The battle never
ceases until* some man of courage ends the strife with a cudgel.
The passer-by, when one of the fights occurs, escapes well if
he is not detained more than half an hour. If he happens to
be a tourist, he is sure to be bespattered with dirt while making a
note of these performances in his memorandum-book.
In a Canadian city an instruction was issued, that the police
•when they heard dogs barking at night should wake up the owner
and stop the racket. What a splendid opportunity such a police
would have in Constantinople; for of all the noises permitted by
a serene Providence, those of the canine population are the worst
When, in addition, you hear in the night the noises made by the
amiable beckdjie, it is beyond human patience; yet this beckdji^
is the policeman himself. He carries a loaded oaken staff shod
with iron at the end. It is heavy. I made friends of the beckd
jie of our neighborhood to test its heft. Through the night you
are waked up by the ringing, metallic defiance of the stone against
the beating of this staff. It is this staff which arouses the dogs;
it is this staff which evokes their yells of dissonance; it is this staff,
symbol of vigilance and quietude, which makes the dogs the
masters of the city.
In some parts of the Ottoman territory the dog seems to be

A DOG-FIGHT IN CONSTANTINOPLE.
427

428 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
the chief occupant of the country. He makes his occupation
known by his noise. Classical people call these dogs Molossian
but there is reason to believe that that famous race is as extinct
as the old Irish grey-houiid. The dogs which I saw in Egypt are
bold, determined animals. They are unlike the race which
inhabits the cities. There is a class of Albaniap dogs that is
good for hunting purposes. The moment you are at a disadvan
tage in meeting these dogs of the country, they have no hesitation
in flying at you. If you stoop for a stone, or even make a
motion, you may disperse them, even if they are quite a company.
These beasts are not as a general thing .beautiful. They have a
dun color. They are often used on guard at sheep-folds. They
are of the same type that prevails over Turkey, Greece and
Egypt. Is there nothing to be said in their favor ? They have an advo
cate in Doctor Mavroyeni. They are faithful guardians of their
quarter. They become attached to its inhabitants. The females
are tender mothers. When their little puppies die they are loath
to separate from them. They try to warm them; they lick them
and cry bitterly during many days, because they cannot reanimate
them. The males are comparatively indifferent. To be sure, they
love the family. They are susceptible of strong attachments
to the females.
" I possess," says the Doctor, "a dog of this race. He was
born in my garden. He is of this stock, even to the fourth
generation. He becomes a watch-dog — superb, grand and vigor
ous. He is never maltreated. He is as proud as a Spanish hidalgo,
without having the sixteen quarterings. He is courageous. He
carries his tail well furnished with tawny hair, with crest exalted!
He chooses two females of the yellow robe. He likes the golden
shade. For them he cultivates the toilet He is neat and clean.
He nourishes them well. He brings them the tidbits from the
kitchen, which he frequents. His wives owe and pay him obedi
ence. They are obliged to remain upon the steps of the gateway
of the mansion — upon a straw mat that he has dragged thither
and placed at their disposition. If they wish to take the air, they
must be gallanted by none other than himself; while he, on the
contrary, may philander alone, make court to other females of the
quarter, and give sanguinary battles to his rivals."
What does this prove ? That dogs are as adventurous and ego-

ATTACHMENTS OF DOGS TO MEN.

429

tistic as men ? Yes: and more happy. They are not consumed by
unbridled ambition. They are not mad for riches and luxury.
They content themselves with little. They love without reserve,
and even criticise the man who is familiar with them, and who
bestows his sympathy upon them. They devote their lives to
the master. They become his slave. They do even mean actions
for the master. They allow themselves to be badly treated and
even beaten, without a yelp or murmur when on his behalf.
But when the dog sees the person whom he has elected as his
patron — somewhat as the plebeian elected the patrician at Rome —
discontented and vexed, he lowers his tail and ears; he conceals
himself all abashed, and that too without being angry. A moment
after, he returns to humiliate himself anew before the master, by
lying on his back. He almost weeps in sympathy, and then
strives to coax his master, by his caresses, to forget all disap
pointments and anxieties.
Besides this passionate affection for man, the dog of these
streets feels a friendship for his own race. One meets dogs often
who are constant friends, and who aid each other all through their
lives and until death do them part.
These dogs do not live as savages, without faith or law. They
have certain laws which are neither written nor dictated by man,
but which are innate, instinctive and graven in their hearts by the
Creator. Thus, they make war only against those who transgress
adventurously — those who are impelled by bad instincts and love
of pillage. In the quarter which, like Pera, is only inhabited by
Europeans, the dog is almost always hostile to them; above all
when the foreigners walk with a haughty gait! He is equally
hostile to cats, to camels, to bears, and to the Bohemians who
show the bears, as well as to all heterogeneous animals who adven
ture into the city. In acting thus he executes the martial law
which governs him. These laws are, it appears, inexorable
and Draconian, though not established by a Lycurgus.
These dogs lead a Bohemian life without being altogether wan
derers. They are very joyous, finding abundance to live upon; for,
outside the carrion and the filth in which they delight, and which
serves them as a side-dish of condiments of highest taste, they live
on public charity, which provides liberally for all their needs with
out humiliating them. They are true Oriental beggars. One makes
you think of the other. In the Orient, as in some cities of Italy,

430 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
the beggar's occupation is not a degrading nor debasing one.
Beggars — all of them — are proud enough. They extend the hand'
with a certain air of dignity, without any embarrassment. They
sing prayers or canticles, more or less harmonious, addressed to
God for the happiness and prosperity of charitable souls, whom
they assure that all they do for poverty they do for God, who will
recompense them' for it a hundred-fold in this world and in the
next! Among the beggars wandering from one quarter to another,
in the city and in the country, there are some who are rich. They
are established in comfortable houses in certain out-of-the-way
districts. They are recognized as a special community, with fran
chises. They form a body. They are a junta, recognized by
the state and directed by a superior officer, whom they call, in
Turkish, Dilendjiler Kazassker. This chief has a little ministry
under his orders. He charges regularly certain dues, fixed by
law, which the beggars pay without murmuring. Of all these, the
most impertinent are the Greek beggars. They are very numer
ous. They have their general. The present chief is a lame fel
low, large and very strong. He is regarded with respect They
elect a general from time to time, according to events, by a
majority of votes taken in their regular meetings, which take
place twice every year, at the commencement or end of the two
leading seasons, summer and winter. These beggars are very
bold, and it often happens that they insult or revile any one who
refuses them a trifle. They have a saint as a patron, whom they
celebrate every year with great pomp, having a pontifical mass
performed in the orthodox Church of St. Constantine, at Pera, near
their general quarter. On the anniversary of the death of their
saint, all the beggars dress themselves in their new fine clothes of
glittering cloth, put on the fez furnished with a large tuft,
gravely assemble and lend to the circumstance a proud deport
ment, carrying their sticks, as emblems of the noble profession of
which they are proud to be members.
Beggary is a profession. It is recognized by the state. It is
valued by that part of the population who, bound to ancient
uses and customs, are unwilling to understand the ideas of modem
civilization, pretending that civilization by no means tends to
render happy the people whom it has led away and rendered sub
ject to its laws.

HOW TO ABATE THE NUISANCE.

431

Eh biiii .'Putting aside these festivals and solemnities, we find
a great resemblance between the beggars and the dogs of the
streets of the Orient.
Public charity, which provides for the needs of both, takes
especial care of such of those dogs as have puppies.
The absolute freedom between the sexes, and the possibility
of always finding nourishment and water in sufficient quantity,
which the inhabitants take care to furnish them daily — these are
the causes why madness among dogs is so rare in Turkey. It is the
absolute liberty which the dogs enjoy, the extreme facility with
which they accomplish their physical needs, and the absence of
the muzzle, which are in all probability the principal if not the only
causes of the relative rarity of madness among the wandering
dogs of the cities of the East.
I should like to leave the question to Mr. Bergh, who is the
head of the society in New York for the prevention of cruelty to
animals, whether, in spite of the good qualities of these animals,
'heir presence should be allowed in the heart of a great city,
where their bowlings by night, and their lazy, lounging presence
in the way of the public by day, render them an intolerable
nuisance. How would our philanthropist abate it ? By deporting them
to the isles, or reducing their numbers by death ? Would he raise
a rebellion in their model republic ? It is almost impossible to
disturb them, even when a carriage is roaring over the unevenly
paved streets. They rise barely in time to save their bones and
lives. They lie in groups, in lines, or in rings, sometimes a dozen
together. The elements disturb them not, no more than man or
donkey. Let it rain or snow, they lie there still. Some, I notice,
dig into the earth where it is possible, and make a snug hole; others
climb up on benches or on window-sills, and in a pretty circle, tail
to head, sleep on. In the old city of Stamboul they board out
The Mussulman shares his meals with them. In Pera and Galata
they have to forage about and hence the intolerable din. When
their sentinels on the advanced posts make report that a strange
dog has passed the frontier, and has seized a bone that is contra
band, the fury begins. If it be dry and hot weather, such a dust
is raised that neither the dead nor living are discernible. In the
Levantine quarters, as at Galata and Pera, there is a good deal of
violence showered on them from passers-by, shop-boys and oth-

432 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
ers. The least kindly caress, notice or token of good-will toward
them will, at times, bring the whole canine state about you with
symptoms of delight, eyes shining with pleasure, tails on the wag
and the body curving into a" circle about your legs, as if to detain
you for their own special delight. It is hard to resist these ways.
Two families have been raised in the alleyway under our Ameri
can escutcheon. They know all our people, from the Minister
down to the capoudji, who is our messenger. After two months'
absence in Egypt last winter, on my return I was accorded a
reception by them worthy of the great republic whose autonomy
is copied after theirs.
In addition to their troubles in maintaining their right of
domicile, the agonies of famine sometimes drive them to eat what
a buzzard or a hog would disdain. Some good Turks leave leg
acies for the dogs in their vicinity. More frequently they
distribute meat to them. In some of the places there is a dole of
bread for them, in compensation for their playing police upon the
streets. They certainly keep the beckdjie, or policeman, alive.
When he comes round rattling his long, heavy oak club upon the
resonant pavements, the dogs herald his presence by such long
howls as Campbell's poetic wolf made on Onalaska's shore.
Sometimes they commit suicide by beating their heads out
against the walls. Now and then, some people who are anxious
for quiet in their vicinity, or whose friends are ill, kindly pitch
little pellets , of bread and poison to the dogs. Strychnine does
the work of destruction only temporarily. The quarter is soon
filled up from the fecundity of other portions of the city.
The shepherd and watch dogs, even if of the same breed,
are trained to be fierce to strangers. We experienced their resent
ment in Upper Egypt. In the little mud villages they would
rush out furiously. Although we were mounted on donkeys, we
were not safe from their onslaughts. Our kavasses and guides
had to be on the alert. While in Cairo I bought a cane which,
when you swish it, out flies a dirk a foot long. It was for the dogs
of the city; but when I was attacked by a dog in Prinkipo — of
course, the cane was innocently reposing in the rack. Sir Edward
Thornton, the British Minister here, was riding out in the suburbs
of Pera last spring, when a shepherd dog of fierce aspect flew at
him. The horse shied suddenly, and the Minister was thrown and
seriously injured. His collar bone was broken. This led to much

ULYSSES AND "ARGUS."

433

discussion about the dogs of the city, but this incident was not
pertinent to them. They are not aggressive. There are other
reasons for their expulsion or decapitation.
As the final appeal on the other side of the question, it should
not be forgotten that the East, in Homer' s grand epic, has glorified
"Argus," the dog of Ulysses, as faithful among the faithless — a
fit associate of the patient and beloved Penelope, while Ulysses
wandered afar. After twenty years he knew his lord ; and by all
the dallying affection of his nature, strove to crawl, kiss his feet,
and, by tail and eye, to express his joy. " He takes a last look,
and having seen him, dies."
The American Indian joins with Homer in praising the dog ;
for he hopes to have his faithful dog bear him company to the
happy hunting-grounds.

CHAPTER XXXIII

DIVERSIONS IN PERA.

During the fall of 1885 and the winter of 1885-86 we sojourn
in Pera, at the Hotel Royal. The hotel is near the offices of the
Legation. The question is often asked : " How do you pass the
time?" I answer that we never tire of the endless and dra
matic transformation scenes of the street; I mean so far as the
population is concerned. There is interesting employment for
leisure hours in watching the contrasts in the daily observances
of life. A street-railway jostles the sedan-chair; a steamship
wheels about a vessel as ancient in style as the Roman galleys;
a carriage rumbles into a flock of goats and sheep, whose shep
herd has on a veritable sheep-skin; and so on.
In our neighborhood in Pera everything is sold. Much quar
reling goes on, but no fighting. The wrangles grow out of
the prices and the conditions of the bargain. The sugar-dealer
and confectioner are generally Persians. Children on their way
to school stop and open their gold-embroidered school-bags to
get their para to buy their candy. Albanians compete with the
Persian, and the Osmanli, too, when it comes to the cold jelly or
ground rice and milk and clotted cream. All this traffic goes on
in the street. There is nothing in Constantinople that is hid
except the harem.
You turn to look in another direction. Some one is cryingoutr
" Oh, ye merciful! Six oranges and five lemons! Soul of my
lamb ! Lamb of my soul ! Who will take the rest of my prov
ender ?"
Then the vinegar-man comes. He is by no means a man of
sour aspect He and the chimney-sweep join purses and buy out
the orange-man; and yet in one moment, without a premonition,
the call of the Muezzin comes shrilly up the valley and from
many minarets beyond and around. At once traffic ceases and
devotions begin. Even the Christian population, copying from

MARKETS AND BEGGARS.

435

the Turk, become reverent. The prayer said, the traffic is
resumed. I am arrested by some cry that sounds like " Ameri-
canico! " What does it mean ? It is from a Jew. He carries a
heavy bale. It is the product of Lowell. It is unbleached
calico! America forever! Furnishing the Orient with fabrics!
At every corner you meet those who sell all kinds of sweets.
These sweets are in every imaginable shape, from fig-paste and
bonbons to the fine fruits, such as pomegranates and oranges,
with nuts, cooked and raw. There is a large market upon the
streets near the English Legation. It is odorous with fish; for
these are not the enchanted fish so much worshipped in the Greek
Church. , Still there is a great variety, from the mackerel, turbot,
red mullet and soles, to the unknown shining and many-hued
finny creatures. Here, too, are sold the pilaf, made of rice, and
the yahoort, or sour milk, as well as snails in abundance, which
are eaten by the Greeks. The oysters sold in the market are of
a coppery quality, and too inferior to be for a moment regarded
by the American palate.
The striking peculiarity of Pera, as well as of Stamboul, is the
freedom with which food is consumed by all classes in the street.
The meals are taken on the wing. The coffee-houses, cooking
establishments and restaurants are not only open all the time,
but they are almost upon the street itself. It is not unusual to see
respectable families, even in their vehicles, stop upon the street,
quaff their glass of water from an itinerant vender, carve their
long loaves of bread, or eat their " simits," or circular pretzels, or
their flat, unleavened cakes.
It is not unusual within the city and suburbs, wherever groups
are gathered, to see beggars. They are not pretty to see, but
they are pictures of the East, from which Constantinople is not
exempt. The Moslem used to believe in keeping beggars around,
to improve his charitable intent. If the beggar be a lunatic, or a
weak brother, he is regarded as specially favored by Allah, and
to be favored by men. His body may be on earth — his intellect
elsewhere. Some of these beggars are quite popular. There is
an old habitu6 of Pera, Loto Giorgi. He walks about, talking, for
lack of better society, with himself. He gesticulates, to give
emphasis to his jabber. He has a habit of frightening women
and children by a sudden appearance, and howling in their ears.
He is not so great a fool but that he knows when the government

436

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

employees are paid off. If he receives a rebuff when he demands
money, he gives a comic response :
" At bashi — ai bashi! At the beginning of the month, ha! ha!"
Off he goes, humming and whistling. He used to be about
the municipal garden gate — until he became a nuisance. He is
abated by sending him to the asylum. This is an evidence of
reform. There is a mendicant who is also a member of the begging

^

_ J

— 1
m
\Z-r.
i
i ¦ T
1
1
A TURKOMAN AND HIS BEARS.
corporate body, for there is such a system, well organized. Hur-
pani is his name. He dances slow steps in a circle to a silly
song, until he tumbles over exhausted upon one of the spectators.
He makes money out of his lazy music and idiotic dance. He
has provided for his old age, and is less frequently seen than for
merly. The beggars are not so attractive as some other animals.
From the forests of Mount Ida, in Bithynia, there come bears.
MUSIC AND THEA IRES. 43 7
generally two in a company, to gladden the gamins of Constanti
nople. They have a Kurd for master. They compete with each
other to gratify an admiring circle. The servants of the neigh
borhood, with their small coins, surround them and their Asiatic
hairy master. It is the only menagerie which the city furnishes
for the delight of its grocery-boys and Greek maidens; but is it not
classic? Does not Mount Ida rise to the swelling of the voiceful
Epic ? The bears dance to the tabor's sound, sometimes in the
street, but more frequently over the graves and amidst the tum
bling and broken tombstones which mark the cemetery of the
Turk. The animals pass round a contribution-box. When they
do not get a "surplus" they growl. In this they are human.
This performance is not a fair show of what Pera can do in a his
trionic way.
.Theatrical amusements are not neglected. There were rival
troupes here all the winter of 1885-86. The Petits Champs Opera-
House came out ahead. It was led by Mrs. Byron, a Bostonese.
The other troupe, an Italian, was led by Lenora Monte. Both
were managers and prime donne. The Italian left, with her ward
robe, between two days. Mrs. Byron has had the satisfaction of
giving a benefit for the impecunious and deserted troupe of her
unsuccessful rival.
Mrs. Byron has sung for the Sultan at the Yildiz palace.
He and all of his are fond of music, and thrice she has been
summoned to please the royal ear and taste. When she sings
there, all the ladies of the harem peep out of their rooms to hear,
for they are not only musicians themselves, but fond of dulcet
things, including the confectionery of sweet Italian sounds. The
5ultan calls Mrs. Byron " La petite Americaine," and has be
stowed upon her some nice largesses. The new Opera- House
which Sefiora Monte left is now rejoicing in a French vaudeville
company from Paris. " Mme. Boniface " was represented to a
full house. Good loges cost each two liras I\irque, or about $9.
The prices are about the same as at the Casino in New York.
The instrumental music with which the people are regaled in
summer is well done at the Petits Champs Garden. This garden
occupies the spot of an ancient Turkish cemetery, and there must
be many a Moslem dry-bone rattling by no means harmonious with
the cadences of the brass band of European composition. The
music inside of the Opera-House within the garden is above the

438 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
average. It makes one forget the shabby scenery, the vexing
chorus, the screaming prima donna and the terrible tenor.
Have the Greeks and Turks no, theatres ? Yes : there is a
Turkish theatre in Stamboul, but the plays are modeled on the
Chinese pattern. The plot runs through several jeons, and the
actors are, therefore, long-winded. I was invited to go and see a
play there, as it was intended to be a benefit for the Turkish
" High School."
Alas, for the degeneracy of the human ear ! If the everlasting
drawl and tom-tom of the Turkish caf6s furnish real music, rele
gate me to the Petits Champs at night, when a rag-picker or a
stray dog invades the sacred precinct of the naturalized canine
habitants. The Greeks have an excellent theatre in Pera. The actors
know their business. They are graceful elocutionists, and the
plays are superbly set. The old Greek dramatic art comes out,
and the fine intonations, quick wit or sublime pathos are not
wanting. "How do I know?" Well, I took along with me a
Greek. He prompted me with a quickness of translation that left
nothing to be desired.
"Do the Mahometan women attend the theatres ? " Of that
I cannot fully speak. They are net backward in being forward,
in pleasant weather, when they go to the " Sweet Waters. " There
they coquette in a simple, child-like way with Ottoman and other
dudes. But as a general rule, the Turkish ladies do not stay up
late o' nights. They are domesticated. This is a proof and a
sign of their virtue. I read in an old Mahometan book the other
day that, while its author would not say that all Mahometan
ladies were virtuous, for he held that virtue and vice are two
sisters, "still," said he, "the former is fair and the latter is
otherwise." No nation has ever been uninfluenced by the two •
sisters. But the Mahometan law, by its restraints in domestic
affairs, prevents increase in vice and decrease in virtue. " The
Mahometan ladies," he says, " are occupied in needlework, m
religious duties five times a day, and in household affairs. They
have no leisure to think of admirers. Their marriages are
arranged by their parents, who are their best friends. The bride
may see her future lord from a loop-hole before she is wedded,
but her marriage is free from contamination or the dread of it.
In short, seclusion secures the Moslem women from those delu-

AMUSEMENTS AND PROMENADES.

439

sions which irritate the mind with fleeting joys and leave behind
the sting of remorse. The triumphs of beauty not being theirs,
the pang of lost charms is not added to the sensation of fading
power." Is this not a clever plea from the Salem-lik for the Harem-
lik ? It IS the best plea possible.
The male Turk is, however, not averse to the opera. The fez
caps are plentiful when Mrs. Byron sings in " Trovatore " or as
Margaret. This was seen in a patriotic way the other night. A
special performance was given under the auspices of the Legations
of all the countries, and of a committee to aid the Turkish sol
diers now in the winter " field " on the borders of Greece, Bul
garia and Servia. The " Ballo in Maschera," with parts of
"Lucia" and "Faust," were given by the company. The per
formance was a fete. Even the Russian Ambassador cheered
Donizetti and the "Sultan's March.'' The Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Sa'id Pasha, made himself at home in the American
Envoy's loge, and won all hearts by his sympathies for his hearth-
less and homeless countrymen in their sad winter quarters. On
this occasion, the Opera-House was half full of Turkish Pashas,
Beys and Effendis.
" What effect did this music produce upon their sense and
sensibilities ? " I know the Turk is pervious to the charm of
melody. He makes a good musician, whether in a Dervish stance
or in a brass band. I was curious to watch the effect of our fair
American's tones upon the so-called Unspeakable One ! Once
I read an unsophisticated narrative given by a Moslem of his first
adventure into a London opera-house. After describing the
boxes in their semicircular fashion, and the hundreds of lights, at
one time reduced to the dimness of night, and at another made to
shine like daylight, he was astonished to see the curtain pulled up
and two very handsome ladies appear very indecently dressed.
An old man, their supposed father, appears on the stage ! " They
sing," he said, " some historical ballad, and dance expertly.
They then tantalize the assembly, but we could not understand
it at all. It was not music."
It may not be uninteresting, now that Pera is brought by the
aid of steam within a fortnight of America, to bring Oriental
humors, amusements and manners within the purview of our
American eye. The query always returns :

440 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
How do these multifarious people amuse themselves? Do
they drink and gamble ? Have they music and parties ? Yes
and no. To understand the writer's environment and this remark
it must be remembered that Europeans — Rayahs, Christians or
Franks, so called — live at Pera. Pera is the residence of D. D.'s
(Dreadful Dragomans) diplomats with diplomas, learned in the
lex gentium, and others of the Greek, Italian, Armenian, English
and Slavonic races. Pera is really a Western city. It is equipped
with tramways. Each nation, under the "Capitulations," is sup
posed to be ruled and judged here by the laws of its own nation
ality. Pera sits upon a summit. Its streets may not be as full
of folks as those of Stamboul, the bigger city across the Golden
Horn, but on a sunny afternoon its " Grand Rue " is crowded like
Broadway used to be and as Fourteenth Street, New York, is now.
The palaces here are the embassies. The suburb is Greek and
Italian, with a Greek name meaning "The Beyond." Artillery
barracks and burial-places make it a place for soldiers and
funerals. Upon its western declivity — upon which I look every morning,
and often in the stilly night — are the old Turkish cemeteries.
Some of the cypresses are growing sere by the filling from the
refuse of the town. The westering orb may gild the remaining
trees, which sadly wave over the broken tombstones, only now half-
turbaned. The natives and Franks may wander amid these relics
with the goats and dogs, and now and then a clump of big-tailed
black and white sheep. But all that is left of these cemeteries is
the Great and. the Little Field for the dead ! Upon warm even
ings the population — as mercurial as that of Paris — go within the
gates of the Petits Champs. There bands play, and a restaurant
is handy for your orders, as you sit beneath the foliage. There
also is the opera-house. It makes its music above the graves of
the Turk. From my window in the hotel I can almost touch the
graceful cypress as it sways under the Marmora breeze from the
soft southwest Whenever the sun goes down, we see it making
a golden canopy over the domes and minarets of Stamboul, and
sometimes a purple lake of the Golden Horn!
But this does not answer the question : How do these people
amuse themselves ? First, the Turk himself does not drink. But
is he not the cause of drink in others ? He will sometimes take
champagne. That is not prohibited in the Koran. It is like the

FIRE, AND ITS RESULTS. ^^j^
railroad — a modern and useful invention. Its inventor has long
since been apotheosized ! But when the Turk does take to a
violation of the edict of Mahomet, he runs to great excess. He
does not drink once or twice a day, nor limit himself to wine or
mastic, but all liquors are the same to him. He soaks all day.
It is so in his gambling. There have not hitherto been many
opportunities to gamble here, but some Spaniards have recently
come hither from Monaco. That festive principality is sup
ported by the " little game." Either because the business has
become perilous there, by reason of the protests of the purists of
Nice, or because it is too much of a monopoly in the royal house
of Monaco — immigrants from that maritime Eden are here estab
lished. They have a suite of rooms near the new Italian theatre.
At any hour of the night, rouge-et-noir, roulette and baccarat are
played. The Greeks of Pera are the most numerous of those who
patronize the games, but they do not play for high stakes. They
venture even so low as a mejidi/— -nearly our dollar. But if a
Turk takes to .the "green," he gambles like a New York Wall
Street lamb — for all that he is worth, and more too!
There are other places, if we are to credit rumor, where money
may be wagered. I heard of a young Mussulman who lost a
thousand dollars the other night at a gaming-table attached to a
cafe chantant. The roulette rattles in the presence of the sirens
who present the refreshments which lead the novice to his ruin.
Gambling does not, however, run very far before its hells are sup
pressed by the authorities.
In Pera there is a good situation for a JPlace d' Armes. There
is no great open place in Stamboul proper for military reviews.
In Pera — near the Taxim, just beyond the Legations, or, rather,
between the northern wall of the park of Yildiz and the model
farm of the Sultan, there is an excellent site. Here will be the
future allotment for military evolution. Battalions are work
ing at it now, in order to make it feasible and convenient. As
there is an elegant garden, with music in summer, near the
Taxim, there is quite a promenade of the fashionable people in
this direction during the warm afternoons.
"Destoor! Yanghen Var! " " Make way ! A fire — there is! "
When these Turkish words, thus literally translated, are sounded
in the streets of Stamboul or Pera, the unaccustomed auditor
looks out for a sensation. He will not look in vain. It is' the

442 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
warning of a fire ; and when from the towers of Seraskier, or
from the top of the tower of Galata, the vivid crimson light throws
its beacon over the cities on either side of the Golden Horn,
strange sounds are emitted from the firemen. Talk about your
Indian war-whoop of the " Wild West," or that of the Yahoos of
interior Africa! All comparison fails before the long, wild shriek
that goes up from the half-naked firemen, who with bare heads,
hairy bosoms and sweating bodies rush through the streets of
these cities, bearing upon their shoulders the pump or syringe
which is to play its baby part upon the fire, and play, alas ! in
vain; for it only provokes and does not extinguish. Yanghen Var!
Far off that shriek is heard. It approaches nearer and nearer.
Then come other pompiers, bearing long poles with hooks to them,
and coils of rope, and then the axe-men; and every man of them
on a yell, and all giving the cry " Yanghen Var ! Allah ! Allah !"
with a lamentable length of syllabic agony for which there is no
expression in the human lexicon.
There was a conflagration at Pera in 1870. It was accom
plished with neatness and despatch. In six hours two-thirds of
the town was destroyed ; nine thousand houses were burned; two
thousand people killed. On such an occasion, all the leading
pashas and other men of note, including the Sultan, are required
to be present At this conflagration the Sultan Abdul Aziz
appeared ; but he failed utterly with all the aid which these fire
men brought to stay the catastrophe. But was it a catastrophe ?
No : Pera to-day, by reason of the fire, has wide and decent streets,
and in some places elegant streets, not to speak of her street-
railways and other facilities of comfortable locomotion.
In the aforetime, when a fire broke out in Constantinople it
was the privilege of any one of the odalisques of the harem to
put on a fiery, crimson dress, and panoplied thus from head to
heel, push herself into the presence of the Sultan, regardless of
where he was or what he was doing. This incident has in it an
element of the drama. It might be utilized in some play where
the Greek fire and the Turkish firemen play a conspicuous part
Judging by the terrible disaster at Scutari — of which we hear as
the proof of this chapter is being corrected — there has been, as
yet, no adequate provision against fires. Firemen, with their
puny pumps, rush over the Bosporus to Scutari, a mile of water
way from one continent to the other, and through long distances

A FIRE IN OUR CHAMBERS.

44:

and bad streets. They climb the hills into the Turkish quarter
on the south and the Armenian on the north. The church-bells
ring. It is Sunday. The wind blows furiously from the Euxine.
The air is dry and the houses are tinder. How can these engines
fight the fire in the narrow alleys contracted with latticed bal
conies ? What can the firemen do ? Tear down the ricketty, dry
houses ? No. Pump water on the flames ? There is no water.
A steam fire-engine from Pera is sent over; but still no water.
Plenty of perilous northern wind and much expenditure of wrath
by the Christians of the place, while the Turk sits serenely
watching the devouring element! The next morning the churches,
schools and dwellings, from the hills to the water's edge, are ashes
and a cemetery of chimneys ! God wills !
The fire companies established under the superintendency of
Count Szechenyi are the results of the great fire of 1870, to which
I have referred, but they seem thus far to be of no avail : certainly,
without water, all their exercises and machinery are of no mo
ment. The Count is a military man of fine presence. He drills
his men as if they were a military corps. This is a reform ; as
much so as the displacement of the old volunteer fire companies of
•our American cities by the steam fire-engines. In Constantinople
yet, there are rival companies of firemen of the old sort They
.go rushing madly through the streets, half naked, with their terri
ble screams. They not infrequently have a regular set-to at a
•cross street ; after depositing their little painted pumps in the
streets, they fight, regardless of the fire which may be raging in
the neighborhood.
But why should there be this lack of water in a city which
has no peer in the East or West for its enormous and well-made
water-works ?
I had some experience with a fire in the Hotel Royal in one
¦of my rooms, owing to the burning of the curtains by a servant;
but the firemen happily did not come until I myself had put out
the fire, which was consuming the bed-clothes, -curtains, window
sills and furniture. When they did come in with the police, I
had more trouble to put them out than the fire. They hung
around, and hung around, so suspiciously that I had to keep my
eye on all the unconsumed property. .\s there were some half-
dozen languages spoken by the servants, porters and others — dur
ing the blaze, it was a most comical scene. All the women of

444 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
the hotel — Armenian, Greek, Slav, Italian and Turk — join in
the insane hullabaloo. Their persistence in keeping up their noisy
presence long after the fire is out, compels me finally to read a
sort of riot act, and to explain to the chief of the police, who had
to be sent for, that the inter-territoriality belonging to a Foreign
Minister is indispensable for the occasion ; and thus I get rid of
them, after much unintelligible jabber, during which an official
endeavors to make an inventory of all the hotel properties — with
a view to a reclamation !
It has been said that the whole of Constantinople is burned
down every twenty years ; but I doubt if this be true. Many' of
the houses look venerable, and the more so because of the lack
of paint. Being wooden, they look rusty and tired. When a fire
succeeds, the Turk looks calmly at the ashes of his home.
Although he may have lost his all, he does not go around shed
ding tears ; " Mashallah ! What God wills ! God is merciful, and
will provide." Besides, Turks are kind to one another. This
relieves from much of that which they call fate.
The population of Constantinople is more or less divided into
quarters. There is one quarter where the majority of the popula
tion is Bulgarian ; but it is mixed with Turk, Greek, Circassian
and Gypsy ; in another quarter Albanians prevail, still mixing
with others. Each of these races uses its own language, religion
and costume. Therefore, they are more difficult to govern.
Great credit is due to the government for managing these
distinctive nationalities and evoking harmony out of their dif
ferences. There is a great diversity of people in Pera, even among the
small trades, street venders and laborers. Few of these are Turks,
though Turkish subjects. Most of them are Armenians. Those
you see who carry water, and those who are watchmen at the
banks and counting-houses, and even the household drudges, and
especially the hamals, make up quite a feature in Pera. When
you ask the names of these Armenian ha77ials, how proudly they
dilate ! The humblest does not stagger under a load more weighty
than his own high-sounding name. I once said to an Armenian :
" Your name, please you ? "
" Tighrannes, Excellency."
" And yours ? " to another. ,
" Argashens" — that is, Artaxerxes.

DIFFERENT RACES AND EMPLOYMENTS.

445

I ask the porter of the sedan-chair that carries my wife to the
ball of the Dutch Embassy, the names of his aids.
He answers : " This man in front is Arisdaghes ; my name,
Excellency, is Belschazzar. The man who helped you yesterday
is my cousin ; his name is Mithridates."
We have already seen one of this class in a picture, bearing
the Tenth American Census to the palace, and we know his bur
den; we have remarked on the enormous weight of the burdens
that they bear; but no such jocund folk keep a festive day as
the hamal guild. Half full of mastic, and with his immense mus
cular energy devoted to a dance over the rough, stony paves, and
a rude kind of accompanying music — the Armenian makes the
fete of this craft a serio-comic Diversion, as elephantine as it is
uproarious. Perhaps this is the rebound of their unburdened
body and resilient soul. To these men the Bible promises are
full of meaning. The promise to relieve another of his yoke,
and to bestow " a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light," is
so restful that it could come to none other with such emphasis
as' to the heavy-laden hamal. The metaphor takes hold of the
Americo-African imagination, for the African is Oriental in many
ways besides his superstitious ecstasy:
" Lucretia Culpepper," said a colored girl in Georgia, giving
her religious experience. " She done tole me howt' lay my
heavy loads onto Jesuses' great big waggins. I han't seed
'um anywhas, but I feel 'um, an' de moh I pray, de mob I
seem foh to hear um rumblin' way wid all my heaps o' tiredness
on um." Next in number to the Armenians in Pera are the Albanians.
They sell trunks, honey and groceries. The small grocers and
workers in iron come from Csesarea. Janina and Salonica fur
nish the carpenters; Turks from Trebizond, the wood-cutters;
Greece and Bulgaria, the vegetable venders; the milkmen and
the gardeners are of every nationality; but the Persian commands
the donkey brigade. .Owing to the lack of vehicles, the donkey
does the main work. Laden with building materials and furniture,
he heaves up the high hill with huge loads, while the Montene- .
grin and the Croat, without much rivalry, do the digging with
spade and pick-axe. The Kurds are the longshoremen on the
quays. Now the reader may have some idea of the Pentacostial feast

446 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
of languages when he reaches Pera. This is only a feeble descrip
tion. What with the Maltese goats, who go tingling by to their
pasturage, each "with two fair crescents of translucent horn";
what with the vocal seller of bread in the early morning; the
mournful cry of the milkman, which wakes you all too early, and,
sad to say, wakes the dogs of your neighborhood; the snail-seller,
who howls out in some terrible jargon that he has fat, juicy snails,
all alive and kicking; and that other genius who peals the Turkish
words for vegetables from morning until night — these sounds are
only to be heard in all their multifarious howling in Pera. I
except one vegetable from my denunciation. What is there about
asparagus that makes one kindly disposed toward its raiser and
seller? Ah, I have it: his cry, as it is interpreted to me from
the Turkish words, is:
"Little lambs, home-raised, just from their milk; little
lambs ! "
You do not see any little lambs in his basket, neither alive
nor dead. No; the lambs are the asparagus heads. They are
plucked out of the very mud of the walls that once defended Con
stantinople through its historic crises. Why does he call them
home-grown ? Because they have not come from a distance, and
therefore they are fresh ! Another man cries:
" Here are the true sucking-lambs."
He is an artichoke seller. Was there ever anything so Orien
tal ? Why does he call his vegetables lambs ? Is it a sign of the
early history of this Ottoman shepherd race? No: lamb is the
choicest term of endearment among the Orientals. Our Bible
shows this. If you should go so far as to have an affectionate
word with a ha7ioum, she would call you a lamb if you did not
anticipate her.
Along comes a man with a bundle of green weeds of some
kind. What does he say ?
"Birds don't light on it; birds don't light on it"
I ask, in my simplicity, Why does he thus advertise this orni
thological fact ? Birds don't light — on what ?
Oh, he too is selling asparagus ! The name suggests such a
fairy, delicate leaf of green sprays, that the tiniest bird would
break it down if it should alight ¦ upon its little stalk. This is a
part of the vendible poetry of every-day life in Pera.
Qoing down the streets of Pera every day en route to the Porte,

BUTCHER AND HIS SPOILERS.

447

I find a narrow street. Its odors of salted fish and every kind of
wet-goods indicate the Maltese. Our big carriage tumbles down
these bad roads, which are only twelve feet wide, putting in peril all
the stock in trade, yet never a word, save in courtesy, from these
Maltese, though it seemed as if we endangered some one at every
step of the horse and every wabble of the wheels. The greatest
peril, however, is to our Kavass, whose adipose rotundity by the

THE MEAT-SELLER AND THE HUNGRY PACKS.

side of the driver has a tendency to be unseated. Ah ! if the Comp
troller of the Treasury, and the Secretary of State, could have seen
Mehmet's countenance, in his agony down this Maltese quarter,
they would have hesitated before cutting off our Arabian
steeds. The butchers have something to do with enlivening the city.
They nave their peculiar noises. They go through the streets

448 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
dangling their meats on long poles, which they carry upon their
shoulders. They awake the carnivorous rapacity of the dogs. I
arise early, sometimes, and look out of my window On a vacant
plaza. I see the butcher bearing his pole covered with lights and
livers. I am familiar with the canine prefecturate, or king-
dog, of my neighborhood ; for he frequently wraps himself
affectionately around my legs. That dog is hungry this morn
ing ; it is dawn, and he has light enough to go for a liver. The
tawny, cunning brute arouses his tribe. He moves quietly and
indifferently. What does he care for the butcher or the liver !
He carelessly stands on a little mound of dirt under our hotel
window, so as to make a closer inspection as the butcher goes by.
He sniffs the morsels. A drop of blood falls upon his cold nose.
Now who, if he were a dog, could resist such a temptation ? He
forgets his loyalty to royalty. He is an enemy — a belligerent.
His dignity descends ; but he ascends. In one irrepressible mo
ment he strips from the pole a sheep's liver. It is a game of
polo ; but two play at it. In vain the butcher goes to the rescue
of his liver. Still, he believes in Kismet ? He does not even
swear. I nearly did, from my tower of observation. The butcher
is bankrupt. The dog and his followers are his assignees. They
have the whole concern. The members of the canine community
lick their chops, after a contented meal. There was no battie
that morning. The dogs in the neighborhood slept well. They
even allowed several strange puppies to stray within their autono
mous boundaries and to retire unscathed.
Generally speaking, the dogs which stay around the butcher
shops restrain their appetites. There is a dainty dish which you
will see in all the restaurants of Constantinople, where the furnaces
for cooking protrude almost upon the narrow street, and the fire
flushes and warms your face day and night as you go by. This
dainty dish is called " kebab." It consists of morsels of mutton
with the fat on them. They are pierced with a skewer and roasted'.
hot They are due on demand, and never protested. It is a
succulent dish. It is eaten off the skewer hot, in the dining-saloon
or on the street. It constitutes a great temptation to the tawny
quadruped of the quarter. He seems to be a part proprietor of the
establishment, by the interest which he takes in its cooking. From
the time the kebab is placed upon the spit, until consumed by the
customer, the dog never takes his eye off of it He has theoppor-

RITUAL AND BURIAL.

449

tunity, after waiting all day — the dog, I mean, not the customer —
of picking up many a stray bit of kebab. The kebab is generally
served with a large, flappy, round unleavened cake, and pepper,
salt and herbs. It looks like a tempting dish, except this, that it
is too greasy. " Put these on the spit and roast them like
kebabs." This was said by a famous Aga of the Janizaries
when he ordered the impalement and roasting of some succulent
Bulgarians, whom he dearly loved — I suppose.
In the city, if seriously inclined, you have funerals at every
church and a cypress grove at every glance. You are not for
bidden to join in the cortege — at least in that of a Greek funeral.
Its train generally consists of thirty or forty men in their ordinary
attire. These are headed by a priest. He is arrayed in his long dark
robe, with a colored surplice and yellow fringe to it. He wears a
high, big cap or hat, hung with crape. He bears in one hand a
small brass crucifix, and in the other a prayer-book. Then a boy
follows in a surplice. He carries a cross ten feet in length, and
is followed by other youths, each with a lighted taper. Two
other lads follow ; one with a censer-dish, from which is swung
clouds of incense, and the other with a holy-water basin. As they
move, they intone a drawling, unmusical chant. The face of the
deceased is exposed openly in the coffin. The body is partly
¦covered with flowers. The coffin is of plain wood. Ten minutes
suffice for the ceremony at the grave. The coffin is then lowered.
A little earth is placed in the priest's hands. He flings it into
the grave. Another prayer, a loud Amen ! and one more inhabi
tant joins his mother Earth, and is added to the elements. Each
of the cortege throws a little of the soil upon the coffin and the
grave is filled up.
There is not much difference in the ritual and burial ceremo
nies connected with the Turkish, Greek or Armenian people.
When a Turkish official dies, if he has done the state some serv
ice, his interment is celebrated with pomp. The army and the
police are represented. The dervishes and the sheiks are on
hand to chant the prayers. Grand people, friends and acquaint
ances, follow him to his resting-place. Oftentimes this resting-
place has been carefully prepared in advance. It is localized,
generally, in and around the precincts of some mosque, where
it is more sacred than the ordinary cemeteries of the environs.
Pera is a part of Galata, or Galata a part of Pera. Taken

450 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
together, they furnish the most polyglotical people in the world.
Each foreign community lives under its own laws; literally its
own fig-tree, for the fig is often seen shooting over and out of
the little yards and walls, as dusty as the street There are
six different post-offices in Pera. Each nation works under its
own system. It is, of course, a figure of speech, although nearly
a fact, but each has its own church, house, furniture and serv
ants. A Dutchman lives on his own canal in Pera. A Swede
here is in Stockholm with its fresh running water, and his little tug
for an omnibus. A German looks up at every window, expect
ing to have a bow from a kaiser. The American — well, we will
pass him by.
When the Sabbath comes round, you hear the bell calling the
Christian to worship. The Greek seems to be dominant; and if
this be the case, where is the sense of his everlasting jealousy of
the Latin Catholic and Presbyterian Protestant, Lutheran Ger
man or of the parrot cry of Moslem fanaticism. Almost within
sight of the mosque there is as much freedom for Christian wor
ship and religious liberty as is to be found in any part of the
world, except perhaps America or France. Who is it says that
the Sultan is intolerant ? Has a charitable building or a church
been erected in Pera to which he has not given from his own
purse ? How many hundred ' prescripts have I not signed as
Minister, entitling the American missionaries throughout Turkey
in Europe and Asia, to the entry of their goods, groceries, medi
cines, furniture and altars — free of all customs duties, if imported
for the use of the Christian missions ? When has the time been,
within the last fifty years, for we will go back no further, when
the Turk has not kept the peace between Christian priests, even at
the gate of the Holv Sepulchre, quieting their indecorum and
making Latin and Greek respect the sacred ground ? I have seen,
in the very manger of Bethh^hem, the Turkish soldier with an
American Martini rifle, keeping the wrangling religionists asunder.
This was Moslem intervention to prevent Christian murder. The
commentary upon this relation of the sects of the East is made
by the small boy of the Sunday-school. The superintendent
says: "Now, children, tell me what heathens are?"
A boy responds, with more truth than grammar:
" Heathens is folks what don't fight over religion."

THE REFLECTIVE MAHOMETAN.

451

What a curious reflection the Mahometan guard must have at
the door of Christ's sepulchre!
" The race of Mussulman
Not oft betrays to standers-by
The mind within, well skilled to hide
All but unconquerable pride. ' '
So that we may not record exactly his reflections upon the
belligerency of Christians.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
SCENES AND DIVERSIONS IN STAMBOUL.
The city of Stamboul is, in its term, an Ottoman abbreviation
for the word " Constantinople." The reader should consult the
map to ascertain how Stamboul is related to Pera. The marked
peculiarity of each city is one of the vivacities, as buoyant as the
atmosphere of this locality. Diversion is easily had in visiting and
revisiting the scenes of each — once, and now, so full of interest
and empire.
To what point of interest shall I direct my all too familiar
steps ? There are plenty of living pictures in Stamboul. It is a
hive of humming activities. Let us not be too eager to find its
ruins. Wherever you turn, they are visible.
The stranger who wanders around in the old Grecian paths,
in or out of the city, will be struck with the immense quantity of
columns which are scattered everywhere. They have been taken
alike by the Turk and Greek architects to piece out modern
erections. How often have I seen a stony tablet — a dedication
to pagan deities or a memorial to a Greek athlete, philosopher or
hero imbedded in the walls of a garden, house, mosque or church!
It came in so luckily for the builder.
After crossing the bridge and going past the old Seraglio,
the Khan Valid6, the mosques of Suleimanyeh and Bajazet II. ,
across to the New Gate, the Sand Gate, the Cleft Gate and Stable
Gate, or, turning from the pleasant breezes of the Marmora, skirt
the walls which shut in the Seraglio Point and the Porte ; or
linger under the old plane-trees and sycamores by the way —
wherever you walk, you cannot indulge in the associations of five
hundred years, without noticing the decayed condition of wall,
house and temple. The brickwork still shows that it was once
exquisitely ornamented, and the stone pillars, in their fragments,
are tasteful and classic. The battlemented towers of the Se
raglio are still beautiful, because festooned with creepers and
452

MONUMENTAL DUST.

45:

draped in tufts of vegetation, while fig-trees, foxglove and terebinth
fill the gaps of the stones. Here and there a marble fountain
peeps forth — smirched, dusty and broken — with a Turkish legend
about water and sanitation. All this reminds one of a day of
industry and art, the glory of whose apogee has long since
departed. There are some new houses building in Constantinople. They
are built on the ashes of former buildings, for the people seem
too indifferent to remove the ashes or make new foundations. Is
this a reason why so few of the monuments of the early Byzantine,
Roman and Greek eras ever come to light ? Are they buried
beneath the debris ? Doubtless; for it is only when cutting for a
railway or some structure of paramount importance, that the ven
erable masonry and statuary are seen.
In a land so rich in history, art and classics, and having the
sign of so many rare and wonderful adventures by sea and land — ¦
where history records "the decline and fall " of the greatest em
pire of the world — is it not to be regretted that so little interest is
taken in the antiquities which must yet remain here, either above
or below the earth, as well as in the colonies where the Greek and
Roman power was once paramount ? There is, however, a law
concerning antiquities now in existence. It has recently been
promulgated. The museum which is regulated by it has been in
existence for some time. Compared with the Boulak Museum at
Cairo, or the Greek Museum at Athens, it does not attract much
attention or receive much encouragement. The author of the
law, Hamdi-Bey, is the director of the museum. He is the painter
of fair repute and talent to whom I have referred. The purpose
of the law was to increase the collection of antiquities. This is
done by the appropriation of all antiquities found in Turkey. It
was intended to foster archaeology, to protect ancient monuments,
and to prevent clandestine excavations. Not only has little
been done to encourage proper researches and protect monuments
— in other words, to pursue the law — but many fraudulent man
ufactures have been started, and many fictitious groups, especially
in terra cotta, have been fabricated. These are sold to the uniniti
ated at fabulous prices. They are as secret as they are spurious.
In other parts of the ancient Byzantine empire, there is more ener
gy in archseology. The Czar patronizes such efforts whenever the
imperial armies open up new fields. We know what has been

454 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
done in Cyprus by one of our own gallant consuls. General
Di Cesnola. The same is being accomplished at Tashkend, where
terra cotta vases, silver-gilt ornaments, and little statuettes have
extended our knowledge of the boundaries of the old empire
many hundred miles to the northeast All Central Asia, under
Russian research, may yield precious results from these ancient

BURNT COLUMN OF CONSTANTINE.

mines of historic evidences. Of these colonial and distant realms,
Constantinople was the nucleus; and here should be achieved the
greatest results.
A stranger may well spend a day at the Museum. It is within
the confines of the Porte. As to the Museum, as T have had
occasion to know while making a rude sketch, there is consider-

ARCHITECTURE UNDER NEW LIGHTS.

455

able supererogatory vigilance. The policeman did not like even
my poor penciled imagery. He was an iconoclast.
Nevertheless, Constantinople can boast of the most interesting
of ancient monuments. It is that of the brazen serpents of
Apollo — taken from the temple whence came the Oracles. It is
now in the Hippodrome. One of the heads of this triple wonder
was struck off by Mahomed II. at the taking of the city. The
head is preserved in the Museum.
The seven hills of Stamboul are crowned even yet with edifices
which have their foundations in romantic and terrible events.
Start from the first hill at the Seraglio Point, and you will find mon
uments enough on that hill alone for the annals of two empires.
It was the Byzantine Acropolis before it was the Seraglio. It had
been the temple of Jove. At Meidan is the ancient Hippodrome.
It had avenues of marble and bronze imagery fit for gods and
heroes. Here the golden chariots flew In the race, amidst the
shouts of the populace and the splendors of unbridled luxury and
power. The columns and eagles of the early day were flooded
in after years by the blood of the Janizaries. What remains ? a
silent quarter, covered with dust and ruins ; all the ancient glo
ries gone. Pass on — ! What is it that strikes a stranger on the
second hill ? Not the marble mosque of Osmanli ; for mosques
are common. It is the burned column of Constantine. It was
once tipped by a bronze Apollo with the head of the Emperor.
What porticoes, arches and statues surrounded it I Now it is
charred, ribbed with iron rings, and lifts itself up in a crazy way,
as if to warn mankind of the vicissitudes, crookedness and perils
of prominence and power.
It is no time now to pursue the other hills ; they belong more
to the present than the past, and yet they speak of dead dynasties
and sanguinary conflicts.
As to the architecture of Constantinople, no one can speak ex
cathedra. The domestic Turk has been building only transitory
habitations, out of wood. When he builds a palace of marble he
seems to build for immortality ; but no one can tell exactly the
order of architecture to which it belongs. Still, his palace has the
gorgeous and complicated luxury of the Orient; and his mosque,
with its graceful minarets, betrays an elaboration not far removed
from poetic luxur\^ The religion of the Turk pervades all the
severe Greek and Roman architecture. It is so abstract that he

456 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
prefers the meaningless Arabesque and the quotation from the
Koran, to the imagery of fruit, flower and animal, in which
Greek art reveled. In the Turkish work there are no griffins to
scare you ; no dolphins to make your head swim ; no birds, but
terflies or sphinxes ; few flowers and no nymphs. There are no
heraldic or mythical monsters. The living world is forbidden.
Nothing shall, as nothing can, in their art and faith, aggrandize
the everlasting and sublime unity of Allah !
In these Diversions, it is not to be expected that scenes so
often described should be repictured. There is the temple of
Sophia, dedicated by Justinian to the Divine Wisdom : no descrip
tion can do justice to its magnificent dome and its original splen
dors. It is well known that it has been changed since the Turks
have transformed it into a mosque. The four Christian seraphim
under the dome, executed in grand mosaic, remain ; but the names
of the archangels of the Moslem faith are written underneath
them. The bronze doors, the pillars and the galleries are the
same. The peculiarities of the Byzantine style are the same,
except that four minarets have been added to give their heavenly
gesture to its marble poetry. Ancient art furnished the eight
shafts of green marble from the Temple of Diana at Ephesus ;
and eight of porphyry came from the Temple of the Sun at Baal-
bec. Egypt gave her granite from the shrines of Isis and Osiris.
The Acropolis at Athens furnished much of its Pentelic marble to
glorify its interior. This interior was once covered with gilding.
Time has faded it. Small pieces of mosaic lie loosely around the
building, yet millions of these tiny gems of art still adorn the
walls. Around the centre of the dome is inscribed, in golden
Arabic text, this sublime verse :
" God is the light of the Heavens and the Earth ! His wis
dom is a light on the wall, in which burns a lamp covered with
glass. The glass shines like a star ; the lamp is lit with the oil
of a blessed tree. No Eastern, no Western oil, it shines for who
ever wills."
I confess to a little of the prevalent American irreverence. As
I read this inscription, my mind had a Diversion. It concerned
Western petroleum, about which as Minister I had considerable to
do. Might not a littie more of its "blessed oil" add to the
glory of the occasions when this Temple is being used upon the
fete days ? From this idea, my mind leaped, as does that of my

TURKISH MOSQUES. 45 7
reader, like lightning to a brighter light for the Divine Wisdom.
Why should not this and the other mosques of Stamboul become
radiant with the electric light ? If oil, why not electricity ? The
motto in gold would have a new and subtle meaning, and the
splendid edifice take on new splendor in all the angles and curves
of its structural sublimity.
The mosques of Stamboul do not impress me as being so
beautiful as those at Cairo, nor are the minarets so tastefully
carved or decorated. The mosque of Sophia is the largest in
Stamboul ; it can accommodate twenty-five thousand people. It
is on the western declivity of one of the seven hills. Its history
and original form, its length, width and dome, have been mi
nutely described. But no pen or pencil, even of Divine Light, can
give an adequate conception of the massive arches, gigantic col
umns and superb dome, including the eighteen smaller domes of
this harmonious and magnificent structure. It has fourteen
minarets, each of which has been erected by a different Sultan.
It is said to be a rule that each Sultan shall erect a minaret for
some one of the larger mosques. There is a good deal of patch
work outside the building. This is not so graceful as the minaret.
There are other mosques with more prominent minarets than
Sophia, especially that of Achmet, which has six minarets. Exter
nally there are several more strikingly grand. It is surprising
how very inferior in its aspect is the outside. St. Paul's, in Lon
don, is shut in by surrounding buildings. This will, no doubt,
some day be relieved, but it is not, like St. Sophia, desecrated
with shops and all sorts of fungi fastened to its walls and ignobly
dishonoring its shadow. Would that it were like Westminster
Abbey, or St. Peter's in Rome! Then its columns, from the tem
ples of Ephesus and elsewhere, would, like a good spirit, have
more attraction by reason of its exquisite outside.
The pigeons may be heard to murmur their affectionate coo
ing all through the Ottoman mosques. There is one mosque,
with \ts verde-antique, jasper and porphyry columns supporting a
gallery, especially dedicated for pigeons. They are fed by means
drawn from the legacies of benevolent people. Those at this
mosque are said to be wild pigeons, and lineally descended from a
pair of birds which the famous Sultan, Bajazet, purchased of a poor
widow who once asked his aid. E-^^ery stone in the Turkish cal
endar is white with a story about charity.

458 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
There is one portion of the old city of Stamboul to which I
could never get accustomed. It is underground. The city is
honey-combed. If you will look at a plat of the city you will find
cisterns of immense extent under its most important portions. The
royal cistern of Constantine the Great, which receives its water
supply from no one knows whither ; the cisterns of Theodosius,
Arcadius, Phocus, Valens and others, which rest on splendid Cor
inthian pillars of graceful architecture — furnish evidence of the
immense sums expended in providing for the city water of a pure
quality from the hills which surround it, so as to stand the inhabi
tants in stead, in case of siege.
There is an old cistern that comes down from the Greek times
in Stamboul, almost as magical in interest as the Brazen
Column. It is said to have one thousand and one columns sup
porting its substantial roof, although two hundred and thirty-four
is the real number. It has withstood all the ruthlessness of human
endeavor to destroy it, not to speak of earthquakes. It was
three hundred and thirty-six feet in length and one hundred and
eighty-two in width. It was intended as a reservoir of water in
case of a siege. When I visited it in 1881, it was utilized as a
factory for silk winding, on account of its damp coolness; for even
when the thermometer is up in the nineties on the outside, its
interior gives its happy effect to the silken and gold thread. The
work done is handiwork. No machinery is used. Those who
prepare these threads for the embroidery of the superb fabrics of
the East tell me that it is cheaper without than with machinery;
the machines when they get disordered take so much time to
repair. I surmise it to be pure laziness. It is droning in the old
hive. In festal seasons the city of Stamboul is full of people. The
narrow streets are jammed. No quarreling is heard ; no rowdy
ism is permitted. The coffee-houses are crowded with turbaned
people. There is not so much fez. They drink black coffee and
smoke — and smoke. The Arab music gives its drowsy drawl to the
general quiescence. The ideal of an Ottoman vocal artist is one
who yells all through the part in a nasal tone. The heart-breaking
strain of an Oriental lyrist is very disagreeable. When accom
panied by the continual tum-tum of the instrument, within a com
pass of three or four notes, no melody, only agony, is the con
sequence. Still, the people like this sort of music. It is time, if

ANCIENT GUILDS AND THEIR PROCESSIONS.

459

not tune. The slow-moving population outside the cafes stop to
listen with delighted ear.
In former times there were guilds, or companies, in Constanti
nople. They each had a saint for tutelary protection. There is
something humorous in the fact that Adam and Eve, even Cain
and all the personages who figure in the Old Testament, from
which Mahomet derived the body of his law and narrative, acted
in this patronizing relation. For instance, Adam was considered
as the first tutelar. It was alleged that he was taught by the
swallows; and doubtless our swallow-tailed coats, after the fig leaf
and the fall, are an emanation of his early genius. Sometimes
Adam was considered as having been instructed by the bea-ver ;
for as the head of his race he had much to do, and was a good worker.
Therefore, he was the chief of the guild of builders and saw
yers. Hawa, or Eve, patronized bathwomen. She used to go in
swimming amid the water-fowls in the Garden of Eden. She started
early as a patroness of the bath. Cain was -the head of the grave-
diggers. He was instructed early by wrens ; while Abel, being
the protector of sheep, led the grand army of shepherds. And
what of Noah ? Shipwright ! There are fifty different trades
which made Constantinople the nucleus of the artisans of the
East It had more than five hundred minor trades. The elements
of industry were militant. The first Knights of Labor here had
their processions. Before the middle of the seventeenth century
they had emblems, ornaments and specimens of their workmanship,
which glorified their craft, and would make the great meetings in
London, Paris and New York pale their ineffectual fires. Is the
world indeed retrogressing ? Two hundred and fifty years ago,
Sultan Murad III. was about to leave his palace and his harem,
upon that beautiful point of the Seraglio. His chief kiosk bore
the name of the "Pavilion of the Processions." He invoked a
pageant on his departure for the wars. It has not had its equal
since. In it are the guilds of Constantinople. In a continuous
torrent of human energy, each trade bears its embroidered em
blem and specimens of work. Every man is dressed in his best.
Two hundred thousand men pass before this fairy-like kiosk,
to gratify the ladies of the harem, and to give the Sultan a fare
well before he leaves for the siege of Bagdad.
The bazaars do not show the guilds or handicraftsmen, as we
would imagine. I was never very much attracted to the bazaars

460

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

of Stamboul. Perhaps it was because of the everlasting wrangle
with the merchants about purchases, or because of the narrowness
of the streets and cross streets of the miniature village. There
is something about its lighting and ventilation which detracts
from its Orientalism. In comparing it with the bazaar at Damas
cus, the latter takes the palm for the display of goods, for chaste
designs and the richness of its fabrics. Damascus has the suf-

BAZAAR SCENE.

frage of our American tourists. The merchant of the bazaar in
Stamboul is an Armenian, a Jew or a Greek. . He does not squat
so orientally as the trader of Damascus. He has not so much
Oriental dignity and reserve. Many of the traders in Stamboul
walk about and anticipate your coming. They dilate upon the
goodness and cheapness of their wares, while others keep the
European style by having the luxury of a counter.
It is an old maxim, ' ' Give a man of Cologne one half of

MRS. BEN-HUR AND THE TOWELS. 461
what he asks in buying." You can do better than that in the
bazaars, for sometimes these merchants have been known to drop
from thousands to hundreds and from pounds to piastres. I
never traded much in these bazaars, but generally left that to
another and brighter member of the family, with more experience.
In fact, I have been afraid to do it, from a certain warning which
the accomplished wife of my predecessor, Mrs. General Wallace,
has given in her book on the " Storied Sea." I have no compunc
tion in inserting here her experience:
It is with a Moor from the bazaars of Cairo. He has Mecca
scarfs to sell. He appears at the Hotel de l Orient. He is clad
in the rich vestments of the gorgeous East. He reminds our lady
of Cambyses, Sesostris, Cyrus and other barbaric magnificos,
including Othello. He is strikingly handsome and thoroughly
polite. He unrolls his bale and spreads out his rugs. Then he
lights his cigarette, makes his pose and begins. First, he unfolds
a scarf with careless nonchalance. It is from the great city of the
Prophet. It has a striped gilt border and gold fringe at the ends.
He names a sum equal to forty-five dollars. He dilates on the
mode by which he obtained it from the harem of a princess, a
niece of the Khedive. Then ,he displays a green scarf This
proves unattractive. Then he shows his piece de resistance; he
spreads out some rare towels from Damascus, embroidered in
gold. "Will they wash ? " the lady inquires.
" For ever," he responds; " the silk is the best of Syria, and
the embroidery is laid on in the delightful gardens of the flowery
banks of the Pharpar. It will be shining ten thousand years
hence as now. The Bey of Tunis has ordered fifteen dozen as a
present to Abdul Hamid, the Beloved."
Thus dilating, he gives fictitious values to each piece of mer
chandise. The golden embroidery of the last piece displayed is
copied from the mystic hieroglyph along the edges of the Holy
Flag. But I will let the lady, in her own graphic style, tell the
story. Rejecting the last tender, she says :
" ' It is too dear. I may look at the towels again.' He lifts
one and throws it on the near divan.
" ' This is from Bagdad,' said he — ' from Bagdad, the land of
Aladdin, of Sinbad and Zobeide, Scheherezade, the rose and the
nightingale, of ivory and amber, spicery and richest merchandise.'

462 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
" The tempter saw my wavering. Those keen eyes lost nothing,
and marked every shade of chance, without seeming to see any
thing. " 'Beware of the neglected opportunity,' said the born-and-
bred fatalist, beguilingly. ' God, the merciful, ordains all things,
and only once in a lifetime come the great chances, according as
Kismet has prepared them. Allah kerim! '
"By this time the servants of the hotel, and several idlers
and travelers had come round to watch the trade. They formed
a ring, of which the Moor, the interpreter and your correspondent
were the centre. Not a word was uttered nor a sign made. They
looked on intently, apparently anxious, as though the fate of thou
sands was in the venture. I sent an appealing glance at the inter
preter, who pretended not to see. I could not spend ' the whole
day in bargaining. The delay was tedious; the situation embar
rassing to a woman not used to Eastern ways.
"'What for the towel?'
" ' The towel from Bagdad ? Twelve dollars.'
" ' Too much.'
" ' Then will madam make an offer? Americanas are prin
cesses. Their money comes easy and goes fast Offer ! '
" ' Six dollars,' I said hastily, for I wanted to get rid of the
man, and he had stayed so long I felt obliged to buy something,
and 'Jewing' is not my forte. It was the Moor's turn to shake
his head now, which he did in melancholy and decorous fashion,
not tending to unsettle the turban folded with graceful coils above
the olive forehead, which it nearly concealed. The neglected
opportunity — was I missing it ? A towel from Bagdad is not in
market every day and it would be a nice souvenir. The chance
was passing, the supreme moment, the neglected opportunity.
" ' Six dollars,' I said, recklessly.
¦ " ' I lose money,' said the melancholy man, imploring by
mournful accent and wistful gesture.
"'I cannot help it,' I retorted, warming with the day. 'You
need not sell if you don't want to.'
" ' A man hard pressed must take what he can get. It is Kismet
The towel is yours. It will please madama's friends across the
sea beyond the Straits. May it be like the enchanted carpet of
Boudressein, which brought a fresh good fortune to its owner
every morning!'

THE DISAPPOINTED MINISTRESS. 463
" ' Have I seen all your stock of goods ?'
"'You have,' he replied, much as to say 'the world is at your
feet; what more can mortal ask?' The interpreter counted the
money, the crowd broke away smiling, and jabbering in half a
dozen languages, and one Neapolitan remarked in French: 'A
runner from SaduUah Bey's; a man not pleasant to meet, if one
has anything to lose.' The noble Othello alone preserved his
calm dignity, and in silence made his courteous, profound salaam.
When his few goods were gathered, he leaned his back against
the wall, after the manner of people who love repose, looking little
like one to mount horse and draw sabre for Islam, willing every
hour to die for his faith. Somehow, the noble Othello's bearing
made me feel like a robber, and, with a sense of guilt, I turned to
the stairs with the spoil. My heart sank. My feminine reader
will weep with me when I tell her the first unfolding of the Per
sian towel revealed several stout coffee stains, which added dirt to
the yellow tint, which dulled its beauty and freshness. What a
forlorn purchase I had made! Had I been cheated by a strolling
pedler, after all the warning fingers lifted at me on both sides of
the sea ? I ? II
" ' Ah! ' said my friend, who had listened to the confabulation,
'I see your rage for antiquities again. This towel has arrived
at the antique, without becoming a gem, hasn't it ? '
" She held it up to the light, which it slightly obstructed, show
ing a ' body ' like the sleazy stuff our grandmothers used to make
milk-strainers out of.
" ' Don't you think it's rather — rather thin?' she continued,
the dimples deepening in her cheeks. ' And, dear me ! what did
you pay for a fly-speck ? ' She broke into the gayest laugh in
the world.
" I reddened with vexation, but was dumb. She took the Bag
dad towel in her two little hands, gave a slight jerk, and the rotten
old thing split from one end to the other.
" 'Really, now, this is too bad! I bought this as a souvenir
for you, a sample of Oriental magnificence, and you have gone
and ruined it. '
"'Thank you, kindly,' said the spoilt beauty, burying her
laughter in the pillows; 'but I always prefer my dish-rags without
tinsel.' " ****¦*¦»*

464 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Let not my reader confound this Moorish Mahometan with the
Turk. I have a much better report to make of the latter:
He is certainly honest, and although the rule is to bargain
over an article down to its fair value, commencing very high,
the Turk will not always descend to this device. You are an
American, and go into the bazaar. You ask the price of an
embroidered handkerchief. The merchant is a Turk.
" What is the price ? " you ask.
" Seventy-five piastres," responds the merchant. Knowing that
among traders it is best to offer less than the first price, you say :
" That is too much. I will give you seventy."
The dealer seems to nod acquiescence. The money is counted
out. The surprise, however, is great, when the Turk pushes you
back twenty piastres, observing :
" This is more than the just price ; fifty piastres is proper ;
these twenty are yours, sir."
A few such instances should redeem the trading Orient, and
mantle with blushes the haggling shop-keepers of Paris and the
Moorish pedlers of Cairo.
The bazaars of Constantinople are not as interesting as those
of Damascus, and, I was about to say, those of Egypt. The
besetting which one meets with from the " Touters " disenchants
one of this vicinity. The oil of roses, the bracelets, the carpets,
the rugs, the boxes, the towels — everything is there ; but, after all,
human nature is the same, and does not like to be "Toutered"
overmuch. European fashion is killing the bazaar. Where now is the
slipper festooned so daintily, ornamented and cased in glass to
allure the stranger, giving a new glory to the bazaar ? The slip
per is almost obsolete. The leathern black-boot takes its place.
Why linger lazily around the market of old clothes in a dirty
alley ? Why saunter toward the stalls of the seal-engravers, once
so renowned ? Why marvel at the spoon-makers, and other
handicraftsmen ? Rest awhile, to glance at the refectory of the
pigeons that roost in the cypresses and in the precincts of the
mosque of the Sultan Bajazet. Here in the courtyard of this
mosque you will see the tempting wares of the East — from Bokara,
India and China. They are picturesque and rare — worthy of
the columns which support the roof of the mosque of the sacred
pigeon. Some of the stalls of these bazaars are highly spiced

BRAZEN TOUTERS AND BLOODY SACRIFICES. 465
with the Orient Dates, pistachio nuts, bananas, fig paste, honey,
almonds, and the sweetmeats of the East fill you with such an
odor that you are ready to die in aromatic pain. Then there is
the China cup and bowl bazaar, with a thousand exquisite charms,
amulets, beads, chaplets and precious stones. These are not
more precious than the contents of the gallery of the Indian mer
chant in yonder corner. There are found the toys of China and
Japan, and the matting, so common in the houses of Constanti
nople. If you have literary inclinations, you will find quite a
display of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature, and you may
read there all day without the owner asking you to buy.
Why make a catalogue of this immense variety of goods and
traffic. Let us to the open air ! The attraction of the bazaar is
too Oriental. It is a castle of Indolence; but a castle full of rare
exhibits of human fabrication from every craft and clime:
" Richly furnished with plate and gold.
Basins and ewers;
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry;
In ivory coffers I have stuffed my crowns —
In cypress chests my arras counterpanes.
Costly apparel, tents and canopies.
Fine linen, Turkey cushions, host with pearl.
Valance of "Venice, gold in needle- work.
Pewter and brass  "
Let US not forget the brass. You cannot ignore it if you would,
for the " Touters " and emissaries of trade zxt. prima facie guilty
of brazen effrontery. The metallic hardness of feature and voice
show its triple quantity and durable quality.
There is a portion of Stamboul which is a Persian colony. It
is in the neighborhood of the Persian Embassy. The peculiar
customs of the Persian are here observable. In fact, the Persian
Ambassador is a civil ruler over the Shah's subjects in Turkey.
He executes if he does not make law for the Persians of the
vicinage. One law surely ought to be made by this time, and
that is to stop the rites which are celebrated at Valide Khan, in
Stamboul. This is an exclusive resort for the Persians. These
rites take place on the anniversary of the death of Hassan and
Hussein, who were the Saints of the murdered Ali, well known
in Mahometan history. These rites take place at the Muherrem,
or beginning of the Moslem year. Europeans are curious to see

466 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
them, because of their horrible cruelties. They have a sort of
weird attraction. They smell of blood, like the bull-ring.
They are fascinating, like tragedy. The Khan is a square court.
It is decorated with carpets, cloths and candelabra. All ihtper-
son7iel of the Embassy are present on this occasion. The cere
mony begins at 7 o'clock in the morning, by the chanting of
funereal hymns by the Persian Ulemas. These priests recite the
story of the death of the two martyrs, Hassan and Hussein.
They anathematize their murderer Yezid. Then a procession of
Nezirs appears. They are bareheaded. They wear long, flowing
white robes, and in their hands they have large knives. They
march into the middle of the court and form a circle. Mean
while they sing mournful ditties, striking their breasts with the
flat of their hands, or making cuts into their heads with their
knives. The blood flows. It shows upon the white garment
Dangerous wounds are inflicted even by lads in the novitiate of
their penitential ecstasy. On the occasion of this exhibition a
year ago, these self-inflictions were practised by a boy of eleven
years of age. He had to be restrained by the bystanders. Some
times, as I have seen at the bull-fights in Spain, those unaccus
tomed to such scenes faint. The ceremony is too horrible to be
allowed, even in a semi-civilized country. The word iV^z/r means,
one consecrated to God; so that the religious enthusiasm has
much to do with protecting these strange devotees in their curi
ous sanguinary rites.
Do not be too quick to condemn such atrocious penitences.
They are not peculiar to the East, nor to Persia. A lady-cousin
writes to my wife from New Mexico, and thus pictures a similar
scene: " Many of the natives belong to the Order of Penitents, a
class who inflict the most cruel punishments upon themselves in
atonement for sin — such as putting pebbles and pieces of glass in
their shoes, and then walking on them for half a day or more;
sticking the body full of cactus burrs; having three gashes cut
down each side of the spine, and then being lashed over the raw
and bleeding cuts with a scourge made of soap-wood, which you
know is thickly covered with little points sharp as needles. The
clothing of the penitents consists only of a pair of white muslin
trousers and a cloth tied tightly over the face. I have seen the
ignorant creatures lashed with the scourge until their little cloth-

THE PEERLESS TREASURY.

467

ing looked as if it had been dipped in blood, and the scourge
would be so thoroughly saturated, that at every stroke the blood
would fly in all directions. Until this last year, no Christian
work had ever been undertaken at San Rafael, and upon our
arrival among them, the people all held back, seeming to fear we
were there to do them harm. Children would run screaming to
their homes if they chanced to see us on the street, evidently
having as much fear of us as we have of Geronimo and his band
of scalpers." No one should omit, if he can possibly get a firman from the
palace through the aid of his Minister, an inside view of the
Imperial Treasury in Stamboul. It is not all that we would
expect in variety and opulence. I am sorry to say, after all my
inquiry, that it is not rich in manuscripts, as we had fondly hoped.
It is extraordinary for its precious stones, jeweled swords, dag
gers, aigrettes and figured brocades. A writer in the Londo7i
Ti7iies, Mr. Robinson, an expert in matters of this kind, made a
revelation of its contents. He removes the impression, of which
I had long since been disenchanted, that there were any Byzan
tine spoils in the Treasury. It is well known that in a. d. 1574,
many old Ottoman heirlooms were burned, but there must have
been given to the Sultans, by tributary and vanquished kings and
princes, some most remarkable objects of art and beauty, if not of
Greek, Saracenic or Arabic art; for in wood, jewels and metals
no people could then be compared with the artisans of Damas
cus and other parts of the ancient empire. The contents of the
glass cases of the Treasury have never been exaggerated. Do
you want emeralds ? You will find them there as big as peaches.
Diamonds ? There are large table ornaments of that jewel innu
merable. Cimeters ? Fortunes in emeralds as large as a hen's
egg are in their hilts, and their sheaths are encrusted with tur
quoises, opals, rubies and what not, of jewelry. Here, too, are the
Sultanic figures in t'neir ancient robes of state. The robes are
genuine ; but the waxen faces of the Sultans can hardly be fac-
siTniles. The robes are costly in silk, aigrettes and daggers.
The colors of the fabrics are faded, but there is no doubt about
the fadeless color of the precious stones.
There is a good collection of coins in this Treasury. It is
said by Gibbon, that you may learn the history of a nation from
its coins; but unless a better arrangement be made, no one will

468 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
ever read history here in that way, for the coins are so placed in
their cases that it is impossible to decipher them.
It is a pity that some one learned in numismatic lore should
not have the opportunity of making a catalogue and a commen
tary upon these thousands of coins. Some of the coins are Ro
man, some Byzantine, and a large number are Arabian coins of
the first century of the Hegira.
There are twenty or thirty custodians of this Treasury. They
are of various rank. They are lynx-eyed. The building in
which the Treasury is situated is a part of the old Seraglio. It
was founded by Mahomed the Second, on the site of the palace
of the Palfeologi. The Treasury was once supposed to be used
as a library. It was thought to hold many of the treasures of
ancient literature, among others the missing books of Livy.
I have visited the Treasury on several occasions with Ameri
cans, having procured the firman. I think we were favored greatly
in this regard, although our company was generally too great
for the rules and the guards.
Going from the Treasury, the company is conducted to the
Bagdad kiosk. It was built by one of the Sultans — Murad the
Fourth — from a model in Bagdad. The tiles are Persian, though
some are of the blue sort common in Cairo ; but no country was
ever more famous for its exquisite tiles than Turkey.
This kiosk is lined with tiles. Its doors are inlaid and its
ceilings are painted. The attendants expect the usual backsheesh,
and they render a fair equivalent, for they give us coffee in dainty
cups set in silver fingans of filigree ; and to those who do not
affect the black, uncreamed coffee of Arabia, they give cool water
or sherbet, and with both conserve of roses. Seated upon the
veranda, at this most famous spot of all the earth — Seraglio Point
— you have the best view of the Bosporus, with all its loveliness
and activities, and of the bridge, with all its picturesque and. many
colored forms, going and coming. Where in 185 1 I wandered
amidst the most beautiful of gardens, I regret to say that the
lawns and shrubs have departed with the palace. Its veiled beau
ties are now on the other side of the Bosporus. From this
Seraglio Point you can see far up the Straits. Your eye may fol
low their windings, past Beylerbey on one side, and Orta Keui
on the other. Surely, never was a mistake so flagrant as when
the Sultans, after the conflagration, gave up this point for a rail-

THE OLD SERAGLIO POINT.

469

road, and left its lovely seclusion and fairy parterres, its glorious
view and its grand point of vantage, even to live at Yildiz, in the
Mansion of the Star.
Alas for the old Seraglio ! Its splendor was consumed. Even
before the fire, it was made a sort of old ladies' home. There
the widows of dead Sultans, and their elderly friends, received
hospitality. There are some out-buildings that speak of the old
palace — a mosque, a bath-house and a kiosk. These were saved
from the conflagration. When in its prime, this lofty point or
peninsula jutted out into the sea, and was washed by the divid
ing currents of the Bosporus, and by the blue, musical waves
of the Marmora. What with minaret, cypress and turret upon
this eminent place, it is even yet worthy of palatial honor. A
Vanderbilt or an Astor — seeking a terrestrial paradise — if he
would unload his bonds and stocks, he could find it here, seven
times exalted by the natural beauties of sky, water and land, and
by the associations of three thousand years of historic vicissitudes.
After visiting the Treasury and the Kiosk of Bagdad, a plain
Corinthian shaft attracts your attention. It is the column of
Theodosius. It is fifty feet high, and, like the Delphian tripod
in the Hippodrome, it is of great classical interest. Scattered
about are many ancient altars and fragments of pillars in these
courts of the old Seraglio. Many of them have been collected
and placed in the Museum. , Not the least interesting portion of
these grounds is the ancient Throne-room. With a little backsheesh,
you visit it as part of the spectacle. The throne is immense. It
is in the form of a four-post bedstead. The posts are thickly
encrusted with rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and turquoises. It
was not altogether a Diversion to be a diplomat in the early days
here, for the Greek emperors were accustomed to put out the
optics of ambassadors, as witness the blinding of Dandolo ; and
even since, and within the century, the Foreign Ambassador was
ordered to the Seven Towers, or to an execution from this neigh
borhood. It was within this Throne-room that the Foreign Am
bassadors were presented. They had to be bathed first, and then
fed. They were clothed in a rich mantle before presentation.
They were lifted almost bodily into the august presence of the
Vicegerent of Allah on earth. In order that they might not show
any sign of breaking down under the awful burden of the Imperial
presence, they were supported on either side by officials. I do

470 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
not see the reason of this rule ; inasmuch as when introduced
into the presence before the curtain of the high-posted and jeweled
bedstead, the Ambassador did not look upon the august Majesty;
only on his jeweled finger, which was thrust out between the cur
tains to be kissed by the Ambassador.
The Hippodrome remains to-day among the most interesting
relics in Stamboul. It is monumental. Upon the open space in
front of the mosque of Achmet, there is a museum of Ottoman
costumes. It is called Gebecei-Atika. Let us visit this museum !
It has pleasant surroundings. It has quietude and shade. These
make it the asylum which it was intended to be, for the ancient
Ottoman, whose effigies in most singular figure and dress are here
exhibited. It strikes one as strange that the Mahometans, who
dislike all imagery, who are iconoclasts if they are anything,
should themselves have instituted this museum. At the very
entrance of the staircase you encounter the figure of a Janizary,
He is dead, of course, but quite vital to those who read his history.
Enter ! Lo ! Some four hundred representations of the human
form ! They are most remarkable personages. A few of their
images are pictured in our Chapter IX. on the Janizaries. You
think they are caricatures ? They are everything else. The old
costumes are here with all their volurainousness and ferocity.
The belt is at once an arsenal and a pocket, into which every
thing is gathered, from a tobacco pouch to a yataghan.
The Eden Mus6e and Madame Tussaud may strive, but they
can never rival this exhibition ! What motionless and strange
visions they have collected, fantastic and weird ! but there is
nothing so strange and fantastic to be found in human similitude,
as these turbaned Turks of a dead age. A century has not yet
gone by ; and yet we find men who can gaze upon this scene,
pictured in this museum, and say that Turkey still remains as she
was fourscore years ago. This museum teaches that the national
habits have been thoroughly broken up. The costumes have
become curious antiquities. These strange, bearded visages, with
their glass eyes, that mock the very light, have in them something
of the wonderful, such as the "Thousand and One Nights" pro
duce upon the imagination. They are not illusions. They are
rouged and fierce visages, not unlike the painted bodies of the
dead as they appear in their coffins on their way to the grave in
this Oriental countrv. Most of these strange effigies are those ot

CONGRESS OF PHANTOMS.

471

artisans ; but the most remarkable are the functionaries of the
Seraglio, and among them the most wonderful of the wondrous is
the master of the eunuchs — the Kisslar Agassi ! He is splendidly
clothed. His clothes are embroidered with flowers. What enor
mous trousers ! half hidden beneath a tunic of silk. A Cashmere
shawl of richest rarity is the sash. The turban is of red muslin ;
and the boots are of yellow morocco. Look again ! It is the
Grand Vizier, the Sheik-Ul-Islam, and the Captain Pasha. These
are similarly dressed. Turn your eye, and ycli see tissues of the
richest fabric, massive gold clasps, weapons enough to fill an
arsenal, caps in crescent form, and fantastic head-dresses, wor
thy of the kings of Egypt. The chief scullion carries upon his
shoulder a gigantic ladle. It is the emblem of his rank and
authority. This ladle terminates in a blade. It is thought to
represent the butchery of the brute preceding the cooking.
Others bear kitchen utensils used in the old harem. Here on one
side you find the candle-lighter in his dress ; there the bearer of
the cat-o'-nine tails in a peculiar toilette ; and yonder the servant
with the wooden bowl. There are some specimens of the soldiers
of other corps than the Janizaries. Their dresses are not unlike
those which I have seen in Algiers. Then the Albanian, the
Armenian and the Greek come in on their lines, and assist in
this wonderful congress of the phantoms of a past era.
Who originated this remarkable museum ? It must have been
some Turk, with a cunning malice against the Janizary corps and
a knack for caricature ; or, perhaps, some descendant of the old
Janizary or harem officers, proud and conservative of the ancient
^nationality. Who could have done it? I summon this curious
congregation of the past actors upon the Bosporus, as well for the
delectation as for the instruction of my readers.
Amid all the mountains and waters, and the strange forms of
architecture and odd costumes of men, one cannot help but
• ponder and wonder what the future of this magnificent land may
be a half century hence. Who will control it ? The style and state-
liness of the old time may not be present in Constantinople now.
The throng which once received the Sultan may not be here.
What in outward show the Grand Vizier was once, the Sultan
hardly is to-day. The horse covered with steel and gold, the files
of superbly attired soldiers, the grooms of the harems leading their
Arab and Persian horses, and the grand cortege, with its blatant

472 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
music of drum and trumpet — these have gone to the abysm. The
King of kings, with all the titles that belonged to him as Caliph,
Conqueror and Ruler, may remain to close the nineteenth century ;
for who else will be allowed to take his place ? He moves before
us still, in spite of augury. It is a solemn and a curious proces
sion. To understand its meaning and the luxury and costlinesses
of its decorations, you must visit Gebecei-Atika.

CHAPTER XXXV.
SCENES AND DIVERSIONS AROUND THE CITY OF STAMBOUL.
There are some days during the summer and in the beautiful
fall weather when the time can be fully occupied in making visits
to the rare historic and monumental scenes around the city. No
city has extant such magnificent remains. Supreme above all I
select the triple walls. From the Seven Towers they follow the
sides of a triangle, two sides of which are on the shores, and the
smaller side by land. There is constant occupation for the
observer to read up, with actual inspection, the history of the many
sieges which Constantinople has experienced. Or, if he should feel
lugubriously inclined and should tire of the sights of the city,
if the sameness of the mosque or the variety of the people and
streets of Stamboul grow monotonous, there is the magnificent
tomb of Mahmoud, who was the grandfather of the present Sultan.
That is to be seen and admired. It is a masterpiece of Italian
architecture. It is built oi parti-colored and highly polished
marble. Within is a divan, rich shawls, gilt rails, rare volumes
of the Koran, each and all in harmony with the best taste which
Turkey could bestow or buy for one of her great Sultans. Or,
if time hang heavy, there is a drive through the splendid woods
known as the Belgrade Forest, which I visited in the chestnut
season, when the poachers were busy, the woods full of Gypsies
and the officers of the government were vainly striving to collect
the revenue which came from the harvest. Upon the fine roads
which penetrate the woods, you may approach the springs and
aqueducts of the city's water supply. Superior to the supply of
Damascus is the arrangement of Constantinople. In every
mosque and at every corner are fine fountains, not only the gift
of individuals, but erected by the providence of the ruler. In
fact, water is an institution of the Turk.
The fountains of the city are attractive by reason of their
designs. Many of them are quite ornamental, and adorned with

474 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
texts from the Koran. They always look shabby, sloppy and
dirty, notwithstanding the handy cleansing element of water. Some
of these texts have been translated to me. They are devotional.
The water is not carried into the house by pipes. The people
supply themselves from the fountains. Water-carriers, hamals,
loaded like donkies, with their barrels decorated with green leaves,
move around the streets distributing it through the city. Bath
houses are common. There are not less than one hundred and
thirty for public use in the city. The water comes from reser
voirs in the wooded neighborhood of Belgrade, a village fifteen
miles north of the capital. To reach it-you go through the for
est made famous by Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Its shaded
roads and paths are by no means free from brigands. For one
thing the Turk deserves credit : he endeavors to utilize every
trickle of water. He justifies this heed and care by one of his
favorite maxims:
" Do good and throw it into the sea! If the fishes do not
know it, God will! "
Midway between the Black Sea and the Golden Horn stand
the most picturesque castles known to the world, one on each side
of the Straits, Anatolio and Roumelia. They were the old defenses
of Constantinople, or, rather, the means by which the Turks com
manded the Bosporus before the fall of the city.
There are high points of view in Asia — eighteen hundred feet
high — from the peaks of which a magnificent and peerless pano
rama is exhibited.
One never tires of the verdure-clad hills and the gardens, the
lovely views, the picturesque landscape, the princely residences,
tne palaces by the Straits, and the magic power by which on a
little fairy pinnace you may dance over the swift, translucent
waters, and so speed your craft that you may light your cigar in
Europe and shake off the ashes in Asia.
During the summer of 1886 we lived among the " Isles of the
Princes," and every day, on our way from Prinkipo — one of these
fairy isles — we pass near the enchanting Chrysopolis on the Asiatic
shore. It is a mile and a half off the Seraglio Point It has half a
hundred thousand inhabitants. They are generally people of
cultivation. The situation is romantic. It is on an elevation.
It is the rendezvous of many merchants, whose caravans of camels
make it a terminus as they travel from Persia and Armenia to the

CITY OF THE DEAD.

475

capital. It is a place of historic celebrity. Constantine the
Great here fought and conquered Licinius. It is chiefly notable
for its English cemetery, where are buried the heroes of the
Crimea, and where many superb monuments may be seen, which
are quite in contrast with those of the Turkish, Hebrew and
other cemeteries.
Scutari is more the home of the dead than the living. When
you land upon its shore you are but a few yards from its cemete
ries. There the acacia blossoms in beauty; there its withered
flowers fall upon the graves; there the Armenian and the Turkish
cemeteries have fellowship in a common mortality.
My description now has to do- with the Turkish cemetery. It
stretches along the hill under its thickly planted cypresses. Be
neath their shadows are the ghostly headstones. Foot-paths lead
you into green glades flecked here and there with sunshine. It is
indeed a "City of the Dead." The various columns and stones
lie heavily on the earth, as if tired of bearing the burden of their
eulogies. Here the Moslem sleeps beside his wife or wives.
The turban surmounts his headstone; a rose defines hers. From
the turban you may learn his profession, like that of the soldier
who reposes a few yards off, or of the priest in the same vicinage.
Some of the turbans lie upon the ground, struck off by the baton of
the retainers of Mahmoud II. They mark the graves of the
Janizaries. The mutilated turbans half buried in the grass
testify to their disgrace. You observe terraces which are raised
and fenced in with taste. Within their precincts are columns and
tombstones with the fez crowning them. The fez is painted in
bright scarlet. It is an emblem of a conspicuous Effendi or Bey.
As to this cemetery the Turks have a strange idea. They think
that on particular times sparks of fire arise from the graves, and
flicker and lose themselves among the boughs of the cypresses.
They are the supposed souls of the departed. When I was a
child I had the same feeling about the graveyards of Ohio. But
science soon taught me that the decaying bones made phospho
rus, and that the phosphorus was the ignis-fatuus of the super
stitious. This is chemistry.
Constantinople should take more heed of the degradation
of some of the cemeteries on the European side ; for I am
no believer in the statement that the reason why the ceme
tery of Scutari is preferred and guarded is, that the Turk

476

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

seeks to be buried there because he expects to be expelled from
Europe. These cemeteries are so great in number that the tomb
stones around the city outnumber the living in the city. They
are not altogether cheerless, except those that have been de
serted. They are often decorated with colors, and the white
sandstone more or less bespangled with gold. They are in
strange contrast with the dark cypresses which enshroud them.

THE TURKISH CEMETERY AT SCUTARI.

I have elsewhere written of the mysterious birds which fly
restlessly up and down the Bosporus. These birds, in their
never-pausing unrest, seem never to be wooed to the earth. Still,
they are compelled to be above the water. Iam told that there is
one exception: when the tempest rages over Marmora or sweeps
down the valley of the Bosporus, these birds shriek and fly in
wild flocks to the cypress forests of Scutari. There they find

FUNERALS.

477

shelter. This begets a superstition quite natural in the Orient;
for the Turk believes them to be the souls of the damned who
have found sepulchre beneath the cypress boughs. They believe
that these souls are permitted, during wild convulsions of nature,
to return to the spots where the body is buried.
The practice of burial among the Turks is not unlike that of
other people in the Orient, but it is very unlike our own. On
the death of a Mussulman, the body is first washed with warm
water. It is then enveloped in a shroud of white cotton cloth and
placed in a coffin made of plain unpolished wood. The lid, of a
raised form, is then screwed down and covered with a Persian
shawl, of value according to the circumstances of the deceased.
The coffin is borne to the mosque on the shoulders of friends of
the deceased. When it arrives, it is placed on a marble table.
Prayers are recited by the parish Imam. After this it is taken to
the cemetery and buried without other ceremonial. Over the grave
are afterward placed upright, two stones, one at the head and the
other at the feet. Upon these, verses of the Koran are inscribed.
The same grave cannot be re-opened at any time for the reception
of another body, even if belonging to the same family. The
Sultans and members of the Imperial family are always buried in
the mosques or mausoleums which they have had constructed
during their lifetime. Large wax candles are placed round the
tomb, which is also covered with Persian shawls of great value,
and on which are embroidered in gold letters the name of the
deceased Sultan and appropriate quotations from the Koran.
"Kismet" compels the Turk to abstain from demonstration
of sorrow. He regards it as unmanly as well as irreligious to
weep. The corpse is buried soon after death. Few accompany
it to the grave. The grave of the Turk is shallower than that in
our country. His coffin is plain. There is a quiet prayer, and
the body is deposited. Then the grave is filled up. Water, which
is always his symbol of purity, is sprinkled over the grave by the
nearest relative. The idea of water upon the grave is from the
Arabic. It is symbolic and poetic. It indicates that, like a
plant well watered, the soul will rise to immortality. The cemete
ries around Constantinople, and especially the cemetery in which I
was in the habit of walking, and which was constantly under my
eye in Pera, is almost fantastic. It looks abandoned. The turbans
are chopped off by some iconoclast. The very emblem of the

478 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Turk has disappeared. One thing is observed: that, on every
gravestone that can be deciphered, the trade of the dead man is
symbolized by the anvil, the adze, the lancet or the inkstand.
They represent the occupation of the occupant in life. The graves
of the Turkish women, of course, have no turban. There is no
lying panegyric. One singular thing belongs to all the tombstones :
in their upper c6rner are some little cavities; these are filled
with water. What does this mean ? It invites the birds to take a
drink, and entices them to give their carol and their cheer to
the graveyard and the dead. This is an Oriental custom not
limited to the Turk. Moses taught similar hospitality to the
feathered race. Mahomet copied his code from Moses.
After all, I end this chapter as I began, with the walls. The
most interesting monument left by the Byzantine empire is,
beyond doubt, the walls. These once formed one triple wall.
They were built by Justinian in the sixth century. The highest
was thirty feet high. Each line was crenelated on top and
flanked at intervals by towers. There was a broad, deep moat
with dams at intervals. The moat is now dry, except when
watered for the vegetable gardens, for which it is used. The
stones of the walls have proved a godsend in two ways: first,
they furnished a revenue to the mother of the Sultan. That is
now abrogated. Secondly, they furnished the cheap raw material
for the buildings of the city. That is now in disuse. Their best
use is as a monumental lesson of the vicissitudes of empire and
the fragility of power. Outside them are the cemeteries, whose
tenants have no census — and, in fact, neither have the living —
and whose tenure is much more assured than that of the living,
who fill these fields of mortality upon every festive occasion.
There is one gate of the walls called the Top Kapu. Through
it the Turks penetrated to the city on its fall; for through this gate
the first fifty Turks entered the city. It is now known as the
gate of St. Romanus. Another alias is that of the Gate of the
Big Gun, for here, as is alleged, the monstrous gun, made by
Orban, was brought by the aid of fifty oxen, four hundred men
and a corps of carpenters to repair the bridges and roads over
which it was moved. It required two months to make the usual
march of two days from Adrianople, seven hundred men to serve
it and two hours to load it. In the end, after battering the gate
and tower, it hoisted into eternity its engineer. But who mourns

THE HEADLESS BODY.

479

for Orban now, and, for the matter of that, how few mourn for
Krupp, whose guns are lazing their time away upon the Plaza of
Tophane !
Another gate is called the Silivri. It is within a mile of the
Sea of Marmora. It is upon the edge of a cemetery. In that

TOMB OF ALL

cemetery, dark with cypresses, is the grave of one Ali Pasha of
Janina. He is the hero of the Albanian conflict. Over his grave
is written :
" He rendered himself independent for more than thirty years.
Here lies his head. No prayers are requested."
Who was Ali ? Why was he headless —or bodiless ?

480 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY:
Ali was born in upper Epirus, of an Albanian-Mahometan
family. His father was a brigand. He returned to the bosom of
his family in order to exterminate them, and so as to swell the
fruits of his pillage. Strange to tell, he was attached to his mother,
Khanco. She was a brigand. She had been captured, outraged
and freed. Ali promised her, when she was dying, to exterminate
the people of the town where she was outraged. This he did
afterward, when he became Pasha of Janina, with a vengeance.
He became master of the Pashalic by becoming a devoted servant
of the Porte. He destroyed the brigands in order to be chief of
the country. He distributed the booty where it would do the most
good — in Constantinople. From time to time he was promoted
by the Porte, until its officials became suspicious of him and of his
rich presents to members of the Divan. He was authorized by an
order from the Sultan to destroy the Suliotes. This was the sen
sation at the beginning of this century. The Suliotes had planted
the Cross over their mountains as a signal of liberty. They chal
lenged the Mahometans, and Ali as their chief He became
invested with, a title only next to that of grand vizier.
This being the character and conduct of Ali Pasha, it was not
difficult to find the clue to his life and death. The most interest
ing statement is in a volume entitled, "The Eastern Shores ol
the Adriatic in A. D. 1883," by the Viscountess Strangford. I may
remark, in a prefatory way, that this lady is the author of some
other Oriental books. She had much trouble in her travels from
Russian authorities, and as I write these lines I find in the
current journals that she has just died. She was a wonderful
woman in her prime.
In the volume there is a description of Janina. It is the capital
of southern Albania. It was a part of my enthusiasm, never
realized, to go there with my Dalmatian servant, Pedro, who was
born near by. It is a city which is set upon a mountain and can
not be hid, but the lady to whom I have referred accomplished the
journey and stood before the city with all its lovely tenderness of
scenery. It was a land with the glory of Greece and the beauty
of Italy. The city is above the clouds. Upon its eminence can
be seen higher distant mountains, snow clad, and a lake as blue as
the .^gean itself Within the lake is an island. On the island is
a fortification. The city itself, with its white houses with red
roofs, is a picture in a romance. It is rarely visited by the tourist

CAREER OF ALI PASHA. 48 1
The meadows are only equaled by the gardens which surround
the lake, down upon which look the grand groups of the blanched
Pindus, with all the classic sanctity of purity. There are, how
ever, in the neighborhood some dirty, dull brown mountains, with
a little appearance of rock breaking through their uncrisped slopes.
This last dainty sentence is that of the Viscountess. The lake is
about three-fourths of a mile wide. It reflects the mountains of
Mitzikeli. Upon the island lies the headless body of Ali,
whose head is supposed to be in the cemetery near the walls
of Constantinople. The lake is seven miles long and three miles
wide. It is not supplied from the mountain, but from its own
springs. The only historic incident about Janina is that which
appertains to our Ali Pasha. Why should the Turks any more
than the Greeks bear him honor ? That will be developed by a
short synopsis of his career. That career is distinguished by the
fact that he was in constant, and in the end successful, rebellion.
He was the exterminator of the Suliotes, who desired of all things
to be independent in their mountains. When Mahmoud the
Second, who killed off the Janizaries, undertook to control this dis
tant Albania as a part of his empire, he found Ali in possession.
Ali mistook the sagacity and quietude of the Sultan for weak
ness. Ali defied him. This was in a. d. 1820. The Sultan deprived
him of his rule at this mountain capital, and sent an army to
enforce the degradation. The Suliotes had been exiled to
Corfu, but at the Sultan's command they re-entered their old
country of Albania. In the last of the year a. d. 1820, they made a
junction with the Mussulman Albanians, who were devoted to Ali.
Then the Greek revolution — so celebrated in the speeches of Web
ster and Clay, and the pOetry of Byron and Halleck — broke out in
the Morea. Among the many mixtures of race in this Albanian
country, the Suliotes stood prominent for their sturdy pluck.
Many of them enrolled themselves under Lord Byron.
The name of the Suliote is almost forgotten ; but that of the
despot, Ali Pasha, lives on, not by his own virtue, but by virtue
of the strange tomb near Constantinople.
The Viscountess to whom I have referred, states that the
body of Ali, together with the body of his wife Emine, whom he
shot down with his own hand, in his fury because she favored the
Suliotes, is beneath a turban-topped headstone in Janina. If it
ever was buried there, it has been removed since.

482 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
I must tell the story of All's death. He is under the Sultan's
ban. On the 29th of January, a. d. 1822, he is assured of foro-ive-
ness. He is induced to leave his citadel in the lake and cross over
to a monastery. Here he settles himself in a room next to that of
his favorite wife, Vassiliki. He is visited, in good faith as he sup
poses, by Mehmet Pasha, the Sultan's general m Epiros. Meh
met enters the room; he fires a pistol at Ali. The shot misses.
Ali fires back. His shot misses. Ali, however, is wounded in
the hand by a shot from an aide-de-camp of Mehmet. Then the
old tiger prepares to fight, with his fangs keen and his claws
unvelveted. His wife binds up his bleeding hand. His enemies
beneath his room shoot at him through the floor. A shot takes
mortal effect, and he dies. Mehmet then breaks into the room
and chops off AU's head with a cimeter. It is sent, along with
the wife, across the lake. Thence they are despatched to Con
stantinople. Now here arises my difficulty. The question is : 'Whether
the head of this man was sent to Constantinople, or his body
without the head ? Is Ali buried here — a headless body or a
bodiless head ? It does not matter much in these times; but the
best impression is, that the tomb at Constantinople makes a decent
request when it asks the traveler not to make superfluous prayers,
as the head is not there.
The treasures of this wonderful Ali Pasha, like those of Cap
tain Kidd, are still sought after in the country which he ruled so
despotically and cruelly. He is an illustration of a class of
¦Oriental heroes, like that which includes Mehemet Ali, of Egypt,
who was an Albanian. This last hero conquered not only Egypt,
and left it to his descendants, but overcame Syria as well. He
would have taken Constantinople, even as against Mahmoud the
Second, but for the union against him of the European forces.
The Albanian may be a murderous, vindictive and terrific race —
or perhaps they were so in the past — but they have made great
struggles for independence, and are worthy of many illuminated
pages in the history of freedom among the mountains of our globe.
A visit to the " Sweet Waters " of Europe and Asia on Friday
reveals more of the old Turkish enchantment, such as we asso
ciate with the extravagance of an Eastern story-teller, than any
other incident. I ought not to undertake to describe visits to these
" Sweet Waters " upon their gala-days, for that is beyond my

483

484

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

unfacilepen. May I m.ake the attempt, however, to picture the
"Sweet Waters" of Asia?
The valley of Jeuiuksuy, when thronged, is essentially Oriental.
There, is a grateful coolness which tempers the noontide sunshine,
a fresh breeze from the Bosporus, and an inviting turf upon which
the ladies spread their carpets. Screened from the dust by the trees,
and separated from the men who resort to these bossy shades, the
women enjoy their cigarettes and chibouques, their sherbets and

GROUP OF TURKISH WOMEN AT THK "SWEET WATERS."

melons. Here the wives of the Pashas and Beys, Effendis and
Emirs, indulge in the luxury of the " kadeu7i chibouque" or
women's pipe. Here slaves wait upon their mistresses. Here
is the vender of sweetmeats, with his wooden platter upon his head,
and the vender of ice-cream, with his yoke upon his shoulder.
Here are seen sometimes, gratifying the children, the dancing
bears and monkeys. Here is the water-carrier, with his large
turban, his graceful classic jar, and his crystal goblet. Here are

TURKISH LOVE OF NATURE.

485

the negroes — the eunuchs of the upper ten thousand — moving
around with carpets, pipes and refreshments for their mistresses
If it be in the fruit season, here are vender's of peaches, plums,
nectarines, apricots, tchoussi grapes, pistachio nuts, and filberts,
all decorated with fresh green leaves about them, not to speak of
the melon merchants, selling their delicious fruit for a very small
sum. If your eyes be not surfeited, and your ear loves music,
here is the rattle of the tambourine, the wiry sound of the zebec,
and the shrill, high voices of the Greeks, who for a few piastres
complete this Oriental picture and make the valley, with its trees,
its personnel, its shadows, and its domesticities, a perpetual
reminder of the stories of the East. In fine, here is, indeed —
" A glowing scene of water, leaves and light.
And -vrhite-veiled dames and turban'd men are here ;
And all around, the eartli and sea are bright
And beautiful in the sunshiny air."
When evening draws the curtain over the distant city and sea,
the arabis and carriages are hailed by the slaves, and quietly "wind
o'er the lea " for their homes in Asia, and the caiques are called
to bear their freight over the blue waves of che pellucid waters.
Thus endeth the Friday's outing of the harem at the Asian
"Sweet Waters." The European waters are like unto them,
only there are a thousand people at the latter for a hundred at
the former. Besides, the style and rank of the habitues of the
"Sweet Waters" of Europe outvie those of Asia.
When the Turkish woman leaves the harem, in company with
her co-wives and slaves and children, she seeks the most delight
ful natural resorts. It is not for the woman of the West, with the
elaborate dissipation of the ball, the waltz, and the champagne
supper in the gilded salon, to find fault with the Osmanli hanou7n,
who seeks the breeze, the heath and the wooded valley, where
nature displays her rarest charms, and where the sweetness and
freshness of the air, enhance the pleasure far beyond the gas-
lighted halls of Occidental luxury.

CHAPTER XXXVL
democratic-republican features in turkey.
One phase of the advancement of the Turkish people has been
in the direction of simplicity. We have read the grand titles in
which the earlier Sultans rejoiced. We have seen their curtail
ment in recent years. The Capitulations and Articles of Peace
between Great Britain and Turkey, confirmed at the Dardanelles^
in a. d. 1809, in the preface displays how glorious was once,
among the nations of the earth, the ascription of all praise and
honor to His Majesty. It was thus:
"sultan mehemed, may he live forever !
" Let everything be observed in conformity to these Capitulations,.
and contrary thereto, let nothing be done.
" The command, under the sublime and lofty Signet, which
imparts sublimity to every place, and under the imperial and noble
Cypher, whose glory is renowned throughout all the world, by the
Emperor and Conqueror of the earth, achieved with the assistance
of the Omnipotent, and by the special grace of God, is this :
"We, who by Divine grace, assistance, will and benevolence
now are the King of Kings of the world, the Prince of Emperors
of every age, the dispenser of Crowns to Monarchs, and the Cham
pion Sultan Mehemed, Son of Sultan Ibrahim Chan, Son of Sul
tan Ahmed Chan, Son of Sultan Mahommet Chan, Son of Sultan
Murad Chan, Son of Sultan Selim Chan, Son of Sultan Solyman
Chan, Son of Sultan Selim Chan."
This rigmarole is no longer customary, even in treaties. The
very orthography is changed. The Ottoman is a contradiction in
many ways. He loves to abase himself, in order to be exalted.
His teaching and his ideal hero are Christian in this regard. The
lives of the Prophet himself, and of the greatest of the Sultans,
Othman, remind him of the grandeur of those who died in poverty.
Sometimes he carries his humility to excess. He practises the
486

PRIDE APING HUMILITY.

487

pride which apes humility. Let me illustrate by a fable which
I found in one of the odd volumes that I happened upon in some
literary explorations. The time of the story is in the third cen
tury of the Prophet. The place is Egypt. The person is a cadi
of Cairo. He is named Mansiir bin Miisia. He cannot stand
this grandiose name. It had once an original meaning. Was it
not compounded from some parental prescription ? It Hterally
meant Victor, son of Moses ! He divides it into five syllables.
Thus : Man-Sur-Bin-Mij-Sia. The old volume I refer to has a
diagram of the name as humiliated, thus :

Syllables of the orig
inal name.

Meaning of original. \ Substitute.

Meaning of Substi
tute.

Man 
Sur 

Name of a h.:avy
weight of 40 lbs.
A large trumpet . . ,

Ratal 
Biik 
Abd-al 
Pashm 
Panzdah

Pound.Small bugle.

Bin 

Mil 

Hair 
Thirty, in Persian. , ,

Wool.

Fifteen.

The third column forms his new name, " Ratal Biik Abd-al
Pashm Panzdah," whose humble synonym is " Small-weight-
Penny-whistle-Slave-of- 'Wool-Fifteen," instead of " Heavy-weight-
Trumpet-Son-of-Hair-Thirty ! "
The title of the Sultan was once by no means to be despised
as a heavy-weighted son of Hair. It used to be a mile or more
long, but the good sense of the new rulers here has clipped off
much of the superfluous title. His name is now as simple as his
head-gear. The gear of the head is always, and under all circum
stances, the simple red fez. The Turk is a democrat, without
guile or ostentation, and, as will appear in the sequel, he never
rides fine horses when he can walk, honestly !
I have said that Turkey has a kind of democratic-republican
society and government. This is true in many respects. It is a con
stitutional monarchy under the constitution of December 23, a. d.
1876. This the Almanach de Gotha recognizes, but the Constitu
tion is a dead letter and the Ahnanach is a bundle of ignorance, in
this as in other regards. The absence of a hereditary nobility — in
fact, the lack of any nobility — makes it free from one of the worst
taints of the European order. It has its system of government,
made up of Ministers and Senators, a Council of State, police regu
lations, and administrative divisions, of which the Sultan is nomi-

488 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
nally — and really, when he pleases — the absolute head. He bears
the simple title of Padishah. It is a title of honor. It comes down
through many generations of heroes. Other countries retain what
Turkey discards. The universal Turkish nation, which is given
much to gravity, would, for instance, be humorously inclined if a
gentleman was introduced to them bearing the name of Prince
Charles Frederic-Karafft-Ernest-Notger, prince et Seigneur d' Oet-
tingen-Oettingen et d' Oettingen-Wallerstein, Compte de Baldern,
Seigneur de Sogtern, etc. ; and yet this is a veritable habitant
between the leaves of the absurd Gotha Ahnanach.
Suppose one of our Western orators should introduce this
gentleman by all his titles to an American audience, say in the
town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, or Oshkosh, Wisconsin, would he
be received with that respect which is due to a son of royalty, or
would he be met with universal guffaws ? Alas ! for the irrev
erent audacity of the American gamin and his unvenerated parent
— this query is easily answered for both the original tree and its
scion !
And yet, even in America we have prefixes to our names not
established by law, and only allowed by custom. "Esq." and
" Hon." are quite sufficient illustrations that we are not alto
gether free from this anti-republican taint. Compared with other
countries, we are, like Turkey, comparatively untainted. Russia
is very unlike Turkey in this matter. Titles prevail there to an
extravagant extent The salutations are profound and elaborate.
It is so especially in the army. The soldier never addresses
an officer without standing at " Attention " ! with his hand at his
, cap during the whole conversation. He does not answer a ques
tion categorically with a " yes, sir," or " no, sir," but wilh a cir
cumlocution, "quite so," or "not exactly so." He addresses a
general as "Your Excellency," princes and counts are lUustri-
ousnesses, and a field-officer " Your High Nobility." A com
pany officer, "Your Nobility." If he has occasion to speak to
the Emperor himself, and desires to say, " We are glad to serve
you," he says this : " Otchen radom, Vass Lnperatorsky veleetches-
too." One would think that a Russian name was sesquipedalian
enough, without adding to it va. elongated sneeze and a super
abundance of titular caudle-appendages. An Amerioan, not long
ago, stated that a Russian nobleman who recently died had a
name so long that it could not be sent by cable, and that he could

TITLES, AD NAUSEAM. 489
shell an ear of corn with it and have enough left over for a
barbed wire fence, a nail cloth and springs for a mattress. This
is too exaggerative.
In France, when it was a monarchy, the King was always called
Sire; in England he was addressed as Sir ; the Queens were
called Mada77ie, and the Imperial Princes in France were called
Monseigneur. The German sovereigns of both sexes are called
" Majesty," and the Princes " Hohheit." The Pope is styled " His
Holiness," like the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the cardinals
are called " Eminences." In Persia, the Shah is called " the
Asylum of the Universe." In the European countries there is,
or was, a title, as a prefix, generally recognized. But Turkey had,
and has, no nobility. It is only of late years, I think, that some
of these prefixes, like " Excellency" for a Minister, have become
common, ad nauseajn. This custom is referable to the Legations
and others besides the Ottoman people. Of one thing here I
became weary — I may say of two things; first, of being so much
waited on ; seco7id, of being dubbed " Son Excellence !" upon the
slightest provocation by everybody, even by American tourists,
who fall into the absurd custom. If the Ottoman would only adopt
some of the names belonging to the Slav or Greek, he would have
no need of any prefix or affix. Taking the former Greek Minister
of the Interior, for instance, Mr. Pappamichalopoulos, or even the
name of the Greek Minister to Constantinople, Monsieur Coun-
douriotti, and you have enough in the surname without any
aristocratic appendages. Queen Victoria might herself take a
lesjon from this simplicity of the Osmanli in the matter of titles,
and thereby save much to her scriveners now and hereafter. It
has pleased Her Majesty to order, of her royal pleasure, that the
sons and daughters born of the marriage of His Highness, Prince
Henry , Maurice of Battenberg, with Her Royal Highness,
Princess Beatrice Maria Victoria Theodora, shall at all times hold
and enjoy the style of " Highness." Let us draw a long breath
in anticipation of such high distinctions of the unborn Hessians
and Guelphs.
It may or may not be a matter of interest to state that one
of my Diversions to overcome one of the difficulties of the posi
tion of Minister, was in remembering the remarkable names of
those with whom it was my duty and pleasure to meet socially
and diplomatically. How did I accomplish it ? By a system of

490 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
mnemonics not peculiar to myself I tried, with discreet and
laudatory rhyme, to arrange the several cards so as to associate
the names with euphonious sounds. How the names rise now
in my memory ! Dear Kaiserlich Deutscher Botschafts Predi-
ger — whose function was so much more extensive than his name :
for he was only the good German pastor, Suhle ! There was
Jarasynski and Blankeregg : the one a Pole and the other a Hun
garian ; the Roumanian Consul Ecsarho, Mavroyeni and Con-
stantindini ; Grouitch and Bakitch, Servian and Montenegrin,
genial and just representatives ; Ghica, the princeliest of princes,
and Svetchine, the suave Secretary ; Wallenberg and d' Ehren-
hoff, kindest of Norse gentlemen ; the Belgian Borchgrave and
Godel-Lannoy, of Austria ; Ivanow and Smirnow, Ortiz de
Zugasti and Coella de Portugal, Canzuch and Metaxas ! These
are names upon whose circle we weave many flowers of pleasant
memories. But what a relief when we struck such plain patro
nymics as Woods Pasha, Hobart Pasha, Bax Ironside, Bruce,
Lowther, De Gratz, Towers, Fane, Fawcett, Wrench and Potter ;
not to omit Blacque Bey and Sir William White, Sir Drummond
Wolff and the Rev. George Washington !
It is not a very great Diversion ; nevertheless, when one be
comes reminiscent, it becomes amusing to recognize that so much
depends, in Europe and elsewhere, upon the name, the title, the
decoration, or the rank of people who come and go, both as
officers, diplomats, and otherwise. Let me give an illustration.
For many years the office of Minister to Turkey from the
United States was simpi}' that of Minister Resident That made
him third in the list of diplomatic personages at the various courts:
the first being an Ambassador ; the second being an Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary ; the third being Min
ister Resident ; and the fourth being Charge d' Affaires. When
General Wallace began his services in Turkey in 1881, he was sim
ply a Minister Resident. Perhaps it irked the author of " Ben
Hur" greatly to know that while he could soar, as few men of
genius can, into the hierarchy of literature, and dwell among the
princes of the earth, or revel in the Valhalla, with the great ones
of the Elder Day — while in gorgeous and glowing imagery he
could depict Oriental scenes with rarest skill, learning and dra
matic power ; still, as Minister, he had to wait, upon every official
occasion, and in all the various phases of Oriental etiquette, while

THE ENVOY AND IHE AMBASSADOR.

49'

some ignoramus of an Envoy from a little state, or some swell of
an Ambassador from an effete dynasty, took precedence of the
representative of many millions of progressive and free people.
I will not say that he ever complained of this inversion of official
and personal dignity, although when I was in Constantinople in
1 88 1, he did use some democratic-republican forms of speech
which I thought proper and pertinent. To these I have added
some of my own vehemence since, growing out of my own expe
rience. I happened to be one of the Legislators who helped
to raise General Wallace's rank from Minister Resident to that
of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. It was
done to add one step to his rank ; but it was not enough, as the
sequel will show.
Now, one would suppose that a man who is entitled to such
magnificent and unabridged-dictionary titles as Envoy Extraor
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, ought to take precedence of
certain representatives at the court of the Sultan who were
representing inferior states. I have occasion to feel this one
sultry afternoon in the month of August, 1886. Along with the
dragoman, Mr. Gargiulo, I call on the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Said Pasha, at the Porte. It is on Monday, when all the
various diplomats are received. We are accustomed to record
our names on our entree to the reception-room. My arrival is
timely; my name is first on the list, as an Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary! It is 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
and the thermometer is 90°. I mop the perspiration from my
brow, and am about to be ushered into the presence of the
Foreign Minister when, lo! Monsieur Nellidoff, the Russian Am
bassador, appears all aglow with heat and all a-growl, like the
Bear of the North. By virtue of his being an Ambassador, he
makes his courtesy, takes precedence, and goes in. Then comes
a Minister Resident from Greece. I have precedence of him, of
course, as being an Envoy, but as he has some distance to go
this afternoon up the Bosporus, I politely yield my place to
him. Thus passes away about an hour, the thermometer trem
bling at 91° and the perspiration running in canals from my
corrugated brow. I am about to congratulate myself that my
time has come, when a polite and facile gentleman, the French
Minister, Count de Montholon — a connection of Lafayette — with
partialities toward our country, and representing a republic.

492 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
appears. He is registered ; he passes in; and the Envoy from
America, a republic which antedates his, still remains outside.
The thermometer is still rising somewhere among the nineties.
The four thousand pores to the square inch on the cuticle of the
Envoy pour forth their beaded drops. The Count, who is very
polite when he arrives, remarks :
" I am quite in a hurry. Excellence! you will be detained but
a few moments."
He stays about an hour. As I have to go to the island of
Prinkipo this afternoon, and am rather loath to test the sultriness
which sometimes brings storms over the old Propontis, I become
quite uneasy, and begin to perspire freely at 92°, and to go over
in my mind the advantage of being an Ambassador, when Herr
Radowitz, the German Ambassador, with his pleasant smile and
shining spectacles, peeps in after making his registry and the cour
tesies, and " sorry to take precedence of the American Minister,"
he enters in. The thermometer begins to rage fiercely at 93°,
and the perspiration is as fluent as the Bosporus. I knew that
he would not stay long. The representative of "The Honest
Broker," as Germany has been called, soon despatches his
business, to my great relief Five o'clock is shown upon the
clock, with the thermometer still rising and the sweat still fall
ing ; when — but I cannot swear — when, lo ! the deaf-mute, who
still hovers around Oriental courts and Portes, appears. He
makes his signs, and gives his orders as an " unspeakable Turk"
in his ineffable way, smiling over the prospect of my now being
reached in order, and over the backsheesh at the end of my long
experience with the thermometer and the ambassadors, when lo !
the Ambassador from Persia is announced ! Mashallah! He takes
precedence, of course. Is he not known as His Excellency Mar
shal Mirza Mohsin Khan ? CAN is the way to spell it, with
capital letters; for he goes in ! He is accompanied by his cousin,
who is also quite a dignitary of the Legation ; and without saying
" by your leave," or looking at the list, the thermometer or the
clock, or making apology or inquiry as to my forbearance, they,
too, have entered into the penetralia ! The thermometer by this
time is near bursting. As he passes in he remarks coolly:
" I will be only five minutes, Excellence! " I know the Marshal
Mirza Mohsin Khan well. He is a good Mahometan, and he
has many relations with the Porte which do not belong to the

CAN WE DISPENSE WITH DIPLOMACY?

49:

outside world. I anticipate his long conversation with the
Minister. After waiting until about 6 o'clock, the shades of evening
begin to fall, and the thermometer with them. -I gaze into the
big black eyes of the dragoman, give one sigh for my far-off
country, cast one long look out of the window over the old Sera
glio Point, think over its sanguinary scenes, and, while wiping
my anxious brow, I indicate to that patient interpreter that if
the Ambassador of a little, miserable, half-fed dependency of
Russia, known as the Khanate of Persia, may take precedence
of an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, repre
senting a nation of sixty million of independent freemen, I wanted
to go home. I went. I made a solemn resolution that if I ever
entered the American Congress again, I would move to strike out
the grand six-footed words by which our Minister is accredited to
the Porte, and insert the simple word ambassador, which means
"one sent." It is the open sesame to the jewels and gold of
Oriental diplomacy.
But can a republic have an ambassador ? That is the moment
ous question. It was settled at the treaty of Paris by the Holy
Alliance, and some other Powers confederating, that only monar
chical governments could have ambassadors. Republics were then
forbidden to have other than Ministers or Envoys. This is a
solemn treaty among the Powers, but at that meeting we were
not present and not consulted; and then, too, France was a mon
archy. She is now a republic. She holds on to the ambassador,
with all its advantages. Why should we not have the same ? If
titles have any value, let us use the best in the lexicon.
There is room for reform in the diplomatic service. In fact,
it might be abolished altogether where the telegraph can play its
part for special embassies and emergent occasions. What a sol
emn farce it is, after all, for an American Minister to pretend to
any style or rank, when he cannot do as other Ministers — con
clude any treaty, or anything, so as to bind any one ! The
making and confirming of conventions by our Constitution,
depends on the Executive or his Secretary of State, and then
absolutely upon the Senate. The Minister is powerless for good,
except in a few remote countries, like China, Japan and Turkey ;,
and in certain cases like the very ones I was waiting to conclude
when the other Powers stepped before me into the agitated pool

494

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

at the Porte. What I mean is this : that for over ten years two
treaties accomplished by this country vrith Turkey have been sus
pended at the Porte. They had been made by Mr. Minister Boker,
signed and already confirmed by the Senate. Our country was
anxious for them. They were in accord with the American doc
trines of expatriation and naturalization. They were a triumph
of the right of locomotion and the liberalities of our time. By
the special Irad^ of the Sultan, and after great trouble, vexation,
patience and delay, the ex-Minister — who writes this chapter —
succeeded in securing, by the Sultan's favorable interposition, the
acquiescence of the Porte with these treaties. It was supposed to
be a finality. Have they been consummated nov/ by our chief
Executive or his Secretary of State ? No ; and inasmuch as they
illustrate a line of honorable progress in diplomacy, secured by a
subordinate and remote official, they are now regarded — since
their acceptance by Turkey — as of little or no moment ! We
prize little that which we obtain, after it is obtained, or which
others have secured — even though secured under specific instruc
tions. Of this hereafter, and in another forum than the republic
of letters. If this be the end of such labors under such favorable cir
cumstances, better make an end of all such fruitless and salaried
diplomatic intercourse!
The world will not always be moved by mere titles. Much
may be expected in the European future from the overturning of
these pretensions. It may be remembered that in 1874 the Lord
Mayor of London, perhaps in one sense the most comical of all
the empty and ostentatious functionaries known to civilization,
issued a prescript for a lunch at Guildhall. The foreign Envoys
below the rank of Ambassador were relegated to a table by them
selves. They left the hall in a body and in a huff. They made
a protest to the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office had no juris
diction over such a corporation. The Ministers who remember
this nonsensical slight, based on rank, have never since put their
foot in Guildhall, and the stupid corporation has never yet made
an apology. From the revelations which have transpired in relation to the
reception of General Grant at the court of Queen Victoria, and
the insulting discriminations at that court against the American
women 'who desire presentation, it would seem but a very small

OTTOMAN SIMPLICITY OF NAMES.

495

matter to be " relegated" to a lower rank when bearing such a
magnificent title as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipo
tentiary, but it is otherwise when such illustrious titular person
ages as Ambassadors have such extraordinary privileges. Perhaps
some day there will be reformatory movements in respect to
certain grades connected with the public service, and such move
ments will certainly comprehend merit as the main element by
which facilities and courtesies in office shall be accorded.
This is aside from the observations pertinent to this chapter.
Is the Turk an arrogant or an humble personality ? Do the
Mahometan faith and Eastern institutions tend to promote ego
tism and vanity ? These queries, if truly answered, give the key
to unlock many of the historic, individual and social points in
Oriental experience.
The Psalmist refers to a class of men of old who laid out towns
which they named after themselves. It is said in the Old Testa
ment that there were no " Smiths " in all Israel, but the class of
which the anonymous Smith is the type existed then. Smith of
Smithville, and Boggs of Boggsville, and their congenitors, like
Shakespeare, are for all time. But it is one of the anomalies of
the East, wherever the Koran is the rule of conduct, that the
names of people are of the simplest kind. In fact, in the Turk
ish empire, and in its highest official roster, the names are of the
simplest. With repetitious inconvenience, the Mehmets, Achmeds,
Alls, Sule'imans, Osmans, Saids, Abdullahs, Emins, Mustaphas,
Selims, Moussas and Tewfiks have such " damnable iteration " as
to confuse the native as well as the foreigner.
The lists of titles in the books of heraldry of Western nations
have little to compare with the humble nomenclature of the East.
The religion of Mahomet makes all equal before the Supreme
Spiritual Allah. In fact, when an Oriental, by the partiality of
parents, is endowed with a grandiose name, the child, when of
discreet age, assumes the virtue, if he has it not, of reducing his
appellation. In the East, or in Turkey, all names, as well of localities as
of persons,' have an interior and sometimes a poetic meaning.
The names" of the valleys and hills, as well as of the very casties
and palaces on the Bosporus, signify something substantial. Take
the names along the Straits. For instance, Dolma Bagtche, the
rarest of palaces, signifies a ravine, once a garden and now filled

496 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
up ! Pilav Ka'ia means a rock of rice ; it is white. Fil Bournou
means the nose of an elephant ; Buyukdere is a great valley ¦
Yeni Mahalle is a new quarter ; Madjar Kalessi is a Hungarian
fort ; Therapia is Greek for health ; Beycos is the place where
Beys did congregate ; Yeni Keui is a new village ; Kandilli, an
illuminated spot ; Kouroutchesme, a dry fountain ; Ortakeui is
literally Middletown; Bechiktash is a stone cradle; and Kadikeui
is the village of the judge. When there was a bad judge, they used
to send him there out of the way. Every town or stream, as
Emerson said of Irish scenery, is full of poetry, and the names
have ideal significance !
It may strike the superficial observer of Oriental usages as
peculiar that, in the Ottoman dominion, there are no tities of
nobility, no aristocracy or inherited titles. The Sultan himself
is no more, in the light of the Koran, than his va.&2.x\.&i.X. serviteur I
¦Another democratic element here comes out of the Oriental land
of religion, where every soul is equal before its Maker. It is this:
that every Mussulman, however high his rank, from the Sultan
down to the lowest Dervish, is compelled to have a trade. The
grandfather of the present Sultan was a tooth-pick maker. I do
not know to what trade the present Sultan was apprenticed ; but
certainly he is a good machinist, judging by the skill with which
he investigates all the contrivances of enginery tendered him for
the protection of the Bosporus and the capital.
The boatman, porter, slave or groom may not only be eligible
to be called Pasha, but there is no exclusive clique or caste to
render them ineligible to any office in Turkey. " The butcher of
to-day," says some one, " may be the generalissimo of to-morrow;
and the barber who takes an Effendi by the nose on Monday, may
on Tuesday be called by the throne to take him by the hand."
The lowest slave to-day may become Grand Vizier to-morrow. In
fact, many of the present Ministers have arisen from the humblest
walks and avocations to their exalted positions. " Our poets of
the East," said Saladin to the Lion-Hearted King Richard, "say
that a valiant camel-driver is worthy to kiss the lip of a fair queen,
when a cowardly prince is not worthy to salute the hem of her
garment." Where in all this Oriental wealth of imagery and incident may
one find an humble pearl to string for my readers ? 'Well, I find
it in a little verse of Beaumont and Fletcher. I call it the humil-

THE ORIENT PEARL OF HUMILITY.

497

ity of the Oriental. The self-abnegation of " the best of men
that e'er wore earth about him " was that of
"A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit;
The first true gentleman that ever breathed."
I may conclude, therefore, with a tribute to the humility of
the Oriental, whence came this gentlest of "gentle-men."

CHAPTER XXXVIL
TURKISH TIME^FASTING AND FESTAL DAYS.
The time of day and night in Constantinople needs to be
heeded. It is a great puzzle to those who are not initiated. It
requires that the stranger should buy a journal every day, in
order to be certain of the time when the steamers and the cars
leave. The hotels are compelled to keep two clocks. Sometimes
I in the morning, Turkish time, means 6 o'clock in our time; and
sometimes it means 9 o'clock. Besides, owing to the numerous
races and religions in the Orient, there are various days for the
Sabbath, Christmas, New Year and Easter. They make inex
tricable confusion, while the old time of the Russians and Greeks
still more confounds us — as to the fetes and Saints' days. It is a
pity, if only on the argument ab convenienti, that Saint Gregory,
with his calendar, is not unanimously acceptable to these diverse
peoples. There are many periodical returns of festive or religious
days among the Mahometans. On the 28th of September, a. d.
622, the prophet left Mecca for Medina. The last city was more
faithful to him than Mecca. From this event comes the first
day and year of the Hegira. Hegira literally means " emi
grate." It is from an Arab word called Heudjret. Seventeen
years after the Hegira, Caliph Omar, brother-in-law of the
Prophet, felt the necessity of having a chronological system, and
as the Arabs were learned in such matters at that time, they
called a grand council of the Mussulman notables and arranged
a system. By common accord, the era of two hundred millions
of people upon our planet begins on the first of Muherrem, or
the 28th of September, in the year of our Lord, 622.
The Mussulman's year is eleven days shorter than our own.
There is no equivalent for the months of his calendar. The
month which corresponds to January in one year will, sixteen
years afterward, correspond with July.
The Turkish month takes its name and its season from the
moon, and the Turkish Ramazan fast runs through every season
498

NEW YEAR IN TURKEY— ITS GIFTS.

499

in the course of thirty-three years. It is hard on the poor work
man and boatman in summer; but they stand fast by their prin
ciples, despite thirst and fatigue. When Ramazan ends, do these
Faithful rush for their kebabs Sind pilaf s ? No: they have their
pipes filled and the match in hand. Tobacco has a prior attach
ment to food.
This Muherre7n, or the first day of the month of that title, is
celebrated by all Moslems, from the highest to the lowest. The
Hegira, which occurred in a. d. 1886, was the thirteen hundred
and fourth. As an anniversary, it has not- so much significance
among che Arabs as among the Turks ; nor has it had, until lately,
so much among the Moslems of Turkey. The Turks are beginning
to keep the Western custom of New Year's Day. There is a recep
tion at the palace of Yildiz. It begins at 9 o'clock in the morn
ing, by our time; when the functionaries — civil, military and
religious — repair to the palace to pay their homage to the Sultan
and Caliph. The two leading chamberlains receive the visitors
for His Majesty. Many forn^alities are exchanged. One inter
esting custom is the presentation of money to those who call.
This money is literally a New Year's gift — a Monharremic.
Presents with the Turk symbolize happiness. They indicate
a wish for the prosperity of the recipient. Last year there
were a number of Turkish gold pieces specially minted for this
purpose. To Osman Pasha, the hero of Plevna, was confided the
function of distributing these coins to the various functionaries
and the members of the household. They are considered as
talismans. They bring blessings. The upper ten thousand of the
Mahometans follow this example in their own households. So
that New Year is really a day of gifts as well as of felicitations.
Are the Foreign Ministers included in this precious ceremony ?
I regret to say, only so far as the Dragoman, or interpreter, of
the Legation is concerned. He goes to the palace for the pur
pose of presenting the congratulations of his chief, the Minis
ter. I wish it had fallen to my lot to bear away one of the
small purses. They make a pretty souvenir — made as they are
of white tulle, containing some of the fresh golden mint drops,
which glisten with pleasant associations. But I have a more
enduring and tasteful souvenir of the Sultan. It pleases me to
remember the decoration of the first class of the Order of the
Medjidie, made a still more precious memorial, not only by the

500 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
privilege accorded of dedicating this volume to His Majesty, but
by the fact that, after I had resigned my post, and could no longer
in any way, except as a good friend in a distant country, be
accounted in any relation to the Sultan, he tendered me the order
established to honor his father, Abdul Medjid, whom I saw in a. d.
185 1, on my first visit to the capital. Such gifts in our littie life,
which is " rounded with a sleep," seem like dreams of fai'rie land;
so remote are they from our ordinary experiences.
In order to usher in the New Year, a rocket is fired from the
heights of Kandilli. It is the best ground of vantage for observa
tion to be found on the Straits. The rocket is a signal for the pre
cise moment of the New Year. It is regulated, as it is said, by the
southing of Sirius, which occurs- three-fourths of a minute before
midnight Responsive signals in the shape of blue and Bengal
fires flash back from the hills of Hissar, Bebek and Scutari. Then
the city knows that its Mahometan New Year has begun.
On the first day of the year the Gregorian Armenians, through
their Patriarch, Monsieur Vehabedian, make their prayers for the
preservation of the precious life of the Sultan. The Greek churches
may do the same. The English do.
The Meolond is another fete day. It is the anniversary of the
birth of the Prophet. To announce it, a sunset gun is fired at
Tophane and from the men-of-war in the Golden Horn. The day
begins at sunset. The mosques, public buildings and ships are
illuminated. The streets are filled with people. It is celebrated
with pomp at the palace. An assemblage gathers to see the
Sultan go to the mosque. Carriages throng the palace gates with
officers of high rank; some in simple morning dress and others
ablaze with decorations. Illustrious strangers appear at the
Corps de Garde. The troops are there, as if it were Salemlik. The
Sultan appears with the usual company; sometimes on horseback,
sometimes in a magnificent phaeton and a pair of white barbs,
which he drives. The ceremony inside of the m,osque is accord
ing to ancient usage. It consists of special prayers for the festi
val, and the reading, by the almoners of the palace, of passages
from the biography of the Prophet. Refreshments are offered,
sweetmeats being the prevailing delicacy. Pounds and poundsof
bonbons are distributed among the spectators. The dignitaries are
admitted to the Throne-room, and pay their respects to the Sultan.
The loth of March, old style, comes around. It is the anni-

OTHER ANNIVERSARIES.

501

versary of the birth of the Emperor of Russia. That must be
celebrated, also, by the good Slavs. Constantinople is not so
bigoted but that a Te Deu7n is possible in the Russian Embassy
at Pera. At this ceremony all the personnel of the embassy
and all the Russian boats and folks which are in and around the
harbor assist. They know how to assist, and sing too. Then
follows the customary salutations to the Russian Minister from
the Russian colony. Then there is a grand dinner in the even
ing, and all the Slavs secretly rejoice in some dim future connected
with her orthodox religion in St. Sophia, and her rule in the olden
home of its prelates and rulers.
The Greek Church signalizes its felicity upon the first day of
the year in the old style. The Russian Embassy, at that time,
has mass said and the Te Deu7}i sung in their chapel, in the pres
ence of their embassy, including its male and female heads. They
are all in full uniform. The Montenegrin Minister is there, along
with the Servian, and many Bulgarians attend. It is a Slavonic
occasion. Delegates from the Patriarchs often attend. After
the religious services are over, the Russian Minister receives a
deputation from the colony in grand state, for it is a welcome to
the Greek, Russian and other orthodox residents of Constanti
nople. It may be more. It is meant as a significant sign of the
coming time when Mahometanism and the Sultan shall give place
to the Czar and orthodoxy.
Whenever a prince becomes of age, as in the case of the Prince
Royal of Greece, last year, or a birthday of some princeling, king
or emperor happens, there is much made of it in the Legations and
churches. On the Greek occasion, in the Church of St. Maria,
the Minister, Monsieur Coundouriotti, and the members of the
consular and diplomatic bodies, were present, and a reception was
held afterward.
Whenever a Minister leaves Constantinople for another post,
as when Count Corti left for England or Monsieur Grouich for
Russia, there is much to-do a'oout giving him a gallant send-off.
My impression is that they deserve and appreciate the good-will
which is loth to part with them; for while in service here most of
their life seems to consist in the perpetual recognition of cour
tesies, which they return with ceaseless and exemplary reiteration.
The Ramazan and Bairam fetes have often been described.
The first is like our Lent; the second, our Easter. The Rama-

502 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
zan lasts a month or more. It is during this fast, on the twenty-
fourth night, that the decrees of Mahometan fate are taken
from the preserved table by God's throne and settled for ever.
They are turned over to the angels to be executed. As it was on
this night that Mahomet received his first revelation, it is called
Kadir gejesy or " night of power."
During Ramazan the good Moslem neither eats, drinks nor
smokes from sunrise to sunset. He makes up for it after sunset
Still, he is not physically happy by day or night. Hence Bairam
is welcomed; not only because it terminates Ramazan, but It is
the beginning of joyance, with its receptions and congratulations.
Of these receptions, that of the Sultan is supreme for its splendor.
It is both religious and civil, and all the dignitaries, including the
diplomats, are on hand at the palace to partake in and enjoy the'
spectacle. The Bairam is always hailed as no other gala season. To the
faithful, the salvo at sunset which ushers in Bairam is a cheerful
sound. Annoyances, dyspepsia and wrongs disappear. All that
is associated with hospitality, fun, frolic, good temper and con
gratulations are ushered in with noisy exhilaration. All the gay
colors and rich silks and satins of the higher class, and all the
bright wardrobes of the lower class, are worn in scrupulous neat
ness upon the streets. The Turk then puts on his best suit of
store clothes. The muslin of his turban is as unflecked as polar
snow. The fez is no lunger soiled. The metropolis is dressed in hol
iday attire. Music pervades the streets, plays at the doors of the
houses, and is rewarded with gifts of charity, not in money alto
gether, but in articles of all kinds, so that the musicians go home
from their charavari with laden baskets. Neighbors and friends
make the Turkish salute and salaam. They kiss their fingers across
squares. From early morning there is an animated scene on the
water and in the streets. The vessels are decorated from boom to
truck. Gilded boats have their finest tapestries and are manned
by their best oarsmen. The very gulls and other sea birds fly
around screaming their joy at the vanishing of Ramazan and the
advent of Bairam.
But the grand pageant at the palace is not now what it was
before the burning down of the Seraglio. Then the officers of the
government, civil and ecclesiastical, thronged to this spot. Stran
gers were allowed, as they are to-day, to visit the grand kiosk — the

THE JOYS OF BAIRAM. 503
charming pavilion which overlooks the lovely scene. In the olden
time, when the gates of the Seraglio were opened, it was a gay
throng that passed through the court and lingered under the
immense plane-trees, some of which remain to this day. In its
general features the Bairam at the palace now is the same as that
of the olden time. There is some marked change, especially in
the dress of the people and officials. The Ministers and others
are clad in straight, methodistical frock coats. Where now are
the flowing robe, the big round turban and the enormous
breeches ? The coats are covered with embroidery and decora
tions, but the tarbouch, or fez, is not very grandiose and impres
sive. No one, unless he has seen it, can imagine the splendid
appearance of the soldiers and officers on these occasions. Em
broidery, in which the Turks excel, silver and gold embroidery,
and swords damascened and gilded, in which they also excel,
give their tasteful richness to the scene. The housings of
the horses, the very playfulness of the horses, and the orna
mentation of the carriages indicate that the joyful time has
come. On these occasions we have an idea of the wealth of
"Ormus and of Ind," in all their gorgeousness of apparel and
luxury of power.
At first, the way in which the Ottoman measures his time seems
odd to us. His day commences at sunset, and the hours of the
day swing around in that cycle to sunset again. But the most
curious performance for a nation which has drawn so much from
the first astronomers of Arabia, is that by which the recurrence of
the festive day of Bairam is regulated. On one occasion the Rama
zan lasted only twenty-eight days. This was not because the moon
failed in punctuality; but probably the Astronomer Royal, and
not the moon, was at fault, or grew tired of fasting. On another
occasion the feast of Ramazan was prolonged for thirty-one days.
This was owing to the negligence of a judge. He lost his head for
his laches. Is it not somewhat comical that, in a land where
there is ample mathematical and astronomical knowledge, its civil
and ecclesiastical rulers do not rely upon exact science for the
appearance of the moon or the setting of fasts and feasts ? There
must be no conjuring with Arabic numerals or zodiacal signs in
these matters. The moon must be seen actually and optically by
some one or more persons, and these must be credible witnesses.
They must give their testimony that they saw the moon; mark

504 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
you, one moon only. If they saw two or more moons, it would go
to their credibility. These witnesses must present themselves
before the cadi of Constantinople, and prove the fact circumstan
tially. The cadi is sometimes an ecclesiastical judge; one of the
canons, as it were. He weighs the testimony religiously. If the
evidence is reliable and the circumstances of the case are satisfac
torily proven, Bairam is fixed for the next morning ; very early in
the morning, as we know to our sorrow. The first witness of the
moon receives a gift of ten thousand piastres ($450). A piastre
is nearly four and one-half cents. The second witness receives a
gift of five thousand piastres, and the third of twenty-five hundred.
The witnesses selected to catch the first glimpse of the moon are
special functionaries of the Sheik-ul-Islam. There is great com
petition among them.
The witnesses of the appearance of her lunar majesty seek
the highest point in the neighborhood from which the moon can
first be seen ; and from which, reckoning very closely, they can
bring the authentic news to the cadi in the city, before her maj
esty announces herself. Last year Mount Olympus was selected
as the point of observation of some of the witnesses. Others
selected certain Daghts, in Asia, nearer by, but not so high as
Mount Olympus. From these watch-towers what a race takes
place ! At Modana, small steamers are kept puffing, to bear the
news from Olympus to the city. No pen of mine can describe the
trial of speed which these witnesses make for the specific reward.
May I draw on the pencil of fancy ? One of the witnesses is on
foot, another is upon a donkey, and a third on a dromedary; and
a fourth, who was rather slow in getting up the mountain, is very
fast in coming down. He is mounted on a fleet horse. Others in
various ways seek to be the first with the glad tidings of great joy.
The Bairam which occurred the 2d of July, 1886, was a rare
one in our experience. The United States ship of war Kearsarge
was in the Bosporus. I was, in all hospitality, bound to look
after her officers. The Fourth of July was approaching. The
Commencements of the American College and the American
Female Home School in Scutari were also on hand; all within
two or three days, and Bairam was expected every moment! We
had been deprived of the privilege of Bairam the year before,
owing to the breaking out of hostilities in Bulgaria; therefore,
we were more than usually anxious to be on hand at the Palace of

A

MOON-GAZERS RUNNING FOR THEIR REWARD AT BAIRAM.

5o6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Dolma Bagtch6 when the artillery should announce that Bairam '
had begun. We were on the tiptoe of expectation. Would it be
the ist of July? We were all fearful of it. In that case
some of our engagements would be spoiled. Is it to be the
2d? We will not know until the guns are fired on the ist.
We are at Prinkipo, fifteen miles from Constantinople. In order
to reach Dolma Bagtche, we musti voyage for two hours and a half
over the sea of Marmora in our launch. Would we have good
weather and a smooth sea ? Besides, we have to make our toilet
All will be hurry and confusion. Luckily, the night before we
are advised. A telegram comes from the First Chamberiain.
Translated it reads as follows:
" To His Excellency the American Minister, Prinkipo :
" In order to be present at the ceremony to-morrow, you -will come in the
morning to the Palace of Dolma Bagtche, between one and half-past, time a la
Turipue, in company with Madame Cox and Monsieur the first dragoman. "Munir."
It will be noted that the time is half-past one, Turkish time.
That means six or seven hours after our time, according to
native reckoning ; so that, in order to be present at the 7 o'clock
reception at Dolma Bagtche, we have to sail over the ancient
Propontis by the light of the morning stars.
We arrive on time. We meet our friends at the Hotel Royal.
There are several tourists from America to go with us. Among
them is a bevy of " sweet girl graduates " from Chicago. They
are alive to the grand occasion.
From the palace gates at Yildiz, mounted on a splendid white
Arab steed, the Sultan rides forth ! He rides down the de
clivity from the heights of Yildiz to the mosque of Dolma
Bagtchd for prayers. Lines of soldiers from all the regiments
guard his way. The procession which follows him is brilliant
There is the Sheik-ul-Islam, the spiritual head of the faith !
Behind him are the Grand Vizier, the Ministers, and all the digni
taries of the household — military, civil and domestic. The crowds
on the streets are enormous. Excitement and enthusiasm fill every
avenue. Is this Turkey in decrepitude ? The fervor of the
reception accorded to the Sultan does not indicate the " Sick man.'
The weather is perfect. The morning is fresh. The scene is
charming. The Sultan dismounts from his charger before the

THE SULTAN'S APPEARANCE.

50;

mosque and enters. There is a hush in all the streets. The air
seems full of the solemnity of prayer. At the end of a half hour
the bugles sound. The artillery thunders. Its echoes resound
from hill to hill. This is the signal that His Majesty has ended
his devotions ! He is about to enter the palace ! The grand

INTERIOR STAIRCASE OF D0LMA-BAGTCH6 PALACE.

reception ensues ! This is the jocund occasion of the year. The
vociferous greetings of the troops and people are wildly joyous !
The deference shown to this Ruler and Father of the Faith
ful is beyond comprehension to the Western mind. We are
accustomed to regard Turkey as almost dying, if not dead. Far

5o8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
from this being the case here, all is active loyalty and patriotic
enthusiasm. It is impossible to give a description of this palace of Dolma
Bagtche. The eye alone can appreciate its grandeur and beau
ties. Its general view we have pictured in another chapter. Its
gates, like fairy handicraft, "twined in many a freakish knot,"
and wrought into marble under the spell of Oriental Magi, have
also been presented. Its staircase is now before us. It is only
equaled in exquisite and beautiful proportion by the hall of
reception. This is a splendid chamber.
The great hall is prepared for the ceremony before we arrive.
After much kindly courtesy on the part of the Sultan's aids, who
come to greet us at the gates of the palace, we are shown to the
gallery of state. It overlooks the scene. Rich carpets of the
Orient are laid over the marble pavements. They are arranged
to indicate the stations for the throng of officials who come to
pay festive homage. There is a throne in the midst of the cham
ber. It is covered by a cloth of gold. There is a band in an
alcove, which discourses operatic music. There is a buffet near,
where those who arose early may indulge in the refreshments of
coffee and sandwiches. At 7 o'clock we are all prepared for
the entree. There is a hush in the vast chamber ! From one
corner of the hall emerges the Sultan ! The cloth of gold is
removed from the throne. Three young princes take their sta
tion near His Majesty ; two are his nephews, one his son. The
officers of the household are aligned near his person. Thus
ushered by the grand master of ceremonies, this autocrat of forty
millions of people is enthroned. The band plays the Imperial
march. The assembled multitude shout, " Long live the Sul
tan ! " The princely salutation is taken up by the crowds with
out. It rolls in patriotic outbursts through all the streets. The
hand-kissing follows. First come the civil functionaries, from the
Grand Vizier down. They approach on His Majesty's right.
They make the regulation salute. It is a most singular perform
ance. They press reverently to their forehead a broad scarf
attached to the right arm of the throne, which is held during the
ceremony by the First Chamberlain. Then they withdraw to
their places. The naval and military officers now come to the
front. They repeat the ceremony. Then the religious person
ages with great grace and dignity approach. They are upon

THE SULTAN'S RECEPTION AT BAIRAM.

509

another line of carpets. They touch with lip and forehead the
Sultan's vestment This is their especial privilege. It is sacred.
One is utterly dazed at the rich, ornate confusion of color and
costume which belong to this gracious Oriental proceeding.
We lean over the balcony to see what comes next. An aide is
near. We whisper to him :
"Who is that," we inquire, " in white robes, followed by offi
cers in green ? ' '
" It is the Sheik-ul-Islam," responds the aide. " Those in green
are the Cazaskiers."
"What ! Are the orders known by their colors ? "
" Yes. Note two other orders ; one in green, one in violet —
and still another in dark blue. The last are the Stamboul
priesthood." The Sheik-ul-Islam is the most conspicuous of those who
attend upon this ceremony. He is dressed in his white caftan ;
his turban of white is crossed in front by a band of gold. He is
next to the Sultan in religious rank, and when he undertakes to
make the salutation which is usual, the Sultan prevents the per
formance of the homage and meets him half way. All this goes
on while the band plays airs from some delightful opera and the
cannon thunders from fort to fort, and amid shouts of " Long live
the Sultan ! "
How long this ceremony occupies, it is impossible to recall ;
perhaps two hours. The music stops. The fifth act is ended —
without a tragedy. The members of the Imperial family retire to
the private room of the palace. There they receive the remain
der of their Bairam felicitations.
We are particular in describing this ceremony, because it has
in it much of Oriental style. It is redolent of the days of the
early Sultans and Caliphs, who received at Bairam, in the Seraglio,
before its conflagration. Besides, at this ceremony we see the
high officials of the religious, civil, military and naval establish
ments. It does not entirely exclude the Foreign Ministers. We
are permitted to pay our special respects after the ceremony,
through our dragomans, at the palace of Yildiz.
There are two Bairam seasons. Seventy days after the one
just described is the festival of Kurban Bairam. It is the
feast of sacrifice. It is doubtless taken from the Jewish system.
It is a sacrifice of sheep and oxen, and lasts four days. Artil-

5 lO DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
lery announces the beginning of this latter fete at 5 in the
morning. At once the true Mussulman leaves his bed and begins
the sacrifice. In every house at least one sheep must be sacrificed.
It is a family offering. The meat is distributed to the poor, and
a portion kept for the family. At the palace this sacrifice is on
a grand scale. In the cemeteries the priests are busy making
their sacrificial offerings upon the graves of departed relatives. A
ram is killed for every member of the Imperial family at the pal
ace. Where do these animals come from ? At the beginning of
this Bairam, you see men and boys leading them around the
streets gaily decorated. They are for sale. Sometimes, if the
ram, by his good keeping, has grown beyond ordinary size, you
will see a hamal, or slave, carrying him about the streets for the
owner. Some of these sheep are of enormous bulk; the tail is no
exception to the exaggeration. The rams sacrificed at the palace
number about two hundred.
Before they are displayed or sacrificed, they are led into a
Turkish bath, where they are soaked and washed. The wool
being thus made immaculate, is carefully combed. Their horns
are covered with thin golden leaves and adorned with artificial
flowers and ribbons of gay hue. A mirror is attached to their
foreheads, which are tinted with henna. This toilet of the royal
rams is made in the park of the old Seraglio, after which they are
conducted to Yildiz. It is quite a procession. Each ram is led
by two men. The men wear an ancient costume. It is a long
coat of green, adorned with gold lace. The heads of the men
are shaven ; they wear a long green hat.
Along with this sacrificial ceremony there is a custom called
the Bairam Namazi. This year it is performed at the mosque
of Bechiktash, with much military and civic demonstration. The
Sultan rides a magnificent white palfrey. It is from Bagdad. He
is accompanied and followed by the court marshals and the high
functionaries, civil and military; Osman Pasha, being Grand Mar
shal of the court, is on the right ; and Namyk Pasha, the Senior
Marshal of the court, on the left. As the Sultan approaches each
regiment in turn, the troops cheer and each band plays the Impe
rial March. When he reaches the mosque he is received with tre
mendous cheers. The devotions last a short time. The outsider
cannot see ; he only hears the melodious chanting of the Arab
Ulemas from Mecca. When the prayers are over, the troops form

CONGRATULATIONS AT THE BAIRAM OF 1886.

511

a line on either side to the Dolma Bagtche palace. Then are
brought out the magnificent horses of the Imperial stud, harnessed
and caparisoned. The saddle-cloths are of violet velvet, covered
with rich embroideries of gold and pearls. They are distinguish
able even amidst the decorations and lace of the Pashas, who
mount the horses and follow His Majesty. The Sultan's suite is
composed not only of the high dignitaries of his court, but all the
superior officers of the realm on foot. Then the court carriages
follow, surrounded by eunuchs on foot in their uniforms ; but
their vigilance is not so keen as to prevent a bright eye and beau
teous form, arrayed in diamonds and other jewelry, from making
itself seen in the carriage and felt outside ; nor can the black
guard prevent the eyes of the odalisque from shining like stars
in a heaven of beauty.
Arriving at the palace, four rams are sacrificed at once.
The Great Almoner recites prayers for the preservation of His
Majesty. Then follows the ceremony inside the palace, which is not
unlike that of the other Bairam, of which we had personal observa
tion. Considering the condition of the Turkish realm at the
last preceding Bairam; observing the intense loyalty now dis
played on both these occasions, in this year of grace, 1886; and
knowing the amiable and moderate qualities of the Sultan — the
present is truly a season for gladness. No doubt the dignitaries
of state so consider it. Turkey survives the dangers which the
agitation in the Balkan Peninsula engenders. One reason why
the ministry was dismissed at the Bairam season of 1885 was,
that they advised instant war to suppress the insurrection in
East Roumelia. The Sultan was wiser than his counselors. He
called in a new ministry, and by self-restraint sheathed the
sword that was half-drawn. His political foresight discerns that
a war in Bulgaria about East Roumelia would involve Servia,
Greece, Macedonia and Crete. Such a belligerency would involve
Europe. The Powers observe the sagacity of this forbearance on
the part of the Sultan. They recognize that in his wisdom lies
the strength of the Ottoman power. Therefore, this last Bairam
is a time of national and universal rejoicing, not only for the Sul
tan and his Ottomans, but for those who love peace and forbear
ance rather than war and passion. Long may this wise Sultan
remain as father of the Faithful ! Long may he enjoy the recur
rence of the feasts of Bairam!

CHAPTER XXXVIIL
THE harem — INNOVATIONS, DRESSES AND INCIDENTS.
Those who sa)- that Constantinople is permanent, and likely
to remain as she was a half century ago, are not competent jud
ges, unless they have seen the city inside and outside within this
period. It is thirty-five years since I saw the city first. Five years after
that time the Crimean War came. It changed nearly every phase
of life. A different condition of men and things existed before
that war. For example: never was there such a cascade of rough-
hewn stones as the street, which yet remains, known as Step
Street. It was the main thoroughfare between Galata and Pera.
Now a railway brings you and your merchandise up the high hill
of Pera and back to its foot at Galata. The old walls, towers
and the moat have been modernized. The moat is a vegetable
garden. What with the aid of conflagrations and reasonable
police, the streets of Pera, which were so narrow that you could
almost shake hands with your neighbor across them, are a mem
ory. In 1 85 1 they were unlighted. They had no names or num
bers. Now it is different, at least in Pera. Now there is a local
post I will not avouch for its promptitude. They have a tele
graph, and it is well administered. It is under the government
control. They have railway lines and a tramway. Here and
there, even in old Stamboul, may be seen some stray cabs, called
talikas. The dogs still remain in all their howling perversity,
and so do the dervishes. In 1851 it was dangerous to go through
the streets of Pera and Galata after sundown. Practical improve
ments have certainly grown apace.
Since leaving Constantinople, the rumors have been rife of
various innovations, not merely in the world of Islam, but inside
the harem and seraglio. It is said that the ladies of the harem
have heretofore occupied particular apartments, which have only
been known to the Sultan and the Chief of the E unuchs. The inno-

CH4NGES AND REFOR.US IN THE HAREM

5I-?

vation consists in sharing this knowledge with the physicians
attached to the household. Certainly, if this be the case, no more
worthy selection could be made than that of Doctor Mavroyeni,
who is the chief physician. He is the father of the present Turk
ish Minister to the United States. It is said that each Sultana
now enjoys the luxury of a visiting card, which she affixes on the
outer door of her apartment. Where there is much visiting to

A TURKISH LADY OF 185I.

and from room to room, doubtless many facilities are given by
this new mode of communication.
The story is told that one hundred and fifty of the women of
the seraglio have been recently vaccinated. This was done in
a large hall, under the superintendence of four eunuchs, by an
Italian surgeon — but not without some innovation ? The sur
geon is stationed in front of a huge screen, behind which are
the women. A hole is made in the screen, large enough to allow

514 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
the female arm to pass through. The surgeon does not see the
face of his fair patient. But in order to avoid the possibility of
seeing it, two of the eunuchs stand over the operator, and the
instant the operation is concluded, cover his face with a shawl.
Whether this be true or not, and I am inclined to doubt it, there
has been much change in the sanitary regulations of the harem.
Hereby hangs a little story, whose locality is farther east than
Stamboul. It is told of a young Oriental houri. She is anxious
to be cured of some temporary illness, but has no faith in the
native physician. She wants a European doctor. She arranges
cunningly to be rumored for a time as a famous male saint, one
who had accomplished the great pilgrimage to Mecca. She dresses
herself in saintly robes. She is quite reserved and learned. Had
not the saint achieved a great reputation ? In fact, she is one of
the household, if not a wife, of the saint she represents. She
plays a shrewd trick; for when the doctor, who was ostensibly
summoned by this saint, arrives at the harem, he is led, not
without tremor, by the eunuch through many an empty room
without carpet or seat. He wearies -with his long trudging
through the many seatless chambers. At last he reposes
upon a raised window-ledge. The guide disappears. There is
a dead silence, only broken by the hum of a wasp or a blue
bottle. Time hangs heavily; the hours pass; the doctor becomes
impatient Thinking that he is imprisoned, or that he is played
upon, he shouts at the full pitch of his voice. The servant
returns hurriedly; his manner is changed. He conducts the doc
tor to the holy man's apartment. The saint remains reserved.
He does not rise on the doctor's entrance, nor offer the doctor
a cushion. The doctor has " to take the floor in his own right,"
as they say in Congress. Then the holy man pretends to regret
the want of civility; it had not been intentional. The doctor sees
his patient — thatris, a piece of her, for it was the odalisque. She
thrusts a plump arm from out of a large veil, and takes care that
naught but her lips should be visible; she puts out her tongue;
the prescription is written on a cigarette paper, and the doctor
retires amidst roars of laughter from a crowd Of veiled women,
who form the saint's seraglio.
There is much objurgation from the old Turk against the
changes that are going on within the harem. The innovations
have begun, not merely in the dress of its inmates, but in the very

ROOM FOR MORE REFORM.

515

furniture. The divan is being crowded out by chairs. Girandolas
of Austrian manufacture, portieres and curtains of rich crimson
silk velvet, with borderings of gold, beautiful beyond expression,
.still remain to give their gorgeous orientalism.
It is a pity that the rascals in Anatolia should have been
allowed to drive a prosperous trade by forging ancient coins ; for
this counterfeiting has detracted from the handsome bracelets
and necklaces which Turkish ladies wear, and which are composed
•of these ancient golden coins. As they were once very scarce,
they were highly appreciated as a superb style of ornament
Their disuse is an innovation, but is it reform ?
What is the boy selling yonder? Let us ask. Orris root for
tooth-brushes and tooth-picks. His business is brisk, for the
tooth-brush, in spite of the prejudice of the Koran against the
hair of the hog, has become a part of the furniture of the harem.
Is this also a sign of reform ? A little! Even the henna no longer
stains the fingers of the houri. That custom, at least, has been
in great part abolished. Is not this reform ?
I sometimes wish that Spanish almonds had never been
invented or imported into Turkey. The beautiful Turkish woman,
whether the effeminate Circassian or the brilliant Georgian, often
times, previous to the great event of her life, plucks out every hair
¦of her eyebrows; then she replaces them by two stripes of black
dye from the burnt almond. These stripes are raised about an
inch high upon the forehead. Does this fashion indicate a Tartar
•or Turkish relation with the Ohinese ? It used to be more of a
habit with the Turkish women, on great occasions, than it is at
present. If this custom is a matter of coquetry, do they not mis
take human nature ? In many ways they exercise good taste in
¦dressing, but this fantastic eyebrow is atrocious. Sometimes
they paint the eyebrows' to meet across the nose ; sometimes they
raise them at the outer point to the temple. These caprices of
the harem are barbaric. They are falling into deserved desue
tude. Here is room for — reform. Indeed, although there is much
the same general costume among the Turkish women now as in
185 1, there are differences, apparent even in the sketches here
presented. I have the best authority — no less than that of Mrs. Walker, an
•artist who has been frequently called upon to paint portraits of
princesses and other ladies of quality in the harems — that time has

5i6

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

written wonderful changes in its inner life. It is no longer the
lustreless and lazy Ottoman life, where education and employ
ment are forbidden, and where nothing is to be heard except the
tinkle of the zebec, the notes of the fiddle, the rattle of the tam
bourine, and a chorus of female voices, which require immense dis
tances to mellow into harmony.
The police orders are frequent as to the rearrangement of the

A TURKISH LADY OF 1887.

costume, as if the Turkish women were endeavoring to assimilate
their habits and difficulties to the freer life of the Frank. Still,
there is great reserve as to the harem, and the recent innovations
by which European doctors have been called in to vaccinate and
otherwise care for the physical well-being of its inmates is an
accomplished and significant fact. There is, therefore, great
improvement in the care of women and children under the new
conditions of medical progress.

THE DRESSES OF THE HAREM.

517

It is by no means easy to have the entree to the inner life of
Turkey. Sometimes necessity is the password, even to the doors
of the seraglio. Sometimes the vanity of its inmates touches the
magic spring. Mrs. Walker, to whom I refer, is the author of an
interesting book on Eastern life and scenery. She entered the harem
because she was an artist and a teacher, and the inmates desired
her to paint the portrait of a Sultana ! The account of her pre
liminary and other visits and of her attempt to tame some of the
inmates, and especially of the Sultana's contumacy about the por
trait, are humorous. It seems that the Sultana was determined
to be painted in the newest style, and not in the old Ottoman
costume. Hence many tears and groans from the artist, for the
Sultana had to be gratified. The innovations which are beginning
to make their way into the Turkish harem, especially in matters
of dress, seem to have made it impossible for the artist to secure
either a natural position or the ordinary habit and habitudes of the
regal lady. The artist was compelled, therefore, to contemplate
the conclusion of her work without approving it, but which
seemed to content her model.
Before leaving Constantinople my wife had presented to her
a couple of large French dolls dressed up in the latest style of the
harem. They represent the wardrobe of a lady of rank, with her
antarys, schalvas, and feridjies, slippers, boots, and clothes,
gloves, head-dress, and all. The material is rich in color and
costly, and is made to harmonize inside of the harem with the
furniture. The very dust-pans of the seraglio are generally of
solid silver, the coffee zatfs, chibouque rings, and even the bathing
wooden clogs are incrusted with jewelry. But my inartistic pen
is not equal to the task of a man-milliner. I delegate the descrip
tion of these dresses, for the benefit of my lady readers, to one of
their sex. I present my wife's account :
" The costume of the Turkish lady for the street is very
simple. The feridjie is a large overwrap, much like our ulster or
waterproof It has the additional large cape, which would cor
respond to our dolman, worn over the ulster or feridjie, forming
in part the sleeves, though often the sleeves are made separately
— full and flowing. The garment is generally made of rich silks,
very long. It fastens up all the way in front, concealing entirely
the in-door costume beneath. The dark shades of silk are pre
ferred for ordinary wear, while the brightest colors are none too

5l8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA! IN TURKEY.

TOILETTE FOR INDOORS AND OUT.

519

gay tor gala days. The yashmak vs. the head-covering It is of
thin white mull and covers the head entirely. A band or fold
passes across the forehead, just above the eyes. Another and
similar band passes just below the eyes, both being fastened at
the back with pins and falling beneath the feridjie. Thus only
the eyes are seen, save now and then, when the features are dimly
revealed if the veil be not too thick. When this revelation becomes
too common, an edict is issued from the palace to correct the
custom, and thick veils are again commanded. The gay silk para
sol completes this out-door costume.
" As to the house costume, it has greatly changed since the
earlier days. Now we hear it is the height of a Turkish lady's
ambition to wear a French costume — I mean the ambition of
those who are called the more advanced in their midst. Of
the old style, the full trousers were always worn. They are
known as schalvas, of yellow silk. They were fastened by a
sash, and embroidered elegantly. Over these were worn long
flowing robes, cut in three separate trains, each sweeping about a
half yard on the floor. The train at the back is longer and more
flowing than the two in front. The stuffs of which they are made
were Oriental, with many woven threads of silver or gold. A fancy
head-dress, and diamonds on neck and hair, complete the attire.
In later times the front trains gave way to shortened robes, until
now they are almost abandoned. Of course, when the street wrap
was assumed, these trains were pinned up and entirely hidden
beneath the y^r/i^y^. On festive days the banks of the "Sweet
Waters " are lined with bevies of Turkish ladies, reclining on
their Turkish rugs, in groups or by families. Now and then
they vary this rest by a promenade along the stream, and then it
is observed that they are quite as fond as their European sisters
of the silk-embroidered hose and slipper which adorn the feet of
civilized communities. Only among the latter they are reserved
for in-door wear and not for out-door promenade. The little
stream is thronged with the picturesque ca'iques, with their gilded
prows and crimson velvet draperies. The children are not so
romantic-looking. They resemble rather, in their quaint robes,
little old men and women, owing to the style of making their gar
ments touch the ankles.
"Sweets, ices, lemonade, and cold water are handed around by
the carriers on these crowded festal days. It is thought that this

5 20 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
mode of celebrating a festal day cannot be wildly exciting ; yet
there are slanderous tongues that assert that there is much mis
chief done with the dark eyes of these houris coquetting with the
gay and dashing " uniforms " which fill the promenade."
*******
The afternoon drive to the "Sweet Waters" is, after all, a
part of the seclusion of the Turkish women. They are in the
outer world, but not of it, except in fancy. Observe that elegant
turnout at the door or the haremlik! It is a pretty brougham.
The horses are from the steppes of Russia or the prairies of
Hungary. They are neat, long-tailed, spirited animals. Two
females appear, and are carefully helped by the slave into the
vehicle. The coachman does not get a glimpse of the ladies.
They are screened with their sunshades. The brown satin cush
ions receive their forms; the hand-mirror is brightened, and to its
reflection they commit their glances. They are then ready for
their confectionery and their drive. Their lips are of carnation;
their faces are of a rich, creamy delicacy. Whether on the Gezireh
drive at Cairo, on the Bois at Paris, or the Row in London, in the
Park at New York, or on the way to the "Sweet Waters" of
Europe, these fair ones are not disposed to be too much concealed
from the world.
Only a few of the rich garments which fill the wardrobes of the
harem are ever worn. They are too heavy. They are only for
display. They are presents from the head of the house, and
bestowed with great ceremony. As in all the harems, so even in
the seraglio, the visitors, whom the master of the house do6s not
see unveiled, drive him from the penetralia of his home to seek a
refuge in the Salemlik. The porter never allows ingress without
some testimonial. This requires the countersign of the black
aga, who keeps the key to the cage But why call it a cage?
Nothing can be more delightful, especially in warm summer
weather, than a konak on the hills or a palace on the shores of the
Strahs. At midday the inmates take their siesta. There is a
lullaby in the laughing ripple of the current almost at their feet.
There is an occasional measured plash of passing boats; the
regular rattie of the oar-locks; the murmuring of music in other
chambers; besides a drowsiness and a lack of garish light, which
reminds one of the Cave of Sleep in Spenser's "Faerie Queen.
When a stranger is admitted to such a palace, she is com-

CALLING AT THE HAREM- THE SULTANA. 52 I
pelled to wait awhile. Slaves appear from time to time, with the
expression, "Sheimdy!" "Sheimdy!" This means that after
a little — directly — the lady of the house will appear. Then comes
a stately Circassian dame. She is authorized to conduct the
visitor up the staircase across the salon into the presence of the
mistress, the chief ha7wui/i. If she be a Sultana, her highness,
observing Frankish ways, is seated in an arm-chair near the trel-
lised window overlooking the Bosporus. She is arranging her
toilet, even to her silk antary, in French style, for the skirt has
not put in a general appearance within these sacred precincts.
Most of the stately dames of the richer harems are Circassian,
of fair skin, with blonde or rather chestnut hair, gray or grayish-
blue eyes, a charming mouth and a seraphic smile. The Sul
tana who is to be portrayed by our artist, and to whom reference
has been made, is only nineteen. She is bright and well informed
as to the current news. She cultivates those harsh, guttural
sounds which are the sign of the Arabic, Persian, or aristocratic
utterance of the Turk. She is a daughter of Abdul Medjid. She
marries for political considerations. Being indoctrinated with
the reform movement, which at that time was making many a
heart flutter in the dovecotes of the East, she is determined
to be painted, if not altogether, yet in part, as wearing a Euro
pean lady's ball dress. Of course, the diamonds are abundant on
the dress; They are worth a satrapy, and, in numbers and abun
dance, uncounted.
Her harem consists of about one hundred women and girls.
They are variously bestowed in the palace. As a sign of their
belonging to this special harem they wear a toque of red cloth,
with a small blue tassel hanging from it at the back of the head.
It is a symbol of subjection, like the fez of an Ottoman. From
the observation made of this harem, it is certain that its inmates
are kindly cared for, not merely in the every-day repasts, but in
the amusements which they improvise.
The visitor at Constantinople who goes on Friday to see the
Sultan enter the mosque at prayers, may, if he keeps his eyes
alert, notice many servants bearing circular wooden trays going to
or coming from the palace of Yildiz. These trays are covered by
a thick leather cap, and the whole tied up in a woolen cloth. They
are borne upon the head of the stout servitor whom I have pictured
in Chapter VI. From them are furnished the meals of those who

52 2 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
depend ttpon the Sultan, or are connected with him by blood.
The viands are delicate, and the Sultana whose portrait is to be
taken by our artist receives her share of them from the Imperial
kitchen at Dolma Bagtche.
Another observation about this quasi-impena] harem: the
pasha who married this Sultana is never allowed to see the younger
females of the harem. They scatter when he comes, like a covey
of quail on the appearance of a hunter. So, too, when the Sultana's
brothers arrive. When the Sultan himself comes, no concealment
is necessary. He has the supreme right of gazing at any of his
subjects. He can order the veil to be removed!
There is much teaching going on in the palace of this Sultana,.
most of the teachers being native. What they learn is Arabic,
Turkish, reading, writing, and sometimes arithmetic. Some of the
instruction is religious, and some of the girls of the harem say
their prayers. There are classes in music and dancing, and
lessons on the string instruments which are peculiar to the East.
In the afternoon, if it be favorable, the garden opens for these
houri. Every Thursday they may veil themselves, and, with
their gala-colored feridfies, and under the guard of a eunuch,
disport themselves outside. They make excursions to some
favorite place, returning before the sun goes down. The Sultana
generally remains at home, taking her exercise within her grounds.
Here she has a little lake, with a little boat. She has a horse with
a side-saddle, and here she rides! She has a carriage, and drives
about within her own petty domain. When some unusual attrac
tion allures her from her seclusion, she carries her harem with her,
and under the command of a black aga she takes her walk or
ride either to the " Sweet Waters " of Asia or of Europe.
Our artistic friend, in making a picture of this palace and
its inmates, gives a very strange lesson as to their endeavors
to be amused. The Sultana has a military band. They are
Georgians and Circassians. One lady plays the flute, another the
horn, and a moon-faced beauty the trombone; while another fair
one, Yildiz by name — meaning the star of the harem — crouches.
pensively at the feet of a blue-eyed, dark-haired girl of the Orient,,
who could not sit down because she must saw a monstrous double-
bass viol. The double-bass is a Chaldean. Her cheek is olive,
her eyes immense, and the fringes of her eyelids astounding.
Being of mountain growth, she has a wildness of temper and aspect

524

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

which nothing but the big double-bass can tame. They are
dressed after the manner of musicians. They wear a tunic and
pantaloons of white woolen stuff, faced with blue, and little shakos
to match. They are quite martial in their appearance. Perhaps
they furnish the hint for many of the fine displays upon our
melodramatic stage.
How are they taught music? Some of the masters in, the
theatres of Constantinople are. called in to give lessons. While
practising with the masters, the women use a strip of muslin over
the head and shoulders, not always a successful veiling of their
charms. Not satisfied with the band without utilizing it, the Sultana
must have a comic dance, then a Turkish dance and a pantomime.
A bright girl plays the young hero, who is a Claude Melnotte,
except that he is a house-painter and not a gardener. There is
a heroine and a porter, each of whom has a heavy father, and
there is a Harlequin and a Columbine. As lawyers say — this
arrangement is bad on demurrer for multifariousness. To crown
the whole, a ballet is led by the " Antelope " — a beautiful girl
of that name. The pantomime is a rendition of European life,
but the ball which follows is more bizarre than the pantomime
is fantastic. It is painfully unrealistic. Our artist assists them
in the preparation. One of her instructions is, that if a lady
drops her handkerchief her partner should pick it up and restore
it, with a bow. All the ladies of the ball provide themselves
with gay bandanas, and while dancing the mazurka, the galop or
the polka, and especially in the quadrille, the floor is inconven
iently strewn with handkerchiefs. The ball becomes farcically
European by this extraordinary politeness. I do not claim any
royalty for any performance which may be suggested by these
revelations of the harem, but doubtless many of the most interest
ing of our light and spectacular dramas have their source in the
contrasts, gayeties, oddities, simplicity and splendor of these Ori
ental homes.
The life which every day passes in the ordinary harem is not
unlike that which I have described as prevalent in this palace. In
the harem of a well-to-do Turk there is a leading lady called the
bnyuk hanoum. She is the principal of the establishment — the only
wife, perhaps, of the pasha. Her home may be full of female rela
tives, for the Turk is nothing if not hospitable. Now and then a

NOMADS IN THE HAREM. 525
buffoon is on good terms with the family, and especially with the
children. One thing, however, is to be remarked : the very young
girls do not wear the yashmak or the feridjie, but otherwise their
costume is almost the same as their mother's, while that of the
boy is very comical. Almost before they are weaned they are
dressed up in the full uniform of a pasha or military officer —
sword, belt, fez and epaulets. Imagine such a child, when tired
of his uniform, rushing to his milk-mother for his natural refresh
ment. Generally a harem is made up of the women of various nation
alities. Sometimes it is difficult to harmonize them. I should
imagine that in the winter season, owing to the peculiar structure
of the houses and the insufficient caloric of the charcoal pans,
there would not be very much visiting, and probably not as much
contentment, as in spring or summer.
There is something inside the harem which reminds one of the
nomadic ancestors of these people. The very beds lie around as
if about to be picked up, packed and carried off. Great wicker
trunks and camel's-hair sacks are handy, in which the rich stuffs,
apparel and furniture may be stowed away in a hurry; so that at
the shortest notice the domestic paraphernalia of a family may
either be packed in these round wicker trunks, ready for the
caique or the back of a donkey, or in these camel-hair sacks,
which suggest the wandering Seljukians of six centuries ago.
Besides, as fires are common, it is convenient to pounce upon the
dresses and furniture, when in portable shape, and save them from
the flames. In the larger houses there is a watchman, kept going
her or his rounds about the building, so as to prevent and extin
guish conflagrations.
The slaves of the household are paid very little in money.
They save nothing; for what they receive goes for the trinkets sold
by the itinerant Jewesses who come along the quay or hills, or hang
about the harems. Still, the slaves are never harshly treated, and
if they are sent out or given away m marriage, they are always
cared for when their proprietors are people of reasonable opulence.
In the Ramazan season this life of the harem is much modified.
It is an error to suppose that the women are regarded, either in
the teachings of the Koran or otherwise, as soulless persons.
When these inmates take the opportunity of their freedom to
move around the city with their peerless beauty half displayed,

526

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

either upon foot or in the slow progress of their carriages at the
grand promenades, there may be chances for some flirtation. A
forward girl may make mischief for a whole harem or family. She
may not mean it ; but she may be so childish as to smile inadver
tently on strangers. Her signs and coquetry really go for nothing;
but the vanity of the other sex is inflamed, and trouble ensues.
Existence inside the harem is too vapid for some constitutions.
Some of the harsh objurgations about these beauties may have a
piquant foundation. Doubtless there is more smoke than fire in
these stories. When we read in an American paper of the im
proper, fascinating and mysterious beauties of Constantinople,
and their harem life, I fail to find the facts to bear out the roman
cing. I have been told by a gentleman, now a leading la-wyer of New
York, and formerly a teacher of mathematics in the American
(Robert) College, upon the hills of Roumeli-Hissar, that he and
the students were accustomed to promenade along the stony
quays, even as far down as Bech'iktash. In the time of Abdul
Aziz, the palace, was full of the wives and odalisques of this amor
ous Sultan. They could be seen only in dim profile, by our pro
fessor and the students, behind the lattices. Were they heard ?
They knew who the young men were and where from. They
were in the habit of hailing them without fear of the eunuch, the
times being troublous and the ebony people full of intrigue.
What do you think these houri call our innocent peripatetics of
the quay ? In sweet notes they cry out :
" Kuzu A7nerikh7iji ! ' ' Lamb of America!
Sometimes they add:
" Sheker," which is the Arab root of our word sugar. It must
have been provoking to hear their salutation:
" Sherifiniz hair ola eng ghyuzel chok kuzu," or, to translate
freely :
" Good evening, most pretty and much confectionated lamb."
These students still live to make autonomy in Bulgaria, preach
the gospel in Armenia, and practice law in New York. They were
not made into lamb chops by the headsman of Aziz. These
young men were as innocent as the lambs to which they were
likened ; and the young women equally so. Still, they were playful.
Are not lambs playful by nature ?
The most beautiful of the women of the capital have a way, in

APOCRYPHAL STORIES OF THE FAIR SEX.

527

the presence of the sterner sex, of revealing, coquettishly, the
contour of the tace, and the exquisite complexion which their
incessant bathing bestows. I have in my mind an article in
an American paper purporting to have been written last May,
from Constantinople. It pretends to give a sensational account
of the conduct of these beauties in their promenades by the
"Sweet Waters." While their husbands are devoutly smiting
their breasts in the mosques, the Turkish ladies, it is hinted, are
driving in their carriages, enveloped in clouds of gauze and decked
with jewelry. Where is the eunuch ? it is asked. He sits by the
coachman. How can he prevent or eclipse the flashing of the
black, swimming, languid eye ? The thin yashmak has not the
courage to conceal such eyes! A voluptuous form, delicately
small milk-white hands, blonde locks, or perhaps now and then
raven hair, features not at all coarse — these are all hidden. The
eye alone must bear all the odium of an intriguante.
These stories are born of the sensual pen. Some writer de
sires to get his penny-a-line, and he represents the hanou77i, not
as giving her numerous lovers the sack, in our homely phrase,
but as actually killing them for self-safety. And thus a story
goes, that a beautiful houri of a pasha's harem in Cairo actually
killed one hundred and twenty beautiful Greek gentlemen, whom
she had induced by her flirtations to enter her siren home — and
all within three brief years ! And thus, too, the old story about
the sacks filled with such degenerate beauties being sunk in the
river where it was deepest These are the illusions of the roman-
cist. The Moslem cares more than is represented about the de
fection in his harem. But is he not a Moslem ? What is writ is
writ, and he can divorce and wed again !
Among the fables which are related by the amateur tourist for
the open-eyed wonder of his fair cousins at home, is the descrip
tion of the magnificent buildings and romantic adventures upon
the superb streets through which he has the pleasure to pass in
surveying these lands of old renown. I have read an account of
a young writer who said that as he passed through some of the
streets they seemed deserted. He could fancy himself walking
through the streets of Pompeii, when, hark ! a light laugh is
heard! He looks up. Voila! A pair of sparkling black eyes
dance at him for a moment behind the jalousie, and then disap
pear. He advances a little farther; he hears a gentle cough, then

52^

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

a flower from an upper casement drops at his feet from a tiny
jeweled hand, and the romance ends. These mysterious revela
tions are made more entrancing by the sound of a soft Turk
ish love-song, but no stenographer is possible, and the susceptible
young traveler cudgels his head to know whether he is living in
the resplendent afternoon of the nineteenth century or has been
transported back to the golden days of Haroun Al-Raschid.
One of these houris is upon the streets of Pera. She drops
her fan. Her jeweled hand is reluctant to reach for it; the eunuch
is not prompt enough; the carriage stops; the fan is picked up by
a handsome giaour; the eunUch is sent to a restaurant for a glass
of sherbet; she writes a little note on a cigarette tablet, with her
dainty diamonded pencil, and, making a ball with the small leaf,
drops the billet, which the youthful admirer picks up with rapt
ure. Thus a rendezvous is said to be arranged, generally in
some fashionable millinery establishment on the Grand Rue or in
some other resort in Stamboul. . It is a pity to emasculate such
pretty tales. They are from the inner consciousness of the writer.
I venture to say that no one knows of any such extraordinary
practices. Nothing is more dangerous, especially for a Christian man,
than thus to dally. One case is always cited, and only one. It is
so exceptional as to prove the rule otherwise. That is the case of
the mother of Izzet Bey. The latter is a noted exquisite of the
capital. She was married to a son of Fuad Pasha, the Grand
Vizier, some few years ago. She was a rare woman, with all the
accomplishments of the East and West. She received Christians
at her house She eloped with a Belgian secretary of Legation.
In three days the pair were in Paris. Of course she was married,
and yet lives, as it is said, a happy life. This- case is one among
ten thousand, and not altogether unlovely.
It is no wonder that something of intrigue which borders on the
humorous, is used for the purpose of receiving proper medical
attendance. The day of incantation is being supplanted by med- ,
ical science, and the diseases which too partial mothers sometimes
create, by cramming their infants with indigestible food, are yield
ing to better sense and medical skill. .
The Turkish woman is neither so bad nor so good as she is
painted. If I should pick out one prevailing quality, I should say
that she is a good eater. Elsewhere I have described a Turkish

ENCOMIUM ON TURKISH WOMEN. 529
meal. But nothing can describe the amount of confectionery
and tobacco consumed in the harem, and outside, at the picnics
of its inmates. The hanoui7i is inordinately fond of jewelry, and has
just enough vanity to be interesting. Her coquetry is not of the
perilous kind. She obeys her lord and master passively. Her
peculiar affections, judging by her associations, are with her chil
dren, her slaves and friends. No one can justly say that the
Turkish mother, notwithstanding much slander about the prema
ture destruction of the infant, has not great maternal love. Unless
educated after the European method, she is but a grown child,
and her time is passed in much frivolity. When her lord appears,
she makes a seemly acquiescence and her gossip stops.
The literature which pretends to describe the East is permeated
with stories of Turkish intrigue. The subject commands the
attention, especially of the ardent and young. But he who writes
of these matters should understand the domestic economy of the
Turkish system, its inveterate usage and its progressive ameliora
tion. From the information which I have received — and especially
from the accounts of trustworthy women who have been admitted
into the harem, such as I have endeavored to describe — I am sure
that there is almost as much freedom given to the Turkish women
as there is to the English or American. Although they have not
as much choice in the selection of their husbands as other women,
nevertheless they do resist temptations that are thrown about them,
notwithstanding the small number of amusements by which their
ennui is sought to be mitigated. What with their needlework,
their studies, their housework, the reception of visitors and their
wifely duties, not to speak of the constant and loving care of
their clustering children, the great body of those who make the
harem their home do so from conscientious and affectionate
motives. Their love of nature and their pious thoughts, their
visits, their baths, the cultivation of their love of jewelry, flowers,
and toilet — these furnish much restraint on their naturally passion
ate natures, and for the practice of that restraint they are entitled
to at least the good-will of other women who are born under more
favoring stars. Besides, it is not by any means to be forgotten
that the tendency at the present tin'ie is against polygamy in
Turkey, and that but very few of the better families have more
than one wife within the harem.

CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE 'EUNUCH AND OTHER INCIDENTS OF THE HAREM.

THE EUNUCH OF 1887.
Why should there be so much discussion about the Turkish
harem and the numerous wives of the Sultan ? Is not Turkey a
country where, from time immemorial, the polygamous custom
has existed ? If she be so bad, why have a Minister there ? Or,
530

EUNUCHS OF TILE EA ST. 5 j I
to go further, why cultivate the good-will of the Chinese Emperor,
whose palace holds some five thousand male slaves, who act as
guards upon the harem of the Emperor, who has as many young
beauties in his seraglio ? The Emperor of China is named Kuang
Hsu. That signifies " Succession of Glory." He is seventeen years
of age, and is about to take a wife. She has been chosen from the
family of Duke Choa, a Manchou nobleman. Kuang does not
have any choice himself. His mother, the Empress Dowager,
makes the match. But if Kuang does not affect the duke's
daughter, he may solace himself — as Solomon did — by numer
ous secondary wives. At present the Mahometan law seems to
be the legal limit allowed by the Dowager, viz., four. There is
quite a rivalry among the Manchou officials, as to which family
shall furnish the remaining three wives. These officers delight
in having the prettiest of their daughters in the Imperial harem.
They are the rounds upon the ladder of their preferment. The
young ladies of China begin at fourteen years of age, and remain
inside the harem until they are twenty-five ;' but woe be to them
if they fail to bring forth children. In that case, they are sent
home to their illustrious parents to wed some local Mandarin.
The Emperor of China also has his eunuchs. This custom is
handed down to him from the early Mogul sovereigns; and these
sovereigns obtained their customs from what is known as the
Assyrian and Turkish empires. The defense of this institution
of polygamy, in its extent and that of the eunuch as its guardian,
is based upon one idea, and one only : China, like Turkey, will
not allow the nation to be disappointed by the failure of an heir
to the throne.
I have hinted that in Constantinople there is not what we call
" society" among the Turkish people. Women are indispensa
ble to society, but they form no part of the general society of
the Orient. All their amusements they must find for themselves.
They interchange much comfort, gossip and pleasure ; but in their
harems, at their picnics and in their baths, they are isolated from
all the world except themselves. Upon the street, no husband
dare appear with' his wife.
The head female of a family may be seen sitting under a
sycamore upon the green grass, or, rather, upon a Smyrna carpet.
Within twenty paces is her husband, who has his own male coterie.
Custom forbids them to turn their eyes toward one another. The

532 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
women, with a freedom humorous beyond expression, make their
fun at the expense of the men, and with a language too, as it is
said, as astonishing as it is sometimes indelicate.
The home life of the Turk is bound up with the harem. Any
information concerning it must be, at best, second hand, unless
some trustworthy woman has the privilege of entering the estab
lishment. Do you ask whether they lament their condition ? A few of
them who have come in contact with the outer world have a nat
ural ambition to travel, and to see more and mix with those
whose influences and habits are so novel to them. The body of
them, however, do not care for other society than their female
friends, their children and husbands. No man addresses them
except the shop-keeper. I have to repeat in this connection, that the
universal head-dress is a white handkerchief. A plain cloak of
cloth or silk covers the whole person, and is fastened with a common
clasp. The silk feridjie is used for the better class. They wear
no gloves, but their fingers have a stain with which the reader is
no doubt familiar. This henna stain is growing obsolete. Their
complexions are somewhat sallow, and their gait is listless ; but
their eyes — !
The visitor to Turkey is at first surprised at seeing so many
females roaming about the city, apparently aimless. He wonders
that so much freedom should be allowed. This wonder comes
from his ignorance of their relation. The wife can go and come
at her pleasure. She has no reproach from her husband. He
may, to be sure, enter her apartment when he pleases and at all
hours; but he never avails himself of this privilege. He rarely
summons his wife or his family to his own room in the Salemlik.
There is one sight for him always, as a reminder. If he sees a
slipper at the door of the harem, it is a sign that he is nofwanied.
The truth is that the Turkish woman is more free than almost any
other woman. If she wishes to drive or promenade or call upon
a friend, she summons her slave, who carries her littie bundle,
adjusts her veil, covers her toilet with hex feridjie, and goes. She
can spend several days with her friend without exciting any
alarm or suspicion on the part of her husband.
The black eunuch known as the aga, or lata — which are syn
onymous terms with guardian — is of a class of slaves found in the
houses of rank and wealth. They are kept; just as a family in

DOMESTIC OFFICES OF THE EUNUCH.

5^ •?

New York would keep a carriage, to denote the social position.
This eunuch is haughty. He is defiant of public opinion. He
resents smiles and sarcasm at his expense, when in public; but
when in charge of the women in the harem he is quite good-
natured. There is much exaggeration about his acting as a
messenger in intrigues. His office consists in caring for the
children when walking out or driving, and he has much to bear
from the willful whims of the little Beys and petites hanou7ns.
There is always a porter or a guardian of the harem on hand at
the door of the harem. He allows nobody to come in or go out
without inquisition. He is the engineer or the waiter by which
matters and things are passed in and out of the harem. He is by
no means a dumb-waiter, either; for the women of the harem
keep him continually on the go. Without repose or kef, he must
fulfill every possible commission. This provokes a good deal of
Moslem profanity. Invention has, however, come to relieve this
guardian somewhat; for there is in the Salemlik wall a wheel. It
is like the baby-basket at the door of the foundling asylum.
The wheel operates as a sort of horizontal dumb-waiter. It facili
tates the service between the harem and the Salemlik, without
permitting the women to be seen.
Excepting the husband, no other man is allowed to enter the
harem. It is a cardinal sin for a woman to appear with her face
uncovered before a stranger. If she happens to be about the
house or in the garden when a stranger, be it Mussulman or
foreigner, unexpectedly enters, she rushes for anything handy —
a handkerchief, a pillow or even a dish, with which to hide her
face. The Sultan alone enjoys the privilege of free access to
every harem; and then all the women in that harem have to stand
before His Majesty with their faces uncovered.
When the eunuchs accompany the ladies on their expeditions,
the latter drive always in closed carriages, the eunuchs following
on 'foot or horseback, with a lash in their hand, which comes
down like lightning on any foreigner who approaches too near.
Turkish ladies are, however, no less artful than their European
sisters; and eunuchs nowadays, are not hopelessly incorruptible.
The office of Chief Eunuch of the Imperial pala6e is a very
important one, and the holder of it ranks equally with the Grand
Vizier and Ministers of state. He is often admitted to the privy
councils of the Sultan. His title has a grandiose sound. He is

534

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

styled " His Highness the Guardian of the Gate of the Impe
rial Felicity and Repose." He is the head of the household of
the Sultan. Of him and his functions, which are many, I may
add that he is considered almost as much of an attraction, and
is saluted with as much consideration, as a first-class bull-fighter
in Sp.ain. He is often the object of lyric poetry! Why ? Because
he has an influence upon the Sultan and thus upon politics. This
influence he exerts, often, through the women of the harem. When
he is inaugurated at the palace there is much display. He rides
to the palace on a fine horse. His decorations glitter on his
breast. He is received by the aides of the Sultan. Lambs are
slaughtered as a token of welcome; and servants look up to him
as to a demi-god. The emblem of his office is a silver pastoral staff.
Why pastoral ? Does he not care for the lambs ? ,He becomes
"Aga of the Sublime House of Othman," by which title he is
designated in his commission.
The Chief of the Eunuchs has just died. The sad news is
wafted to our hemisphere as I correct the proof of this chapter.
His name was Hafiz Behram Aga. He is now among the angels —
or the houris. Those, who speak French at the palace called him
r Altesse Noire — literally. His Black Highness ! He was nearly
fourscore years of age and quite black, of pure Nubian descent.
I recall his burly, gigantic form. He had an imperial air; and
when he bore the keys about him he was sublime. He was a
moss-back Moslem of the old type. He had no love for the inno
vations of the harem or the persons of Europeans. The appoint
ment of a successor has given rise to much surmise, and, it is said,
great excitement in and around the palace. An Armenian, it is
rumored, has carried off the prize. The people of that race are
never backward where power is attainable. No sacrifice is too
great for its acquisition. He is a white man, but, as the "insert"
shows, it is nothing new to have a white Chief of the Eunuchs.
The illustration represents these twain, in company with a fa-^or-
ite dwarf They are all of the time of Mahmoud II. , the grand
father of the present Sultan. They are faithful portraits — dress,
color and features. The eunuch of our time is not so gorgeously
appareled. Next to the ha77ial who labors under burdens, or, perhaps, to the
dogs of Constantinople, who excite so much pity, I think the
Eunuch should have the most compassion. He is an incarnation of

Chief of the BlackEunuchs,

Dwarf, Chief of the White Eunuchs.

SADDEST PICTURE IN THE ORIENT.

535

a deo-radation too infamous for the ordinary human nature which
has inflicted it He does not belong alone to Turkish civilization.
This the Bible shows us. There were great men among the eu
nuchs -in the time of the Greek empire. Because of his mutilation,
which has its hidden and physiological or other reason, the
eunuch who walks with slow step and swinging arms, upon the
quay of the Bosporus, is a pitiable object. He is the policeman
of a system of which he is the victim. It is his figure drawn
against the sweet and beautiful Oriental sky which is the most
revolting. He is not an invalid in one sense. He has survived
the knife ; but it was not the knife of a sanitary and religious
ceremony, like circumcision.
Some of these sad-eyed creatures, as I have seen them at the
restaurants in the city and along the quays, are garrulous to a
degree. Most of them are tall and long-legged. Some are fat, but
their flesh has an unnatural flabbiness. Even when young their
faces are often withered. Even when manly looking they are
beardless. To one who has been familiar with the presiding elder
of a Methodist church, their long, dark, straight-cut frock-coat,
with pantaloons a la Franka, there is a curious and comical
resemblance. Their coat has no collar which turns over. It has
a famous row of buttons which suggest the good brother of the
camp-meeting. In vain would we seek in the hand of that brother
the whip of hippopotamus-hide which the eunuch carries as the
symbol of his office. They have a quiet, long stride, like that of
the gods whose feet were shod with wool, or like that of the bur
glar, who goes to his prey with a soft and sinister step. They are
not now so common in Constantinople as they were in times
past, but •still they are seen everywhere. Their looks indicate no
special expression, until some giaour casts a too curious look at
the object of their vigilance; then the jealous ferocity of their
temper is quickly displayed.
The men of this class do not take much interest in human
conduct around them, except in the line of their daily duty. I
have watched them in-doors and out. They have no social jocun
dity among men, whether white or black. Their clothes are always
of glossy and fine broadcloth. They have an air of the inner circle
of the harem. They are perfumed with all the essential vanities,
from the attar of roses down to the latest importation of cologne.
That man who derides them is only a little less than a brute.

536 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
It is "heartless to greet them with a laugh. It is a mistake to sup
pose that they do not know and feel their isolation and misfortune.
They are called the custodians of a felicity, the barriers of
jealousy, the bolts on the door, and the rags to hide the treasure
existing among the glories of youth, with all its sweetness of pas
sion and gladness of living. They are nameless, loveless, almost
outside the pale of humanity. Is it strange, therefore, that they
become the instruments of intrigue for, as well as the jailors of,
those who tempt them ? It is said that even the cruel coquetries
of the harem pursue them, and that some of them, who have sen
sual passion left, even in a very small degree, are crazed by their
peculiar situation.
Some of these men have been mutilated in their African home,
at the head-waters of the Nile, and some in Syria. When they are
made the servants of the Pasha's harem they are decorated in a
thousand ways with a cruel mockery of phrases. They are called
the "possessors of the lily," "keepers of the rose," and "tillers
in the garden of the hyacinth " ! They take their revenge, how
ever, upon mankind, and although they are not Tartars, who are
worst when caught, they are something worse in their debasement
Who shall blame them? Their condition is not of their own
seeking. I cannot refrain from quoting a paragraph which bears the
evidences of veri-similitude. It is from De Amicis:
" One evening," the doctor said to me, " I was coming out
of a rich Mussulman's house, where I had gone for the third time
to visit one of his wives, who had disease of the heart. At my
departure, as at my arrival, I was accompanied by a eunuch,
calling out in the customary way, ' Women, withdraw ! ' in
order to warn ladies and slaves that a stranger is in -the harem,
and that they must not be seen. In the courtyard the eunuch
left me to find my own way to the gate. Just as I was about to
open it, I felt a touch upon my arm, and turning, saw before me
in the twilight another eunuch, a j'oung man of eighteen or
twenty years of age, who looked fixedly at me, with eyes swim
ming in tears. I asked him what he wished. He hesitated a
moment to reply, and then seizing my hand in both of his, and
pressing it convulsively, he said in a trembling voice, full of
despairing grief, 'Doctor! you who know the remedy for every
ill, do you know of none for mine ? ' I cannot tell you how those

HO USE WIFER Y IN THE EAST. 537
simple words affected me ; I tried to answer, but my voice failed
me, and hastily opening the door, I took to flight But all that
evening, and for many days after, the figure of the youth stood
before me, and I heard his words, and my eyes moistened."
How could it be otherwise ? A good man would be painfully
struck with the appearance and emotions of the eunuch.
He has a part not only in the history of the Orient, but in its
present condition. Gibbon has said that the higher the price of the
eunuch, the more corrupt was the empire. He spoke this in refer
ence to the Greek empire and its white eunuchs.
I cannot picture to my mind a more humble situation than that
of these God-forsaken images of their maker. They are of our kind,
or, rather, among their kind, but not of them. They are the most
striking examples of "man's inhumanity to man," and of that
selfish sensuality for which there is no name in any language.
The common families, the groups of whom you may see stroll
ing around the high places of the hills, and the green, shady spots
of the meadows, are not guarded by the eunuch. Only families
of rank or wealth are thus accompanied.
The women of the East, the Turkish women at least, remind
me of the peacocks. They seek the high places, where at least
they can be admired. They are quite gregarious among them
selves. You always see them in groups of four, six and
eight, and uniformly clad in their long mantles. Those of the
poorer class are generally clad in white cotton mantles. Thus
clad they look like troops of phantoms. Moreover, it is a mistake
to suppose that these groups of veiled women are in all respects
good examples of the housewifery of the Moslem. These have
more or less broken away from the old customs. The class of
women who really give tone to the social order in Constantinople
are those who are seldom seen in public. They have never passed
the threshold of the harem. Their lives are engrossed with
home duties. Their visits are rare. Their outside occupations
consist in the inspection of the wares of female pedlers, an occa
sional jaunt in the country, and a picnic upon the shore; still,
they are always superintending the larder, as other women do in
other countries. They make pickles and preserves ; look after
the clothes of their children and the raiment of their slaves ; dis
tribute alms to those who call, buy provisions and clothes, and in
other respects fulfill the obligations of a good Mahometan, the

538 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
chief among which is alms-giving. Of course, a woman of this
class is always ready to receive visitors. Oftentimes, if she be a
woman of means, she has a lady-superintendent, who relieves
her of much of this duty. This assistant greets the visitor at the
door of the harem. The visitor is supported by the elbow up the
stairs ; then the veil and the feridjie are removed. If the visitor
retain a band of muslin across the forehead, it is understood that
she will not stay long ; still, the practice prevails of removing the
yashmak to be ironed, and the feridjie to be carefully folded
away. The same toilet is resumed, preliminary to the departure of
the guest. In these calls there is much smoking, coffee-drinking
and talking, but nothing excessive. The young ladies of the family
always quietly defer to the elders. I am bound to '.say, from
reliable information, that their conversation is not, as represented,
of the malodorous quality. The house is scrupulously clean. It
ought to be so, as the floor, or the matting on the floor, is used
for spreading out their fabrics when they would cut out or fold
garments. They do not permit a stain on the prayer-carpet, and
hence no one enters who does not leave the out-door shoes at the
door. If you ask me to what 'particular spots the Turkish women
resort in their recreations, I can only answer by another question:
" In what place are they not to be found before the going down of
the sun ? ' ' They always arise early. They are always in the
bazaars. They crowd the steamers going up and down the Bos
porus. They visit the " Sweet Waters " of Europe and Asia. If
you cross the bridge between Galata and Stamboul, lo! at all
hours the veiled mystery is there in grand procession. Ascend
the -tower of Galata, and lo ! she is there. You hear that
she cannot attend the mosque; but she does. Friday evening
prayer-meetings draw her out in Ramazan season, for have I not
seen her as coy and debonnaire there as upon the hills of Prinkipo ?
She may be a slave inside of beautiful gardens, grottoes and
chambers, surrounded by slaves, smoking her chibouque and
drinking her sherbet, but she is about as free and lively a slave
as you can find in many a day's travel. No one interrupts her.
No policeman and no one of th,e inhabitants of this composite city
offer her discourtesy, much less indignity. Her veil is as sacred
as that of a nun. She may be served at a shop kept by an Arme
nian, or waited on at a millinery store by a Hebrew, or be shown

THE SENSUALITY OF THE HAREM.

539

to a bath by a Nubian, or be rowed in a caique by a Greek ; she
may buy her grapes from a Syrian, and her fish from a Maltese; or
be sailing in a steamer commanded by a Dalmatian, or be driven
by a Bulgarian coachman, and be doctored by the English phy
sician, whose prescription is filled by a French druggist; and her
elegant teeth, albeit inclined to confectionery, may be filled by an
-•American dentist, and her rounded arm be vaccinated by an Ital
ian doctor; but not one word of insult or gesture of interruption
are ever shown by these varied populations, even in their high
carnival, toward the rara avis of the pashalic cage.
Writers upon the Turkish empire attribute most of the dis
asters and all of the decadence of that empire to the mischievous
creed of Mahometanism. They hold that creed, and especially
the sensualism which is taught by it, to be a hindrance to prog
ress. Indeed, all the prophecies which have been rife for two
hundred years as to the inspiration of the Turkish race have
been founded upon the alleged sensual character of their religion.
Doubtless it is true that the antipathy of the Christian to the
Turk is due to those passions which mock the best precepts
of the Moslem, Christian and Hebrew religions ; but as Dr.
Hamlin well remarks, while approaching the worst attribute of
Moslemism — its sensualism — " this feature is found rather in tra
dition than in the Koran." It is almost impossible to reconcile
the stories told about the conversation and the conduct of the
women of the harem with other reports which are made upon that
subject by some of our best women.
It is a mistake to suppose that the Turks deny to the -.voman
the possession of a soul. The Moslem has his own Eden. He
may have his own particular houri to crown with flowers, his
noble brow, or give him those sensuous delights which belong
to the Orient of the seventh heaven. But there is no enjoyment
in the future, after death, in which the inhabitants of the harem, in
some wondrous mystery, may not join in the destiny of their lord.
The women are not debarred from the pious ceremonies of the
mosque, like the women of other countries, except that they are
restricted to the latticed galleries, like those for women in the
House of Commons. Therefore, intuitively they are religious.
In the seclusion of their homes, and in the humility of their
lives, from beneath the veil with which they conceal themselves,
they pass with prayer into the presence of Allah.

540 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Outside of that seclusion, they are the worshippers of Nature.
In this they copy their husbands with enthusiasm. " Born," says
Lamartine, " in the mountains and valleys of Asia — the sons of
shepherds — they bring with them into their very palaces the mem
ory, the images, the passions, of rural nature ;^ they love her too
much to bedeck her. A woman, a horse, a weapon, a fountain, a
tree — such are the five paradises of the children of Othman !"
How can it be possible that so many kindly compliments are
paid to the Turkish gentlewomen by those of her own sex for her
courtesy, which is almost intuitive, and her simplicity of feeling
and sincerity of good-nature, which give a double charm to this
courtesy, if indeed it be true that the harem is not a home, but
only a resort of sensuality ?
There are some cases recorded in the Turkish annals where
the vanity of the male has been quite conspicuous. In fact, the
systemof polygamy is of such a peculiar kind that it may persuade
the superior sex to believe that he is more or less like a gamefowl
in a barnyard surrounded by his pullets. Much fun has been made
of George the Fourth for his exquisite vanity in dress and man
ner. It is said that Mahmoud the Second, the grandfather of the
present Sultan, made perpetual sacrifices before the altar of self-
adornment. He even painted himself white and red with costly
cosmetics, to enjoy the admiration of the ladies of the seraglio;
and yet this was the m^an who immolated the Janizaries to reform
the empire !
Considering the- many changes and reforms in this empire,
what may we not expect next, in a realm where there is so much
room for advancement in the social virtues and the economies of
the state !

CHAPTER XL.
slavery — ITS CONDITIONS AND MITIGATIONS.
The slave market at Constantinople has gone to the rear. If
it exist at all, it exists in the mind of some libelant It is
hidden from human sight in the city. But suppose it were open,
so that all could understand it ! It is not, in comparison with the
old slave mart of America, that with which we should reproach
the Turks. There is no cruelty — no insult to the slave. When
the slaves become members of the family into which they are
inducted, they are sure to rise if they are worthy. The negroes
in the old slave markets of Stamboul sat on one side in groups.
The Circassians are, or were, brought to Constantinople by their
parents at their own voluntary request; and they had close apart
ments. They were not exposed to the gaze of the idler or
the curious. The Turk himself never made sport of the relation
of slavery, and always mitigated its severity.
It is very doubtful whether the Circassian beauties, of which
•there has been so much boast, are all our fancies picture them.
Those whom I ha-ve met, and I have seen many, freshly brought
by steam to Constantinople from Circassia at so much a head, have
been degraded by likening them to a drove of cattle. They are
called Circassians, but since the Russian conquest of that country
the greater part of these recruits are derived from inferior tribes;
and therefore their charms are not what we expect. In fact, a cap
tain of a Black Sea steamer has insisted that out of a thousand
girls and women whom he had carried to the capital, the great
majority were ugly, most of them half famished, and all of them
dirty. Is it thus that we are robbed of our illusions ?
There is scarcely a family in Turkey which has the means,
that does not possess a number of women and girl slaves, black
and white. The black are from Central Africa and Nubia; the
white are Circassians sold by their parents. The Circassian
traffic has greatly or apparently ceased. Many families moved

542 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
to Constantinople to rear their girls for this condition. I do not
believe that there is now any public market for slaves. There is
no selling at the bazaars, as there used to be. Still they are
bought and sold, and the authorities very likely know how and
where, and regulate the traffic. The price varies with the beauty.
The ungainly are used for domestic work. The beauties are edu
cated. Besides, they learn to sing and dance and to become agree
able. Each wife of the Sultan is a slave. When she becomes a
mother she is raised to the rank of cadina; but never to the rank
of wife. Those who are not cadinas or wives in the Turkish
harem, are known as odalisques. When they are favorites, they
are called ikbal. The slave men do the cooking; the slave women
the housework. The Sultan, properly, has no wife or wives.
His dignity is too great to allow him to enter into any matrimo
nial relation. He has a numerous harem; and among them are
gradations of rank. From four to seven of the more favored take
the title of kadin, or lady. These have a separate establishment
and some precedence.
In the Imperial family the princesses choose their own hus
bands, or the Sultan does for them. They generally choose
some one about the palace, or a )'oung bey of good repute.
Whether the young bey likes it or not, he is not permitted to
show his displeasure. If^he does, he is exiled. It is said thatthe
princesses like the soldiers best; and the soldier-husbands must
behave with prudence; otherwise they will be discarded. These
husbands are more enslaved, in fact, than the actual slaves.
Most of the harems, and especially those of the Sultan, are
shut in by high walls. The doors are never locked. The bed, with
some exceptions, where European habits have been introduced,
consists of a small mattress, laid on the floor — sometimes several
mattresses. In the morning early — for the Turk rises early — these
are taken out and placed in the closet There is not much to
relieve the eye or the fancy in the harem. The sons of promi
nent Pashas and others when they reach fourteen years, demand
an odalisque. She is generally selected from the harem of the
father. She is then freed with honor, and the moment a child is
born she becomes a hanou77t.
The slave has not a hard lot. The child of the slave has a
part of the inheritance of the father. More than half of the mar
riages in Turkey are with the slaves.

PRICE OF SLA VES.

54c

There is much criticism as to the condition of things in the
harem. It is supposed to be the great obstacle to Turkish
advancement. This statement is to be taken not without stint.
What I desire to make clear is, that the slave trade is not
what it was, and slavery is not what it is represented to be. When
slaves are purchased, it is generally through intermediaries. They
are generally Arab brokers. They have a rendezvous in a cer
tain quarter of some of the narrow streets of Pera and Stamboul,
the entrance to which is prohibited to all save the Mussulman.
You ask : " What are slaves worth ? " A white boy may
cost two hundred dollars, depending upon his acquirements ; a
girl under ten, one hundred dollars ; a maiden between twelve
and sixteen, if she be attractive and can play on the zither, brings
from thirty-five hundred to five thousand dollars. If the young
woman be a blonde, with black eyes and rare beauty otherwise,
she may bring from four to six thousand dollars. An amateur
will pay double that for a choice specimen, v/ell educated in French
and other graces. This tariff by no means applies to the slaves
from Africa, the depots for whom are in Scutari and in the vil
lages on the Bosporus. The black slave will bring ninety dollars,
the black maiden seventy or seventy-five, and a eunuch from
three hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars. In buying the
slave there are not such harrowing details as we used to read in
Uncle Tom's Cabin. All that has passed away — if it ever existed.
The fact is that slavery in Turkey is but a name. It is actually
forbidden by law, and although it still goes on, the slaves have noth
ing to complain of in Turkey. The white slaves rush to slavery
as an alternative from something else and worse ; the black slaves,
however, who are brought from Africa, have undergone all the
tortures which belong to the traditional slave trade. The slave
of the family may be looked down upon as one of under-condition,
but is nevertheless treated from infancy, when received, to old age,
as one of the family. After the female slave has worked for
awhile faithfully, say seven years, she is neariy always freed vol
untarily by the mistress or master of the household. This clement
element illustrates what I have endeavored to picture — the fidelity
of the Turkish character to old ties and associations. Many
touching stories are related of the demeanor and goodness of the
Turkish women toward those who are regarded as their slaves.
The slave trade in Africa supplies a certain portion of the

544 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
market in Constantinople. Its methods are violent No one in
our day can defend the slave trade. The relief which slavery
gives after the trade is over, may be a compensation for the cruel
barbarism which makes slavery possible within the domain of
Africa. If the truth were known, the insurrection of the Soudan
was an insurrection of the slave-dealers. The attempt to suppress
slavery in Africa was like the attempt to prohibit commerce.
Eveii Gordon desisted from the policy of its suppression. In fact,
he asked that his former Bey, Zebehr, who was king of the slave-
traders, might be appointed Governor-General of the Soudan.
The truth is : that in these Oriental countries slavery has not
the same meaning that it had in Brazil, Cuba or America. The
ideal of the African, if he has any, is immunity from all sorts of
labor ; and if he be thrown on his own resources, he falls into a
'oottomless pit.
In the Orient the slave prefers always to remain with his mas
ter, if his master be a Mahometan ; for he is placed upon an equal
social footing sometimes with the family. Sometimes a slave is
sold from hand to hand, and from Timbuctoo to Algiers, Zanzi
bar or Arabia, until he reaches the Constantinople market
through many journeys, after which slavery is a positive blessing.

CHAPTER XLI.
l'enfant terrible TURK  EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.
The Turk is fond of water from his very birth. He is at no
time a .bibber of wine. He is positively fond of his bath. He
begins when young to take his ablutions many times a day and
nnder every circumstance, especially before prayer and before he
enters the mosque.
As with the usage of the bath, the mode of dressing the
infant Turk follows it into childhood. It curves its tiny ex
tremities in youth and at maturity, and until old age. Carlyle
has shown what everlasting things depend upon the dressing of a
human being. How then are the infantry of Turkey dressed ?
It is enough to say that the legs and hands — in fact, the entire
¦child — is enwrapped. A portion of the wrapping-cloth exceeds the
iength of the babe. The little creature is folded, and enfolded,
and re-enfolded, and sometimes so tightly that the circulation of
the blood is stopped and the baby's face turns blue! If the
mother be loving, or the nurse kind, this dressing is changed
frequently. The little one is refreshed by this renewal. A change
twice a day of three long strips of cloth is reckoned suitable
relief in ordinary families; it is only in a well-to-do family that
the encasement is less painful. This swathing process is so
peculiar as to tend to shape the legs of the mature Turk to re
semble the crescent, which is the emblem of growth and of Turkey.
Moreover, the tiny baby Turk -wears a bonnet. It is of a gay
color, generally the Prophet's favorite hue — green. This bonnet '
is worn by both sexes. Upon it is set sometimes a blue gem, say
a turquoise. Sometimes a piece of garlic is hung upon it, to keep
off the evd eye of jealous visitors. Thus accoutred, the little
Turk passes the boundary of the " professional " who presides at
its birth, into the grand domain where the nurse rules supreme.
Among the Christians in the East, the nurse is not so impor
tant as with the Mahometans. With the latter, she is sacred. She
S45

5 46 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
ranks after the mother. She is like the old African " Aunty " of
the South. If the nurse have children of her own, they are styled
the " milk brothers and sisters" of her adopted nursling. Even
at the palace of the Sultan, the nurse who nourishes a prince or
princess has golden opportunities of advancement. She secures
her own and her children's welfare for life. She is loaded -with
presents. These presents differ in value, according to the means
of the master, and are given on every possible occasion. When
the child says " baba! " or " father; " when it has its first tooth ;
when its birthday comes round; and when it makes its first step —
the nurse has presents. It is the same at Bairam, the festal Ma
hometan season; and thus upon every slight occasion presents.
rain down from father, mother, grandparents, uncles and aunts.
If the parents are wealthy, the nurse's duty is limited. It
consists simply in feeding the baby; for an odalisque — one of the
women of the harem — performs the duty of caring for the child.
After the fatigues of nursing, she regales herself with a narghile;
for smoking is by no means confined to the ruder sex in Turkey.
In addition to these two aids of Turkish babyhood, in every
well-regulated home a servant or two have charge of the washing
and cleaning of the nursery and linen.
As soon as the child is old enough to be able to take ordinary
nourishment, it is taken from the nurse and put into the hands of
the oldest male servant. If the child be a boy, this servant is to
be the tutor until the boy is sent to school. The boy remains in
his hands for about five years. It is here that he obtains his first
moral impressions.
As a general rule, these servants or slaves to whom Mussul
man children are entrusted are not the most cultivated or liberal
ainong the Moslems. No wonder, then, that the littie Turk
becomes imbued with the prejudices of this guardian, who has not
learned to leaven his faith with toleration, as do the more
enlightened of his race. No wonder if the child be taught to
despise those not of his race or of the creed of the Prophet So
far as my observation goes, this hatred of other than Mahometans
has died out considerably since I visited here in a. d. 185 1 ; and even
since I was here in a. d. 1881. It is said that the first time the child
sees a Christian or a Jew passing by, he is taught to spit or throw
water on him, as a sign that he repels the contact with such an
unbeliever. It is said that he is thus early taught |to hate all

COURTESIES OF CHILDREN. ^^'j
"giaours" or infidels. This may be the case among thfe lowest
classes of Moslems; and where the windows of the houses which
are covered with Venetian blinds or screens may hide the servant
and child, it may be done with impunity, and as a sort of sport for
the ignorant attaches of the household.
My observation does not, however, lie in this direction. Last
Friday I visited the " Sweet Waters of Asia," across the Bosporus.
The hanoums bring their families — odalisques, children, servants
and slaves, black and white. Children by the score play around
upon the green under the plane-trees near the " Sweet Waters "
• — called sweet, because not brackish. Yellow maize on the cob,
smoking hot, is sold by itinerant venders to the groups of families,
who eat it off the ear. Confections and cakes in every shape
are sold, along with all the toys that ever Caleb Plummer fancied.
No one complains that we giaours gaze upon this Moslem
holiday. The women peep out from under their cambric wraps,
quite pleased to be gazed upon. They move around on the green
sward in their %AV.evi feridjies. They no longer wear the slipshod
yellow slipper as of old. Even with the high-heeled French shoe
they do not walk gracefully. Now and then you find one in
superb costume, perhaps a golden-haired blonde, and with a style
of walking as elegant as that of the belles of Belgrade or
Bucharest. But the children; well — I happened to look earnestly at a
handsome boy of about five years and a little girl of the same
age. Their portraits I cannot get; but I present, nearly as may
be, pictures representing their' dresses. They were in a bevy of
children, near a large group of women, seated, as usual, upon the
ground. The boy was handsomely attired in fancy garments, in
which silk braid and gold play a part. He exhibited no distrust
or dislike, but with elegant grace he gave me the salaam of the
East, or, rather, of the dervishes of the East. The higher person
in rank receives the lowest obeisance. The boy who saluted us
touched the earth with his right hand, brought it up to his mouth,
and then tipped his forehead. It is a courtesy which, from a child,
says: " From the earth our mother, I gave you my heart, and with
my hand to my brow, intelligently I salute you !"
I was surprised and pleased with the young gentleman's
exquisite taste. His female relatives almost dropped their yash-

548 DIVERSIONS OF A DiPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
maks, and gave a laughing salutation to my wife — but not to me
of the debarred sex. They were pleased with the delight afforded
by their children.
Wandering about the grounds, I found seated by some pro
vender a little hunchback boy whose family had wandered off on
a promenade by these " Sweet Waters " of Asia. Was he dis
trustful ? Not a whit Our kavass — the Mahomedan guard of
the Legation — asked him to sing his prayers for us; and he raised
his "La-Il-Allah ! " with a plaintive and sweet voice. He seemed
happy in his effort to please.
So that I doubt the universal application of the statement,
that the Turkish children are all trained to show signs of hatred
to those of other faiths. I have yet to see one unruly movement
or ugly grimace from a Moslem child. Near our Legation at
Therapia there are barracks. Several families live near by —
families of soldiers. The soldiers as well as the children salute
the Minister every day, and if I meet one of them in the city, the
courtesy I describe is made with smiling recognition.
It may be noticed, from some of the illustrations, that the Turk
is not subject to the standard or to the fancies of Europeans. He
has his own tests in his ways of dressing, as well as in the colors
and the pattern of the material which he uses for that purpose;
so much so that in Germany, Austria, France and England there
are factories where articles are made specially for consumption in
the Orient. The Turk buys colored calico of bright yellowish or
pink color, or with such a combination of colors that Joseph's
coat only can rival, and that no European would use, except for
window curtains. He prefers wide stripes to any other pattern.
He never imitates the Christian mode of dressing, so long as he
can help it It irked the Turkish soldier at first to wear the French
uniform. Thus, long dresses are worn by young giris, and short
ones by babies, whereas it is usual among Christians to dress the
baby, up to the time he steps about, with long dresses; and as soon
as he is able to walk, with short ones. The little Turkish giri,
when en promenade, has the aspect of a little old lady, except in
her infantile features. The only article of dress which the Turk
adopts from the Christian— and that is of recent occurrence— is
the shoe or boot. This they adopt as more comfortable in loco
motion; though that is a matter of doubt.
The shape and the style which have prevailed in manufacturing

' ' YO UNG TURKE Y ' ' MUS T BE AMUSED. 540
the clothes to be seen in these illustrations, indicate something
different from that which is commonly known everywhere outside
of Moslem countries. Some Turks consider it a religious obliga
tion to differ thus as to their modes of dress. They never put a hat
on their heads. Even the women have their " bashliks," approach
ing to what one may call a hat, but it is a different thing. It is
called by another name. A hat would be a " shapka; " and the
name given to this head-covering means a bonnet, or, rather, a cap.
These characteristics of the Turk — and of his chief, the Sultan
himself, who wears, like all his subjects, the fez cap — go to show
that they are misjudged greatly from childhood up. If indeed,
as is said, the child is taught by the servant some naughty words,
and incited to hurl them at the infidel as a part_of his "fun," or
that of his nurse or servant, I am, as I said before, in ignorance
of the fact There is much written, and truly, about the irrever
ent audacity of Young America. He will cry out, " Go up,
Bald-Head ! " and add defiantly, " Now, bring on your Bears! "
Compared with the " bad boy " of other lands — of which the
American boy is a representative, as I myself from experience
know — the young Turk is as a cooing dove to a malicious sparrow,
or to a loquacious jackdaw.
Of course all children must have amusement. If it be not
tendered, they will break out into mischief They must also have
variety in their entertainment. They must be petted. The phil
ology of the word "pet" signifies it. A child soon tires of one
kind of diversion. He must find something else. The Turkish
child is no exception. Whether running about, as I see him here,
in his little baggy clothes, over which is a sort of dressing-gown
padded with cotton made out of cheap prints, highly colored,
generally red ; or munching sweetmeats in his satins and -silks,
tassels and gold laces, with his little cane, strutting by the side of
his veiled mother, over the green at the " Sweet Waters " near
the Palace of Ghiocksouyee ; whether he be rich or poor, of
crockery or porcelain — he is of the same " earth earthy " as the
American bad or good boy.
He is, perhaps, more plastic in the hands of servant or slave.
This personage is often put to the use of all his wits to make up
stories wonderful enough to fill the imagination of these inchoate
Sinbads and Haroun Al-Raschids — these children of Bajazet and
Sule'iman. Generally such stories refer to a boy or girl of their

55°

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

own age as the hero or heroine. Perhaps the hero is some Arab
cowboy of the desert or plain ! In these narratives, there are
battles with the enemies of the Faith, in which millions of Chris
tians are slain by a handful of Moslems. The hero has slaugh
tered most of them. Robberies, incendiarisms, murders and
piracies are committed by the enemy of the heroic Mussulman,
who cuts them down with his crescent-shaped cimeter. In these
stories the bad Unbeliever is punished ultimately by the good
Moslem. The tale winds up with the immunity of the true
believer ; nay, with a reward in proportion to the number of
enemies killed ; a reward in a paradise of rare beauty and
delight I
With such stories, we do not wonder that the Turkish child
should grow into a bigoted man. We do wonder that in his con
tact with other nationalities, and the constant encroachment on
Turkish domain in Africa and Europe, that when he comes to
man's estate his early training so little affects his natural toler
ance and urbanity.
There is one occasion on which the Turkish children are
taught to be respectful and obedient ; that is when they are
brought in presence of their father and mother. They learn to
approach their parents in the same humble attitude as the serv
ants ; for instance, as soon as the child is brought. in he must
approach them with his hands upon his stomach. On coming
nearer, he must take their hands and kiss them. After this, he
must withdraw some three or four steps and stand with his hands
on the stomach and not seat himself until he is permitted. On
this account the little Turk likes better to be with the servants
than with his parents.
So far as the outward show may be proof, there is no lack of
love from the father to the child. The father cares sedulously
for the child when it is sick He plays with it when it is well.
He carries his love of children so far as to be constantly adopting
the children of others. These are called " the children of the
soul." They are reared with the same tenderness as the children
of the household. On their marriage they are apportioned with
the same munificence as if it were a natural instead of a voluntary
claim. The regard for the parents is imperishable in the Turkish
mind. The Turk will say to him.self :
"My wife or wives may die; they can be replaced. My

EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN.

551

children may perish ; others may be born ; but who shall re'store
to me my mother ; for when she goes, she is seen no more ? "
If the- "child be father of the man," then the Turkish child
is not so bad after all, considering the provocation and allure
ments to be otherwise. In places where,the Turk does not min
gle with those of other creeds and nation.s, he may, if ignorant, be
haughty. He may, as child and man, beat or abuse with facile
stick or tongue the children who are .alien to the commonwealth
of Islam. He sees the servants about him subdued to the son of
their master, and as he has no communications outside, the only
surprise is.that he does not become more absolute and arrogant.
Upon the whole, I am yet to meet a Turk who is not gentle. He
is more polite than the French, and more sincere in his polite
ness. The Turkish peasant is a good sample of the uncorrupted
stock ; and he is a sober and simple person. Daughters marry
young, and their housekeeping is a model of cleanliness compared
with the squalor and dirt of other Oriental races and homes.
Their vices are from alien sources ; their virtues are from the
teaching of the Koran ; and their hospitality and courtesy are
among these virtues.
It may be interesting to follow the Turkish child from its birth
to its nurse, and from its nurse to its attendant, when it reaches
the third and most interesting epoch in its plastic life; but it is
more interesting to solve the question: " How, and how much, is
the child educated; and what are the ceremonies of its introduc
tion to the schools of Turkey ? "
Not until the child reaches its sixth year does this question
agitate the household. The father and mother, in a preparatory
way, then commence petting him more than usual. Small presents
are given him. Among other things, there is given a bag with a
strap. This is to be hung on his shoulder. The bag is square-
shaped. It is large enough to contain his primary book. This is
ordered for the occasion.
The bag and book are covered with elaborate embroideries.
Arrangemer*-3 are made with the teacher of the school to which the
child is to go.
The day on which to begin school is decided upon. It is a
day marked with the whitest stone. It is a day of ceremony. No
such ponies are to be found like the spirited yet gentle iron-gray
ponies of the East. One of these is gorgeously caparisoned. The

552 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.

DRESSED FOR ITS FIRST SCHOOL.

555

cloths are covered with gold embroideries of rarest skill. The
pupils of the school are advised of the great event, and of the
advent of the new comer. These pupils are arrayed in their
"store clothes."
Our photographs represent some children in this holiday attire.
These children are taken to the house of the budding scholar. A
priest makes a short prayer. The child is placed on the pony;
and the pupils, male and female, are formed in double line. The
procession moves. It sings hymns as it moves. The little horse,
with the little hero of the day, follows. The pony feels the impor
tance of the occasion. The photograph shows also how the child
is dressed in a costume especially made for the occasion. If it be
a boy, the costume is that of a Turkish colonel of the army or a
commodore of the navy; or sometimes in the costume of an
Ulema or law interpreter.
The Spanish nation has many traits of an Oriental kind. Perhaps
they were transmitted by contact with their Moorish neighbors in
the earlier years of the peninsular history. It was only the other
day that the son of Alfonso XIL, a little over one year of age, was
presented by the Tailor's Guild of Madrid with a uniform of a
titular grade in the army. The gold lace of the suit, the minia
ture chapeau, the plume, the aigrette of diamonds and the tiny
sword made the little one a droll doll. Such is royalty.
In Turkey, if the costume be for a little girl, it is a fancy
one, which is neither Turkish nor European. She wears a
great profusion of artificial flowers and gay feathers. Thus the
child makes its entry into the school, or, rather, into its new
world. It may be understood from the preceding that among Mussul
mans, in the primary schools both girls and boys study together.
The teachers are taken from the priesthood and from the gradu
ates of the theological universities. They must have learned to
read the Koran, which is written in Arabic, and which all good
Mussulmans learn. This class of teachers are consequently
stringent religionists. Some are quite fanatical. If the .pupil
does not acquire much discipline or information pertaining to
modern material progress, it is because the twig is not bent in
that direction.
Pertinent to this, let me say, that never does our Legation
- steam launch stop at any of the wharves between Constantinople

554

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

TURKISH MECHANICAL GENIUS.

555

and Cavak, near the Bosporus mouth, that it is not observed by
the children. They gather about it in crowds. They quit their
fishing to look at it. They scarcely give its passengers a glance
or smile. They care not for the flag of our beloved land. They,
however, peep down into the engine-room, not exactly with sur
prise, for a Turk is not supposed, even in youth, to show surprise.
The boy scrutinizes its stern, to see the play of the screw propel
ler, which the clear water of the Bosporus displays. Thereupon,
there follows much sapient discussion. Are these urchins of the
quay inglorious Newtons, Fitches and Fultons, Morses, Edisons
and Ericsons, that they take such a sedate interest in the myste
ries of physical science, when harnessed as forces, upon this ele
ment, so constantly dedicated here to the oar ?
I have said that the Turk never shows surprise, even if he
feels it. Dr. Washburn, president of the Robert (American) Col
lege, illustrates this point by an anecdote. He brought here from
America one of Edison's phonographs. He exhibited it to a
company of Turks. He vociferates into its oriflce. The
machine grinds out of its vocal tin-foil'much talk in English, in
its squeaky way. It is no marvel to the company. There is not
an eyebrow raised in wonder; not a question asked. When it
talks Turkish, ah ! Then, how they marvel 1 How could it
learn the Turkish language so soon !
In one of my calls the other day upon a leading Turkish
gentleman of education and refinement, I had a conversation as
to Eastern and Western modes of thought and tuition. He said
to me :
" Excellency ! I think there are modes of good-nature, by
which the ends of discipline and justice are attained."
I asked him to explain his remark; he replies:
" Oh, Excellency ! you are accounted a man of good-humor,
and evidently it is a part of your education."
I rejoin, giving him back — for he was a Minister and a Pasha
— the usual courtesy:
" Excellency ! the forum in which my good-nature has been
tried has no counterpart in the East. A pariiamentary body has
its gravity, ever drawing one to itself as to an arena of wrangle
and not of good-humor, and yet — ," I added, "good-humor has
its uses even in deliberative bodies."
As the Turks are proud of being accounted just, I add:

556 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
"You know that the root of the English word 'justice' or
' juice, ' is the word from the Greek which means ' moisture ' or
' humor.' "
Here he exhibited unwonted surprise. He was of Kurd
descent. He had the warm blood of Saladin the Saracen. I
resume: "Justice is like rain — or jus, i. e., juice. It falls upon all
alike — the just and unjust. This idea and its philology are of the
Orient Almost all moral humor, like the fable, parable or story,
comes from the East."
" Ah," he responds quietly, " the West gives us steam, tele
graph, telephone and a hundred other evidences of growth in
experimental science; and thus it compensates us for what we
give to them in moral and religious truths. The East and
West are necessary to each other."
This man, as I say, was a Kurd. He was a descendant of
the tribe from and through which Xenophon made his celebrated
retreat of the ten thousand. He is now the able and courteous
Foreign Minister — Said Pasha.
I have yet to see the Turkish man or child here — for I am
not speaking of the Turkish woman — who did not seem pervious
to good-humor. It is a mistake that the Turk is always too grave for a laugh.
The children especially are full of sportive ways. The men are
not devoid of that simplicity which is easily amused. Is it
because they are fond of children ? At every turn, we see here
the father playing with his young ones, or petting them. He
makes them his companions. Indeed, the father seems to be
devotedly attached to the little ones, whose " flitcherin naise and
glee" is the echo of his own hilarity.
The schools here do not afford the opportunities for mischief
which are recorded in English novels about English boys, and
which make so many paragraphs in American journals.
The studies in the primary schools are not very complicated.
On the contrary, they are primitive.
A primary school is composed of one or two rooms or " holes
in the wall," round which there are large divans against three of
the sides of the room. The seat of the teacher is against the
fourth side. The pupils sit cross-legged in a line on the divans.
They hold their books on their knees, and recite all at the same

ORIGIN OF OUR ARITHMETIC.

557

time, in a loud, shrill voice, so as to form a sort of monotone,
producing an indescribable cacophony, not unlike the horrid
music of these shores. They learn grammar, and the four rules of
arithmetic. After they are able to read from the Koran a little,
they take up writing. There being no writing-tables or desks,
they hold their copy-books in their hands. This is all the edu
cation they receive in the primary schools.
As the Arab gave us numeration — in fact, arithmetic, as well
as kindred modes of calculation — Young America may not be
averse to doing one of the sums I copy from a primer in the

A SI;M in TURKISH ARITHMETIC.

Turkish script. At least, it is a curious " sum " to look at, if it
cannot be "done."
A few years ago the Sultan gave the matter of education his
serious attention. Much progress has been made toward put
ting the primary schools on a better footing. Besides the primary,
there are few superior schools, except the military and naval
schools and the school of medicine, established in a. d. 1830.
These "high schools" were established some forty years ago ; so
that, outside of these government and primary scliools, there is no
other education to be had. Wealthy men hire European teachers
to assist their children in the study of languages and modern

558 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
science. But the common people, not being pecuniarily able,
satisfy themselves with what is obtained at the pri.mary schools.
If one is astonished that the governing class here generally speak
French, and often English, Greek, Italian and German, it may
be stated that the Turk, like the Russian, has an aptitude for
tongues. He makes his necessity the mother of his — study.
The distribution of the prizes at the model preparatory school
of Bechiktash has just taken place, in the presence of a grand con
course of people. The audience was principally composed of the
best society of Moslems. This splendid establishment was insti
tuted by the present Sultan. It is under his patronage. It has
justified the hopes that were conceived at its creation. About
thirty of the pupils received certificates of scholarship. These
permit them to enter higher schools. The school of Bech'iktash
thus gives proof of the progress accomplished within a few years
in primary instruction.
During the reign of Sultan Abdul Medjid, some thirty-five
years ago, an effort was made to extend the normal school system
throughout the empire, but without success. It is only during
the reign of the present Sultan that the matter of education has
been earnestly taken up. In the course of eight or nine years, the
administration of public instruction has established throughout
the empire, in Europe, Asia and Africa, 388 primary and nor
mal schools. There were in this year, a. d. 1886, 20,093 students.
Besides these, there are 80 primary and normal schools in Con
stantinople, in which there are 5,401 students, out of which 275
are in the gratuitous school — the only one in existence in the
empire — and 634 are in private schools. In all, I should say
that there are some 30,000 pupils in Turkish schools being
gratuitously educated. The number is increasing every day.
The instruction in these schools differs little from that which
was formerly given. The programme of the studies, divided into
four years, indicates the course of studies for each year or class.
Here is the course of studies in primary schools :
First class, or year : Alphabet, Turkish, six times a week;
Koran, six times a week and prayers; and Turkish lectures, five
times a week; and moral stories.
Second class, or year : Koran, six times a week, and memoriz
ing it; religious precepts, twice a week and the reading of a
primer; addition, once a Week; and writing.

- COMPULSORY ED UCA TION. 559
Third class, or year : Koran, six times a week, and explana
tions; Turkish grammar, twice a week; four rules of arithmetic
and proofs, twice a week; and different kinds of writing.
Fourth class, or year : Koran, six times a week; geography,
once a week; and Ottoman history, once, and general history
twice a week; orthography, once a week; and writing, as well as
memorization of lessons.
It may be a surprise, but it is nevertheless true, that there is
compulsory education in Turkey. Every citizen or father is
compelled to enter his son's name for schooling on reaching the
age of six years. If they can afford the means, their children are
educated at home. Why should a citizen of Berlin, London or
New York think that he monopolizes the business of education ?
Why should he look down upon the Turk in that regard ? Even
in the old temples of Cairo, while wandering around, winter
before last, I heard the hum, hum, hum of the schools. It
sounded like a swarm of bees. In following the murmurous
noise, I have wandered into some scattered nook of some temple
of Rameses or Osiris, where the infantile voices are heard in
chorus almost any hour of the day. They sit cross-legged with
their vakeer, or schoolmaster. Each child has a board on which
his lesson is written. This lesson he screams to the top of his
compass. The hubbub is anything but agreeable; but the
moment a stranger enters the noise becomes that of boisterous
hilarity. The pupils must recite by heart, out loud, besides writ
ing down the lessons.
The programme of studies of the Imperial Lyceum includes
the Turkish language, composition and translation, Turkish his
tory and literature, Arabic language and literature, the Persian
language, religious instruction, mathematics, philosophy, physics,
history, design, French, geography, book-keeping, the Greek lan-
' guage, French caligraphy, gymnastics and the German, English
and Italian languages.
There are two schools in Constantinople for professions and
arts. These are for boys as well as for girls. These are of course
separate. In the boys' school there are three hundred students,
and in the giris' one hundred and fifty-nine. There they learn
handicraft and trades of all kinds. There is also a superior
school in prospect, but it is not yet in operation.
The Lycee Imperial has eight hundred students, for which the

560

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

annual pay for boarding students is $240 a year, while the day
students pay about $55. The course of studies in this is copied
from the French schools.
There has also been an administrative school in operation for
four or five years. The curriculum of this school has a wide range.
It includes the study of sanitation, agriculture, literature, composi
tion and translation, geography, history, French, chemistry, min
ing, cosmography, zoology, government, finance and economy,
legislation, commercial and international law, Turkish law, book
keeping, Arabic, Persian, engineering and algebra. This adminis
trative school has five hundred students. By administrative,
is meant the knowledge of the modes of administering govern
mental affairs. In this regard America might take a lesson from
Turkey. With the exception of this last class of students — who
are supposed to be sufficiently posted to take a position in the
government at once after they leave the school — these scholars, as
soon as they finish their studies, are placed in some bureau of
information, but without pay. Their only occupation is to copy
old letters which are of no use. They do this to form their hand
writing. Their literary exercises, and principally their orthography,
after three or four years of exercise are supposed to be good.
When there is a vacancy in the government, they get in by some
hierarchical order or civil-service reform movement, and advance
little by little, according to the vacancies which occur. It hap
pens often that men thus trained become Foreign Ministers, Gov
ernor-Generals ar^i even Cabinet Ministers.
In Turkey, any one, even a slave, can become a Marshal of the
empire, or Grand Vizier. There are no hereditary or other titles
of nobility. The names of the great and small folk areas simple
as can be. The titles of Aga, Effendi and Pasha are as common
as our " colonels " were after the civil war. They are handles,
like our Mister. Some of these scholars enter upon a military-
career. Then they must go through the military school. Some
enter the navy. They have to go through the naval school. The
fact is, that every boy who goes to school has one object in view:
it is to enter into the employ of the government.
The real education of the Turkish child commences with his
babyhood. It follows him up until he is a man, with his principles
and conduct more or less molded by ignorant servants. These
habits are more or less refined away at school, and by contact with

VER Y CIVIL SER VICE. 5 6 I
Other boys, who have something new to teach on 2 another. I am
bound and glad to say that, with all the disadvantages, the Turk
is naturally good-natured and good-hearted. When he enters
upon public affairs, he is the most generous, the most polite, and
the most patient official to be found anywhere. He does not lack
either in natural faculties or in acquired intelligence. He may
be cunning, and, as a general rule, although slow, he is well
equipped for his business.

CHAPTER XLIL
MAHOMETAN MARRIAGES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES.
After some Diversions in my library, in glancing over the
marvels of the thousand and one adventures of princesses and
hanoums, recorded by the story-tellers of Bagdad, and minutely
observing the illustrations of the famous volume, I take down
the heavy tome of Mahometan law, which the East Indian judges
have collated out of the Koran and customs of Mahometan
countries. As the constant question about the Orient is that of
the relation of the sexes, I resolved to make a serious " diver
sion " into the domain of matrimony.
The institution of marriage, whether with one or more wives, is at
the base of human society. Upon it rests social stability and order,
and domestic felicity and virtue. Under its wing are the " littie
ones " gathered, upon whom depend so much of present comfort
for parents and future safety for state and people. Perhaps the
greatest anomaly connected with human advancement is the fact
that Christian nations have formed their institutions upon models
of the Old Testament, with its patriarchs and tribal system, and
its Jewish kings and their Oriental households, and j'et have so
eliminated the primal feature of ancient Judean life as to have
ignored Abraham and Solomon in their practice of the plurality
of wives. Only the Mormon, that thrifty branch of a dead stump,
preserves this practice and peculiarity. Like the Chinese artist,
he faithfully copies the ugly flaw of the vase, along with its^
elegant shape and proportion.
Whether, or when, our "twin relic," which now flutters as if
wounded in a vital part, shall be abolished from the domain of
America, is a problem almost as insoluble as that which now,
owing to the presence of the Ottoman in Europe, vexes the na
tions over the conditions of Turkish civilization.
Why is it that polygamy, as practiced in the Orient, and espe-
562

MARRIAGE CODE. 563
cially in Turkey, and which, as most argue, saps the foundation
of social vigor and home content, remains to this day ? What is
there in its secluded and strange methods, copied from the cus
toms of those whom we daily commend for their faith, devotion
and wisdom, which has given it strength to defy our Federal
government for thirty years and more ? To respond to these
queries involves an examination of the force of sensual allure
ments and religious enthusiasm. Nowhere can the many curious
and peculiar features of the system be better studied than in
Mussulman countries. Polygamy is the chief one of these features.
It has never been thoroughly investigated, save in India and other
Eastern countries, by the Western jurist, although it constitutes
the basis of manifold social relations.
What, then, is a Mahometan marriage ? It is well known
that in the Orient polygamy is legally and religiously sanctioned.
It is regulated by an elaborate code.
Before entering upon the subject, let us understand the points
which make such a code a necessity. Without such a code the
followers of Islam could not be extricated from the innumerable
difficulties in which they are involved by reason of polygamy.
In order to make this statement clear, it must be premised that
the Mahometan, like the Christian religion, has its schisms.
The principal and best defined divisions are those of the Sheeahs
and the Soonnees. Both of these sects recognize the same
fundamental principles and laws of Islam. They worship in the
same mosques, and perform the same ceremonies. Still, there is
a difference in their marriage code, to say nothing of the hatred
existing between them.
The Soonnees are Turks and Arabs. Of these, there are
great numbers in India, China, Central Asia, and on the African
continent. The Sheeahs are Persians. In a. d. 1499 they pro
claimed the Sheeah faith to be the national religion of the
country. Quite a number professing this creed are to be found
in India. Sheeah means a troop or sect. It is the distinct appel
lation of the followers of Ali, or of all those who maintain that he
was the legitimate Khalif or successor of Mahomet.
Marriage with Mussulmaus is merely a civil transaction. It
has attached to it no religious ceremony especially obligatory.
Contracts of marriage cannot be made, except by those'authorized
by the code, which enacts six prohibitions. These are consan-

564 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN I URKE Y.
guinity, fosterage, affinity, completion of number, imprecation
and infidelity. Another and peculiar marriage is that of slaves,
either by contract or by right of property.
It is customary among the Mahometan people to betroth their
children in their infancy. The right to contract belongs to the
father, the paternal grandfather, the master, the executor, or the
judge. Contracts made by either of these are binding on the chil
dren, even if the marriage has not been effected up to the time
they attain their majority. In case the grandfather and the
father contract with two different persons, the choice of the grand
father prevails. But if, by the time the child attain its majority,
no contract has been entered into by any of the persons intrusted
with the power to do so, then their authority on the subject is at
an end. The consent of an adult is thereupon necessary for her
or his marriage, unless insanity exists. As to the slaves, a mas
ter may contract his female slave in marriage. Whether young
or mature, sane or insane, she has no option in the matter. The
same rule prevails in the case of a male slave.
Let us now consider the formalities with regard to the mar
riage of free men and women, and limit the statement to mature
marriages, or those not contracted for those in infancy.
As soon as the boy attains the marriageable age, his father
and mother cast about to find him a wife. The mother visits her
acquaintances. She makes quiet quest into their harems; for, as
I have said, the Turkish houses have rooms exclusively reserved
for the women.
The mother may not allow the object of her search to trans
pire among her friends and neighbors ; but still she is indefati
gable and subtle in her search of a suitable bride for her son. At
length, and after much maternal anxiety, she finds what seems to
be the actual of her ideal.
She reports the fact to her husband. She details to him the
particular graces of her choice. Then, if the family to which the
elect belongs suits the husband, and the " bill of particulars " is
satisfactory, and if the accomplishments of the girl are approved,
the " managing " mother arranges a party to the Turkish bath —
for the bath is an institution in Oriental realms, and almost a part
of the devotion of the faithful. There the future bride is to be the
principal object of attention. There her future mother-in-law is
to ascertain whether or not the girl has any constitutional defects.

EXAMINATION OF THE BRIDE AT THE BATH. 565
Sir Thomas More, before composing his " Utopia," must have
studied this custom of the Orient ; for he wrote that it
seemed strange to the Utopians that in other countries great cau
tion was displayed in buying a horse or other animal, so as to
ascertain whether it were sound and healthy, and yet, when it
came to a solemn contract for good or ill, and for life, no such
painstaking was exercised. The Utopians thought such remissness
most culpable.
The day is appointed for the bath, trreat preparations are
made. It is tacitly understood, though not expressed, what the
bath party means. The cooks of both parties are kept busy for
several days. They prepare dainty dishes and sweetmeats of every
description and flavor. The Turkish women, not unlike the
"children of the azure sheen," are very fond of confectionery.
The greatest attention is paid, also, in procuring the rarest and
most elegant suius tor the bath. A competitive but friendly
excitement arises between- the families; for the Turks are as
particular about their bathing clothes as the fashionable belle at
Schevningen or Newport.
The bride, or the nominee for that function, is arrayed in her
most elegant dress. She is escorted to the bath in her best
bravery of silk and satin, feridjie and parasol. She is accompa
nied by her mother and all the women of her house. The servants
and slaves are summoned for this service ; and the more numerous
these are, the more the display ot luxury is enhanced. As soon
as the parties meet, there is a series of endless compliments. In
this the Turkish people excel. Coffee and sherbet are served
around to the company, which is seated on the divans. Amidst
clouds of smoke from narghile, pipe and cigarette, and with gos
sip and laughter which " make old wrinkles come," the future
mother-in-law adroitly seats herselr by the nominee. She per
suades her to talk. Unconscious of the object, the girl undergoes
a skillful cross-examination. Her intellectual and moral charac
ter is thoroughly scrutinized. Her life, with its tastes and quali
ties, is winnowed. When the smoking terminates, there is the
disrobing in order to go into the interior of the bath. Then fol-
lov^s the robing for the bath. The bath being intensely hot, the
robing is not cumbrous or extensive. It consists simply of a big
towel around the waist covering the person down to the knees,
and a second towel which is .thrown over the shoulders like a sash.

566 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
This last towel is taken off as soon as the interior of the bath is
entered, as the heat and consequent perspiration make it intoler
able. Gibbon says that Zenobia, when led in triumph by
Aurelian, almost fainted under the intolerable burden of jewelry.
Not so with our candidate for the bridal office. Her decorations
,are reserved for her triumphal procession and entry into her new
household. The hair is unloosened and hangs over the shoulders. Each
lady is taken care of* by one or two servants ; but the future
mother-in-law never quits the nominee. She makes thorough
investigation until the bath is over. If, like the sisters of the
Gorgons — the Grseae — who had but one eye and one tooth among
the entire sisterhood with which to go out and make their calls,
our nominee should be found wanting in these or any other pre
requisites to healthy and beautiful womanhood, is it not reason
able to believe- that the future mother-in-law would discover the
flaw and announce the fact to her lord and husband ?
The place and mode of bathing are quite different from those
of the European or American. The bath is a large square room.
It is paved with marble or stones. It is air-tight In it there are
fountains attached to the walls. They furnish cold and hot water.
Under these fountains there are small basins about fifteen inches
wide and ten inches deep. These are fixed at about half a yard
above the floor. The basins are filled with water, the degree of
whose heat is regulated at will. The bather seats herself on the
floor by the basin and the servant washes her, soaping and lather
ing her head and then her body, pouring the water from the basin
over the head and rinsing off the snowy suds. If in a festive mood,
the younger females play the Naiad, and, not infrequently, throw
water about, over themselves and others, with a hilarity belonging
to youth in its sjportive morning. Sometimes these nymphs thus
dally with the elements for hours. Sometimes the more lethargic
lie in soak or undergo the process of maceration, but not often on
these betrothal occasions.
After this, dry clothes are brought. Neither are these "volu
minous and vast," for they consist of t-wo towels, with a third one
to crown the head, like a turban. Before leaving the interior of
the bath, all the party, including the damsel, dye their nails and
the palms of the hands with henna. Then they hie in a group to
the cooling-room. Then the banquet begins. Rugs are spread

ENCHANTED VIANDS AT THE BATH. 567
•upon the floor. A stool is placed in the middle of the room. On
this is placed a large salver. The company seat themselves,
cross-legged, on the rugs and around the stool and salver. The
former is covered with a gorgeous table-cloth. A long strip of
finest linen, bordered and broidered with golden or silken figures,
say one yard wide and nine yards long, is passed around to
the guests. What for ? To be used as a napkin, in common. It
gives unity to the sentiment and the festivity. Then the servants
bring in the delicacies. Each dish is placed in the middle of the
salver. The "leading lady," with dainty finger and thumb, takes
up the acceptable tidbit, and accomplishes the first responsible
bite. Then the others follow ; plunging their henna-tinted fingers
into the single dish. Bite after bite follows, with lively and glee
ful procession. This interesting process — if one could only see
it — would reproduce one of the pictures of Spenser in his " Faerie
¦Queen.'' It is that enchanted vision where Sir Callidore, in going
through the Bower of Bliss, is saluted by bevies of beauteous
damosels, who pluck luscious clusters of grapes from the over
hanging vines, and press the nectar into golden goblets with fairy
fingers. " So fair a wine press makes the wine more sweet."
With a little changing of Spenser's fancy, may it not be said,
" So fair a group of banqueters makes the banquet more tasteful."
There is no enchanted viand before the happy company. No
¦drink is allowed to stimulate or drown the senses. The only
¦drink is pure water and lemonade! The mother-in-law has no
chance to get at the incautious truth, on the maxim — i7i vino
-Veritas. The artist, when called upon to paint the grief of Iphigenia
•over the death of Agamemnon, dropped the curtain. We do not
follow this gruesome example ; for the subject is not sad. But
"we have not the artistic skill to create, in the reader's imagination,
such imagery of this bath and banquet as to -do justice to the
-scene. The banquet may last three or four hours. Generally, the
bride does not know or seem to know its object. Sometimes even
the mother of the bride ignores it ; although she may suspect it.
After the dinner, the coffee and smoking are finished, the parties
separate with earnest promises to renew the entertainment
The mother of the boy goes home. There she is expected
¦with anxiety by her husband. He waits eagerly to hear her

568 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
impressions. She gives him such a detailed account of her inves
tigations as only a female and a mother can give. If the report
be satisfactory, the next step is to rally for the election of the
nominee. A day or two after, the mother of the boy pays a visit
to the family of the girl. There she reveals her object. As a
matter of course, the mother of "the nominee" is surprised!
She dodges the proposal by postponing an answer until she consults
her husband, who happens to be absent; but she promises to speak
to him about it. In returning the visit, the girl's mother bears the
answer of her husband. If tire proposition be agreeable, the
mother manages a meeting of the husbands, in order to arrange
the terms of the contract and dower, as well as to fix the time for
the marriage.
Perhaps one disadvantage connected with the marital relation
in this polygamous country is that there is no courting. The
amusement, comfort and delight implied in this term are not
altogether unknown; but if done at all, it is so surreptitious that
the satisfaction is limited. The marriage, in fact, is a lottery.
Sometimes the betrothal takes place when the bride and groom
are but children. They have never seen each other. Of course,
he is attracted by the wonderful poetry and eulogium which the
go-between gives in extravagant phrase of the girl's beauty. Is
she not fair ? What is the lily at the dawn ? Is she not slender
and graceful as the doe; as mild and radiant as the full moon?
The " old aunty " thus arouses the imagination of the boy who^
would wed.
To the expected bride she will say: " Is he .not as brave as
the sword of Selim ? Is not his hand open to charity, even as
that of the Sultan ? Will he not give you children as radiant
and as fair as the dewy rose ? "
But they seldom have a chance in advance to test these
extravagant expressions. However, there is one consolation if it
be a lottery, for if, when the bridegroom sees the bride, he is not
pleased, divorce is easy, even though it be expensive.
The betrothal of a young Turkish girl calls for a grand party.
How this betrothal is accomplished; how the young girl may
possibly have a peep at her husband through some lattice or
chink in the door — has often been described. It is generally
believed that the bridegroom does not see the bride until many
days after the betrothal. The betrothal consists in a marriage

A SCHOOL FOR BRIDES. 569
contract The bride may then take a new name. She becomes
a hanou7n. When she is brought home to the bridegroom,
another festival is inaugurated, with furniture and other gifts for
the housekeeper, and a throne for the bride. A prayer-carpet is
also given, and at last a peaceful and happy home is almost invari
ably the finality.
There has been much difficulty in establishing Turkish schools
for girls. Mrs. Walker, in her book about Turkey, was employed
in one of these schools to teach drawing. Her picture of the
school is a humorous one :
She has charge of some forty girls; some of them are
matured women. They are all eager to be educated, just
as our young Africans were after the war ; but a cigarette was
more attractive to them than a slate and pencil, and the prome
nade more alluring than even making pictures in oil or water.
Their minds ran more on matrimony than in depicting ruined
temples and spoiled kiosks. An incident in connection with her
school in a Turkish village of the Bosporus, illustrates the mode
by which sometimes the young women are selected as wives.
When the girls are assembled in the school, a strange, weird, old
woman enters. She produces a flutter in the dove-cote. The
teacher makes inquiry:
" Who is she ? "
" Oh! she, comes to look at the girls."
" For what purpose ? " asks the artist-teacher.
" You will see soon," reply the giggling beauties.
The old woman settles down to a special stare at two of the
houris, and then leaves. Then the explanation comes. She is
picking out a wife for some one. The school then becomes a sort
of marital market. After such a scene, those selected for matri
mony begin to dress with extraordinary attire and fantastic
splendor. The girls wear all their jewelry and their head-dresses,
with a " twittering " sort of consciousness and a general airiness
of manner. In case the children have no father or grandfather, the con
summation of the contract depends on their guardian. He assumes
the same authority in the premises as if he were the father himself.
In the perfection of a marriage contract, and in order to make
it valid, care must be taken to avoid the legal prohibitions. They
are as follows : A man cannot marry his mother or grandmother,

DIVERSIONS. OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

PROHIBITED CLA SSES IN MARRIA GE. 571
nor his daughter nor their daughters, nor the daughters of his sons
and sisters, nor the daughters of these and the daughters of their
children, nor his aunts and the sisters of his grandfathers, mater
nal or paternal. The like classes are prohibited to the women.
Consanguinity is attributed where there are valid marriages or
the semblance of them. Still, marriage with a natural child is
prohibited both to father and mother. Fosterage, which is estab
lished by the milk, is another impediment ; but it has reference
to the quantity of the lacteal fluid, and it must be such as gives
increase to the flesh and strength to the bones. According to
the " Sheeahs," no effect is attributed to anything less than fifteen
acts of suckling, or continued suckling for a day and a night
¦ These fifteen acts must be consecutive from one woman ; and if
another woman intervenes before the completion of this magic
number— like Rip Van Winkle's drink of schnapps, after he swore
off — they do not count The nurse does not become the foster-
mother of the child, unless she complete the nursing. She does
not obtain the benefactions and gifts which ensue, unless she per
fect the work. All these conditions have reference to an infant
under two years old.
The milk must be drawn from the breast. Any " deludation,"
or tainting of the milk, or any artificial nursing, does not incur
prohibition in marrying. The nurse should be of the Mussulman
faith, chaste and pure. No infidel is allowed, except under great
necessity. She must be restrained from drinking wine or eating
pork. It is an old traditionary rule that she must not be a fire-
worshipper. The children nursed by the same woman cannot
intermarry. Their fathers and mothers cannot marry any of
the children nursed by the same woman who nursed their child.
The husband must be of the Mussulman faith ; that is to say, a
Mussulman can marry a Christian or Jewish woman, but a Mus-
limah (Mussulman woman) cannot marry with a Christian or
Jew. Marriage with fire-worshippers is utterly prohibited. No
marriage is permitted with a repudiated woman, unless six
months have elapsed since she has been repudiated. A thrice-
repudiated woman cannot remarry with her husband, unless she
has been intermediately married to another man, and the mar
riage has been actually consummated. If the man has taken
the legal number to wife — i. e., four — he cannot contract any
new marriage, unless he repudiate one of his wives.

572

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

All these impediments being taken into consideration, the con
tract is signed. The dower is payable, half in advance ; the other
half remains to be paid to the wife in case of repudiation. This
reservation is prudence itself. It enables her to support herself
during the time she is forbidden to contract a new marriage.
The marriage service in Turkey is very simple. Every mar
riage is substantially based upon this formula :
The 7nan to his i7itended wife : "It is my right to love several
women, and your right only to love me! Attend to your duty,
and I will look out for my rights! "
This is concise, and somewhat after the teachings of the
Koran ; but if she chose to make trouble in the family it is costiy,
for divorce means dower ; and dower to some people in the Orient '
means death.
It is the custom, in most of the places in the Ottoman empire,
that the marriage festivities should last four days. They generally
commence on Mondays. Invitations are sent out for the first
day, to the high dignitaries of the place ; on the second day to
officers of the army and navy, as well as to magistrates ; and on
the third day, to civil functionaries and to financial folk and
tradesmen. The fourth day, the doors are open. All friends
and acquaintances may then enter in and tender congratulations.
This tender must be made late in the afternoon. The bridegroom is
then associated with relatives and friends. The same ceremonial
is followed on the part of the bride.
On Monday morning, one or two bands of Turkish music are
on hand. A Turkish band is composed of a kind of banjo, some
tambourines, and sometimes the clarinet and violin. The men
who play the banjo and tambourine also sing. Games are made
and plays performed. Juggling is common. Dancing and gym
nastics are not neglected in the fete. As the men and women do
not mingle, and as the Turks never dance, professional dancers
are engaged. They don a sort of petticoat for the purpose.
Sometimes Gypsy women are hired, who dance after certain meth
ods hardly in vogue in fastidious communities. It is quite proper
that only the men are present to enjoy these sensuous diversions.
There are buffoons, dwarfs, story-tellers and wrestlers, who con
tribute to the amusement of the men ; for amusement seems to
be the sole object of their gathering, in which, however, are not
wanting eating and drinking, sherbet and syrups, and then

THE BRIDE BROUGHT HOME.

57:

talking loosely, after t-he manner of gregarious men on such
assemblages. Upon occasions of this kind, the wedding parties generally go
to some watering-place near the city or town, to spend part of the
day. There the wrestlers and other genii perform. Among other
amusements, there is a separate party to the bath for both sexes.
This takes place on Thursday. The bridegroom goes with his
friends, and the bride goes with her friends. It is a singular
feature of the wedding, that every amusement at the bridegroom's
house is repeated at the bride's house.
On the afternoon of Thursday, the two parties gather under
the one roof of the house which is to be the abode of the newly
married couple. The women meet in the hare7nlik and the men
in the sale7nlik. Not among the least of the delights upon this
occasion, is the display by the bride of her diamonds and other
jewelry. The custom is not, as we know, peculiar to the Orient.
The presents she receives, her trousseau and toilet, are viewed
with the optics of critical and admiring female friends. These
are arranged in one or two rooms, so as to display their symmetric
and lustrous beauty, and so that the guests may felicitate the
happy possessors. After having admired the bride herself and
the wealth wherewith she is adorned and endowed, and where
withal she is arrayed — even to the trimmings of her dress and the
adornments of her hair — the company themselves begin to share
the happiness of the pair.
The writer, being of the ruder sex, has never been admitted
as yet to admire any bride in Turkey but — his own. He is unable
to say how the Turkish bride looks or acts in her elegant toilet;
but, on veracious hearsay, he undertakes to reproduce something
of the graphic and vivacious hilarities and scenes of the " home
coming " of the wedded in this Oriental land.
Let the reader, therefore, enter in fancy into the haremlik,
where the writer cannot go. The room to which the bride is taken
is decorated with flowers hung on the walls and on the ceiling.
These are intermingled with silk stuffs of bright and variegated
color. The divan is covered with a richly embroidered cloth. In
one corner there is a special seat for the bride. It has the appear
ance of a throne. Why not ? Is not the bride to be a queen here
— until dethroned ? Next to this room is the bridal chamber. It
is shown to the visitors. The bed is magnificently made up with

574

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

embroidered silk hangings and velvet coverlets, that would make
the old home-made quilts of our grandmothers in America
"crazy." Every convenience to begin comfortable housekeeping
appears. On one side of the couch are the " night gowns " of the
bride and the bridegroom. On the divan is the morning gown of
each. On the table there are two small vases. They contain
Oriental perfumes. These are the usual objects in the Oriental
bridal chamber. As to the general furnishing of the bedroom, it
depends on the pecuniary and social position of families.
There is a third room shown to visitors. Here are elegant
dresses and toilets, mirrors, table services, linen, tables, chairs,
etc., down to the most menial kitchen utensil. The Turks do not
make much use of stoves; but there are braziers for warmth by
charcoal, called ma7igals. They are of metal — silver, bronze or
copper. They give their shining beauty to the room.
The crowd is immense in the haremlik on Thursday, when the
bride makes her entrance into her new home. So great is the
throng that a mistress of ceremonies is a desideratum. She pre
vents overcrowding, and endeavors to make the guests comfortable.
The room in which the bride is to be received is kept free from
the mass. The visitors are seated in the surrounding rooms and
in their nooks and angles. As there are no men allowed in the
haremlik, the women rush in there with absolute freedom. Nearly
all of them uncover their faces. Mischief fairly danCes in their
large black eyes!
Now comes the very acme and the heyday of this unique
entertainment ! Upon the forenoon of this eventful day, a
long procession of carriages, loaded with elegant toilets, moves
toward the house of the bridegroom. In its midst there is one
carriage specially honored. It may not compare with the bridal
chariot described in the Bible, whose wood was of cedar, its
pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its covering of purple, and
the midst thereof paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem.
It may, at least for the poorer class, be only the ordinary arabi
or wagon, gilded outside, and furnished within with yellow silk,
or for the richer, such as one may see going from Stamboul over
the bridge to Pera in a coach of Fre;nch or German manufacture,
with an elegant high-stepping team of bays. But, for rich or poor,
there is a favored vehicle, in which, as yet in maiden medita
tion, sits the central figure of the procession! She is dressed in

EMBARRASSMENTS OF BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM.

575

faultless array; her artist has prepared the eye with a pencil, quite
worthy of Meissonier. Her face is shrouded under a thick veil of
gold threads, which floats down to her waist As soon as the pro
cession approaches the house^ notice is given to the bridegroom.
He hurries to the door of the haremlik, to receive the bride; for,
be it known, as to this day of days, the bridegroom is made an
exception, and is graciously allowed to enter the sacred precincts
where the group of women awaits him. He tenders his arm to
the bride. He conducts her through the crowd of women to the
throne room. He seats her on the throne. He speaks to her
some honeyed words, full of Oriental metaphor and loving ardor.
Perhaps he recites a verse from Hafiz, about the love of the
bulbul and the rose; or, perhaps he compares his beloved, after
Solomon's ornate style, with all the fragrance ^f the gardens and
the glory of the morning. Perhaps he calls her a bundle of
myrrh, a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-ghadi, the
rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley; or like unto a young hart
upon the mountains of spices! Perhaps he tells her that she is as
fair as the moon and clear as the sun; or something, if not so
grandiose, more appropriate and gentle for the occasion.
In passing amidst the women, he bows low and hangs his head
modestly downward. Nevertheless, the women affect surprise and
indignation at his intrusion within their precinct. They begin a
general howling. They cover their faces with fluttering haste;
for is not this apparition a horrid monster ? Regardless of feet or
hands, the Turkish women must cover their faces. Then they
are indeed secluded. No reck for any other part of the body.
As is generally the case on such occasions, if their yashmaks are
not near, they take hold of their skirts and with them hide their
blushes. The bridegroom continues his compliments to the bride.
She continues to enshroud her face. He retires bent like an
interrogation point, and looking sheepishly absorbed in sesthetic
study of the figures and hues of the rug upon the floor. While
retiring, he scatters among the crowd small coin by the handful —
gold, silver or copper, according to his wealth and position. The
women still keep their faces under cover; and, from under cover,
as from the chorus in a Greek drama, there comes a murmur of
approbation for the happy match, and sometimes of disapproba
tion, if, in the opinion of the chorus, it is a bad match. The
bride then takes refreshments, and rests a little. The gold-thread

5 76 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
veil covering her face is taken off. She is ready to show herself
to the visitors; but only, of course, to the female portion.
To give a description of the attire of the bride demands a
dainty pen and a nicer sense than belongs to the sterner sex.
The writer essays to do it with apprehension. First : She wears
wide trousers, not unlike a petticoat, tied at the ankle on each
leg. The fabric is of red, blue or yellow silk, embroidered with
gold. Then there is a robe of silk or velvet, and a long train,
glittering with gold embroideries and precious stones and sur
rounded with gold trimmings and lace. Her boots or shoes are
adorned in the same mode. The dressing of her head is remark
able, and her face is painted in the most exaggerated manner, in
white and red, and her eyes, her eyebrows, and eyelashes are deli
cately penciled. These elegancies of the toilet rob something of
grace . from her naturalness by defacing her maiden beauty.
Upon her cheeks are stuck two jewels, each as large as half a dol
lar. In the middle of each cheek there is a big diamond. Over
the cheek and on the forehead are; affixed small gold stars, mount
ed with precious stones. This completes the costly disfigure
ment of the face. Over the forehead, a tuft is mounted with an
extremely large diamond ; if the famdy be well off, this, gem is
something less than a walnut Another diamond, oblong in shape,
is fixed on one side of the head. From the crown of the head
down to the ear, diamonds are scattered over and through the
hair. Kid gloves cover her hands, over which a large number
of rings are worn. A beautiful fan completes the picture of the
bride en toilette. It is disenchanting to know that the tuft, the
oblong diamond, and the wedding dresses are often hired for the
ceremony. That is not unreasonable, because it is economi
cal ; for these portions of the regalia cannot be used on any
other than a wedding occasion, or by any one else than a bride.
The bride being refreshed, the congratulations of the visitors
commence. The mistress of ceremonies shows the ladies into the
bride's room. In groups of eight or ten they approach the bride,
examine her with the greatest curiosity, and address her a
"Mashallah! Mashallah!" which means, "May Allah guard
you!" They then retire. All the visitors make this round of
ceremonious piety.
Meanwhile, the amusements, on both sides of the house, harem
lik and salemlik, continue. After sunset, the bridegroom, who is

PLEASANTRIES OF THE OCCASION. 577
supposed not to know his bride — never having seen the face of his
wife — is expected to make a call upon her by the inside door which
communicates with the harem. This is the effort of his life. It
requires exquisite diplomacy and stalwart courage; for has he not
to escape from his own hilarious friends and relatives, who are
ready to play every prank known to human mischief, and who
make every exertion to detain him from the society of his
beloved ? This is the culminating pleasantry of the occasion. It
commences smoothly enough, and the bridegroom takes it with
good temper and vivacity; but the more he tries to avoid, deceive
and flee from them, the more teasing and vigilant they become.
Finally, in despair, he tries to elude them by sheer force. In
some instances he fails in this. He is sometimes thrashed
soundly; but no question of assault and battery is ever raised.
When the bridegroom at last reaches his bride, he finds her
still with face covered, as when she came into the house. Usage
requires that, after he gives her a present, he should uncover her
face. They then exchange compliments. From that moment her
face is to be veiled to every one of the other sex, except to him.
This is marriage in its most simple and ordinary ceremony.
The husband, as it is his right, may want to marry a second wife,
and after the second he may want a third and a fourth one.
These are in addition to the odalisques, which he may have ad
libitum. Here is where the entanglement and trouble begins in
the household.
The first wife has no right to oppose her husband's marrying a
second, third and fourth time. He is not compelled even to ask
her opinion about the matter. He is free in the premises, so long
as he does not exceed four wives. The only instance where the
consent of the wife is required is in case the husband wants to
marry a cousin or an aunt of hers. She may oppose and prevent
such an alliance. If he insist, in spite of her opposition, he must
repudiate the wife and pay her dower. This sometimes is a diffi
cult thing to do.
The dower is obligatory, though it is not necessary that it
. should be a part of the contract Its amount is fixed by agree
ment As a rule, it varies according to the social condition of the
woman. Thus, in case no dower has been allowed, as often hap
pens, the judge fixes it under the law ; and although the law has
fixed some limits to it, still it is left to the discretionof the judge.

578 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
He may make it sufficient for the kind of living to which the
woman has been accustomed.
In making the dower obligatory, the code has in view princi
pally a provision for the repudiated wife. Dower is intended also
as a shield against too frequent repudiations. It happens often, that
though the husband is desirous of repudiating his wife, he finds it
impossible to pay her dower ; so he abstains from repudiating
her. The law fixes the dower to five hundred drams of silver, or
sixty-five ounces of silver. This is but a pittance nowadays;
but it was fixed by the Prophet. This is the amount which he
assessed for his own wives. It must have been adequate for the
few necessities required by a woman among the Arab tribes at
Mecca and Medina thirteen hundred years ago. Besides, it was
fixed at an epoch when silver was scarcer than it is now, and
before bonanzas of the white metal had leaped out of the sunless
temples of the earth.
Moreover, anything which is capable of being legally acquired
may be made in payment of dower, except wine and hogs! One
of the odd forms of dower is the teaching of a chapter of the
Koran by the husband to the wife. It is a pious, though a pecun
iary equivalent! Dower also may be a slave, or a house, or any
thing of value. If the husband is. not able to furnish them, he is
liable for their value. The dower may also be agreed upon after
the marriage. The wife ma}' exonerate the husband from the
dower, or she may commute it for something else. She becomes
the proprietor of the dower, and may legally dispose of it ; but
should the husband divorce her before the marriage is consum
mated, the half of it reverts to him. Should she forgive him that
which belongs to her, the whole would be his. If a slave be
assigned as dower, and she should emancipate the slave, and she
is divorced before the consummation of the marriage, she is liable
for half the value of the slave. In case of dispute with regard to
the amount of the dower, the word of the husband is preferred
until the contrary is proved ; whereas, if he acknowledge the
amount stated as the dower, and alleges its delivery, but fails to
prove it, credit is given to the word and oath of the woman.
The code provides as to the time to be devoted by the hus
band to each one of his wives, in case he has more than one.
This rule of law has its initiative in the organic law that each man
has a right to four wives, and that a man has the absolute dis-

THE WIFE'S PRIVILEGES.

579

posal of all the hours of the day for himself The law allows no
right to the wife to claim the attention of her husband during the
daytime. It creates an obligation upon the husband to divide
the rest of his time equally between his wives, or, at least, he is
not bound to make his court, or to be with one wife, more' than
once in every four days, and this, whether he has one wife or
more. If among his wives there is a slave, she has the right only
to receive half the time allotted to the free wife. This does not
include slaves or odalisques who are not lawfully married.
The temporary marriages being admitted only by the Sheeahs,
and these temporary contracts not being under general Mahom
etan law, it may suffice to state that such marriages can be
legally made for one month or one year. They are allowed by
the religious rules of that sect
The harshness of the marriage contract toward the women of
the Mahometan countries is greatly exaggerated, if not entirely
fanciful. Marriage is, as we have said, a civil contract. It
gives no preference or right to either of the contracting parties
over the property of the other party. The wife retains her power
of disposing of her estate. She can be sued or sue. In suing,
she has no need of a " next friend" or trustee. She may sum
mon her own husband into court. Nor is he liable for any debts
of her contracting. He does not vulgarly, as was once the cus
tom in America, advertise her absence from bed or board to avoid
the payment of her debts. True, he must maintain her and pay
her dower, as we have stated, in case of separation.
So that, in many respects, if Western nations may not learn
something of utility and equity from the Mahometan code, in
the matter of marriage, they may at least refuse to credit the wild
and unfounded statements that the woma« of the East is a slave
to her husband, and compelled to serve him, as if he had the ring
of the Arabian story, upon which the genii were accustomed to wait.
In the second chapter of the Koran, there are several para
graphs in relation to wives and divorce. From these the law of
Turkey, in these respects, is drawn :
" The women ought also to behave toward their husbands in
like manner as their husbands should behave toward them,
according to what is just"
The family relation is so often discussed in connection with
Turkey, that full justice cannot be done unless there is empha-

580 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
sized the doctrine of adoption. That doctrine is a part of the
Oriental religion. It is sacred to the Turk, During the time of
the grandfather of the present Sultan, there had been adopted by
the princess, the Sultana Asme, a beautiful girl called Nazip Ha
noum The Sultan desired to wed her; but she defied him. The
Sultan, with all his autocratic power, rich gifts and imperial pres
tige, could not obtain his wish or move the adopted girl to enter
his seraglio, for was she not adopted by a princess, and free to
judge as to her own domestic life ?
Every Pasha, whatever may be his domestic predilection, is
compelled to have one principal wife. She is called the Buyuk
Hanoum. She is always attended by two slaves, and has often
privileges which the other wives do not possess.
From wrong impressions as to the domestic life of women in
Turkey, as in all Moslem countries, it is often inferred that there
is no home in Turkey; and the question is asked. How can a man
with more than one wife, and with his household separated into
two parts — the Haremlik and Salemlik — and with his children and
wives so thoroughly screened from the outer world, contribute to
the incomparable happiness of the hearthstone ? But I dare avouch
that no people are more fond of their homes than the Turks, and
toward their children they are inordinately partial. So far as I
have observed, their courtesy to the other sex is unfailing. The
Turk treats his wife at home, as I have understood, with the
same inbred courtesy which he displays toward the gentler sex
away from home. Outside of his own zenana, the accomplished
Turk, who is connected with the governing power of his country,
while making no reckless display of knightly courtesy, is always
chivalric and gentle.
A race of men which has been so tolerant as the Turk toward
other religionists — which finds it so pleasant to be neighborly and
honest toward strangers, and which always treats animals with
kindness, cannot, unless spoiled by contact with other races, be
other than kind. Considering their history as peasants and
soldiers, and their dominant Tartar blood, and the fact that they
are descended from the same race as those saintly heroes who,
like Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane, ravaged the very earth itself,
it should be said, to their credit, that they have, perhaps, by
me'a'ns of the teachings of the Koran and Arabic literature, culti
vated and practiced the knightly graces toward the female sex.

CHAPTER XLIIL
AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS IN TURKEY — OUR SCHOOLS AND
COLLEGES.
It is a busy week for the Legation which brings together
the Ramazan and Bairam fetes, the honors and dinners to the
officers and men of the Kearsarge and the Commencements of the
American College and Home School. Besides, does it not include
the Fourth of July, which happens on Sunday ? Our political
Sabbath is not celebrated with that hilarity which the day should
inspire, because it was a dies Dominicus. This day and its glories,
however, do furnish the climax of all the honors to the Kear
sarge, in which the Minister had his Diversion. The Sultan deter
mines that nothing shall be omitted to make his hospitality to the
United States complete. He gives the naval officers and their
diplomatic representative a grand entertainment at the Arsenal
Palace. Among Turkish officials present are Hassan Pasha, Min
ister of Marine, who presides; the Commodore commanding the
Mahmoudie; Munir Pasha, First Chamberlain to the Sultan ;
Ibrahim Bey, Hakki Pasha and others.
The dinner begins at eight. The Turkish band, which is famous
for its rare music, entertains the company. The quay and the
Golden Horn in front of the palace are illuminated, and with the
lights on the stream and from the Bairam illuminations, and the
moon, there is displayed a scene for a weird picture by Turner.
Munir Pasha, is the bearer of many choice compliments from the
Sultan. At the conclusion of the feast, the Minister of Marine
makes an address in Turkish. In this he expresses the kindest
wishes of the Sultan and the pleasant impression which the visit of
the Kearsarge has made upon his people. A warmer welcome could
not have been tendered. The Minister responds. Among other
things, he remarks that " America, like Turkey, is a composite
nation. In the United States, many peoples of divers races and
religions make a mosaic of all quahties, united in one character.
581

582 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Among these qualities, how much had been given, not only to
America, but to the world, by the Oriental mind ? Has it not
transmuted astrology into astronomy, and alchemy into chemis
try ? The Department of Marine, with its explosives and forces
for war and peace, knew what the West had given to the East
of practical science, in return for the Oriental abstractions of
mathematics. The West," continued the writer, or, rather, speaker,
" shakes hands in many ways with the East to-night. As we go
west around our planet, we meet the East; and as we go east we
meet the West; and thus we merge into one at this happy board,
knit together by that boundless hospitality which only the Orient
can bestow." Evidently, the wine at this feast had made the
round of the table with a magic rapidity, only equaled by that of
Puck around the earth!
The Minister closes by wishing long life and a happy reign to
His Majesty; and compliments the Minister of Marine and the
courteous company who honor his country.
His Majesty also tendered to the crew of the Kearsarge a
dinner; but as only a select number, fifty, could be spared from
the ship, that number partook of a dinner in the adjoining rooms.
The American Minister appeared before them and made a little
more rhetoric. Rousing cheers are given for the Sultan. The
remaining sailors on the Kearsarge are not forgotten by the amia
ble sovereign; for he orders for them a dinner of the same kind
to be sent to the vessel.
As the sailors leave the Arsenal quay with the Kearsarge
band, they sing our national song. The Bosporus rings with
unwonted acclamations.
Following this dinner, the day after, Prince Mehmet, the
eldest son of the Sultan, and his companions, the nephews of the
Sultan, are received on board the Kearsarge by the Admiral and
his officers, the Minister, and by that most admirable of all cour
teous gentlemen, Mr. Gwynne Harris Heap, the Consul-General.
The son delivers, as His Majesty afterward told me, his second
public speech. He is a young man about seventeen years of age.
He is exceedingly modest and well-behaved. He is already mar
ried ; and we are told that he is devoted to his wife.
Following this reception, on the next day, is the Salemlik. It
has already been described. After that the Sultan gives an audi
ence to the Admiral and the Minister. This passes off in the most

JOLL Y, UNDER DIPL OMA TIC B URDENS. 585
agreeable manner. These hospitalities surprise the other Lega
tions. They do not consider the fact that America has no
designs upon either the dynasty or the territory of Turkey. Why
should not the Sultan be partial to our country ?
In connection with this visit of the Kearsarge to the Bosporus,
it becomes a part of the duty and pleasure of the Minister's wife
to give an entertainment to our officers. The Hotel Royal is
thrown open for the occasion, with such adornments of flags and
such a presence of the Ministers of all nationalities as to make the
festivity one long to be remembered, not merely because the dance
is kept up until late in the morning, but because, with the aid of
the band of the Kearsarge and the skill and grace of the officers
in dancing, the young people of all the Legations, of both sexes,
have mutual and cordial Diversion.
To conclude this series of entertainments, this week of con
tinuous enjoyment, by the renewal of old acquaintances and the
making of new — the consummation is reached when, from the
State Department, I receive a friendly, semi-official letter that its
Head is interested in these performances, which are quasi national,
and that the Secretary is happy to know that "old friends,
even when staggering under diplomatic burdens, do manage to
have a reasonably good time and enjoy fresh air in the ' Islands
of the Blest' and along the historic shores of the Bosporus."
This is hardly official phraseology, but it will not be disowned
by Mr. Secretary Bayard.
There is a better design than this festive quotation suggests.
The presence of the Kearsarge at Constantinople has its uses. It
gives prestige to the American government and people, and thereby
enhances the interest of American benevolence. That benevolence
has taken here the practical form of education. In this, the
American colleges and schools are without a patallel, either at
home or abroad, for their endowments and advantages.
I have referred, in other connections, to Dr. Cyrus Hamlin,
who was the first president of Robert College. The delays and
impediments to its establishment were overcome by his patient,
strenuous and indefatigable efforts. His volume of personal remi
niscence connected with his life in Turkey illustrates that personal
pluck and persistent energy which might be expected from a typi
cal American. He stopped at no experiment to make his success
sure; and even under protest from his colleagues at home and

584

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY

DR. CYRUS HAMLIN, FIRST PRESIDENT OF ROBERT COLLEGE.

DR HAMLIN— AND HIS GREAT SERVICES. 585
abroad he started, during the Crimean War, a bread factory, where
a good article was made, and much reputation, if not cash, manu
factured. Dr. Hamlin is a double cousin of the ex- Vice-President
of the United States. His grandfather. Colonel Francis Faulkner,
was of staunch Revolutionary stock, and his uncle, Francis Faulk
ner, has an honorable record in the Battle of Lexington. These
ancestors had a Yankee knack for a trade; for it is recorded of
one of them that for the sum of six pounds and a red coat, he
purchased of the red man the town site of Andover. If we read,
"twenty gallons of rum and a red coat," we have, according to
the family tradition, a better knowledge of the barter! The tribe
from which Dr. Hamlin is descended was Puritanic to a high
degree; but like others of that persuasion, they were not averse to
a thrifty bargain.
One of the daughters of Dr. Hamlin is Mrs. Washburn, whose
husband is the able and learned president of the college. Another
daughter is at the head of the " Home " in Scutari, so that, although
the good doctor has returned to America, his influence remains,
along with his strength of body and length of years. Truly, "the
glory of children are their fathers," and vice versa.
There are other pioneers in the work of founding the American
College. Next after Mr. Robert, the benevolent New York mer
chant, we should honor Doctors Dwight, Goodell, Schaufler and
the elder Dr. Riggs. The first and last survive. The rest are gone
to the better land. Dr. Riggs is the member who supervised the
Bible House. He returned to America last year. He has worked
for half a century in translating the Scriptures into the Turkish
and Bulgarian languages. He made himself gracious to the Mos
lem, for he did not proselyte. He simply elevated. They looked
upon him as one of the chief men of " The Book." Therefore
they honored him. He is regarded with universal respect by the
younger missionaries, among whom the most active and far-
sighted is a son of Dr. Dwight. The business of the Bible House
and of the " Home " Female Seminary is well conducted. The
grounds of the latter are ample, upon a commanding situation, and
the building and rooms are beyond all praise for neatness and
commodiousness. In these institutions there is every facility for the education
of both sexes. These schools are the offspring of American
generosity. They are the co-adjutors in the work of teaching.

586 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
printing and preaching throughout the Turkish empire ; and
although they are constantly demanding the supervision of the
American Minister, and the protection of our flag, yet never
were these instrumentalities of civilization put to nobler use,
and never was there more need of a diplomatic service than in
this relation.
These schools, however, are but the sample, if not the
symbol, of that which is done elsewhere throughout the Turkish
empire. At Aintab, Harpoot, and Beirut, there are institutions
of superior grade. The two former are situated in the interior of
Asiatic Turkey. The number of missionaries scattered through
out the empire speak of many trials and troubles, but the " peace
that passeth understanding," the missionary does not have,
except in his dreams, or in his last sleep.
I have been told by Doctor Hamlin, who served as a mission
ary and teacher for forty years at Constantinople, that the pres
ence of Admiral Fafragut at the Porte with his vessels some years
ago — before Robert College received its charter and its permit to
build — had a wonderful effect in consummating that business.
This effect was skillfully seconded by the diplomacy of my
lamented friend, Edward Joy Morris, who was then the American
Minister. When the Admiral was visiting.the konaks of the Pashas
and was feted by the Sultan and his Ministers, he was reserved
about the object of his visit Upon one occasion the question
was asked him :
"What, Excellency, do you think about Turkey?"
He gave at once a response which started every one upon
inquiry. It was a quiet request or question about the college.
He had no diplomatic function ; but he was suspected of being
ready, by his ships and guns, to take advantage of the situation.
He was only observing, as he said, "strange countries." As at
that time the island of Crete was in insurrection, and as the Turks
were considerably annoyed by the fact that these gallant Greeks
were demanding a legislative assembly, and a government some
what like that of our States, and as the Turkish Ministers did not
understand the relation of our country to other countries, namely,
the policy of non-intervention— they thought it best to conciliate
America and placate Admiral Farragut. By an unexpected
denouement, the permit to build the college was signed, and the
Irade hy which Robert College was instituted was delivered.

THE "KEARSARGE" AND ITS UTILITY. 587
It is not necessary to say here, how much good this college
has accomplished for the Orient In another chapter, and in
connection with Bulgaria, I may refer to it The presence of
the Kearsarge, with its chivalric history, in the waters of the
Porte during the summer of 1886, enabled the American Minis
ter to produce a proper emphasis upon the Turkish mind in rela
tion both to Robert College and the Home School. Admiral
Franklin — ever gallant and ever American — and Captain Sigsbee,
of the Kearsarge, and of the " Deep Sea Soundings," placed
the band of the old fighting ship at the call of the Minister. The
Admiral never failed when the music of the gun lit up the fires of
battle ; and the Captain never failed when called to sound the
chromatic scale of nature beneath the surface of the seas.
When Commencement season came, the Officers of the vessel,
in uniform, together with its band, were present. In fact, the
English-speaking community on both sides of the Bosporus were
in attendance. The most remarkable aspect of the occasion was
the composite character of the assemblage and scholars. Many
of the scholars were of the Armenian race. Their names are
known by the termination "an." Those that end in 'itch, 'off,
and otherwise, are either of the Bulgarian or Slavonic race.
The occasion is one of unusual interest. Dr. Washburn, the
President of the College, assists the Minister to preside, because,
as he says, the Minister is not able, with his short acquaintance
with the various tongues of the country, to pronounce the names
of the graduates. Oratory finds facile though polyglotical utter
ance from the young men of these races. Much applause and
many bouquets mark the appreciation of the audience. After
the speaking, diplomas and prizes are presented to the several
members of the various classes. Rounds of applause punctuate
these marks of merit. Of course, the Minister is compelled to
air his rhetoric. He is not a little disconcerted by the strange
tongues which he hears, not so much the English or the French, as
the others. " There was much discussion," remarks the Minister,
"as to what language was spoken in the Garden of Eden. Para
dise was situated in Armenia. I think the Low Dutch or the
Basque contestants niust give way, for Adam spoke to Eve in the
soft, sweet language of Armenia. This was before the fall. After
the fall, they talked Bulgarian i I do not depreciate the language
of the latter race, for it reminds me of the ragged, jagged and

588 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
tough Teutonic tongue, which I have in a feeble way the honor to
speak." This sally was ' received with various interpolations, as
the French phrase it. After allusions to the College, which, for
certain reasons of the censor, were not fully reported by the jour
nals, the Minister referred to the peculiar environment of the
College :
" But it is not alone the romantic and historic associations of
the Bosporus and of Roumeli-Hissar ; not alone these tombs and
mosques and towers, which mark a great period in human annals ;
not alone the strange creed and race which yet hover about
these hills ; not alone the sight of Olympus, nor the nearness of
Ilion, with its plain, mounds and woes ; not the witchery of water,
sky and mountain: these enchant the vision and animate the
spirit, and make an aureole around the beautiful brow of your
eminence ; but it is the fact that this spot is consecrated to the
noblest of purposes. Is it not the home of education and learn
ing ? the fountain of benevolence and the author of piety ? These
objects lift your eminence into a loftier and serener height than
yonder classic mountain. They give amenities more charming
than the picturesque prospect of the Bosporus. They celebrate
an annus mirabilis more wonderful than the historic year which
marks the erection of those towers and the fall of yonder superb
city. Here you are taught to master your spirit; and that is
education. Fie who taketh a city, is not greater ; for, as it is
said by Bulwer of Rienzi : ' So great may be the power, so
mighty the eloquence, so formidable the genius of one man,
without arms, without rank, without sword or ermine, that noth
ing can withstand him.'
" But to those of us who are American, there is a patriotic
attraction growing out of the fact that this College is the offspring
of American benefaction. It grew under the planting and thrives
under the watering of our fellow-countrymen. It grows with the
consent of a government and ruler whose virtues of charity and
toleration demand honorable recognition. While the beneficiaries
of the institution are of another race and clime, the large, round
about humanities, symboled as well by the classics as by the Amer
ican flag, enfold them. I may be pardoned, as the Fourth of July
is nigh, for referring to the flag. Its roseate stripes blush mod
estly for the backwardness of our countrymen, or, rather, for the
modest republic ' farther west.' Spangled with thirty-eight stars.

ROBERT COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT. 589
every star a State, and every State a star, it kisses the breezes
coming to it, from Bithynia or the Balkans, from Alexandria,
Athens and Jerusalem. It is said by Gibbon, ' that whatever
rude commodities were collected in the forests of Germany and
Scythia, and far as the sources of the Tanais and Borysthenes ;
whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of Europe and Asia ;
the corn of Egypt and the gems and spices of the farthest India
— were brought by the varying winds into the port of Constanti
nople, which for many ages attracted the commerce of the ancient
world.' But in all the facts of the historian, or even in the
dreams of poetry, no importation comparable with this College
from America, has ever hitherto reached this Oriental capital!
The means, the teachers, the flag, being given, what else was
needed ? The gracious consent and sanction of the just and toler
ant ruler of this realm ; and that is accorded. Next, the medium
of teaching is the English language, which never syllabled the
idea of servility, and which has been honorably represented in
many nations, including our own, by the distinguished Minister,
Sir Edward Thornton — who honors us by his presence. Given
these elements of success, what an arena have we here, whose
beneficent result, whose blessing, no one can measure in its far-
reaching influences upon the Oriental mind !
" As the olive-trees of the academy furnished oil for the victors
of the Grecian fes.tivals, so this institution furnishes no crude
article like that from Baku, wherewith to strengthen the wrestlers
in the intellectual arena of these elder lands. It is a pleasure to
know that your lamps are not like those of the foolish virgins ;
but that, under the direction of your energetic President and his
associates, they are filled and burning with the white light of the
refined American article."
The following is a list of the graduating class and their resi
dences. What a commentary they furnish upon the diffusion of
American instruction:
Constantin Apostoloff, of Yambol; Michail G. Arnaoutoff, of
Sliven; Nigoghos H. Boyadjian, of Constantinople; Todor Dimi-
trieff, of Shtip; Hovsep A. Djedjizian, of Adabazar; Zlatan A.
Draganoff, of Sistov; Gullabi S. Gulbenkian, of Talas; Ivan J.
Kardjieff, of Shumla; Arshag Kevorkian, of Constantinople; Jor
dan Kousseff, of Prilip; Parnag H. Minassian, of Constantinople;
Simeon D. Mishaicoff, of Monastir; Hovhannes S. Missirian, of

59°

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

Panderma; Levon Muggerditchian, of Constantinople; Anastase
Petcoff, of Shumla; Karekin M. Shirinian, of Galatz; Dimo P.
Smedoffsky, of Shumla ; Georgey P. Stamatoff, of Calofer ;
Peter Thomoff, of Kotel ; and Dimlter S. Velcheff, of Eski-
Zaghra. More interesting than names and homes, are the themes of
their discourses. Moral Forces were discussed ; then the Pres
ervation of Nationalities, significantly, by an Armenian; then
the Power of Motion over Nature, and the Destiny of Nations ;
the Power of Circumstances ; the Spirit of Adventure ; Despotic
and Constitu'-ional Government and Public Opinion. These
addresses indicate, as they leap fresh from these young Oriental
scholars, how they intend to shape. their lives and to influence the
society in which their fortunes may be cast.
The American quality of the exercises was accented by the
presence of our flag and music. It is our sentiment that so
permeated the Balkan peninsula and Asia Minor, as to give the.
hope of its resurrection into a better condition if not into free and
federative states. "Joseph," said the patriarch, "is a fruitful
bough," and, in this respect, Robert College is not unlike the
favorite son of the patriarch.
It may not be generally known, but for the young orators who
copy Demosthenes, it should be stated that after the Persians had
conquered Byzantium and other Greek cities of the neighborhood,
it became a conspicuous practice of the Athenian to thunder his
anathemas in this direction until the Persian power -was over
thrown. In the days of Philip of Macedon, Byzantium was an
ally of Athens. It stood a great siege from Philip. The happy
issue of the siege was due to the philippics of the orator. In one of
his eloquent passages does he not, fearful of its yielding, urge the
Athenians to send succor to Byzantium ? During the siege so con
secrated to oratory, was there not seen a luminous crescent in the
sky? It was not the moon, but a light, perhaps, from a comet. Still
it was accepted by the Byzantines as a pledge of deliverance !
When Philip was repulsed, the crescent became the device of
this Greek city. It continued to be so until the Turkish Conquest
in A. D. 1453. Whether the Turks had used the crescent before
the Conquest, or whether, as has been alleged, they borrowed it
from the Chinese, or whether its legend came from this luminous
crescent of the sky ; whether the symbol came from one point of

THE COLLEGE AND THE CASTLES.

591

the compass and sky, or another— certainly it is a beautiful
emblem for an ensign or a nation.
The castie of Roumeli-Hissar, every stone of which is sentient
with sermons, and into whose eyrie I have penetrated, to the dis
turbing of its birds of prey — was once the prison in which the
rebellious characters of the Janizaries were chastened. An
embrasure on the lower part of the rampart is still filled by a
large gun. This gun was always fired so as to advise the author
ities at the Porte that the criminal whom they had condemned

THE AMERICAN ROBERT COLLEGE.

had been executed. This castle is the gentle neighbor of our
American college ; but it is not dominant, as of old, on the
Bosporus. By a happy combination of some sketches, I am
enabled to present the College upon its lofty site between these
renowned and conspicuous towers.
Another of our recreations is that in connection with the
Home School at Scutari. Its Commencement takes place during
the same busy week. It is also honored by the presence of our
naval officers, the professors of the College, the female teachers.

592

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

and others interested in its success. Never have I seen,, at
home, an institution more thoroughly American in all its appoint
ments, unless we except the foreign languages in which many of
the compositions and speeches are made. At the conclusion of
the Minister's remarks upon this occasion, many gentlemen of
various nationalities speak, in Turkish, Greek, Armenian and
Bulgarian. The exercises conclude with diplomas, music, bou
quets and applause. A collation is provided. Our American
launch bears many of the guests across the Bosporus, out of Asia
and its refinements, into Europe, and its selfishness and grossness.
How this American school at Scutari performs its duty as the
educator of other races, will be seen by the names of those who
graduated, and the titles of their graduating compositions. Some
of the names are as follows:
Aroosiag G. Serapian, Fota V. Dugmedjieva, Anka T. Naide-
nova, Genka N. Tapchileshtova, Heranoosh Aghlaganian, Manoo-
shag H. Besharian, Paris M. Kiatibian, Stefanka J. Beleva,
Tomnie P. Yazmadjian and Yevkine Balukdjia.
These euphoniously named young ladies discussed Emblems;
Circumstances making the Man, which included the Woman; La
Liberte; Elbows — a very droll composition; the Life of a Word;
True Greatness; The Heir of Nineteen Centuries, etc. Most of
the subjects had reference to the Orient. They were admirably
presented. The young ladies were dressed in white ; each, like
Una, making sunshine in a shady place; only that their great,
black Armenian, Bulgarian and Grecian eyco gave the light of a
" night set thick with stars."
The exercises conclude with a class song. It still lingers in
my memory; -for it spoke of prophetic peace and the heavenly
hills, and of the angels, who joined in the chorus !
There is much trouble brewing about closing the American
schools of Asia Minor. Constant complaints come up to the
Legation from the consulates on that head. The American
Protestant schools are not alone in suffering from the recent
intolerance of the Mahometans, in certain localities where they
predominate over the Christians, and where they are aloof from
the central authority. Shortly after the closing of the Protestant
schools in Syria, an oiificial order was sent out by the Minister of
Public Instruction to the provinces, to close all the Jesuit schools
established without official permission, and to refuse thenceforth

GREEK JEALOUSY OF AMERICAN EDUCA TORS. 593
permission for the foundation of new schools by this Society.
The same order was issued about our American schools. This,
however, under our energetic remonstrance, has been reme
died to a great extent. If the United States had more power to
its naval elbow, there would be less occasion for the constant
protests of the American Consuls and Minister. The secret
incentives for these anti-educational vexations I have not fath
omed. I suspect the Greek or the Armenian; and not without
reason. Still, the allegation is — Mahometan bigotry.
There are five millions of Greeks in Turkey. They compete
with all other races in their educational systems. They are not
disturbed by the government. Why should other Christians be
disturbed ? I am proud to publish the encomium in the language
of an intelligent English official in Turkey, upon " the moral
influence that America is exercising in the East, through the
¦ quiet but dignified and determined policy of its Legation at Con
stantinople, free from political intrigues and rivalry."
"That policy," to quote again, " would guard with a jeal
ous care the rights and safety of the missionaries, who are loved
and respected wherever they settle. Their influence is felt for
the welfare of all, in the remotest corners of Turkey. It is
America that will be entitled to the gratitude of all Christians,
for her ready aid in elevating the masses to the dignity of civilized
beings." But on the educational question, I fear the Greeks and their
bearing. Have they not pre-empted the Oriental land for the
Christian faith ? How dare Yankees like Dr. Hamlin, Dr. Long
or President Washburn invade their prescriptive, orthodox and
apostolic premises ?
Still, I did not fail to note that Western Asia is undergoing its
periodic, if not spasmodic, Moslem struggle for sustentation
against alien education and other advancing influences. How far
the firmans of the Ministers agree with the Sultan's idea, and how
far the latter is influenced by the improgressive hierarchic element
in Stamboul — it is certain that quietly, and in remote sections like
the Taurus and Nusaireyeh mountains, where the intense Mahom
etan zealot lives — afar from the centres of diplomatic and gov
ernmental influences — there is a concerted effort to destroy the
influence of the Catholic and Protestant teachers. Recentiy the
telegraph is used by the Turk; better roads are being built by

594 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
him; and the best repeating rifles arm the soldiers; and, as a con
sequence, the jealousy of foreign education takes the forceful form
of suppressing the foreign schools. The schools near the sea are
not harmed or harassed. When menaced, they are able to coun
teract the effort.
Along with these efforts the old mosques and holy places are
restored. The Exchequer of the Porte is not plethoric, but it dis
burses freely in behalf of new Moslem establishments. It aids, by
its meagre means, the regeneration of the Moslem faith and its
structures. Even the little shrines, or wileys — the tombs of saints,
covered with the votive threads and rags of pious devotees — are
rounding into new proportions. Or, rather, the dead saints are all
alive again, to inspire the Moslem. There is an earnestness
about this revival of the Ottoman religion, that indicates an appre
hension of a coming conflict, in which the banner of the Pro
phet may be flung to the breeze; if not in Europe, then in Asia.
It means a consolidated Ottoman empire. It means a further
lease of power for the Sultans. It means — well, it means busi
ness. I trust that my successor, with the aid of our dragoman,
may be able to cope with this new phase of the Islamic or East
ern problem.
Here I beg to tender to the good men of the American mis
sions my acknowledgments for their testimonial to the President,
in eulogy of my feeble efforts in their behalf.
The spirit of civilization may sometimes be tested by progress
in reading, writing and arithmetic — the three " r's." The school
master has been abroad, even in Turkey. In spite of adverse
administration, education is thriving. It has even invaded the
harem. I have a note written by a Sultana to a commissioner,
who was ordered to do some shopping for her. It shows the
remarkable advancement of the East in our English tongue. I
insert it here, verbatim, and for the edification of those who are
striving for a better cult!
It is a note from Adile Sultana, the betrothed of Abbas Pasha,
to her commissioner. It is dated at Constantinople:
" My Noble Friend :
' ' Here are the featherses sent. My soul, my noble friend, are there no
other featherses leaved in the shop besides these featherses ? & these feather
ses remains, & these featherses are ukly. They are very dear; who byses
deses? And, my noble friend, we want a noat from yourself : those you brot

ENGLISH— AS "SHE" IS WRITTEN.

595

last tim, those, you sees, were very beautiful; we had searched; my soul, I
want featherses again, of those featherses. In Kalada there is plenty of feather.
Whatever bees, I only want beautiful featherses : I want featherses ol every
desolation to-morrow."
This specimen of improvement in English is not a fair sample
of what the Oriental can do. I had a servant whose name was
founded on a rock — Peter ; Pedro or Pierre. Although Pedro
had been with our Consul-General, Eugene Schuyler, in Con
stantinople, he had lost all that he had gained in English by this
scholarly association. He came to me with good testimonials of
his ability as steward, linguist, accountant and purveyor. He had
the fidelity of a Slav. He was born on the Adriatic. He was a
Dalmatian. Once, when I happened to remark that he was a
Dalmatian — good serviteur — he never appreciated the subtle pro
fanity of the observation. Two years, through sickness and
health, at Therapia, in Constantinople and on the isle of Prin
kipo, he was literally my body-guard. He spoke French admira
bly; modern Greek like an Athenian; Turkish like an Effendi;
and Italian like a tenor. Russian, Servian and Bulgarian, as
connate with his own difficult Dalmatian tongue, he had easily
conquered. He had been with an engineering company, as
commissary upon the heights of the classic Greek Olympus. He
was fitted for all the emergencies of the lower world, except that
he did not know the English language. But this ignorance, for
me, was his best qualification. Why ? Because I wanted him to
talk French, so that I could learn of him.
One day, the genial Minister of Foreign Affairs, Said Pasha,
said to me:
" Excellency, why do you not practise your French on your
servant ? When I was Minister at Berlin, no one knows the elo
quence of the domestic rhetoric which I first tried on my serv
ants, before the Chancellor, Prince Bismarck, or the Kaiser
listened to my Teutonic efforts."
So I reckoned upon Pedro for my French. If he had spoken
English, where, in that case, was the quid for the quo, in his service
and its compensation ? While at Prinkipo, he began to creep
stealthily upon my caution. I had learned English in Congress.
It was not good English; but it was all I had. Pedro longed for
it He began to pick up my English words while waiting on the
table and elsewhere. This would not do. I was not his employee;

596

DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

he was mine. I could not correct this tendency, until one day-
happy thought! — as we are walking over the piney mountain to the
Monastery of St. George in Prinkipo. I commend his polygloti
cal acquisitions, and especially his essays in English. He is
pleased, and smiles. I say to him :
" Pierre, tell Madame, when she inquires, about our delightful
walk." He said that he would. I add :
"Say to her, good Pierre: 'We have had a d  d good
promenade.' She will be pleased to know of your acquisition of
elegant English, and of our nice time."
He said that he would. I train him carefully en route. He
said it ! In fact, he repeated it several times.
The consequences, when the Madame hears his remarks,
were never entirely obliterated. The Madame, being Puritanic,
is simply stunned. Pierre insists that "His Excellence had
instructed him." He insists in vain. He comes to me for expli
cation and consolation. I explain :
" Da7nnus, good Pierre, means, in Latin, a loss. It is a famil
iar word. It is easily naturalized by the English. It is handy
in emergencies.'' I continue:
" Pierre, you have heard the Baron, whom you accompanied to
Mount Olympus, speak of Amster-(/a/« .? " He had.
" You have heard of '&.otter-da7n 1 " He had.
I enumerated other like profane Dutch haunts; adding a
hydrostatic disquisition upon mill and other dams. He swallows
all; but he cannot make out what His "Excellence" meant by
the exceptional expression, until I mention that " Dalmatian" is
only another but intenser form of the same liquid linguistic
accomplishment. Strange to say, I could never get him to learn English of me
any more. He taught me French after that with great assiduity.
The Madame had demoralized my tuition in English.
Poor Pedro! He followed us from Varna, and left us when
within seven days from America! America — his hope and goal !
The last I saw of him, he was using his handkerchief with eye
and hand, to weep and to wave, as he stood at the end of the
dock at Havre to bid us "godspeed," when the Cha77ipagne
began to breast the Atlantic billows.
What trouble he had, by flood and field, to reach his subse-

ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF LETTERS. 597
quent post at Teheran— he wrote to me in pure and perfect
French; but after some time with Mr. Pratt, under the American
Legation at Teheran, I received a remarkable letter, which is a
sign and proof of his progress in the only language which he does
not understand; to wit, American-English.
It reads literally as follows:
" My inestimably Excellency, mon premier devoir est de vous demfinder de
votre bonne santS. I suppose. Excellency, your very well in America, and your
not bad at Prinkipo. I suppose mit chants 'Pepini,' for moment"
He used to hear me sing a little Greek air at Prinkipo:
" When we are all happy on that Isle of the Blest" I used to
call him Alexis Delatour, from a French fable about a lazy serv
ant, and thus he writes about Alexis and Pharaoh (Rameses II. ),
whom we saw in pictures throughout Egypt, and whose mummied
form we looked at in the Boulak Museum at Cairo.
" Excellency, I am not Alexis, in Persian capital. I suppose Alexis slope
in Constantinople, mit Mehmed and Compagnie, Remeses stope in Egypt mit
Hassan Hassan. I am yours wraith every Excellency, and your wraith my
plaise — tanks for our peper, for my it is very great— and very great souvenir
of your Excellency.
"Excellency, I am wraith naou passably Inglisch. Je prie toujours pour
votre santfi, esperant que je vous reverai encore une fois. I am of health your
bon gar9on, bad boy. Pierre.
" Excuse my plaise. Excellency, my liberty of dis leter. Votre tres recon-
naissant serviteur, ' '  . ' '
Mehmet is our Kavass; the Hassan to whom Pedro refers is
the dragoman of our Consulate in Egypt, who accompanied us
to Nubia. From him, also improving in English, I have received
an "epistle to be known and read of all men." Let M. Maspero
endeavor to decipher this sacred glyph :
" Excellency : I am very happy to write these few lines which could recog
nize my longings to you, and, I believe, that it is about you. We hope that
your Excellency and Mrs. Cox are well, our health is good and wish you the
same forever; we shall be very happy if we could have the chance of receiving
a letter from your Excellency again, of which we can learn that your Excel
lency are well; waiting patiently to see your Excellency here again in Cairo,
do I send herewith three portraits of my new suit."
Need I apologize to my readers for these interesting scripts
from the republic of letters, as illustrative of educational progress
under adverse circumstances ; or, rather, should not my apolo
gies be tendered to the authors of the epistles ?

CHAPTER XLIV.
CONTRARIETY OF OPINION ABOUT THE FATE OF TURKEY.
There is in the Orient a halo of mysticism. There never was
a country as to which there is so much contrariety of opinion, as
to its condition and destiny. One can say with Shakespeare's
Juliet, with every recurrence of the Oriental question, "What
storm is this which blows so contrary?" When Juliet heard of
the death of Tybalt, supposing it was Romeo, her sad and am
biguous fancy suggested such contradictions as the fate of
Turkey seems to occasion: "A serpent heart, with a flowering
face, a dragon in a cave of beauty, a beautiful tyrant and an
angeUcal fiend, a dove- feathered raven, a wolfish-ravening lamb, a
da,nined saint and an honorable villain."
A few years ago a distinguished countryman prophesied that
the Turkish empire was coming to an end, and that its four hun
dred years were being wound up in a catastrophe. But the end
did not come. It does not hasten to come. Has the imperturb
able Turk retired upon Asia? Is he degenerate or regenerate —
or what ? Are these contrary winds to have harmonious vent and
gentle cadence ? When such dispassionate and unimaginative
observers thus fail in prophecy, what is to be said of the state
ments of others less intelligent and calm ?
I pick up a volume about Constantinople. It is by De Amicis.
It is the seventh edition. It has had a wonderful success. Its
success is owing to its poetic extravagance and its equivocal voice.
While there are many contrary winds fluttering its leaves, the
facts and the outcome are not in harmony. For example: Within
ten pages I find two chapters about the theatre. In them, all the
worst possible is said about the songs, the highly spiced jokes and
the impudent gestures of the Turk. They are presented to dis
lodge the Turk from his dignity and to betray the grossness of
his sensual life. Yet in the proximate paragraph is it not said
that the Turk hides his sensuality, that he is rarely accompanied
598

SCANDALS DENIED.

599

in the streets by a woman, that he rarely looks at one, and still
more rarely speaks to one ? You cannot ask after the health of
his wife. By appearances he is reckoned austere and chaste, and
yet this Turk, who blushes when asked about his wife, will send
his children, says the writer, to witness the filthy obscenities of the
theatre. This is a contradiction altogether too grotesque. The
stories about the Turk, "foul-mouthed as a fish-wife and wanton
as a satyr," are perversions. It is the exaggeration of one who
could not, or would not, see the difference between the modern
Alhambra of London and the ancient Alhambra of Grenada.
The same writer indulges in comment as to the tendency of
the Turk toward intoxication. It is impossible for one who has
lived in Constantinople to believe this. The Koran is not set
aside. This writer may select many men of history, even the
Sultans and the wives of Sultans, who reveled in Tokay, Cyprus
and Sherry wines. He may recall to our mind Suleiman the
First, who burned in the harbor all the vessels which were loaded
with wine, and who died while drunk, from an arrow by one of his
own soldiers. All these pictures of the Turk as a ferocious hypo
crite, staggering about the streets or the harem, are a libel which
is only to be accounted for because of the wild imagination of
the author.
It has been written, by the same pen, that the Osmanli were
scandalizing the Koran by debauchery, and that the fruit so care
fully forbidden is rendered more tempting by the " prohibition ;"
and yet, upon another page, we have the information that, in the
Ramazan season, the same writer had endeavored to bribe the
boatman of his caique upon the Golden Horn to eat before the
lawful moment. He confesses that the Turk always answered
" Yok, yok, yok ! " " No, no, no ! " and invariably pointed to the
sun, waiting for that luminary to descend before breaking his
fast, under the law of the Koran.
As it is not fair to judge Turkey by Constantinople, so it is
not fair to judge the qualities of the Turk by what is said of him
at the capital; for here there -are intense pro and anri Turkish
proclivities and prejudices.
Mr. James Baker, in writing about Turkey, where he had been
a visitor, asks about the integrity of a certain Pasha, who is a
government officer. He receives for answer a glowing eulogy
from the friends of the old Turk. He thereupon instinctively

6oO DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
raises his eyes to the shoulders of the Pasha, expecting to see
¦i-he budding of angelic wings; but on turning to another old
inhabitant, and putting the same question, he receives such a
reply as makes him turn his inspection to the Pasha's slippers in
search of the cloven foot The truth, in these matters, lies,
between the extreme opinions. Doubtless, that Pasha had done
many just acts. Doubtless, he had been more or less influenced,
if not corrupted, by backsheesh. And thus, this mixture of poison
with the pure fluid creates a divergence of opinion very common
and very unjust to the people of this country.
If the Custom-house be a sign of civilization, and its rigors
mark refinement, then the Turk, by the facilities that he grants, is
not entitled to the honor of a civilized nation. What is his, cus
tom tax on commerce ? A small per cent. — say half- per cent, on
exports. On all articles imported the tax is uniform. It is eight
per cent, ad valorem. As things go in civilized lands, this is a
sign of barbarism.
An American friend coming through a Custom-house in Tur
key, indulges in a diatribe against the government. He has some
Custom-house trouble. His baggage is searched. The only dis
turbance made is when the officers spy a big red apple! This he
has brought from America. He protests against its seizure; but in
vain. He demands, in his unknown tongue, the reason why the
paradisaical fruit is contraband. The case, as it transpires, is
comical. The officers seem finally to understand my friend.
They give him, as the explanation of the cruel seizure of his big
red, tempting apple, that they are executing the law against phyl
loxera — a disease of grapes ! No doubt, the tempting apple,
which is lost to my friend, is a gain to the Custom-house officers.
Doubtless they were consumers. Besides, is it not an illustra
tion of the worst feature of the Turkish customs system, of which
no American will complain when he looks first at home and then
remembers that, while our tariff is over forty per cent., for the
articles of our American missionaries there is in Turkey a free
entry ?
There is much said about the Turk being a spoiler. There is
some evidence of the iconoclasm of the Mahometan, whether Arab
or Turk. Did he not deface the tombs and temples in Egypt ?
Has he not destroyed the ruins of Greek art and empire, so that
he is to be regarded as an Oriental vandal ?

GREEK, OR TURK? 6oi
Let the tourist visit Baalbec, whose massive masonry has
defied time and earthquake, storm and battle. By whom and
why has such Cyclopean architecture been mutilated ? He will
be told that the work of destruction was performed by Chris
tians; for were not the temples of Baalbec dedicated to another
religion? Because the Sun was here worshipped— the innocent
Christians endeavored to eclipse the radiance of the glorious orb!
For many years it was the fashion to prefer the Greek to the
Turk, and d fortiori, the Christian, to the Moslem. This par
tiality depended on the political vicissitudes growing out of the
selfish interests of nations in the East. After a while, the Greek
was loathed and the Turk was liked; and to-day, as recent events
in East Roumelia have shown, the Turk has received more sym
pathy from the Christian world than the Greek, who declaimed so
ineptly and bitterly about the progress which Bulgaria was permit
ted to make by the coup d'etat of Prince Alexander, and which the
Greek, by the treaty of Berlin, was not permitted to share.
After the battle of Navarino the Turk was regarded by Europe
with more or less contempt; but when afterward he contested
with the Giant of the North, alone, and began to reform his gov
ernment, in the interests of social and political order, the Turk
then was another person.
If we would regard simply the transient observations which
the press of Europe make about Turkey, it would seem that
the Turkish empire reeks with corruption; and yet, in order to
prove to the contrary, the next gush of the observer is that of
partiality for this unspeakable and corrupt being. He is re
garded as a man whose traditional honesty remains, although
surrounded by mercenary self-seekers and worshippers of the
"golden image." For the Turk himself, take him in general, he
has a large-hearted hospitality, which does not seek its own
aggrandizement. He is to be considered, not at the capital, but
as diffused throughout the realm, of which the Sultan is the
best representative.
The Turk is regarded as a man who has risen to power by
means of brutal force. That alone is regarded as the lever of his
political and religious strength; but in another breath, which blows
contrary, he is regarded as one who trusts to his corruptness for
his success.
To some extent both views are right Surrounded by enemies

602 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
who seek to despoil him, he is wary and diplomatic. He plays
one Power against another, and, while entirely honest, he may
seem otherwise when in contact with or instructed by the Chris
tians who surround him.
It has been said, again, that he has no religion ; only a ritual
and a forgery. If that be said of him who prays five or seven
times a day, and regards the unity of Allah as worthy of perpetual
devotion by orison and alms, what can be said of the other relig
ionists, who live by Turkish toleration, and who, if not agnostic
or hypocritical, do not show that devotion of which the Turk is an
ensample. Again, it is said that the Turks hate the Christians with such
bitterness that they cannot do justice to them. But is it true, when
we regard the " Capitulations," which pronounced for religious
freedom and Christian rights, and which were made in the eras of
Ottoman strength and empire — made even before Roger Williams
or Lord Baltimore recognized soul-liberty, or before our Bills of
Right were engrafted on the American Constitutions.
One of my friends, in writing recently about Turkey, has spoken
of Abdul Hamid II., the present Sultan, as the last of the Sultans.
On what proofs does he thus speak ? For the last one hundred
years the same parrot-phrases have issued from the lips of those
who long to have Turkey, or portions of it, as their own. Many
decades may still roll around before the Russian, the Greek, the
English, or the Austrian will unfurl their flag on the dome of St.
Sophia, or on the tower of the Seraskierate.
It is said that if the Turk had less of the Koran he would have
less badness in his nature; and then, again, that in so far as he
copies Christian precept and practice, and departs from the Koran,
he degenerates. The tourist often repeats the trite idea that the
Turk is strong b}' reason of his fanaticism, and yet, that his sys
tem is that of religious weakness. It is the old trick. Give the
dog a bad name in order to hang him. K we could get rid of the
European prejudices, which come to us through books and news
papers, we would read a better horoscope out of Turkish character
and history, and there might be other nations who would be
regarded as unspeakable. The nation which repelled Russia at
Kars, and which held Plevna against the attack of the Slav, is not
a nation to be despised when the great conflict shall come in the
Orient.

TURKEY AND THE "POWERS" READY TO CAR-VE.

604 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Turkey is forever called the "sick man," or the "dying
man." If he be sick, he is a long time in dying. It would be
very difficult for any one to give the death-rate. The ordinary
impression in America, taken from foreign sources, is that the
Turk is the foot-ball of European diplomacy, and as lacking in
all liberal and reformatory elements. Such ideas are regardless
of his early and recent liberalities. It forgets that within sight
of the Palace of Yildiz, the American Robert College dominates
the landscape and Bosporus ! Why should Turkey be counted so
illiberal in her polity ? Did she not, at Kataya, shelter the Hun
garian patriots against Russian and Austrian vengeance ? Who
are the people that call the Turk so sick, so improgressive and so
bad ? Are they of the number who are waiting for his decease ?
By what right do they expect to share in the general spoliation ?
Have they any better right to Turkey in Europe, or Turkey in
Asia, than the Turk himself ? It is said that the Turk is only
encamped in Europe; that he speaks of himself as apart from
Europe; that the cypress-trees in Scutari, across the Bosporus,
are his chosen " shades;" that his caiques are ever ready to bear
him to Asia when the grand rising shall take place that dethrones
him in Europe ; and that his traditions, religion and tendencies
point toward Asia as his future home. This is the merest trifling
and trash. I am yet to hear the first Turk intimate that he expects,,
on this account, to be buried at Scutari. Besides, is he not
replacing the eighty thousand caiques, which I saw upon the
Bosporus thirty-five years ago, with steam-vessels, which run up
and down, and zig-zag between two continents ?
The Turk is not what he was in the reign of Sule'iman the Mag
nificent. True; but has he not grown stronger in the last few de
cades ? The more he is pressed on every side by those who
would divide his territory for their own benefit, the more compact
is his government and the more permanent his rule.
It is often said, as a sign of reproach, that millions of other
races are governed by a handful of Turks at Constantinople,
either directly from the Porte or through its vilayets. If this.
be the case, is it a sign of decadence ? If we take the word of the
Levantine, the Greek, or the Armenian, we might infer that the
Turk was a perpetual laggard, and yet we know that he has made
wonderful advancement. He is being for ever bullied and en
croached upon; but in spite of his stubborn nature, he has not

EAR THQ UAKES AND O THFR HINDRANCES. 6o 5
been unmindful to make efforts for more liberal institutions. Do
you point to Cyprus as being transferred to England, and Egypt
as practically gone from the Ottoman ? Say what we may, Cyprus
is no longer a hindrance to Turkey, and Crete has an autonomy
which some of our own States may copy. Her legislature is of a
composite quality, but the autonomy of the island is preserved,
and contentment is the lot of the mixed population, in spite of the
efforts of the Greek consuls and emissaries to disturb i;. As for
Egypt, she is — under the present arrangement, which seems
temporary — less a source of weakness and menace to Turkey
than she was in the time of Mehemet Ali, who threatened Con
stantinople. Is it said thatthe earthquake is an enemy to Turkish progress ?
There may be two sides to this question, judging by Greece in
her elder glory, and Spain under Charles V. and Philip II.
Besides, the United States are becoming somewhat familiar with
earthquakes. After many shocks, the fear which they engender
departs. I have heard our late Consul-General (Mr. Heap) say
that when, in, his early youth, he was with Commodore Porter
at San Stefano, the earthquake was regarded with great sa7ig
froidhy the inhabitants of that neighborhood. A gentleman men
tioned to me, upon one occasion, that he was in a house which was
violently shaken, with much creaking and cracking. When
he asked, with great consternation, the cause, " Oh," said his
host, lighting his cigarette coolly, " it is only an earthquake !" In
fact, the Bosporus itself, with all its rare beauty and advantages,
is the result of the earthquake. There is nothing like an earth
quake — unless it be war — to stir some populations into energy ;
and even earthquakes are insufficient to arouse them irto dis
content and advancement Whether earthquakes aid or retard
civilization, I leave Buckle to determine. In his volume on
Civilization, he makes the comparison between Scotland and
Spain, to the disadvantage of the latter. I am not prepared to
' accept all of his conclusions.
In representing these contrary winds, how- can we dast the
horoscope of Turkey? How reconcile these contrarieties ?
Shall we do it by flippantly repeating the common phrase
applied to the Turk, as " unspeakable "? It was applied by Car
lyle. If he meant by it, as I suppose he did, an incomprehensible
person, hard to be understood — he had better have cared for his

6o6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
Own glass house, before stoning that of the Turk; for of all the
incomprehensibilities incarnate, Thomas Carlyle was, and is, the
most unspeakable.
The Ottoman power ascended to its zenith with as much
rapidity as it has declined to the nadir. This fact makes its rise
and progress an interesting subject of philosophy. Under Sulei
man the Magnificent — the most cultivated of all the Ottoman
rulers — the empire achieved its greatest glory. It was — if not
the very first — among the first nations of the earth in power and
prestige. A few years later, it began to wane. In spite of all
attempts to stay its eclipse, it is declining yet. It did not decline
because it lacked skill in governing, so much as the ability to
keep step with the advancing progress of the world in physical
and other sciences.
Much has been said, and will continue to be said, about the
contentment which the peculiar religion of the Turk inspires;
as if that contentment were the foil to enterprise. It is thought
that the black coffee and solacing chibouque, the cross-legged posi
tion, and the seeming leisure, laziness and obesity of the Turk,
are signs of that contentment which can only be found in the
fatalistic East. 1 do not doubt this, as a rule ; but there are so
many exceptions that the rule is almost made contrariwise by the
exceptions. There is an easy quietude, gentlemanly polish, and
a spoken smoothness in the manners of the Osmanli, which seem
to have no anxieties for the future and an abundant serenity in-
the present Under the Turkish dominion there is no hereditary
influence except that of the Sultan's family. " Wealth is a highly
volatile blessing, and not always transmissible." The officers for
the time being are the aristocracy. These may or may not be
humbly born and bred ; for any one may rise in the state.
Many years ago I laughed over the account which Eothen
gave of his first meeting with a Turkish Pasha, in the province of
Servia. He had crossed the border of the new into the elder
world, and through the aid of a dragoman he held a most comi
cal and complimentary colloquy. The Pasha was led to regard
the Englishman as a grandiose personage— Lord of London,
scorner of Ireland and suppressor of France — who had quitted his
government and left his enemies to breathe for a moment. He
had crossed the broad waters in strict disguise, with a small
but eternally faithful retinue, in order that he might look upon

PHYSICAL PROGRESS AT THE EAST. 607
the bright countenance of the Pasha of Pashas of the everlasting
Pashalic of Karagholookoldour!
This wonderful introduction led to much conversation, in which
the traveler pledged England to preserve the integrity of the
Sultan's dominions.
To the remarks upon physical progress and steam enginery
the Pasha responded :
"Wonderful magic! Whirr! All by wheels ; whiz, whiz ! all
by steam ! Wonderful people! Whirr, whirr ! all by steam ; whiz,
whiz ! all by steam!"
The Pasha seemed to have found out that the English talk
more through their machinery than with their lips. It was only
yesterday that I picked up a Persian paper, in which the editor
strongly urges upon that ancient realm that it is not by force and
arms that its people are to be cultivated and elevated, but by
adopting the arts, the mechanism, the sciences, the education,
and the civilization of the West.
Eothen was proud to know that the Pasha similarly, fifty years
ago, regarded the manufacturing energy and commerce of Eng
land. In order to aggrandize the English, the Pasha gently and
diplomatically suggested that the Russians are only drilled swine;
the Germans, sleeping babes ; the Italians, the servants of song;
the French, the sons of newspapers; and the Greeks, the weavers
of lies ; but that England and the Osmanli are one, and always
together in righteousness. The Pasha wound up his interesting
colloquy by exclaiming :
" Proud are the sires, blessed are the dams of the horses which
shall carry Your Excellency to the end of a prosperous journey !
May the saddle beneath you glide down to the gates of the happy
city, like a boat swinging on the third river of Paradise! May
your eyes flame red through the darkness — more red than the
eyes of ten tigers! Farewell! "
Less of this high-flown persiflage, and more heed of markets,
machinery and transportation, and Turkey would realize some of
her dreams of avarice and visions of magniflcence.
The Turks are the ruling class; but other races assist in the
functions of the State. In Constantinople the masses are
Greeks, Armenians, Italians, French and Levantine. The
cultivated Turk, when discovered, becomes a Cadi, Ulema
or Pasha. In fact, it is held generally that the Turks them-

6o8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
selves are decreasing, and that their race and religion are dying
out For one, I do not believe a word of it. The families
of children seen in public do not look that way. New and
more elegant mosques are being built on the European side of
the Bosporus. The most superb of mosques is now being erect
ed almost within a stone's throw of the Sultan's palace at Yildiz.
In fact, within the last few years, since the Seraglio was burned
down, the Sultan has preferred to live in Europe. It is not true
that Europe keeps the Turk in his place by preventing the exist
ing arrangements from being disturbed. It is the Turk, rather,
which keeps Europe in its place. The armies of the Sultan are
said to be composed of others than Turks. But what does it
matter? The Albanians, Circassians and Kurds, and even the
blacks from the Soudan, which make up the majority of the
Army, are Mahometans. Many of the sailors are Greeks, though
very good care is taken, since the Greek revolt, that the officers
shall be Turks.
The religions of the world, which determine the conduct of
.human society, are not so unlike one another as the world is apt
to suppose. The Koran is not so unlike the New Testament as
people think. There is taught in its pages sobriety and con
tentment There is, as a result of its lessons, an absence of
crime among the masses, greatly to the credit of the Turk. A
graphic writer. Major Johnson, in his volume, " On the track of
the Crescent," just published in London, has had the courage to
do justice to this race, and to encounter prejudice by his sincere
tribute. He says that "those who have lived among the Turks
say that they are very conscientious and honorable, far more
pleasant to do business with than a good many so-called Chris
tians in the East. They are very kind to dumb animals, and are
hospitable to the friendless and outcast As Turkey received the
Armenians in the fourteenth century, so in 1849 she received
the Hungarian and Polish refugees ; and in 1869, the Circassians.
These latter have, however,but scantily rewarded their benefactor,
for they have been as a thorn in her side ever since."
Such hospitalities are not the sign of an ungenerous people.
In comparison with other nations, and as a sign of good-will and
permanence, they are significant.

CHAPTER XLV.
RESOURCES OF TURKEY — TAXATION, BRIGANDAGE AND FINANCES.
The empire of Turkey is rich in many resources. Its nat
ural advantages, especially in producing the great staples of
food and manufacture, have no parallel. Its cotton exports
were once more important than they are to-day, but still the
¦cotton lands are exceptionally fine. Turkey has always been
celebrated for her fleeces of wool. Her best sheep come from
the ancient stock, ovis aries. Their relatives may still be found
in a wild state in the mountains of Asia Minor. Mohair, the
fleece of the Angora goat, with its staple of five inches in length,
its silky texture, and its white color has no superior of its kind. It
is to be regretted that the Turkish government, while allowing the
hair to be exported, forbids the exportation of the goat itself Its
hair enters largely into the material for ladies' dresses and tailors'
trimmings, and for gentiemen's summer clothing. It has its
place in the more elegant shawls, velvets and a great variety
of articles of utility. The silk-worm is extensively reared in
Syria. Broussa is the great emporium of silk. The finer fab
rics, if not woven in the loom, are made by the hand-shuttles of
the skillful Turk and Armenian. The Turkish tobacco is plenti
ful. It flourishes in both European and Asiatic Turkey. Its
aroma is delicate and peculiar. The finest is perhaps that of
Latakia. It is called the " Father of Perfume." Madder is also
raised. It is easily propagated, and is exported in the root It is
quite prolific and profitable. The acorn-cups of the oak furnish
another article for dyeing. Opium is raised, but is used less than
formerly in Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe. The soil within
the domain of Turkey produces from twenty-five to one hundred
fold. Thus in some respects Nature tries to compensate for the
taxes imposed by the government and the discouragement of every
industry. As for the agriculture of Turkey in Europe, it is not what might
609

6 1 0 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
be called scientific. The plains are unfenced and level, and
attempts made to introduce agricultural implements have failed.
Some winnowing machines were bought by the best farmers, but
they were destroyed. The farms occupied by the Bulgarian and
Turkish farmers are too large — more than can be profitably man
aged. The farmers use no manures. The old wooden plow,
with oxen, and sometimes with camels, is very superficial in its
work, as no harrows are used.
The mode of threshing by the Turks is upon the old threshing
floor: sometimes by horses, who tread out the grain; sometimes
with a flail; sometimes with cattle drawing a hurdle on which a,
man is standing. There is a difference between the humors of
the Greek and Turk while threshing. It is said that the Turk
performs the threshing with dignified solemnity, while the Greek,
like the Celt, is always jocular and enjoys the business.
Wax, raisins, olive oil, morocco, saddlery, swords of rare
quality, shawls, carpets, dye-stuffs, embroidery, essential oils,
attar of roses, meerchaum-clay, honey, sponges, drugs, gall-nuts,
resin and wine, are to be added to the catalogue of products and
exports in which Turkey ought to rejoice. These show the great
fertility of her soil and the variety of her climate. But how
feebly this catalogue represents the elegance and comforts enjoyed
two thousand years ago in Thrace and Macedonia, Elyricum,
Moesia, Thessaly and Epirus, with their many villages and teem
ing people.
As in Judea, so in Asia Minor, the very terraces of the mount
ain-sides are evidence that they once rivaled the fertile valleys
at the foot of the mountains. These terraces are a protest in
favor of a just Providence against the improvidence of man.
Among the other changes which are noticeable, in this " Land of
the Sun and of the Orient," is the failure of that artistic work
in sculpture, painting, in the metals, in precious stones, in rich fab
rics, which once found their highest refinement around Byzantium.
What room there is for improvement in Asia Minor alone !
How many millions of acres of arable land are running to waste !
How could it be otherwise in a country where every donkey and
tree, every bushel of grain and crop of figs, every olive grove and
vineyard have been taxed almost out of existence, and the very
animals massacred to avoid the oppressive taxation.
Not to speak of wheat, barley, maize and dried fruits in abun-

MINERAL RICHES OF ASIA MINOR. 6 1 I
dance, and especially the fig from Smyrna, there is one resource
of Turkey outside of the agricultural product which would
furnish a sure presage of a splendid and prosperous future
for this country, but for the neglect, abandonment and miser
able codes by which the production of her minerals is im
peded. The coal-mines in the ranges of Asia Minor forming
the southern coast of the Black Sea, and the copper of the
Taurus range, only lack steam, skill, enterprise and capital to
bring their hidden wealth to the surface. When Turkey shall have
worked her unworked mines and untilled plains; when her mag
nificent mountain slopes, her rivers flowing to the sea through
beautiful valleys, her forests of oaks spreading boll upon boll, in
infinite richness — shall have been thoroughly developed by engin
ery and energy, Turkey may take a new position in the world of
commerce. There is a demonstrative centralization in the Turkish econo
mies, which is not apparent in the governments and their admin
istration. This is a bane, and not a blessing. When that is
liberalized, as it is being liberalized by a kberal Sultan; when
taxes are levied upon an intelligent and rational plan; when the old
modes of working by hand shall have ceased to exist, and the
spinning-jenny, the power-loom and the blast-furnace appear upon
every eligible spot; and when by the vigilant care of advanced
statesmen, these elements are developed and their product sent
into the markets of the world — this marvelous country will have
a fresh impulse to greatness, and resume among the Powers of the
earth its ancient prosperity.
The mineral resources of Turkey must some time come to a
rich result. There seems to be an impression that mineral wealth,
undeveloped, is like a hoarded treasure, already minted and
ready for use. This was the Chinese idea, but even China is
burrowing beneath the surface, and is doing its best to realize
this hidden wealth. Some one will penetrate the sunless caves of
Turkey, and bring these natural values to the light and the
market. A new system, as to mines, is being inaugurated in
Turkey. It may interfere with many existing contracts. The few
mines which are in working order are leased by the government
to the Greeks. These mines are in Asia Minor. They are of
copper, argentiferous lead, silver ore and pure silver, not to speak
of iron ore and coal in abundance on the shores of the Black Sea.

6 1 2 DIVERSIONS OP A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
These call for much capital and enterprise on the part of the
Western nations, but produce little result as yet, owing to the
jealousy of the Turk, who regards treasure-delving as a species of
lottery, in which he reserves for the state all the prizes, and allows
all the blanks to the contractor.
The student will remember that in the early era, in the sands
of many of the rivers of Asia Minor, and in Macedonia and
elsewhere, there was gold dust, but these surface diggings have
long since been exhausted.
The mineral resources of this country have never been thor
oughly understood. The Sultan has studied, as I have inti
mated, the American mode of mining. He will probably derive
all the advantages from the latest scientific skill on this subject
Extended intercourse and mechanical skill will bring forth these
resources of the East.
There is a Department of Mines in Turkey. It has much to
do with concessions to those who would work them. Sometimes,
in these concessions there was allowed the right of exportation
abroad, paying the customary six, per cent., according to the
quality of the mineral. That used to be the rule. Now, the dis
coverer of a mine is obliged to lose five, eight or ten years in
waiting, after the acceptance of the first sample. These delays
ruin the mining business of Turkey. It is a loss to those who
seek concessions, and a loss to the Treasury. Besides, so much
red tape is required, that to pay for the tape alone, not to speak
of its incidents, requires the time of a generation in order to have
a benefaction. But this system is about to be improved.
Like the Russian peasant, the farmers generally live in vil
lages, and not upon their farms. This is a matter of safety.
They have to pay a tithe to the tax-gatherer. The government
police is on hand to make the farmer pay, if he be derelict. The
zaptieh, or policeman, has been the greatest annoyance and
burden to the farming population. How the tithe is estimated,
sometimes on the crops in advance, without any allowance for a
bad season ; how the levy of tax is made without appeal to any
authority above the policeman; how a good deal more is levied
than goes to the government exchequer — all this has been written
about. Many remedies have been proposed. When to taxation
is added the destruction of barns and houses, by a war of races
,and of religion, as in a. d. 1877-78, it may well be inferred that

PROTESTS AGAINST SPOLIATION.

613

European Turkey is fenceless, treeless, and almost cropless. The
Bulgarian or Turkish farmer exclaims, " It could not be worse
under any other rule." But very likely it might be worse, for the
rule in Greece is not better, and somewhat worse; and the rule
under Russia would be incomparably bad. Certainly, if there be
a scintilla of truth in the account of this Thracian land— such as
Dr. Bird recounts in his drama of the gladiator Spartacus — the
Roman legions and mercenaries were even worse still; and com
pared to their ravage, the rule of the Greek or Turk is modera
tion itself.
It is a curious commentary on the mode of levying taxes in
Turkey, that when a petition for relief is sent in from some quar
ters, it has to be inscribed in the shape of a "round-robin," so
that no special person shall be held responsible for the memorial.
It is a mistake to suppose that there is any element of per
sonal permanency in the Turkish administration. The Sultan
changes his Ministers as frequently as he changes his Governors.
This is done for a purpose; for he is determined that no oppor
tunity shall occur to his officials, by a long stay in one position,
to absorb and detract from its resources.
As an illustration of this "home rule," or economy, which
obtains even in distant provinces, and which still renders its proper
accountability to the capital, it is a fact that the oppressed people
of the Vilayet of Mecca, where the religious and loyal enthusiasm
is the most pronounced, used that element of progressive physics
— the telegraph — to present charges against the Governor, Osman
Pasha, for his spoliation of the province. These despatches bore
the signatures of the first men connected with the Mahometan
church and state. They charged upon the Governor the wrong
ful taking of two hundred thousand dollars, the property of the
public, to swell his purse and that of his friends. These charges
were not made in vain. As did the officials of the Greek empire,
so do the Turkish officials. By their autocratic control they
create a rule for the special circumstances of each case, thus dis
playing in every corner of their realm a subtle, practical common
sense. The best illustration of the tax upon the peasants of the Orient,
and which is as old as the earliest Assyrian dynasties, is the
mode by which certain articles on which taxes are levied is farmed
out. There is in Turkey a tobacco Regie. Its officers are called

6l4 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
coldjis. They are the servitors of an Austrian company, which
undertakes to collect this tax. As everybody of both sexes
smokes in Turkey, the tax is a matter of great importance.
Smuggling is as common here as upon our Canadian border.
There are as many romantic stories told about tobacco smug
gling, as there was about smuggling on the coast of Ireland
in earlier times. A convoy of contrabandists — in Asia Minor
— fifteen in number, meet the coldjis. A fight ensues. Fire
arms on such occasions are lively. The smuggler generally
gets the worst of it. He flies, and the Regie goes on with its
inquisitorial arrangements. The company which farms this busi
ness have made many demands to stimulate the authorities to
assist in the collection of this revenue, but as it is a foreign mon
opoly, it would be better to do with the tax as they do in Austria,
Italy, France and America — collect it directly by the state. The
Turkish government may not want to offend the bulk of its
people, who are consumers; the Regie, controlled by foreign
capitalists, is unpopular; the three millions and a half collected
by the company may represent a very imperfect system of
taxation; but, after all, the government cannot well protect the
company where additional fragrance is given to the " virtuous
weed " by the fact of its being contraband. One of the difficul
ties connected with its collection, is that advances are made to
growers, and this does not lead to a perfect product Much
improvement was instituted of late in its collection, and I began
to think that this farming out of the revenue was the best mode;
but when I read about the attack upon a man near Broussa, who
had in his sash an empty tobacco box, and when the coldjis, by
the aid of their noses, determined that the very smell of the tobac
co in the box was contraband, and that a grand fight was a con
sequence of these discoveries — I reconsidered; and concluded
that the best way, after all, was for the government to do its own
business and not contract it out to others, especially to aliens.
Moreover, it is by no means an easy matter to collect taxes from
a population which has within its bosom the nomadic instinct
Their sense of freedom rebels against such exactions; and if they
cannot pay — they resort to rebellion or brigandage.
The word "Tartar" is simply the duplication of a word
signifying "to move." Tar means " to move," and Tar-tar means
^'to move — move ;" and as the nomadic Tartars were always on

NOMADIC TENDENCIES.

615

the move, their name fixes their distinguishing peculiarity. Do
not let this derivation be confounded with the word Tartarus ; for
that, if a good old pun, is philologically erroneous. It, however,
came from a king and a saint. Saint Louis, of France, in speak
ing of the Mongols of a. d. 1241, remarked that " either we must
thrust back those whom we call Tartars into their own place in
Tartarus, whence they come, or they will send us all to heaven."
The word "Tur " is supposed to mean the same thing, and in
¦connection with the word Koman, which means an arrow, it signi
fies that the original Turks, or Tur-comans, were bowmen. That
this is an established fact, maybe seen from the weapons of Turk
ish warfare on exhibition in the Treasury at the Porte.
Is It this nomadic quality which tends to prevent tax-gathering
and to encourage brigandage ? If the brigand were confined to
the Turk, this might be accepted. The worst of the brigands are
Circassian, and next to them are the Greeks. Accounts of their
outrages, and the consequent death or ransom of their captives,
are not common only because publicity is not allowed. How
ever, many stories slip through the censor's fingers.
About the time I left Constantinople, at the town of Zile, on
the shores of the Black Sea, there was a Circassian brigand named
Lofitcha. He was a terror ; but he was promptly retired from
public life. I do not know what has become of any portion of
his human body, but I trust that the many gentlemen of his
suite have found that, when his head was off and the brains
were out, the man, if not his tribe, would cease. The Turk
ish brigand has not much to brag of. Give me some redoubtable
Greek captain who demands twenty-five thousand dollars per
capita, and who can be right in the midst of a town to receive the
ransom — from the authorities ! On my trip to Egypt, I had the
pleasure of having the company of Mr. Whithall. He is an
Eastern merchant well known in New York. He has a house not
far from Smyrna, behind which the brigands had a rendezvous.
This was within a few minutes' walk of the police-house in the vil
lage. These brigands were hunted over the mountains, when
they were in the town. There is nothing very humorous about
this business, but if you happen to be a merchant traveling
through Macedonia, trying to sell your goods at one of the fairs,
and on your return meet several highwaymen, who relieve you of
your profits, and you happen to be no linguist, would you not

6 1 6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
consider the deafness and dumbness of your situation to be
almost as great a misfortune as the brigands ? They care little
for your infirmity, when you do not give the indemnity.
It has been to me amazing, ever since I landed in Smyrna in
A. D. 1 85 1, and was warned against going to the castle on the
top of the mountain — that Smyrna, of all places, should be the
spot where the brigands are most prosperous. They take the dis
guise of police ; they play the part of Era Diavolo, except that
they lack his politeness. Their cruelty toward their captives is
horrible. Still, they survive all the attempts of the authorities to
obliterate them.
It is no new literature to write the facts connected with the high
waymen of Albania, or the connection between such brigands of
the Kanniots and the powerful Turkish rulers of the neighborhood.
Fine looking mountaineers are these Kanniots. They have a
touch of Gypsy blood in them. They are romantic enough for a
drama. They are fiery, revengeful and reckless. In vain the
Turkish government has endeavored to suppress them. This it
is that makes the life of the tourist a doubtful one at best in these
countries of the Orient.
There is only one advantage in taking a company of Turkish
soldiers or policemen along with you in traveling through the
country; and that is, though the guard may run away at the first
appearance of a brigand, and fail to give you protection, yet if you
fail to demand or have an escort, you have no claim for compen
sation upon the authorities; and, to a Minister who has been pros
ecuting such claims, this indeed seems a most comical condition.
I do not know that it belongs to America, with its train-
robbers and Chinese-raids, to criticise very closely the police or
conduct of this city and country. In cities which are poorly lighted,
there must be many lamentable cases of the municipal foot-pad
and of the military rascal. The worst cases are those given in
the reports of the out-lying provinces. According to one of these
reports, from October, 1885, to December, 1886, in the Smyrna
district, no fewer than three hundred and four brigands have been
taken alive, twenty-nine more were killed, and eight others
wounded. The Smyrniotes were disappointed at these meagre
returns, and they have some right to complain.
Six policemen, or zaptiehs, are escorting some money in the
eastern part of the empire. A band of Albanian brigands kill the

BASHI-BAZOUKS. 617

6 1 8 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
sergeant, the zaptiehs receive wounds, the ruffians get the money
and escape. In Macedonia the same thing happens, except
this : that a Monseigneur of the Greek Church is captured, and
refusing to pay any ransom, his corpse is found. In vain the
Ottoman troops pursue the brigands. In the district around
Trebizond such outrages are common. The soldiers and police
often fail to capture the bandits. Around the Trebizond neigh
borhood, no fewer than fifty-three persons were killed by bandits
recently. Rich traders are preferred by them — for capture. They
pay dearly for their release. Villages are pillaged and women
dishonored. No bayonets appear to stop these extraordinary per
formances. During the Crimean War, and at its end, there was great com
plaint about the ruthless bands of roystering, devil-may-care land
pirates and quasi soldiers, known as the Bashi-Bazouks. They
were a "rakehelly rout of ragged rascals " — both a terror and a
scourge. They still exist in certain parts of the empire, and
occasionally they are to be seen upon the Bridge of the Golden
Horn, arrayed in all the hideousness of their attire. My readers
doubtless prefer to see their counterfeit presentment in the pict
ured page to meeting them on a lonely plain or in a mountain
fastness. I have not heard that any such plagues followed the recent
recruits on their disbanding.
To those who speak lugubriously about the condition and des
tiny of the Turks, a few facts may disturb their pessimistic view.
These are facts that come red-hot out of the caldron which was
simmering during the fall of 1885, and the years 1886-87. I' ^^'^
during the last days of September, 1885, that the insurrection of
Prince Alexander took place. It looked to the overthrow, really,
of the Sultan's Suzerainty and power in East Roumelia and Bul
garia. It was accomplished in a night. It had been the general
opinion that, some ten years before, Turkey was utterly crushed
by the Northern Bear. Russia dictated peace within a few miles
of the Golden Gate of Constantinople. Turkey was deprived of
rich and populous provinces. She was adjudged to pay an
indemnity, which she, was utterly powerless to discharge. The
treaty of Berlin, which had the good effect of modifying the
treaty of San Stefano, nevertheless was more rigorously carried
out against Turkey than in her favor. Indeed, it was said that

RESER VED STRENG TH OF TURKE Y. 6 1 9
Turkey simply lived, as it were, from hand to mouth on the suf
ferance of other Powers, and that the first popular movement in
the Bulgarian provinces would demonstrate her weakness, bank
ruptcy and disorganization.
When, therefore, the revolution occurred in East Roumelia,
although Turkey had some six to seven thousand troops on the
border, near Phillipopolis, she seemed to the outside world utterly
helpless ; but to those of us who were looking from the inside, it
was not so. It was not much concern to her that her Governor-
General had been expelled from East Roumelia, and that Prince
Alexander had been placed over the united provinces. There
seemed to be little or no military force to protect the border,
either on the Grecian boundary or in the Roumelian country.
Then began a series of orders which energized the Turkish
empire. The reserves, or redifs, were called out They came
with loyal huzzas and promptitude. The equipments were ready.
The ships which were chartered to convey them from the Asiatic
to the European provinces were also ready, though it required
much push, skill and diplomacy to accomplish these results.
At Salonica alone, before the end of the year 1885, seventy
thousand troops were landed. Right under my eye, at Therapia,
the garrisons of the Bosporus were reinforced. The wild tribes of
Albania, where rebellious fighting had been going on for centuries,
were held in check. The army on the Greek frontier could have
crushed any movement of the Greeks against Turkey. It is
unnecessary to say that the Turk did not want to fight, for it
might have involved consequences that were as unforeseen as
they were perilous. It is also due to truth to say that he was
ready upon the frontier of Eastern Roumelia with a sufficient
force. Two hundred thousand soldiers is not too great an esti
mate for the human defenses, which were in a most effective state
at the end of the year 1885. Scarcely three months had flitted
away before this immense force was mobilized. Compared with
England in the Crimean War, or the third Napoleon in the Prus
sian war, or the Czar himself in the Russo-Turkish War, the
military readiness and resources of Turkey are immensely to her
credit. This could not have occurred without a financial prop beneath
her military strength. As Turkey has been always considered in
the light of a pauper, or bankrupt, before the bourses of the world

620 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
and in the eye of nations, it may be as well to say that not more
loyal to her integrity were her reserves and her army than her
bankers and her merchants in the financial stress. It was to me
a special marvel that Turkey should have met the extraordinary
costly military expenditure with so much facility and readiness.
For, be it known that the present mode of carrying on war is by
no means to be likened to that of the age of the bow and arrow,
or even to that of the old musket or the smooth-bore gun.
The Sultan had called his reserves to the probable point of
attack. He had transferred them from his Asiatic provinces.
He had collected vast materials of war. Was the money for these
purposes borrowed ? No; unless it be a half a million sterling, by
an arrangement with a Smyrna railway company. There were
negotiations for money with a prominent Austrian banker, and with
the Imperial Ottoman Bank, but the Turk was able to refuse the
terms, as too onerous, although they were as noihing compared
with the old usury rates which he had formerly been compelled
to pay. There was no urgent need of money, apparently, in the
Turkish exchequer, and this was the astonishing element. It was
more unexpected than her military strength. A decade before,
she had compromised with her creditors. She had almost repu
diated a portion of her debt; but she kept her compromise and
paid the reduced interest That interest amounted to two mill
ions of sterling a year. She kept her faith, notwithstanding the
great demand for her military expenses.
The financial history of Turkey for twelve months before the
end of the last year shows that the external debt was provided for,
and the floating debt reduced to little or nothing. The revenue
met the expenditures, with a probable increase of the revenue and a
decrease of the expenditures. If the new commercial treaties
which were then inaugurated, are concluded, it will increase the
revenue by a larger general tariff against foreign nations. There
may be more revenue, if not so much liberty to trade. A new
Minister of Finance was named at the end of the year 1886. His
reforms bid fair to make some improvements in taxation, so as to
make the vast, rich and virgin land smile with a better cultivation.
So that, based on the inchoate enterprises of Turkey, which
the Porte seems to keep in its grasp, there are resources beyond
the computation of any fiscal officer of the Turkish government.
If the Turk himself abhors the influx of foreign capital, he com-

FINANCIAL AMELIORATION. 62 I
mits fiscal suicide, for no nation, and certainly not our own, ever
prohibited the influx of capital which would develop industry
without sacrificing something of future prominence and glory.
If I should make a resume of the financial and political con
dition of Turkey and compare it with a year and a half ago,
I should say that it is less critical now than it was then. It
improves. It advances toward a sounder system. Abuses are
melting away. There is a closer system of accountability, and
although the impediments of 1886 were happily tided over, as I
have undertaken to explain, the operations of 1887 indicate a steady
pursuit upon stable ground, after an economic system which
will give to Turkey a new hold upon the sympathies and business
of mankind. Is it said: That she does not pay her army; that she is yet
in arrears; and that her contracts are yet to be complied with?
This may be so; but beyond the annuity which she pays to her
public creditors, she has had her secret resources. These were
found in the splendid railways which are possible, even probable,
and the mines, which are richer than the dreams of avarice. These
were, and can be, hypothecated, in the emergencies of her future.
Do you ask whether she has mitigated her taxing system ? I
need not repeat here that her tariff is a sign of liberality beyond
that of more boastful nations, but that her direct tithe-tax has not
yet been mitigated. Its mode of collection is mischievous and
harassing; but it has been ameliorated.
From all these statements there is a corollary more important
than the conclusions. While as a formidable antagonist with
Russia in former wars, she suffered enormously by reason of the
poor officering of her army, she has improved in that regard.
The patient, dogged, almost fanatical courage of her soldiery
made up in former wars for lack of commanders. Because Turkey
speaks with a small, still voice, displaying caution and practicing
prudence, neither provoking that Power which is ready to leap
upon her splendid capital at the first provocation, nor offending
the German and Austro-Hungarian, French and English Powers
in her own natural desire to assert her authority in her own vassal
provinces — it does not follow that that still, small voice may not
be as potential as that of the Prophet of old.

CHAPTER XLVI.
IS REFORM POSSIBLE IN TURKEY ? RAILROADS OF THE EMPIRE, IN
EXISTENCE AND PROJECTED.
It is not just to deny credit for what the Turkish government
has done. No doubt there are many wrong-doings and short
comings, in administration, which should be corrected. This I
have been made officially to understand. But certainly, in com
parison with the Christian, the Turkish population has nothing to
fear. If it be said that assassinations are frequent in Turkey, and
that Sultans have been dethroned by poison and poniard, it must
not be forgotten that two Presidents of the United States have
been assassinated, and that Russia has also been the scene, and is
yet the scene, of crimes of this nature. As to venality, there
may be much apathy in the Turkish administration'. My observ
ation is that her sins of omission are greater than those of
commission. The charge alleged to have been made by the Russian Ambas
sador, M. Nellidoff, that England secured the assent of Turkey
to the recent Egyptian convention by the payment of ^^600,000,
was indignantly denied. To those who know Sir William White,
the present Grand Vizier — Kiamil Pasha — and the Sultan himself,
there was no need of any vehemence by way of denial. If the
English government were as generous as the sum represents, the
objects to be attained by the treaty were of such little practical
consequence that they fell by their own insignificance. Had the
amount named passed into the Turkish Treasury for railroad con
cessions, we could understand the value of the grants and the
integrity of the transaction.
I agree with those who believe that the Turkish government
does not need any betterment of the laws. The laws are admirable;
the machinery is made on a perfect plan. It is the administration,
if anything, that is wanting. Besides, there is always some other
nation ready to pounce upon every possible peccadillo of the
622

MIDHAT PASHA AS A REFORMER. 623
Turkish administration, and hold it up to scorn as a sign of
Turkish improgressiveness and decay.
Do you ask if there has been any liberality in Turkey; any
experiment on the line of improvement and freedom ? I cannot
say that there has been much. There was a Constitution and a
Congress in the reign of Abdul Aziz. Both were failures. They
happened in the stress of a general upturning. Midhat Pasha
was the Grand Vizier, and the genius of this reformatory en
deavor. He was regarded as an enlightened statesman. He
was educated in France, while it was under the sway of the third
Napoleon. Like John Locke, he could elaborate an organic law,
which seemed logical, but his polity was not practical. He was fond
of the illusions of politics, and must have been delighted with every
thing in France, except the conclusion of Napoleon's reign. He
had no difficulty in adopting advanced theories, even when he
alarmed the old Turkish party. Having afterward been compli
cated with the assassination of Abdul Aziz, he was sent into
Coventry. He has never been heard of since. Considering the
condition of the ruling powers in other countries; considering the
absolute tyranny and ambition of the Czar; considering the bigo
try which Russia exercises, not merely toward the Hebrews, but
toward Lutherans and other Protestants, of which the world knows
but little — the present liberal conditions of Turkish rule, in spite
of her anomalous position, deserve unstinted commendation.
There have been many reforms dictated to Turkey by the
European Powers. Her constitution is not yet formally abro
gated. It surpasses in liberality the provisions of other European
states. Among its valuable features is a proclamation of the
equality of Moslem and Christian before the law. Was this a
novelty ? No : not even in Turkey. The celebrated Hatti-Scherif,
by which Abdul Medjid glorified his reign, had three provisions:
First, Guarantees to his own subjects as to the perfect security of
life, honor and fortune; Second, A regular system' of taxation;
and Third, An equally regular system of military levies and dura
tion of service. There never was a decree promulgated and sanc
tioned with so much ceremony as this celebrated "Hatti." If
it has not been carried out in practice, it is only because Turkey
has been too much occupied in defending the integrity of her
territory and the existence of her government. Scarcely a day
passes over the Bosporus that Turkey has not been compelled,

624 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
if not to do battle in this behalf, upon fields of carnage, at least
to contend upon the less sanguinary fields of diplomacy.
I confess that such a reformer as Midhat Pasha has not come
fully up to my ideal; for facts jut out prominently in his career
to indicate more selfishness than patriotism. He was neither a
Madison, a Cavour, a Thiers, or a Gambetta, much less a Bis
marck, a Derby, or a Gladstone. Besides, it is said, that the
order for the Bulgarian outrages, for which so much reproach
was fixed upon the Turkish government, is attributable to him.
If that be the case, his banishment into southwestern Arabia, for
aiding in the accomplishment of the death of Abdul Aziz, was
neither unjust nor regrettable. But his schemes and fate, how
ever, mark an era in Turkish movements looking to the regener
ation of the state.
Lately, Turkey has had no statesman who has energized any
great movement for the betterment of her fundamental govern
ment. She has had, and has needed, astute diplomatists and
capable financiers. She has concentrated her energies for self-
existence upon diplomacy and her fiscal system. She has been
weak — she is yet weak ; and has thereby invited encroachment,
as well as because she has been and is poor. When her credit is
re-established she will be rich, because she has the means of
being so in her mines and lands. There is a vigorous life in her
empire which only needs arousal. Enterprise and money would
develop it Turkey has not failed in military achievements. Why
should she be smitten with languor, when rivalry with her old Slav
enemy seems to be imminent ! All the evanescent glories of her
past are nothing, unless in this nineteenth century she cultivates
physical enterprise, and that mechanical ingenuity which shortens
time, develops industry, and makes even of such little nation.s^as
Belgium powerful factors among the nations of the earth.
The railroads in Turkey proper are a mere bagatelle, com
pared with those of Germany, France, or our own country. In
this we are not counting the railways of Egypt — the mileage of
which is considerable for its area and population. There are
but five railways in Turkey proper.
The first runs, and with many possible and probable connec
tions with the European system, to Adrianople from Constanti
nople. It is otherwise of great utility, although it is not sub
merged under encomiums on account of its conduct.

RAILR OADS OF TURKE Y. 625
The secondly in Cilicia. It runs from Mersina to Tarsus, and
thence to Adana. This railroad is not of great length, but it
makes up for its brevity by the richness and produce of the soil,
and its historic and religious associations. Notwithstanding
these attractions, the country has suffered the past year by a
drought, which has impoverished the people, even unto starvation.
If you would visit Tarsus now, for lack of other provender, you
might feast your eyes oh a castle, alleged to be built by Bajazet,
the traditional tomb of Sardanapalus, who founded the city,
and the supposed church in which St. Paul baptized his con
verts, and the imaginary tree which the apostle of the Gentiles
planted with his own hands ! The city is but half the size it was
when it claimed Paul as a student and a citizen. Still, it is no
" mean city " now; for a place which had such a founder as the
Assyrian monarch, such a university in the old eras, that it rivaled
Athens and Alexandria, and such Grecian grandeur as Alexander,
and such Roman pride as Mark Antony and Julius Csesar con
tributed — can never be truly called a "mean city."
The third is the railroad from Scutari, opposite Constanti
nople to Ismid. The western terminus at Chalcedon is known as
the entrepot of the caravan commerce of fifty years ago ; and its
eastern terminus at Ismid marks the place of ancient Nicomedia.
It is near Nicsa — where the creed of Christendom was estab
lished by the Fathers in the fourth century. Around Ismid there
is a swamp, through which hunters in high India-rubber boots
take their weary way after snipe, woodcock and an occasional
wild-boar. The American missionaries in the vicinity are en
deavoring to make the swamp blossom as the rose, by discreet
cultivation of the indigenous population.
The fourth is the Aidin railroad ; it runs out of Sm.yrna
toward and beyond Ephesus, into the richest fig and raisin coun
try of the world. It is a paying road, and is under English con
trol. The product of the soil and the industry of the people give
to its trade extensive circulation, and to Smyrna a commercial
importance only equaled by the beauty of its women and the
bigoted arrogance of its Greek population.
The fifth is known as the Turco-Servian junction railways.
They are beginning to take on force, and are almost ready to
reach their destination at Salonica, and thence to all the world.
In fact, the new prince of Bulgaria and the sovereign of Servia

626 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
have been junketing with their people at Pirot over the opening of
the section from Nisch to that place. Under the convention
between " the four Powers of 1883," the Nisch-Vranja Salonica
junction line should long since have been opened to the ^gean
Sea. Turkey is said to be the obstacle. When the agreement is
carried out, then will a rich country be made accessible, either to
the Danube or to the sea.
This is at best but a poor showing for the railroad enterprise of
a land like Turkey. Since she is so rich in mines, arable land,
and resources of all kinds, why is she not more prosperous ?
Simply because of the lamentable lack of transportation and
enterprise. She must reach out into the old haunts of Mongolia,
as Russia is doing by her Trans-Caspian railway system. Asia
Minor and the lands and waters of the Balkan Peninsula are still
hers ; and with them, could she not command a better civiliza
tion ? By joining the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, could
she not create a better system of transportation than the canal
which joins the Mediterranean with the Red Sea ?
The project of a canal for such ter7tiini has been started. It
begins on the mainland nearly opposite and east of Cyprus,
follows the Aurauntes, and proceeds thence to the Euphrates.
Thence the route is by steamers to the Persian Gulf It would
thus save fully six days, or two thousand miles, between London
and Bombay. This canal is only a project. In our time, the
railroad supersedes the canal.
No one can consider this matter of a railway system in the
Orient, without taking into account the Russian Central Asian
system. If there were not so much antagonism between Russia
and England, there might be a Turkish connection made with
the Russian and the Indian railway system. There are political
and dynastic objections to this arrangement. A line which would
follow the railway from London to Dover, and from Calais to Brus
sels, Cologne, Berlin, Warsaw, Kief, Khartoff, and Vlaid Kafkas at
the foot of the Caucasus, would soon reach the Caspian Sea, on a
plan already projected, if not accomplished ; so that London and
the Caspian Sea would be bound together by an iron chain, without
a break. Then crossing the Caspian Sea to the new port of Usun-
ada, it meets the terminus of the Russian Central Asia railroad.
This railroad, reaching from Merv to Afghanistan by way of
Herat, would land you at Quetta. There it is allied with the

RAIL WA YS TO INDIA . 627
Indian railway system. Thus Asia in hs centre and south would
be connected with the farthest and most potential realms of
Europe. All this and more, if the great Powers were not jealous
of one another.
Once talking with the Sultan, he remarked : " I have thought
of sending my son Selim in a naval vessel around the world.
How far is it to New York from here ? "
I said : " Your Majesty, I have just received a letter, only thir
teen days old, from New York."
He was astonished ; I presumed to add this platitude :
" Much of the way through Europe is upon land, and as the
locomotive has less resistance from the air than the vessel upon
the water ; and whereas the latter can only go twenty miles an
hour, while the other makes sixty — there is great utility in having
as' much railroading around our star as is consistent with the
safety, intercourse and comfort of its peoples."
Then I asked him the question :
'' How long,- Your Majesty, does it take your messengers to go
from Constantinople to Bagdad ? "
He replied, smilingly, " You could go to America and return,
and go home again from here, before my mail messengers could
reach the Tigris or the Euphrates."
This conversation was leading somewhat in the direction of
railroad building. I had no scheme. There were no Americans
then pushing any enterprises in that direction. The Sultan had
evidently been impressed with the necessity of railroads through
his unsettled territory ; so that the population might follow the
locomotive, and the lands be made valuable by facile modes of
carrying freight. It is no new project — that of making a railroad
to the Euphrates, and down its valley to the Persian Gulf. Per
haps for that purpose the English leased Cyprus. It would not
be hard, at one bound, to connect that island with the corner
of the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Iskanderoon ; and then,
making water-stations of Antioch and Aleppo, fol'ow the valley
of the Euphrates, with all its wealth of soil and immensity of
interest, to the head of the Persian Gulf Between that valley
and that of the Tigris, lies old Mesopotamia, and further on,
the East Indies. Constantinople would then become the distrib
uting centre of Europe and Asia.
Besides, a railroad from Constantinople should reach out

628 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
toward Armenia. It has progressed only so far as the end of the
Gulf of Ismid. A few more propulsions, and it will be in the
opulent country around Angora ; and then it is not so very diffi
cult, following the fortieth parallel, to reach the plains of Erze
roum and the upper Euphrates.
Disregarding the Suez canal as on one side, the two hundred
millions of people in Europe might shake hands with three hundred
millions in Asia. London would be as near to Bombay as New
York is to Liverpool, and the lines of empire, if not of dynasty and
boundary, together with the stir and marts of commerce, would
be changed with the changing of the routes of transportation.
As this "volume goes to press, rumors quite authentic — much
more authentic than the ordinary statements from the Orient — are
current that, through the aid of Sir William 'White, the British
Minister, an Imperial Iradehs,^ been issued by the Sultan to-a
syndicate of British 'financiers, granting them the right to con
struct a grand trunk line over the great central plateau of Asia
Minor. Its termini will be Constantinople and Bagdad. If this
be true, it probably ends a long contest for supremacy among
the rival speculators for concessions applied for by the citizens of
different nationalities.
The French are vexed at this decision of the Sultan. As
a consequence, Russia is, if possible, more irate than France.
Protests are filed against it ; but the Sultan answers them by
saying that, as a railway in Turkey affects no frontier of Russia
or France, it is not a question which concerns any other govern
ment than that of the Ottoman.
The line which is proposed to be run, starts out from Scutari,
and pursues the present line as far as Ismid. It touches at many
prominent towns in Asia Minor, and, among the rest, at Angora,
Sivas, Harpoot and Diarbekir, until it reaches Bagdad, the grand
old romantic capital of Mesopotamia. This should interest
America, whose missionaries, as I can avouch, are very hard to
reach at their distant stations in Armenia and Kurdistan. The
running of this road will not only develop a line rich in minerals
and agricultural wealth, but revolutionize the social condition of
the people along the route. The condition of the country upon
the Persian and Russian border is lamentable. By Article 61 of
the Berlin treaty, Turkey agreed to " carry out, without further
delay, the ameliorations and reforms demanded by local require-

RE GENERA TION OF A SIA MINOR. 629
ments in the provinces occupied by the Armenians, and to guar
antee their security against the Circassians and Kurds." It also
agreed, " periodically to make known the steps taken to this
effect to the Powers, who will superintend their application." Not
withstanding the presence of numerous Russian and English Con
suls, and one American Consul recently established at Sivas,
nothing has been done to effectuate these guarantees. The old
foes of Xenophon on his retreat — the Kurds — harry the Armenians.
The brigands roam at will over the rich lands east of Erzeroum,
They pursue parties even to the old Georgia capital — Tiflis — and
kindly relieve the armed Muscovite convoys of the collected
taxes and cash wherewithal the Russian government is wont to
pay its officers. When pursued, these brigands dash over the
borders into Persia, and are safe from pursuit.
A railroad through this harassed land will be a godsend. It
is now in a fairer way of being constructed than at any time since
it was projected, sixteen years ago, by Mr. Charles Waring.
It is within my knowledge that Governor Stanford, of Califor
nia, was tendered the concession for this road, while on a visit to
Constantinople. Reasons of pre-occupation in such matters
prevented his acceptance. Some Americans subsequently en
deavored to get a foothold, so as to apply the American system, as
they called it, of a subvention of lands and mines for the building
of the road. As these adventurers had no substantial backing,
they naturally failed. When they failed, they indulged in much
objurgation upon the writer for not promoting, as Minister, their
sinister designs. Besides, they made reclamations, as I feared they
would, upon the Ottoman Treasury, for alleged promises. These
claims have been rejected by the honest indignation of my suc
cessor, Mr. Straus.
When it is understood that Constantinople depends upon
other countries for her supply of food, and spends nearly ten
million dollars a year for that object, when she might be sup
ported at home, with a proper transportation, from the plains of
Angora and Adarbazar; and when it is considered that a large
surplus of grain for exportation might be a consequence of this
railroad — the project assumes even a grander proportion than that
of mere military strategy. Why may not this splendid enterprise
restore to Constantinople her ancient advantage as a commer
cial centre ? Joining the Roumelian and Servian lines from the

630 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
west with this railroad to the East, would she not stand promi
nently on a route more direct to India than the Suez canal ? She
becomes at once and again the capital of Asia Minor — in fact as
well as in form, in commerce as well as in civism. In that case,
Persia would depend more upon Turkey than upon Russia; Eng
land would be nearer by many days to India; and the vast plateau
of Armenia would be better defended from the Czar than by any
other possible mode. It would enable Turkey speedily to com
mand the gorges of the Taurus mountains, and to occupy them
in force whenever menaced.
Leaving Ismid, the projected railroad pursues a course toward
Angora, to which point it will be completed in four years; and in
four years more to Bagdad. It is to be thirteen hundred miles
long. The main line is to cost not less than one hundred millions
of dollars. The engineering ditficulties, though considerable, are
more easily surmounted than those of other railroads which have
been built within the past few years.
It must be patent to the reader that this project could not have
been secured without great diplomatic tact and exertion — I will
not say great expenditure. It is no new project; for in the time
of Abdul Medjid, during the Crimean War, the question came up
as one of military strategy. It was an anxious question to
England in the time of the Indian mutiny. The Sultan of that
day, and his Grand Vizier, blew hot and blew cold; and though
surveys were made, blue-books published, maps fabricated, and
public discussions held everywhere — the interests of France in
Syria dominated, and the project fell through. Again and again,
the Minister of Public Works at the Porte, together with com
missions made-up of Armenians, Greeks and Turks, with now
and then a Frenchman or a 'German, presented the matter. But
the successor of Abdul Medjid — Abdul Aziz — threw cold water
upon the movement. Then Mr. Cazalet, a London merchant,
formed a syndicate for this object. This too failed. So it has
come down to the present time, which may see its consummation
by the English, assisted by those of other nationalities, probably
German and Austrian capitalists.
There have been various plans to reach Bagdad from the
Bosporus, and various branches were projected from the main
branch; for instance, one to Aleppo, and on to Urfah and Mar-
din, and so by the Tigris valley to Bagdad. Another was via

CONDITIONS OF TURKISH RAIL WA Y SUCCESS. 63 1
Koniah and Adana, with a branch to Diarbekir, and so on to
the Euphrates and the Tigris.
If the Turkish empire holds together; if Austria will adhere
to her policy of trading by sea and land, east and west; if the need
of military strategy remains the same as it is to-day for the Pow
ers which are seeking prosperity and influence by roaming over
land and sea to annex loose territories — then there is every likeli
hood of the construction of this line to the Indian frontier. Nay,
of two lines: for if this one be made, there will be constructed
two fast routes to the far East; one under Austrian auspices,
through Salonica by sea to Alexandretta, and by rail to Bagdad,
perhaps there to meet an Anglo-Indian line through Persia and
Beluchistan to Kurrachee. The other will avoid all sea passage,
save the mere ferry across the Bosporus, and run by Constantino
ple, Scutari, Diarbekir to Mosul and Bagdad. It is thought that
Bombay will thus be brought within eleven and Calcutta twelve
days of London. But letters and passengers from Bombay
already reach London in nineteen days, on a route three-fourths
of which is in England's own hands; so that the expenditure of
$100,000,000, which is the lowest estimate, may not seem, in the
eyes of English capitalists, to be very well laid out
But it is no fanciful scheme, so long as the railway can beat the
water-way in fleetness and cheapness; and although the local travel
and freightage may not be great, nor the prospect of travel through
Mesopotamian, Persian and Beluchi deserts transporting, in a
sentimental sense; still, capital is likely to pocket fair dividends by
a land route which brings the ends of our star so near to each
other as this project contemplates.
The sums which have been expended by syndicates in procur
ing these advantages from the Porte, are as fabulous in statement
as they are fictitious in fact. The present Sultan took hold of the
matter with an honest intention. This was evidenced by his
selection of Mouktar Pasha — now the Commissioner of Turkey to
Egypt — to examine the projects. Never has a breath of scandal
been uttered against his name. I know whereof I speak ; for
he is a warm friend of the writer. He reported in favor of sev
eral lines from Constantinople, to open up the country of Asia
Minor. His fellow commissioners only recommended routes, but
did not lay down absolute conditions. Still, nothing was done in
pursuance of their recommendation. The German influence

632 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
seemed then to prevail in disparagement of the enterprise thus
recommended. It is supposed now, by those who are initiated,
that the German influence, along with that of Austria, has more
or less to do with the recent firman. The present Grand Vizier
also takes an interest in the matter, and it is fair to presume that
the long conflict upon which so much depends for the vitalizing
energy of this empire will have a successful termination.

CHAPTER XLVIL
ORIENTAL PROBLEMS— PRINCE ALEXANDER AND THE INSURREC
TION IN BULGARIA.
In the mutations of European politics and the phases of the
Oriental question, it is difficult to fix for a long time the bounda
ries of the Ottoman empire. Changes have taken place, not only
in its European provinces, but in its African and Asiatic depend
encies. It is a constantly recurring problem, and has been for
the last hundred years: What shall be the outcome of these
Oriental movements ? how are they affected by the movements of
trade, railroads and the aggressions of other Powers ?
First, it may be well to ascertain, up to this present writing,
what are the various bonds, according to their strength or weak
ness, by which this empire, once so great and strong, is now held
together. Are they ropes of sand ? The Ottoman empire has not,
in the usual sense of the term, any colonial possessions, but it
includes certain provinces in Europe and Africa which are more
or less dependencies, or provinces, of the central power at Con
stantinople. Some of these are held by the frailest tenure. This
tenure is known, and has been known for centuries, as that of
"Suzerainty." The "immediate possessions" of Turkey in
Europe contain only about 4,500,000 population, of the 8,650,-
000 of the whole population of Turkey in Europe. The other
possessions of Turkey in Europe are Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and the Sandjak, or sub-province of Novibazar. These are
" occupied " by Austro-Hungary, under treaty stipulations. They
are now only nominally a part of the Ottoman empire.
Bulgaria is in nearly the same predicament. By the terms of
the Berlin treaty, it should be ruled by a prince with a popular
parliament. Events loosened the ties of "Suzerainty" between
Sultan and prince. They are now nearly severed. Prince Alex
ander of Battenberg was selected as prince. On the i8th of Sep
tember, A.D. 1885, he moved his army upon Phillipopolis, the
633

634 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
capital of East Roumelia, to unite the two Bulgarias, so-called.
East Roumelia, in a. d. 1880, had a population of 411,601. It is
still a Turkish province in Europe. It was, and is, more nearly
connected with the Porte than its kindred province of Bulgaria.
It is, and has been, for two years nearly in tra7isitu. It awaits
either the wager of war or that of diplomacy, to ascertain its status
and establish its contentment and government. Its present con
dition under its representative assembly, the Sobranje, a responsi
ble ministry and a new prince, elected outside the treaty of Berlin
— is quite anomalous.
In Asia the Turkish possessions have a population of
16,173,000. In Africa the same remarks may be applied as
those in reference to the Balkan provinces, except that Tunis may
as well be altogether omitted. France has that province irre
vocably. Tunis, by the treaty of the 12th of May, a. d. 1881,
was placed under the protectorate of France, the Bey remaining
as a quasi sovereign. The relations between Tunis and the
Porte have littie or ho substance. If any, it is that of the
Mahometan faith and a semblance of suzerainty, kept up in
the ancient palace of the Bey by the blowing of a trumpet by
a soldier of loyalty to the Sultan. Egypt is now in the joint
possession of England and Turkey ; but the acknowledged
supremacy belongs to Turkey, whatever may be its treaty con
dition. The total population of Egypt is 5,500,000. That of
Tripoli is 1,000,000. Tripoli is still a part of the Turkish em
pire; but it hangs by a hair.
This statement comprehends all that is left of Turkey ; but it
leaves her still a grand empire.
Without discussing the vigor of that faith by which the
Caliph of the Moslem world exercises so much religious and
moral control, is it not enough to say that he is at the head of two
hundred millions of Moslems ? Although that control may be
more or less weakened, according to the remoteness of the people
ruled, yet the Father of the Faithful exercises other and more
than a political control, in distant countries which are under other
dynasties. No census has yet been taken of the Mahometan people. It
is impossible to ascertain their number. Some authorities fix the
number at 122,000,000; others at 160,000,000. The nearest
approach to a correct estimate has been made by an Englishman,

CENSUS OF THE MOSLEM WORLD.

'35

who wrote his results for the Fortnightly Review, some six years
ago. He stationed himself at Yeddah, the seaport town leading
to Mecca. There, by inquiries of pilgrims from all parts of the
Moslem world — Russia, India, Borneo, Northern and Central
Africa, including the Ottoman empire — he was enabled to approxi
mate the immense numbers which make up this still vital religion.
He fixed them at 200,000,000. This means an army of 5,000,000
to be arrayed, in a crisis, under one flag and commander. Hence,
when the sickly condition of the Turkish empire and the weak
ness of the rule of its Sultan is depicted, we should not forget its
enormous elemental religious power. It was the foundation of its
early dominion. It is its strongest prop to-day, among the nations
which would despoil its empire.
The Saracen who overran the Mediterranean upon all its
shores, did not menace Europe so truculently as the Turk who,
in following him, led the forces of Central Asia across the Dar
danelles into the European continent. The Saracen is dead, or,
rather, dormant. He may be energized into new life by the banner
of the Prophet. When led by the Turk, with new arms of pre
cision and new motors of explosion and enginery — it is not well
to surmise too emphatically that the Moslem devotees will be
vanquished in their contest with the Muscovite, even though that
race be aided by Republican France. Besides, there are other
alliant factors to be considered in the problem..
****:): * if.
It has been customary for the Sultan, at the end of Ramazan
— the season of religious fasting — to begin a season of festivity.
This is a religious observance. This festive season, as we have
described it, is Bairam. At this time the pious Mahometan not
only makes sacrifice on the graves of his friends and relatives,
but he indulges in much congratulation. We have seen, at
the beginning of this occasion, the Sultan holding high court in
the palace of Dolma Bagtche. At this time he receives the high
dignitaries of the Army, Navy and state, including the ecclesias
tical priesthood, from the Sheik-Ul-Islam down to the lowliest
Mufti, or head of a dervish organization.
How the time is fixed for this peculiar welcome to all the
leading people of his capital and surroundings has been pictured.
At the last Bairam feast in a. d. 1886, there was much doubt,
owing to the quality of the weather, as to when the grand court

6-:' 6 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.

O

should be held; for the moon was quite as uncertain as Shake
speare himself could have desired. Being at the isle of Prin
kipo, we depend upon a telegram for our time to start. As the
court is held at the first day-break after the discovery of the
moon, the anxiety is increased.
In the year before, 1885, no such difficulty happens. Then
we are invited to come from Therapia, down the Bosporus with
the other Legations, to observe the grand ceremony. When half
way down, our launch is met by that of the Sultan. It bears the
Crescent and the Star. It has on board an adjutant from the
palace. He hails us to say that the usual Bairam demonstrations
are postponed.
On making inquiry, I ascertain that an astonishing e77ieute has
occurred in Bulgaria. Prince Alexander has committed a coup d'
etat. He has, in a night, annexed East Roumelia to his princi
pality of Bulgaria. As East Roumelia is apart of the empire, and
is not by any treaty a part of Bulgaria, this audacious step of the
Prince excites the wildest commotion, especially among the gov
ernment people, who are principally Ottoman. I determine, how
ever, to pursue my journey. If I cannot enter the palace, I can
at least see the Sultan coming from the mosque, and observe the
excitement which is predominating around the Imperial quarters.
After the Sultan had mounted his white charger to ride up the
hill, through the narrow streets to the highway which leads to his
palace, there is a bold dash; and a crush of officials, civil and
religious, military and naval, in carriages and on horseback, fol
low, and vie in excited vigor with each other for the lead. The gold
lace shimmers upon their uniforms. The long burnous of the
priest trembles and wavers as if with the spirit of a new prophecy.
What is the cause of all this apparent commotion ? Does it pre
sage the distraction of the empire ? Is it a new phase of the old
imbroglio ? Is it a new move on the part of Russia ? What
does it mean ?
It becomes necessary for the American Minister — in pursuing
his instructions from Washington — "to transmit information con
cerning the policy of that country to which he is accredited."
A study of this Bulgarian question, therefore, becomes a duty.
I endeavor to make an impartial observation. As the burden
of Ministerial correspondence, so far as it affects the United
States is concerned, relates mostly to capitulations and treaties

THE BULGARIAN REVOLT. 63 7
by which American interests are protected in the East, the writer
has a natural bias toward keeping the faith of treaties. His
despatches are colored with this peculiar idea of faith-keeping.
It has been stated that the principality of Bulgaria is the
creation of the Berlin treaty in a. d. 1878. When, therefore,
the Bulgarian people — like an overflowing stream — dash beyond
the proper channel by an unexpected freshet from the Balkan
mountains, is it to be wondered that consternation falls upon the
Porte and the palace ?
It is regarded as strange that the Turk does not at once de
clare war, and send the seven or eight thousand troops on the
Balkan border to Phillipopolis, the capital of East Roumelia.
Thus he can at once rescue East Roumelia from the clutch of
this Hessian prince, and his then possible ally, the Czar.
But it should be remembered that it is because the Sultan is
patient, moderate and forbearing that this resort to violence is
not had. Although Turkey has the treaty-right to protect East
Roumelia from this revolt and annexation — wiser counsels pre
vail in the mind of the Sultan. He at once dismisses the old
Cabinet for its heedlessness in not making closer observation of
the events which were preliminary to the outbreak. A new Grand
Vizier is called to the head of the Ministry. I knew him very
well before that time, not only by his reputation as a Governor
in Syria, but by his ministerial office in Stamboul. This man is
Kiamil Pasha, who is still Grand Vizier.
When this sudden uprising in Bulgaria takes place, the Prince
expects to be met by a Turkish array. He is not altogether
unprepared. When he arrives at Phillipopolis he finds a supply of
arms. He calls out every male inhabitant between the ages of
eighteen and forty. He has an array of thirty-five thousand men.
These he divides into lots of a thousand each. He then begins
telegraphing to the Powers. He summons all the tailors of the
town to make military clothes. The tailors rebel — bodkin in hand.
Most of them are Greeks. They do not like the situation. If
East Roumelia be freed from Turkish rule, why not Macedonia ?
They are, however, starved into manufacturing gray overcoats.
Then, behold an army in which each soldier has, not only a uni
form but an opauk sandal and a sheepskin hat. Foreign consuls
remonstrate in vain. Then the Prince mixes these soldiers up,
gives them officers, and they are in tolerably good fighting trim.

638 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
If the Turks had met them then, what a Bulgarian Bull Run
would have resulted!
Such a revolution attracts the attention of the Powers which
were "signatory" to the Treaty of Berlin. At once they enter
into pour parlers. As nearly all the Ministers then resided
upon the upper waters of the Bosporus, either at Therapia or
Buyukdere, I notice that my neighbors are in a flurry. Their
launches fly around and over the Strait, under an extra pressure
of steam. Out of this discord in the Balkans comes the " Euro
pean concert ! " The refrain is : Shall the status quo ante be
restored ? This is a phrase to signify that Prince Alexander
should be relegated and limited to his own dominions, as desig
nated by the treaty of Berlin.
It may be said generally, that wars always come, when they
come at all, upon frontiers. It is here that there is found the close
collision, local irritation and jealousy of dominion. The question
arises: Where is the proper border within which the Battenberg
Prince should be confined ? Shall his border reach below the
Balkan range ? If so, in case the Prince be, as was then appre
hended, in concert with Russia— would not the taking of East
Roumelia enable Russia, through her Slavonic influence and her
ecclesiastical polity, to overcome that old historic mountain fron
tier which bears, among its lofty honors, such names as Plevna
and Shumla ? A good map shows the line of military occupation
at that time, between the Turkish and Bulgarian forces. It runs
from Adrianople along the railroad to Phillipopolis.
Thisis the situation as it appears on September 18, a.d. 1885:
The town of Moustafa-Pasha is the centre of Turkish opera
tions. There troops are gathering as a nucleus. The railroad is
not interrupted to a great extent — a dozen English miles, perhaps.
The insurgent forces are ranged en echelon, between Adrianople
and Phillipopolis, on the railway. They have some artillery. Of
these troops, more than half are at Khaskeim. The map
will show how near the contending troops are to each
other. Turkey is acting with forbearance ; as well because her
Mahometan" population is in peril among hostile people, as
because of the insurrection. She is conscious of being in the
right; and is, perhaps, advised thus to act by the Powers or by some
of them. Perhaps she expects the rising to die out from inani-

ASTEROIDS IN THE EASTERN SKY. 639
tion. The insurgents are spending $125,000 a day in the expenses
of the militia and volunteers. Can they keep this up very long?
With this question, involving the breach of the Berlin treaty,
arises another which tends to help the Turk: Roumania — another
child of the Berlin treaty, with a king — represents by her Minis
ters, at home and abroad, that the contemplated union between
East Roumelia and Bulgaria diminishes Roumania's importance
as the accepted leader of the Danubian provinces.
Where is Greece in these movements ? Are Greece and her
kindred population in Macedonia to remain under Slav domina
tion ? There is a " cry from Macedonia;" and much excitement
in Athens and Albania.
So that it will be perceived that this is not altogether a war of
religions, nor of races. It is an endeavor, rather, to increase the
local importance of certain "asteroids" in the Eastern sky. It
is my belief now, that the Turkish Army coiild temporarily have
settled the trouble, if it had not been that the Sultan disliked to
use force, fearing it might involve a general war.
There are other relations to be considered. Bosnia and
Servia are occupied by Austria under the conditions of the Berlin
treaty. Servia has a king, Milan, the creature of Austria.
Austria desires access to the Mediterranean at Salonica, through
Turkish provinces. It is a splendid commercial ambition. The
map will show how nearly it encroaches on Turkey — in her sus
ceptibility and dignity, as well as in her rights and domain.
Turkey reserves her fire — if war comes — for the guardianship of
these rights and domain. In this emergency, her hereditary foe,
Greece, may be her ally; or may not. That depends on the
share of the spoil.
The Eastern question relates not only to the religious creeds —
Greek, Armenian, Mahometan, Latin, etc. — but to the states
wherein Bulgarian, Wallachian, Greek, Slav, Roumanian, Servian,
Bosnian, Herzegovian, Montenegrin and Turk have been mixed
for centuries in the most heterogeneous manner, with flexible
boundaries and changeful domination. As to this question, the
great Powers are in perpetual unrest, despite the obligation of
treaties and the conscience of mankind.
The signatory Powers hold a prompt conference at the house of
the Italian Minister, Count Corti. He lives in our neighborhood
at Therapia. He is the Dean of the Ministers, by longest service;

640 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
but whether any conclusion is arrived at, it is impossible to ascer
tain. The Ambassadors are reticent as to their action. In fact,
they are awaiting with much impatience — which is intensely
shared by the Sultan and his Ministers and Army — the reply of
the Powers to the Sultan's circular upon the situation.
As my duty calls me to see the new Foreign Minister, Said
Pasha, I take occasion to impress him with our own friendly
American regard in the present unexpected embarrassment. As
the interests of America depend on the faith of the treaties or
capitulations, I make all the emphasis possible, consistent with
non-intervention, about the disregard of the Berlin treaty which
these events display.
These events happen nine years after the Berlin Congress
concluded its labors. Its president. Prince Bismarck, congratu
lated the nations on the lasting quality of their v/ork. Disraeli,
on his return to London, said, "I bring peace with honor.'' But
how long is this pacific work to last ? How many breaches must
be made before that treaty is utterly riddled ?
What is the tenor of this treaty ? Its first article provides for
an autonomous and tributary principality for Bulgaria. Bulgaria
was to have "a Christian government and a national militia." It
was to contribute to the Ottoman revenue. Nothing of the revenue
has ever been paid to Turkey, and there is a breach on the part of
Bulgaria in that regard. Whether she has an autonomous govern
ment, is a matter which these concluding chapters will elucidate.
She has a national militia, but it turns out to be rather a- stand
ing army, in defiance of both the spirit and the wording of the
treaty. Its second article provides that the Sultan shall defend the
Balkan frontiers of Eastern Roumelia. But when Eastern Rou
melia joins with Bulgaria, is not the treaty defied ? Does it not
radically change the relation of that region ? AVhere is the
defensible frontier against Russia held by Turkey, if Eastern
Roumelia becomes a part of Bulgaria; and where is Russia in her
attitude toward Turkey in case Russia holds Bulgaria ?
Article ten provides for the completion and connection of cer
tain railways through Servia to Constantinople and Salonica. The
Varna-Rustchuk line being already in working order, Bulgaria
has no difficulty on that score. But, as we have seen in chapter
XLVI., other railways are yet in embryo, or in progress.

NO TES OF PREPARA TION FOR WAR. 64 1
Article second provides that the local government should
•demolish and raze the old fortresses within one year, or sooner, if
possible, and that they should not be allowed to construct fresh
ones. This has not been done; hence another breach of the
treaty. Article seventeen declares that the Governor-General of East
ern Roumelia should be named by the Porte, with the assent of
the Powers, for the term of five years. Twice in eight years has
this article been violated. Bulgaria, by absorbing Eastern Rou
melia, violates its own organic law, which affixed the boundaries
of Bulgaria. Article thirty-three concerns Montenegro, and article forty-two
Servia. They were to pay a portion of the Ottoman debt This
has never been done. But the monetary consideration is nothing
in comparison with the reckless disregard of the provisions of this
much vaunted treaty. It is likely to be torn to atoms, and con
sumed in some general conflagration, by the Powers which con
certed its celebration.
Already the first sounds of the conflict are heard all through
the Balkan peninsula. A thousand memories of past terrible con
flicts are awakened. Europe stands tip-toe, eager to catch every
note of preparation. Even from far-off America telegrams are
sent to rae, as to the probable outcome of these events. Is it
-(var — or peace ? The markets of New York sympathize with the
Bourse of Paris, the Borse of Berlin and the Exchange of
London.

CHAPTER XLVIIL
BALKAN peninsula ; ROUMANIA ; SERVIA ; PREPARATIONS FOR
fighting; GREECE  ITS KING AND QUEEN.
The plains below the Balkans are not unlike Belgium in one
respect. They have been called the bloodiest cock-pit of
Europe. The beautiful valley of the Maritza — the ancient Heb-
rus — has been deluged with blood. From the earliest days of
ancient Thrace, when Philip and Alexander subdued its tribes, or
from the time the Romans, under Trajan and Adrian, made their
conquests, even up to and beyond the Danube, down to the time
when the Bulgarians laid the foundation of a kingdom upon the
worn out empire of the Romans— wars have been the rule, and
peace the exception. Since that time. Christian and Turk,
through many centuries, have had here many bitter and fanatical
conflicts. Looking at the battles of Shipka and Plevna, we find in
them a repetition of former contests at old points of strategy.
In these conflicts the Danubian principalities have always flgured.
Their people gained independence by their own courage. Strictly
speaking, Roumania is not a Balkan province; and just now she
is aloof from its entanglements and trials.
The capital of Roumania is Bucharest. It deserves special
mention. It is not merely the capital of an interesting kingdom,
but it has the flne touch and color of Western civilization. It
is half Orient and half Occident. You may see the Turk there,
and yet you are away from the Turk. The Roumanians are
by no means home-bodies. They travel a good deal. They
return with the customs and costumes of the French capital.
They are fond of music and shows. Nothing pleases them more
than a theatre, unless it be a circus. They love the latter with
the affection of the old Romans, of which they esteem them
selves to be the legitimate heirs. I noticed their fine horses, and
the rattling pace with which the Jehus drive. They are unexam
pled for the gayety of their equipages. 642

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE PENINSULA. 643
Roumania played a chivalric part in the war by which she
was freed and organized. She was carved out of Turkey by the
union of Moldavia and Wallachia. The treaty of Berlin called
her into being as a state whose suzerain was the Sultan. Some
tribute was to be paid, but it has not been paid. She sits at the
foot of the Carpathians with her King and Queen, with all the
felicities of her autonomy, as ready for the arts of peace as the
honors of war.
There are many reasons why Roumania is interesting. The
houses of her capital, although never more than one or two stories,
are shapely and elegant. Her streets are well paved and cleanly,
and the people are penetrated with the old Roman esprit. Many
interesting ruins show that Roumania was a prominent Roman
province at an early date. The relics of her greatness still remain
in the character, gallantry and pride of her citizens.
If the reader would know something about Turkey in Europe,
and how much even recent wars have limited its domain, let him
turn to a map and glance at the country between the Black Sea,
the ^gean, the Adriatic and under the Balkans. Or, let him stand
in the south of Turkey in Europe, on classic Mount Olympus, or
its neighbor Ossa, and observe, in fancy, old Thessalonica and the
beautiful city of Janina, with its mountain lake; or stand upon
Pindus and survey the lands of the Eastern Adriatic, or look down
from the Black Mountain on Montenegro, or glance at the distant
snow-covered mountains of Herzegovina ; or let him traverse the
rugged country around Sophia, or take the railroad from Phil
lipopolis through Adrianople to the Bosporus — he will observe
that its scenery and cultivation have not improved by any meas
ure of self-government or of relief from the Ottoman rule.
This land was once in better trim and culture than it is at
present It is now almost a treeless, fenceless and arid waste.
There are portions of it capable of being redeemed. Much of it
in the valleys at the foot of the Balkans is already redeemed in a
most attractive way. I do not mean that its redemption came
through glorious war, or from the influence of tne fortresses of the
Oriental quadrilateral amid the mountains of the Balkans.
Let the reader follow the Russian army, as it passed in 1878,
not without struggle, over the Balkans, driving before it the
Turkish armies. Although the paths which he may follow over
these mountains and vales are Alpine, yet he will soon come upon

644 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
a plain where for miles the atmosphere is lovely with roseate tints;
for is not this the land of Eskizagra, where the sweetest roses of
the earth bloom in prodigality, and the precious attar is manu
factured in its purity ?
This country under the Balkans is so beautiful, and at the same
time so fruitful, that it is called the "Basin of Roses." It is in
the Kasenlyk district. Its Turkish name is Ghyulteknasy and its
chirography in Turkish looks like our shorthand caligraphy. It
has a poetic significance deeper than the typography. The dis
tillation of the rose in the Sanjak of Phillipopolis is immensely
productive, but it depends, like all other crops, upon a state of
peace. The word attar, or otar, in the Turkish tongue means per
fume; but there can be no bloom or perfume upon the rose when
the thieving Cossacks are around, or the bugles of war are re
sounding in the vales. This paradise has not been spared. Per
haps some of the color of the rich red rose may remind the reader
of those realms of which Tom Moore sang, and of which Cash
mere, in the still farther Orient, at the foot of the Himalayas, is
another and lovely example.
The southern base of the Balkan range does not depend on the
attar of roses altogether for its fragrance or its prosperity. It has
an exuberance of vegetation and production, as all Piedmontese
countries have. It is redolent and rich in the jasmine and the
wall-lilac, and in vineyards and forests of fruit trees. These give
to the plains a fragrance and beauty only equal to that which
blooms in and is distilled from its roses. Is this fair land to be
the sanguinary battle-ground of the dynasties ?
Since there has been so much said and printed in relation to
the Balkan peninsula, and the collisions growing out of the ambi
tions of its various provinces, it is as well to correct — as I have
endeavored to do — the apocryphal, exaggerated and misleading
views which have been entertained about this arena of conflict
After the events which have been narrated, there were vari
ous meetings of the Signatory Powers at the house of the Italian
Ambassador. Out of these meetings there was formulated a
note. It maintained the Berlin treaty, which had been flagrantly
and unexpectedly violated by the action of Prince Alexander.
This note was understood as allowing the Sultan to carry out,
without any intervention or obstacle from the Signatory Powers,

SLAV JEALOUSY OF BULGARIA. 645
his authority over East Roumelia, under the Berlin treaty. It was
hoped, however, that no breach of the peace, and no bloodshed,
would result Whether Turkey was or was not ready to take the
initiative thus accorded her by these then neutral Powers, by
using force over her Balkan dependency, had not then been ascer
tained absolutely.
What is known is that which all who were near saw: recruits
and conscripts from all parts of the empire, and soldiers and
munitions from the capital, moving with expedition to the border.
Intense activity is seen in all departments of the Ottoman govern
ment. At any moment, a spark may enkindle a blaze which
will involve the whole peninsula, reaching unto the Adriatic in
its consequences, including Greece, and, in fact, engrossing all the
warlike courage and resources of the countries whose fate is
affected by the Berlin treaty.
The position of Russia is constantly referred to as equivocal.
Russia, as the soi disa7if guardian of the Bulgar or Slav — for
reasons which are apparent in this narrative — dislikes the mode
adopted by Prince Alexander; but why should she dislike the
union of the '* two Bulgarias"? Does not this union enhance
her greatness, as the leader of the Slavonic race ? Does it not, in
fact, macadamize her road to Constantinople ?
It is rumored, and it is a priori probable, that Servia and the
other small Powers affected, are ready to aid Turkey in the con
test for the integrity of the Berlin treaty. It is apparent that
Greece especially, is madly jealous of the growth of the Slav ele
ment. An immense public assemblage to demonstrate this
object is expected on Sunday, the i8th of October, a. d. 1885, at
its capital, Athens. Even Austria is regarded as jealous of Slav
encroachment. There is jealousy everywhere in relation to this
Bulgarian emeute. Each one of the Powers interested desires to
have some word in the matter, or share in the partition of Turkey,
if any is to be made. Servia seems to be the most ravenous. She
bases her demand on her ancient dignity, when indeed she was a
Power of imperial magnitude.
The position of Great Britain I cannot exactly understand.
Her Premier, Lord Salisbury, has just spoken, upon the hustings,
rather in favor of maintaining the status quo. He seems to oppose
the disturbance of the union of the Bulgarias. In Constantinople
it is understood that all the Powers, including Great Britain, are

646 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLO.MAT IN TURKEY.
to unite upon a proposition for the status quo. Great Britain is rep
resented in Constantinople by Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, but
he is intent only on Egyptian matters. She must be either
friendly to Turkey and join the Powers in their efforts, or fail in
her diplomacy as to Egypt Her position is not without embar
rassment and ambiguity. Besides, England has a memory of the
Crimean War and its unsatisfactory conclusion. That war cost
England twenty-four thousand lives; and, reduced to dollars,
about two hundred millions. Along with her allies, England suc
ceeded in crippling Russia temporarily. Turkey was restored to
many of her privileges. Certainly, the allies received from
Turkey many promises and some performances as to justice and
reform. Still, England has posed as the friend of liberty in the
provinces; and now that a Battenberg — connected with Queen
Victoria — is aggrandizing himself and family in the Balkans,
is it for England to oppose the union of the Bulgarias ? We
will see.
For some days, the telegraph from Adrianople has been cut.
Much excitement and gloom exist in government circles at the
indefinite nature of the news. On the i6th of October, a. d. 1885,
His Excellency Said Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, makes
his calls of courtesy. He honors our Legation at Therapia.
He expresses himself as more cheerful over the situation than he
has been hitherto. He more than intimates that the action of the
six Powers has aided to dispel the gloom and brighten the hopes
of peace and the re-establishment of the status quo ante belhan.
It is understood that a deputation from the Prince, or from
the Bulgarians, has visited the Czar at Copenhagen, so as, if pos
sible, to have his good-will, which is that of Russia, in the con
troversy. The treatment of the deputation by the Czar is reported
in various ways. It seems, however, that Russia, by its Minister,
M. Nellidoff, in Constantinople, is acting with the other Signa
tory Powers. The best impression here is that war will be averted,
owing to the stand taken by the six Powers.
In the early days, when Turkey rose potentially in the East,
France seemed to be most dominant. In fact, the French lan
guage is the prevailing language yet, outside of the languages of
the country. "Capitulations" from the early Sultans to the
French, fixed the status of the Christian world with respect to the
Orient. But, for reasons not requiring dilation, the French have

ANXIETIES ABOUT THE AMERICAN COLLEGE. bo^y
not retained their old standing in the East, when Napoleon the
Great was represented here by Sebastiani.
As the controversy appears, about the last of October, a. d.
1885 : the Prince has given his complete submission to the Pow
ers, and has left Phillipopolis. Again, it is said that he is only
gone to inspect certain portions of the interior of East Roumelia,
and will soon return to Sophia to preside over a council of Min
isters; and again that he will withdraw his army, upon a prom
ise given him to sanction some assimilation of the institutions of
East Roumelia and Bulgaria.
As I had prophesied in my despatches home, trade is ham
pered. Even America is to be affected by these semi-belligerent
conditions. The Bulgarian authorities, for the second time, pro
hibit the export of maize and wheat from Bourgas, an East
Roumelian port. The Powers protest. We have no protest to
make, as to any restriction which tends to enlarge our own grain
market. In fact, we have nothing at all to do or say in these
matters. For the present, it is ours to observe.
At the beginning of the complication I wrote a despatch to my
government that I feared the American (Robert) College, most
of whose students are Bulgars, might be embarrassed in conse
quence of the nationality of these students; and especially so in
case the students should leave, or endeavor to leave, for their
homes to take part in the insurrection. This fear was founded
on the fact that Dr. Washburn, the President, had just returned
from a tour through Bulgaria. There he had received a trium
phal reception from his former pupils.
I called at the College and saw Dr. Washburn. He said that
but one Bulgarian student had left, and that he had returned.
The College was full. There were nearly two hundred students.
Their good conduct was admirable. I ask the President:
"What is your judgment as to these recent events." He
replies :
" I believe that the uprising is spontaneous with the people
of the two provinces. It is a surprise to all the Powers. It is such
a surprise that Russia suspects Austria, and Austria suspects
Russia. Even • the Russian Ambassador, M. Nellidoff, was
puzzled at first. As Russia sometimes works in these provinces
in a mysterious way, and without the knowledge of her own Min
ister  his protestations, like those of Austria, are sincere."

648 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
" But, Doctor, what of Germany; what of the Chancellor ?"
" I understand," he rejoins, "that the astute Chancellor is
not unwilling to see Austria and Russia divide up the Balkans and
other parts of Turkey in Europe, and thus close up these ever-
recurring controversies."
" But what Power will get Constantinople? Who will allow
Russia to control these splendid commercial waters?"
This is not, as he confesses, so easily answered. He can
only say:
" That is a puzzle ! "
" Besides," I presume to add, " Turkey is not now a ' sick man.'
Turkey generally lacks money; but then her tithes are now com
ing in, and a loan of over three millions of dollars is being made
upon certain chartered railway guarantees in Asia. Her soldiers
care little for their pay, so that they are ^¦leW housed, fed and
clothed. Besides, is not the Sultan the Chief of Islam, at the
head of two hundred -millions of Mahometans in Asia, Africa and
the isles ? Is she to be despised where the Faithful pray toward
Mecca, either by Russia in Asia; or by England in Asia and
Africa ; or by Germany, Spain, England, Portugal, Belgium,
France or Italy — in Europe or Africa; or by any or all of the
Powers which are moving over the earth and seas, seeking what
remote realms they may — rescue from barbarism ?' '
The part which Germany may play in this drama, it is difficult
to foretell. Her Minister is highly honored by the Sultan. Ger
mans here are supplanting the English and other nationalities in
the service of the Porte. The new Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Said Pasha, has recently been Minister at Berlin, and was, before
he left, decorated by the Emperor of Germany and honored by
Chancellor Bismarck. Germany, in fact, has the sword of Bren-
nus. Will she throw it into the doubtful scale ? I presume, from
her reserve, that she favors the status quo a7ite bellu77i, and then
a conference. Time will show.
It is generally believed that, at the meeting of the three
Emperors at Cremsier, this insurrection was arranged. As each
of the Powers — whatever their secret wish or bias might have
been — disclaimed any part in the uprising, so , each of them
seems to be horrified at the audacious breach of the Berlin
treaty; and all, unless now we except Great Britain, pretend to
desire the status quo ante bellum. If so, why are they so slow to

SITUATION BEFORE THE SERVIAN WAR.

649

compel the a7nende to Turkey? Delay works in two ways: it
helps, at one view, to establish the union of the provinces; and in
another, it costs the Bulgarians immensely for troops, munitions
and provisions. The impatient Bulgar expects ready sympathy
and aid from the Powers, especially Russia. He is already dis
couraged. Time is dispiriting the people of the two provinces
and disintegrating their forces. The exchequer of the Prince is
not large, and results have not been realized. The volunteers of
Bulgaria are said to be hiding in the mountains, and many are on
half rations; while many more are fearful of a Servian as well as
of a Turkish attack.
Events are likely soon to produce a new settlement of the
Balkan question. The conditions may differ from those of the
Berlin treaty. This result, it seems, the Porte is willing to
hazard; for the Porte, as I hear, has sent to its representa
tives accredited to the great Powers, a circular proposing a con
ference of Ambassadors in Constantinople, to settle definitely the
Roumelian question; to consider that question only.
The situation before the Servian attack on Bulgaria is nearly
this: the three great Powers — Austria, Russia and Germany — are
agreed; England hesitates; France and Italy are reluctant, but
are supposed to be in accord about the conference. The Porte
desires to prevent bloodshed, but insists upon the Berlin treaty
being preserved in its entirety and in good faith. The Porte does
not fear Bulgaria so much as Servia and Greece. It would be a
great relief to the Powers and people — who are apprehensive of a
great war, involving every race and nation, from the Adriatic to
the Black Sea — should these apprehensions be allayed.
The Ambassadors of the six Powers had several meetings. It
would seem, from this, that nothing had been concluded abso
lutely. Several days ago they met to discuss the reply of the
Porte to the so-called " Identic note " of the Powers. It is said,
and truly, that they are still united upon the Berlin treaty, and
the rights of the Sultan under it. A further conference is called
to settie v/hat seems to have been already agreed upon.
These vicissitudes, with their rumors and apprehensions, indi
cate to the reader who is unacquainted with the Eastern question
and the modes for its settlement or suppression, one of the Diver
sions of an American Minister at the Porte, whose anxiety, if he
indulges in any, is that freedom should prevail, and that his own

650 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
country, if war comes, may not be harmed, but helped, in the
controversy. Meanwhile, arming and mobilization go on. Servia has
100,000 men ready. Her whole population is only 1,865,000.
She is eager for a fray, either with Bulgaria, or any Power which
presumes to lead the Balkan peninsula, or grow in domain or
power without her consent or her own aggrandizement ! Russia
has 80,000 troops in Bessarabia, on the Roumanian frontier; and
still her battalions come ! Servia, however, is giving Bulgaria
more apprehension than she gives Turkey. Greece is having an
excitement worthy of her early historic and rhetorical activity
upon these shores ; but she h:is not yet, owing to restraining influ
ences outside, broken from her moorings. Servia is about to
launch herself upon "a sea of trouble."
A modern Turk may not imitate his ancestry so far as energy
is concerned. He may temporize. He says: " I will do nothing
to-day; to-morrow, Bacaloiun, we shall see." And yet, he is
wary as well as patient. He is gathering upon the frontier for this
emergency a fine army, well ordered and equipped. He has
already there 40,000 good, trained soldiers, and cannon of the
best make. His notes trumpet along the Bosporus with no
uncertain sound, from morning till evening. His conscripts are
coming into the city by the thousand. Drilling goes on every
hour upon the barrack-grounds and on the shores of the Straits.
Many of his soldiers are going to Salonica, as if the point of
danger were in Macedonia. The Austrian Lloyd Company is
employed continually in carrying troops to that important point
Turkish vessels are constantly passing up and down the Straits,
or coming in from the Black Sea, or from Syria, loaded with
troops. The vessels have a roseate tinge, from the multitude
of red fez caps which crowd their decks.
These grand movements indicate a question more important
than Prince Ale;;ander and his insurrection. The greater ques
tion is one which neither diplomacy, treaty nor arms can readily
reconcile or settle. In its most comprehensive expression, it is a
question of race and nationality. It is :
"Shall this or that race dominate within certain natural or
artificial boundaries ? "
There is much uncertainty as to these Balkan races and their
mixture with one another. Even the proud Greek strain is chal-

TURK, GREEK OR SLAV— WHICH? 65 I
lenged as being more or less Slav. From Herzegovina to the
Dobrodcha, from the Gulf of Corinth to the Danube, there is a
strange composite of many races, so interchangeably mixed by
blood, tradition, history, war, exodus and social and domestic
relations that no one can aver where one race begins and another
ends, or which dominates in any one locality.
The distinct races in these provinces are the Gypsy, Ottoman,
Jew, Slav and Greek. They appear each with their peculiar
prejudices and traditions. Neither of these races constitutes dis
tinctively any one of the lesser provincial luminaries. Neither
of these shines with a lustre altogether peculiar to itself, or with a
magnitude great enough to be other than a satellite moving around
stars of superior orbit and destiny.
It will not do to trust to the ordinary observer, be he ever so
clever, for our knowledge of the political situation of the East, and
especially in the Balkan peninsula. The contradictory reports of
the outrages of Bulgaria, and the number of people who were mas
sacred there some years ago, should lead one to be cautious. The
English Minister, Layard, once said, " The Orient is given to men
dacity." It will not do to trust to the estimates of those connected
with one nationality, who may be partial or interested in covering
the facts. As well seek to rely upon a three months' visit to Turkey,
with the time spent socially among its hospitable people at the
hotels of Pera or the konaks of the pashas, for the mode and man
ner of life of the various races who make up the capital of Turkey.
There is a great dearth of reliable information as to the Orient,
and but for certain volumes like that edited by "A Consul's
Daughter," who had two decades of experience, we would not be
able to do justice either to Greek, Turk or Slav, in their relations
to the Porte or to the Oriental problem.
Before any one can, therefore, arrange the dynasties and
boundaries of southeastern Europe, reliable facts are indispen
sable. If we rely upon the volumes which have been written
about Turkey since the Russian or the Crimean war, we would
suppose that the Bulgarian was deeply attached to Russia as her
savior. From another quarter, since the hostility developed in
Bulgaria against Russia, we would think that the Bulgarian was
attached to the Porte. For many years of this perpetual con
tention, with very little reliance upon the sources of information,
and especially as to those questions into which religion and race

652 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
enter, it is well to have an informant v/ho has had personal
observation. I have before me a volume on the "Balkan Peninsula," by
Emile de Laveleye. He is a voluminous writer on economic and
social questions, a member of all the academies and institutes, a
learned linguist and a worthy gentleman. Flis book is introduced
to the public by Mr. Gladstone, who commends M. Laveleye for
his prudence, energy and ability, and who regards the accomplished
author as a champion of " the well-being, tranquillity and liberty
of that region which has come to be of more critical importance
than ever, to the interests of Europe." It must be remembered
that Mr. Gladstone is a Russophile. He is by no means kind to
the Turk ; and making much allowance for a certain classic and
sentimental partiality toward the Greek and Slav, in this volume
of M. Laveleye, nevertheless, it is to be regarded as a tolerably
fair and full presentation of the events which are but briefly hinted
at in these concluding chapters.
Much has been said and written in favor of a confederation
of the Balkan states. Such a confederation, now that Turkey
has been somewhat eliminated from that section of the European
world, would include the two great Christian races in Turkey —
the Greek and the Slav. Can these two bodies sympathize ? If
they could only act as one, they would be stronger ; if they could
have a Zolverein, so as to trade with each other, as Germany
had, and as our States have, it would be to their advantage.
It would enhance their strength as an economic and political
community. But the Greek is not a Slav, and the Slav is not
a Greek. They are rivals. The Bulgarian coup d'etat displayed
that relation at once. There is to be no regeneration by their
joint action, under the Balkans. It would take a heroic man —
somebody greater than the Battenberg, or any other princeling,
to solve, in this light, the problem of Bulgaria and the Balkans.
The Bulgarian may recognize the intellectual eminence of the
Greek, but the ecclesiastical independence of Bulgaria shows that
when it comes to the emotional nature, which takes hold upon the
unseen world, the Bulgarian accepts no domineering from any
quarter. Along with the Bulgarian, and nearer perhaps than the Greeks
imagine, or the Powers of Europe dream, are the Servians, Bos-
niacs, Montenegrins and other Slavonic races. These have some

WHAT POWER CAN REPLACE TURKEY? 653
Slavonic links, ethnologically if not nationally. They have a
temperament that defies control. They are likely to act together,
as they have acted. But between them and the Greek there is a
wide chasm which no diplomacy can bridge. I have had some
opportunity of observing the Slav. My servant Pedro is of that
race. He is a good illustration of its superstitious weaknesses,
stabilit-\r and fidelity. He is, like his kindred, determined and inde
pendent. The Greek is subtle, impulsive, and egotistic. There are
not many Greek communities north of the classic Olympus
and its parallel ; and the Greeks upon the Princes Islands, and in
the insular dependencies of Turkey, are but few, comparatively, in
number. They are not disposed to be revolutionary. If the Greeks
were not so whimsical ; if Greece, since a. d. 1833, had not had
over thirty-odd ministerial changes to illustrate her impulses ;
if the Russians were once more at San Stefano, and the question
came before the great tribunal of the Powers of Europe, who hold
the destiny of three continents in their control, as to what Power
should have Constantinople— what country could they name ?
England ? No. Russia, France, Austria and Italy would all pro
test! France? No. Her day in the East is past. Italy? She
too has long since lost her domination at Galata, or at the other
marts of her ancient commerce. Austria ? She has too much
traffic to make her the disinterested ruler at its great centre. But
her interests are most tenacious, because those of trade. Would
it be Russia? "Nevgr," is the chorus of all the Powers.
Might it not become, under general control, a free port, and not
be left in the hands of any one people ? Perhaps then all the
Powers and all the interests would be harmonized. The interests
centring at Belgrade on the Danube, at Salonica on the .^F^gean,
and at Ragusa on the Adriatic, would contribute, along with the
railroad schemes, when completed through Asia Minor eastward
to India — to elevate Constantinople into her early commercial
supremacy and imperial magnificence.
Ah, there is Greece ! Has she the statnina to organize her
old empire ? If the contest should be between the Slav and the
Greek alone, the Slav being assisted by Russia, and the Greek
by the Latin races, including those of Germany and England, the
result — if I may indulge in the best a priori prophecy — would be,
if these were the .only alternatives, that Constantinople would be
controlled by the Greeks. But there is no such alternative.

654 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
There are from five to seven millions of the Greek race in
Turkey. They are a buoyant and active business people; and,
notwithstanding their apparent devotion to the Sultan, quite
ready, if aided, to welcome their vaunted palingenesis. If it
depended on the personal qualities of the king of Greece, this
result, under such a leader, would not be so improbable. But
he is not the power in his state. Greece is a monarchy, tempered
with a fickle legislature and a versatile ministry.
* * * * * *- *
It is nothing to the discredit of King George that he " reigns,
but does not govern." He was married to the Princess Olga, a
daughter of the Grand Duke Constantine. He may, therefore,
have a bias toward Russia, as well royally as ecclesiastically. But
the queen is averse to the intrigues of politics, and the king holds
his limited state with a steady hand. The moving spirit of all
the charities of Athens — the queen — is worshipped by the Greek
people. Her blue eyes and brilliant complexion have yet to be
saddened or eclipsed by the dark shadow of the Oriental prob
lem. Her husband, whose likeness is presented along with that
of the queen, is a worthy mate of an estimable woman.
I have had the pleasure of seeing Queen Olga, but only in a
frame, in the palace at Athens. As I passed through the ante
chamber to meet the king, I doffed my hat to her portrait, instinc
tively, as to a good woman. I cannot fail to recall the pleasure
of this palatial Diversion. We had just returned from Egypt, and
were en route to the Bosporus. We were " busy as bees when
the buckwheat blows," finishing our investigation of the Acrop
olis, and from its elevation making a survey of the classic mount
ains and plains, and the city, which had grown greatly in size and
elegance since we saw it in 1851.
After a breakfast with Dr. Schliemann and his scholastic wife,
at their splendid home, from which we had retired replete with
enthusiasm and archeeology, we follow the guidance of an Ameri
can Hellenic scholar, who had been making studious researches
into the marvels of the Acropolis. We are forgetting our massive
Egyptianwonders, aswell asthewariike enterprises which are stir
ring the very stones of the temples of the Acropolis into classic
rage at the conduct of Bulgaria — when we are summoned to an
ovation in a littie shanty of a museum, just below the Temple
of Minerva. And for what ? The archaeologist who reads this

THE KING AND QUEEN OF GREECE.
655

656 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
page anticipates me; for it was in February, 1886, and there had
been discovered here certain rare treasures of Archaic art We
had seen the workmen, with pick and spade, sweating among the
debris between the Erechtheum and the spot where the bronze
Athena stood. Many attempts had been made before to burrow
here, below the rubbish of marble and stone. They had failed;
but these last efforts did not fail. They were rewarded by a col
lection of pre-Phidian statues of Parian marble, of rare inter
est and peerless loveliness. One of these had glass eyes; others
were painted, and the colors preserved in their primitive lustre;
some are colossal in proportion, and they all bespeak an antique
age of art, from which the modern world were long expecting opu
lent results. These art treasures were rescued in three hours from
their graves. They are ready to delight a great circle of schol
ars and artists. It is the especial pride and glory of King George
that he has been summoned to brush the dust of ages from these
sculptures, preliminary to the — photograph.
I am watching this photographing process, when a messenger
appears in the little museum. He summons me to the palace.
What had I been doing? A note from the king's secretary —
signed Botzarris — explains the hidden inspiration of this royal
mandamus. Our Minister, Mr. Fearn, is reciprocating his pre
sentation to the Sultan. I leave the Archaic statues to the photog
rapher and all Acropolitan associations to the past — to answer
the summons. We meet on the threshold a descendant of the
Botzarris family, who inducts us within the palace. We re
ceive a cordial greeting and welcome, and spend an hour in the
company of one of the most charming and elegant gentlemen whom
it is possible to meet abroad.
It would be a matter of regret if he, as the king, should be
distracted from his life as a moderate and wise ruler, to be
launched upon the stormy waves of Eastern conflict; now, at this
equinoctial season, as wild and unruly as the seas which lash the
isles of his domain.
Greece, however, will not be called to lead her compatriots in
the conflicts of the East.
After all, surmise and ratiocination are vain. We come to the
same old conclusion as that of the past century: that so long as
no two Powers agree as to what race, system, or government shall
occupy Constantinople — that cit-y will remain most content with

GREECE IN THE CONFLICT. 657
her present possessors, until some social or religious cataclysm
occurs, to change the tide of human passion and the ambition of
human nature.

CHAPTER XLIX.
BULGARIA AND ITS CAPITAL; RUSSIA IN THE CONFLICT.
The Bulgarians are of the Turanian stock. They came from
the Volga in the flfth century and mixed with the Slavs, with
whom they coalesced. They besieged Constantinople in a. d.
559. Along with the Slavs they became such a Power as to levy
tribute upon Byzantium. They have fought with the Magyars in
the north, with the Greeks in the south, and with the Turks ever
since the latter crossed into Europe. Ravaged by Tartars and
scourged by her neighbors, still, Bulgaria in the Middle Ages had
so far advanced that she had a refinement of civilization, com
parable then with that of Germany, Hungary, France and Eng
land. The language of Bulgaria shows its Slav relationship. In
fact, before it was corrupted by the Turkish conquest, and by
admixture with the other Danubian tongues, it was a pure,
and, therefore, the ecclesiastical, medium of expression. It has a
literature, although it is limited to national songs. Since Rob
ert College has aroused its dormant intellect, Bulgaria has been
stimulated to resume her elder glory.
With all the relations of Church and state associating Bulgaria
with the Greeks, and with the question constantly propounded
through the centuries, " Will you be Slav or Greek ? " she has
refused to be Hellenized, just as to-day she is ready to make
armed protest against being Muscovized. God grant that she
may stand fast and upright in the light of that dawning liberty
which she has deserved by patience, persistence and patriotism.
The Bulgarian people as a body are peasants. Their social
order should dictate their political character. As in Norway,
Kansas, Switzerland and Texas, the rural democracy control;
so in Bulgaria, the institutions should be a government fitting
the simple quality of the people.
The attempt to create Russian dictation by army officers
658

THE BULGARIAN CAPITAL.

659

failed. The attempt to shake off the Liberal Ministries formed
since 1880, also failed. Leaders like Zankoff and Karave-
loff voiced the popular opinion for some years, despite a coitp
d'etat in May, 1881, two years after the Tirnova constitution —
which failed after much anxiety among the people, and despotic
rule from pro-Russian conservatism. Prince Alexander himself,
irritated beyond expression by the meddling arrogance of the
Russian Generals, Skobeleff and Kaulbars, at last compelled these
generals to resign from the Ministry and retire from the country.
Home coalition ministries against alien domination followed,
until at last, after six years of exasperations, Bulgaria rose to
the need and height of self-government. At last, Karaveloff —
accomplished in political economy and learned in the logic
and practice of statesmanship, became the responsible head of
the sentiment, " Bulgaria for the Bulgarians," and of the surpris
ing revolt of September, 1885, out of which has flowed unnum
bered woes and a glorious prospect of relief and independence.
The scene of these events so intimately associated with the
action of Turkey was at Sophia. It is the capital of Bulgaria. It is
a city — having a population of fifty thousand. It is as nearly as
possible at the centre of the Balkan peninsula, and in the
southwest corner of Bulgaria, not far from the Servian and Rou
melian frontier. It is near the north foot of the Balkan mount
ains, upon a little stream which contributes to the Asker, which
is itself a tributary of the Danube. Sophia is on the highway
between Constantinople and Belgrade, over which, for thousands
of years, many armies — Greek, Hungarian, Slav and Turk — have
moved. It is situated on a vast plain, cultivated not unlike the
Hungarian and Russian prairies, by tillers and graziers, who live
in little villages or hide in the mountains, having no farm-
buildings and houses. The traveler, as he winds his way up the
mountains, will see few men, but many women, going to work.
The latter wear a black apron, red belt and a long white tunic. A
red handkerchief decorates the frizzly hair, and a baby slung in
a bag ornaments the back. The carts and ploughs are primitive,
but they are beautified by being attached to cross-looking buf
faloes. This is a sample of the land which has been uptorn for a dozen
centuries by the ploughshare of war. The only object of taste
and utility to be seen on these routes to the Bulgarian capital, is

66o DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKEY.
here and there a Turkish fountain shaded by a magnificent tree 
"gracious monuments," says M. de Laveleye, "offering their
beneficent waters to the animals and people thirsty from the heat,
and to the Faithful in their ablutions."
Upon ascending to the summit of the pass, the traveler reaches
the elevated table-land. It is flat, barren, almost grassless. The
prospect is brown except a conspicuous white spot in the centre
of the plain. That is Sophia. It is situated in the midst of a
waterless lake. The streets of the city are narrow and crooked.
The houses are indifferent. There are churches and mosques,
baths and bazaars and other relics — like the Khan — of Oriental
memory. It is an ecclesiastical see, both of the Greek and Latin
Chuiches. It was founded by Justinian, but ever since a. d. 1382,
when the Turks conquered it, the city has been held under many
vicissitudes. Not the least ¦ interesting of these are the more
recent events; and since the Berlin treaty gave Bulgaria
autonomy and a prince. The outward signs of these blessings
are the palace and the parliament house, which the artist has
pictured for the reader. The exciting incidents which have
inflamed the Powers of the world, have occurred here on this
border, where Pirot and Slivnitza, are surrounded by a martial
halo. It is fashionable for Americans to praise Russia. The sym
pathy of our country with Russia was strengthened by the reforms
projected and carried out under Alexander II. It is by no means
certain that the present Czar sympathizes with these reforms or
takes much pride even in the emancipation of the serfs accom
plished by his predecessor. He believes in the policy of Nicholas.
The clergy are still to be enfranchised, instead of being used as
they are, for police duty and other than spiritual purposes. If
there be any freedom of speech or of the press in Russia ; if the
corruption of the courts of justice, of which I had proof in my
travels through that country nearly ten years ago, has been cor
rected ; if intelligence has been awakened by education ; if the
fiscal system has been improved ; or if there has been any
progress in the liberalities of politics, domestic or foreign, of recent
years — the world is yet to know it.
It will not do to dilate upon her vast landed area, as the proof
of her strength ; for the larger the territory the more difficult to
suppress the constantly smoldering revolution which threatens

PARLIAMENT BUILDING AT SOPHIA, BULGARIA.
66i

662 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
the life of the system, and of the occupant of the throne himself.
True, the Czar is the father of his people! But he is their
despot also. He is at the head of a hundred and three millions of
subjects! True again, that he has his immense armies in Europe
and in Asia. But the money wherewithal to pay them is scarce, and
what of it is current is an irredeemable paper currency. We in
America know what that means. It is worth now only about half
its face. In case of a general conflagration in Europe, it will be
worth little or nothing.
What, then, is this overshadowing strength of Russia ? It is
the compact Slavonic element of sixty millions, not so much on
the boundaries as in the heart of the empire. It is moved by one
sentiment, and this sentiment is founded on the superstitions,
emotions and ceremonies of the orthodox Church.
Russia has many alien nations in her midst. They would be
her weakness rather than her strength in an emergency. She
may for a time intrigue upon the Danube and be allied with the
French. She may trample upon and over the Balkans, and her
Minister may dictate terms of peace in Constantinople ; but
unless her own government be radically reformed, and the Slavonic
element in the Balkan peninsula be more closely united with a
similar element in her own country, her Slavonic enthusiasm will
end in vapor.
Whether or not Russia has pursued, since the time of Peter the
Great, the movement upon Constantinople with as much vigor as
she would have done without the intervention of the other Powers,
it is a fact that her greatest sovereign, Catherine II. — the murderess
of her husband, and of Ivan, the presumptive heirtothe throne —
fixed over the gates of Kherson this inscription : " This is the
road to Byzantium! " This was a perfidious violation of the
treaty of Rustchuk, signed on the loth day of July, a. d. 1774.
Is it asked: " What are the intentions of Russia ? Will she be
content with the effectual closing of the Straits, so as to give her
guarantees of their inviolability ? Is she only anxious to be an
ally of Turkey for its security ? What are her real designs ? Has
she any in connection with the partition of the Ottoman empire ? "
The answer may be found in the conversation of the greatest
of the Czars, Nicholas, with the English Ambassador in a. d. 1853.
After coolly offering Egypt to England for her acquiescence, he
desires the Danubian principalities for himself He disposes

RUSSIA AND THE " SICK MAN." 66

o

also of Servia and Bulgaria with the same frosty breath. But he
takes pains to forbid the reconstruction of the Byzantine empire,
having his own eye upon St. Sophia. Nor would he make out of
Turkey little republics, asylums for the Kossuths, Mazzinis and
other radicals of Europe. " Rather fight," is his remark, " as long
as I have a man or a musket." It is on this occasion and from
this Czar that the expression of his belief creeps unawares upon his
caution : " We have on our hands a sick man, and he may sud
denly die on our hands! "
Is Russia preparing a hospital for the sick man, that she organ
izes new railways and new orthodox convents — to Russify the wild
tribes on the eastern border of Turkey in Asia, and the Christian
youth of Armenia ? Has she in view no secular militance along
with her monastic crusade ? What is her motive in stirring up
bad blood and revolt by the means adopted by her Kaulbars,
Zankoffs and others in the Balkans ? What means the Rustchuk
rebellion last March — 1887 ? Why is she so bitter toward the
regency, the Sobranje, and toward every prince named for the
succession, except her own creatures ? Has not the regency
carried on Bulgarian affairs without anarchy and with order, firm
ness and dignity ? Russia has been called the Bear, and Bulgaria
the Hive. The bear, in trying to turn over the hive for the honey,
finds more bees than honey, and bees that have a skill in piercing
even the hide of a bear.
The generalship which distinguished Osman Pasha and his
officers and men in the Russian war of 1877-78 has never been
sufficiently praised. It is said that at Shipka Pass the contest
was unequal. The Turks may have had the advantage of num
bers and position. At Plevna, where fully twenty thousand men
died fighting on the vine-clad hills that surround the town, and
sixty thousand were wounded — the contest was greatly to the dis
advantage of the Turks so far as numbers were concerned.
Whether in open assault or artillery duel, attacking or repelling,
the Turks under Osman Pasha there won undying fame. In this
conflict, just north of the Balkans, and on which depended the
taking of the Balkans itself, and, in fact, the taking of Con
stantinople- -ninety thousand Russians gathered in front of
the Krishin parapet, and fought in vain to overcome it. The
assaults were commanded by the best generals of the Rus
sian army. The Czar himself was present. The Grand Duke

664 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
Nicholas was in command. Such soldiers as Todleben, King
Charles of Roumania, and Skobeleff were in command. They
were assisted by such officers as Gourko. Nevertheless, the final
assault, upon the Emperor's name-day, with a terrific bombard
ment of four days, failed to conquer the Turk. Only starvation
drove him from his entrenchment On the loth of December
Plevna fell. It fell because Osman Pasha found his provisions
reduced, but it was no tame surrender. He massed his troops
during the night, pierced the Russian lines on the west, and
endeavored to escape to the Balkans — a hopeless onslaught, but
it had all the fierceness of the early Turk, for it was like a whirl
wind. The truth is, the war was one of religious fanaticism. The
Russian knows nothing else in any war than God and the Czar.
He is like the Turk, who, when embattled, recks of nothing but
Allah, Mahomet and the Caliph!
The war did not end at once, as many supposed it would. A
winter campaign followed, pushing into spring. During its con
tinuance, seven hundred thousand Mahometans abandoned their
possessions; most of them, as refugees, sought a new Asiatic
home. Three hundred thousand Bulgarians also left their homes
when the reflux wave of Gourko's retreat took place in July.
When this war is renewed, the Balkans will not be so easily
surmounted. Nor will the chivalry of Carpathia, nor the hussars
of Austria-Hungary, nor the intrepid Slavs of the Peninsula, be
there to aid the Muscovite. If they take part, they will probably
side with the Ottoman, from whom they have had more privileges
in the faith and more liberties in the state than other races have
had under Muscovite control. If Russia's road to the East, as
it is said, lies through Vienna, with or without the consent of Ger
many, the Muscovite will never travel that way so as to achieve
domination over the Bosporus.
Whenever Turkey is in extre7nis, and when the Christian nations,
so-called, begin to think that the Alexanders and the Gortchak-
offs are the especial vicegerents of God, to conquer or suppress
Turkey, or to drive its race out of Europe into Asia, in order that
the Muscovite, with his peculiar love of liberty may be paramount
— when that threatens, there is one desperate resort. It is li'se
taking a lighted match into a magazine and blowing up the citadel.
It is only for the Sultan to do as he did when once before Russia
menaced his capital. He can go to his army, raise the stand-

MUSCOVITE, OR TURK? 665
ard of the Caliphate and of the Sultanate, and, with the help of
Allah, maintain the independence of the Osmanli, and sacrifice, if
necessary, his life to the honor and independence of his country.
It is difficult to discriminate between the various Sultans who
ruled beneficentiy. Those who had the best intentions, like
Selim the Third, were short-lived. Many of his successors
endeavored to carry out his reforms. They found it impossible.
But whatever may be said as to these rulers and the character
istics of their subjects, nothing can equal the atrocities of the Rus
sian in Poland, even as late as the year 1863, in Central Asia as
late as 1875-76, in Siberia at all times, and in the domain of the
White Czar, in which, at this moment, these barbarities are oppres
sive and infamous.
So that, as between Muscovite and Ottoman, if there be a
choice, well-evidenced by tradition and history, for the calamities
it has brought, the Muscovite bears the palm. Our sympathies
in America are misplaced, if they regard the relation of Russia
to civilization as better than that of the Turk.
Take one element of social order — that of religious toleration
and liberty: compare the religious toleration of the Turk with the
cruel persecutions of the Hebrews in Russia ! If it be said that
the Hebrew is justly obnoxious in Russia, and in many nations
besides Russia — which may be denied — let me state that in trav
eling through the Danubian principalities, I met Protestant and
Lutheran ministers and teachers who gave such accounts of the
bigoted Russian atrocities in Poland and elsewhere as to make
the darkest year of the Middle Ages bright in comparison. From
one case, learn all. Take the case at Revel, in Russia, recently:
There were some ten thousand dollars revenue from a certain
ecclesiastical property. It was held by trustees for the benefit of
the pastor of the Lutheran church, and the expenses of Protestant
worship. The council was compelled by the Russian government
to disgorge this money. It was forbidden to give any more help
to the Lutheran people. What benefit do the Protestant pastors
receive by granting them the empty privilege of their posts with
such self-sacrifice. They only contribute, along with other poor
people, to the common suffering.
As between the Muscovite and Ottoman, on the vital issues
of civil and soul liberty there can be but one verdict among
liberal minds. In Russia, it is said that her philosophers are

666 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
theologians, and her theologians are Cossacks. In Turkey tho
philosophy of toleration is as just and as venerable as that of her
first great Emperor, Othman, and her civil functions are much
less hampered and corrupt than are those of the Northern Auto
crat.

CHAPTER L.
FIGHTING BETWEEN SERVIA AND BULGARIA  PRINCE ALEXANDER.
Before the autumn of 1885 had ended, the war cloud which
hung over the Balkan provinces seemed to vanish under the con
trolling influence of the Grand Conference. This body was sit
ting from day to day and week to week. But the excitement in
Servia and in Greece grew more intense as it appeared that Bul
garia would likely acquire the accession of East Roumelia. When,
therefore, in the middle of November, a fourth meeting of the
Conference of the six Powers was held, although secrecy was
enjoined, much transpired to show that the broken faith, under the
Berlin treaty, had not been altogether healed. The Conference
seemed to have had no definite result. There were wide differ
ences among the Powers. These differences had reference to
the conditions of restoring the status quo a7ite. Russia, of course,
did not want the Balkan barrier between her and a southern prog
ress toward the capital of Turkey to continue. But she disliked
Prince Alexander for his infidelity to the Czar, who had been
vaunted as the savior of Bulgaria from the Turk, and the leader
of the Slav element. She would protect and patronize the Bul
garians and the Roumelians, but not the prince. She had her
own latent purposes.
What then was the prospect before the war which sprang up
between Servia and Bulgaria ?
To speak in the present tense, it is nearly as follows:
Germany, as it seems, takes part with Austria and Russia.
What England means, would be better expressed if her elections
were over. Italy seems satisfied to be with France. Both lean
toward English ideas. These relations may change at any
moment, and because of new movements, diplomatic or martial.
Meanwhile — as Mr. Fearn, the United States Minister, who has
been sojourning at Bucharest and Belgrave, and is en route to
Athens, informs me — Servia is not quite ready for a conflict with
667

668 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
Bulgaria. Still, she is controlled with difficulty. Prince Milan is
not so eager as his people to leap over the border and take the
Sandjaks of Widdin and Sophia, which Servia claims for ethno
graphical and historic reasons.
Greece, like Turkey, is still arming. Both are borrowing
money. Bankruptcy impends; but out of these embarrassments
come concessions for railroads, so that enterprises may eventi:-^
ally spring out of these evils. At present, I am a pessimist. Mat
ters seem clouded, and the silver lining is hardly visible.
Immediately preceding the declaration of hostilities between
Servia and Bulgaria, or, I may say, just before the battle of Slev-
nitza, which occurred on the 17th of November, and while making
calls upon the Ministers of Servia, Roumania and Greece, along
-viith Mr. Fearn — our Minister to these countries — Mr. Grouitch,
the Servian Minister informs us that hostilities have begun on
Servian soil. An attack is made by the troops of Bulgaria upon
those of Servia on the banks of the Timok. We do not hear fur
ther news until the middle of November, when this information
is reversed. Then telegrams are plentiful from Belgrave, Sophia
and Nisch. The Servians declare war against the principality.
The Servian forces at once enter Bulgarian territory. They
march upon Vratanitza. The king of Servia and the prince of
Bulgaria command their respective armies. The scene is on
and near the frontier, amid mountains. The passes are defended
by soldiers of both nations. These petty conflicts appear small
in the light of larger events; but they are the beginning of a con
flict by no means small in its consequences.
Diplomacy is staggered by the declaration of war and the
hostile movements. I call to congratulate Rustem Pasha, who
has just been appointed Minister to England. He is well known
in the East as the excellent ex -Governor of the Lebanon.
While dining with the Sultan the evening before, as he relates, a
telegram comes from the prince of Bulgaria. It asks Otto
man aid.
The king of Servia also telegraphs to the Porte, asking the
Sultan's support against Bulgaria. The Sultan does not respond
to the first telegram; and what his answer is to the last, has not
transpired. The Balkan question is swelling beyond its banks rapidly.
These telegrams show how peculiar is the contest. Two Slav prov-

STOCKS FLUCTUATE; FLAGRANT WAR.
inces seize each other by the throat, and for what ? Because the
one has broken a treaty in order to aggrandize itself; while the
other, by keeping faith, as she alleges, does not come by her own !
As the quarrel now stands, the interests of Turkey are not in
jeopardy. The Bourses of Europe show a heavy fall in certain stocks,
especially Turkish and Greek. Their fall is " niarked by spurts,"
as these financial vicissitudes demonstrate. The sound of the
cannon upon these belligerent frontiers reverberates throughout
Europe Was it not Disraeli, in " Vivian Grey," who said that
" there is nothing like a fall in consols to bring the blood of
the English people into cool order ? It is your grand state
medicine," said he, " your veritable Dr. Sangrado." He limits
his remark to the people of England. What effect this fall of
securities will have upon the more excitable people of the south
east of Europe, time will develop.
It is not until the first day of winter that authentic news comes
of the result of the battle between Servia and Bulgaria. The Bul
garian troops under the prince, after a struggle, capture Pirot,
on Servian territory. It is thought that he will enter that town
on that day. It is also said that he will demand the Pirot district.
Better news soon arrives: an armistice is agreed upon, and peace
is possible ! Germany, Austria, Russia and Turkey have coerced
the armistice.
The Powers then have their last conference on the Roumelian
question. All outside of that question is dehors. There may
be another meeting of the Conference under another call, but
upon other and more comprehensive questions. The Porte has
been under constant anxiety. As soon as the smoke of the battle
blows away, Lehib Effendi, accompanied by Gadban Effendi, in
accordance with a decision of the Conference, starts for Phillip
opolis. They are to investigate the condition of affairs in East
Roumelia, and to prepare the ground for the arrival of an Impe
rial commissioner.
The province of East Roumelia is again an autonomous prov
ince of its Suzerain. Djevet Pasha is the president of the com
mission. The Conference has not been, after all, so influential in
determining matters. It was rather obstructive, owing to the atti
tude of England. It was the war which brought events to a climax.
There is nothing during these two months of anxiety which

670 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
has disastrously affected American citizens. The trouble we have
apprehended for Robert College, where so many of the students
are Bulgarian, owing to the prudence of its president, is averted.
Nothing happens to jeopard its interests. The Minister of In
struction informs us that he hears that the Bulgarian students are
drilling, preparatory to joining the army of the prince. This he
subsequently discovers to be an error, and so the Minister of
Instruction is content.
Greece is likely to be as much disappointed as Servia, but she
is not humiliated by disasters in the held, and will not be, unless
she begins hostilities. Turkey is still massing troops and sending
munitions and supplies to the Greek border.
One of the incidents of this Roumelian movement is the sup
port given to Turkey by the Christian population of the Ottoman
empire. This fact negatives a good deal of the current belief
as to the hostility of race and religion within the Turkish empire.
The winter of 1885-86 is not passed without discontent and
apprehension. As spring begins to dawn, I note that great anxiety
prevails as to what may be done at the end of the armistice. This
is fixed for March i, 1886. Ever3'where, as in all these compli
cated troubles in the Orient, there seems to be a threatening lack
of confidence. In observing the significant political movements connected
with Turkey, I do not fail to observe that since the armistice
began, and until March i, 1886, there is also a threatening
lack of confidence between the great Powers themselves, between
Turkey and the Powers, and between Servia and Bulgaria.
Mass-meetings, the press, broils and collision of troops are
evidence of the ill-feeling between the small Powers. Servia has
been vanquished. Her a77iour propre is keenly touched, as if by
caustic. No commissions, military or civil, no lines of demarca
tion for the armies of occupation at Pirot or Widdin, and no con
straint from Russia, Austria, Germany or the other Powers, are
of avail to quiet the unrest or dispel the distrust. No decision is
reached as to peace; or as to the place where future conferences
to settle the vexed questions are to be held. Bulgaria insists on
a large war indemnity. About this Servia is unwilling to treat.
The relations of suzerain and vassal are quite faint in parts of
the Peninsula, and the responsibility as to negotiations is there
fore either divided or ignored with impunity. The Porte urges

IMPULSE TO LIBERTY, FROM AMERICA. 67I
upon the Powers an immediate reassembling of the Conference.
The Porte would stop this dubious and expensive condition. The
armistice only temporarily chloroforms the sensibilities of the
late belligerents. The Balkan peninsula is quiescent under its
snows and ills, but it is " on compulsion." The armistice is only
a protraction of the crisis. No demobilization of Ottoman or other
troops is as yet possible. In fact, mobilization is going on, with
a special view to the Greek frontier. A strong line of defensive
works has been completed from Catherina to Metzova, in case
of Greek invasion into Macedonia or Epirus. Salonica seems
now " as in the aforetime," a point of strategetical as well as of
commercial importance.
Against these movements and discouragements, there exists a
general feeling that war is no cure of wrongs and no safeguard of
rights ; and that if once entered upon, it would induce a general
conflagration, involving the pre-eminent Powers, and causing end
less calamities. After all, there is in this conflict thus opened, and
the union of the Bulgarian provinces and people, some compensa
tion for the outlay and anxiety. It is this : that the cause of
human nature and of popular liberty receives in East Roumelia
and Bulgaria a grand impulse. That impulse is not bounded by
the Danube or the Balkans, by the Adriatic or Black seas. Russia
may not retard, and cannot control it. By perusing the history
of Bulgaria, this is hardly to be expected, as by tradition, race and
faith, Bulgaria is akin to the Slav and to Russia.
Owing to the munificence of Mr. Robert, a New York mer
chant, an educational edifice arises above the towers of Roumeli-
Hissar, on the Bosporus. As an orator said on its dedication,
" It rises upon higher ground than these Towers, dominating them
spiritually and eternally." It becomes the home of scholarship,
under American auspices and energy. More than one-half of its
scholars have been and are Bulgarians. As their education pro
gresses, the graces of cultivation and of democratic-republi
can sympathy ennoble their patriotic devotion ; so that many of
the officials of Bulgaria, by reason of superior qualifications, were
and are of and from this American institution. The East Rou
melian revolution — though an infraction of the Berlin treaty, it
must be confessed — is the leaven which American teaching has
infused into the lump of Bulgarian liberty.
Looking at the delays in diplomacy since the i8th of Septem-

672 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
ber, 1885, when the insurrection began, and the failure to
restore the status quo ante, and considering the other dynastic,
national, provincial, commercial and race complications since that
time, it seems impossible that the former condition of things should
be reinstated. It is not necessary, for the purposes of this volume— ^intended
as a Diversion from diplomatic and other sedate employment —
that I should rehearse the events which followed the annexation
of East Roumelia to Bulgaria, under Prince Alexander. What
harassments he encountered, and especially from Russia, after
his peace with Servia ; what obstacles, notwithstanding the favor
of the Sobranje or Congress, and the good-will of the people —
these are graphically summed up in the account of his seizure,
within his own palace at Sophia, by Russian emissaries, and his
deportation over the border, with every mark of indignity. In a
letter to his sister, the Countess Erbach, written before his last tour
through East Roumelia, he pictures his situation as that of a stag
hunted on all sides.
" The Bulgarians," he says, " have little heart, and to satisfy
them seems impossible. To be threatened again, after all I have
done, with being driven away, is hard and unmerited. Everything
is attributed to foreign intrigues, but the Bulgarians are old enough
to distinguish between true and false friends. Ninety-nine per
cent, of the Bulgarians are on my side ; the remaining i percent
may, however, succeed, with the help of Russia, in getting rid of
me. Until the revision of the Organic Statute — that is, till
autumn — my throne will be like a dynamite bomb. In any case,
I shall fall fighting ; but should the Bulgarians prefer foreign
rule to an honest prince, that will be their affair."
What estimate the present or the future may place upon the
services of Prince Alexander on behalf of Bulgaria, it is difficult
to determine. There is, as will be seen, a contrariety of opinion
about his qualities as a man and qualifications as a ruler. In
fact, even his skill in war, which was manifested, as we all thought,
with singular tact and courage, is somewhat questioned. Already
his experiences m Bulgaria are coming from the press, with vari
ous comment. The best impression is, that he was a better
soldier than civilian. His worst fault is that he tried, but failed to
placate the Czar. This will not be treasured against him by any
liberal and thoughtful mind. Along with the portrait, which

PORTRAITURE OF PRINCE ALEXANDER. 673
graphically shows an honest and handsome face, I present a pen-.
picture of the prince from Dr. Roy's volume, just published at
Paris. This description was written at the moment of the battle
of Slivnitza. I translate it thus :
" He is thirty years of age; a man of high stature, strongly
defined and somewhat stout. The head is regular in shape, the
nose large and straight. His brown beard is cut a la Henry IV.,
while his hair is of a darker shade. His eyes are of medium
size, brown and languishing. They reveal no special vivacity.
His speech is engaging, and he easily gains the sympathy of his
interlocutor. He impresses one favorably by the manliness of
his countenance and the amiability of his presence.
" But the prince is of a versatile humor. He has not the
frankness nor the precision of a soldier. He is a diplomat who
never entangles himself, and if by chance he has been carried
away or excited about anything, he preserves a loop-hole of
escape. His politics are uncertain, variable and full of reser
vations. "It appears, from the most accurate information, that if he
gained the battle of Slivnitza, it is because he had — a good horse.
Believing that all was lost, he had quitted his army in order to
return to Sophia, and it was during this absence that the Bulgarian
troops gained the victory !"
The court chaplain, Mr. Koch, has published his reminis
cences of the reign of the prince. He begins by berating the
supporters of the prince. Herr Koch does not even allude to
the military success of the prince at Slivnitza; nor does he exalt
the ex-prince unduly.
It seems, from these chronicles, that the prince was advised of
the advent of the revolution in East Roumelia. He endeavored
to dissuade the committees who called upon him from embark
ing in the revolt. He was surprised at his farm near Varna by
the event. Karaveloff, his Minister, was not to be found when the
affair happened. All of which goes to show how easily the Turk
could have suppressed the rising.
The burden of this book of the chaplain is the attachment
and fidelity of the prince to Russia, which, if true, has a tendency
among true Bulgarians, to destroy the very niche in which this
hero poses so statuesquely. He had a difficult role to play,
between the devil of a Czar and the deep sea of diplomacy.

674 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL OMA T IN TURKE Y.
What renders the character of the prince still more ambiguous is
his own declaration, as revealed by this intimate friend, that
Prince Milan's revengeful policy was justifiable — "not unde
served by Bulgaria."
Doubtless he had the good-will and enthusiasm of his troops,
and a fair appreciation of the absurd attitude of these two
little Powers clutching at each other, when under the shadow of
the great throne of the Czar.
How the prince was abducted by the Russians — and, owing to
the perfidy of his own troops, successfully abducted — it is well to
quote Prince Alexander's own vivid words :
" On August 21 I had been working far into the night, and
had scarcely fallen asleep when I was awakened by a noise that
reached me from my passage before my bedroom. It might have
been 1:30. The next moment Dimitri, my Bulgarian servant,
burst into the room, trembling and quaking in every limb.
He cried, 'You are betrayed; they mean to murder you. Fly
before it is too late ! ' I sprang out of bed and seized my
revolver. Then I heard the military word of command, and
breathed more easily. I said to Dimitri, 'I am saved; the mili
tary is there.' But he, still trembling, ejaculated, ' No, fly; it
is the soldiers, who mean to kill you.' Then I rushed, in my
shirt, to the door leading into the garden, but as I opened
it I was met by firing. Immediately after, I heard shots on all
sides. I went from here through the dark corridor toward the
servants' wing, and up the. first story into the winter garden,
to obtain a bird's-eye view, and see if it were still possible to
escape. Up there it was so dark that I could not see my hand
before my eyes, but from the line of fire of the soldiers shooting
below, I found that the whole palace was surrounded, and it was
useless to think of escape. The shower of bullets permitted no
doubt as to the serious nature of the situation."
That he persisted in refusing to return to the throne from
which he was forcibly ousted, and which he had been urgently
invited to resume, is not surprising. As a consequence of this
gap in the government, and the failure to find a prince, under and
according to the Berlin treaty, the regency began to accomplish
what they could to allay excitement and preserve order. This
they have done admirably.
The facts in reference to the revolt and annexation have, as

EPITOME OF THE SITU A TION.

675

revealed in the latest and best lights, from German, Austrian,
Russian and Turkish sources, are these :
First : Prince Alexander was not present at Sophia, but on his
farm near Varna, on the i8th of September, when the rising took
place, and when he was advised by Karaveloff of the fact.
Second : He was not in favor of the rising. He gave it no
encouragement. It was not his work. It was a surprise to him.
He acquiesced in it ; and why ?
Third : Because he was caught in a dilemma. He had to
choose between accepting the new situation, or leave Bulgaria
under its indignation.
Eotirth : This dilemma was prepared as a trap for him by
Russian emissaries. The Czar disliked him, and thought to force
his exit by presenting him the alternative of favoring the union
with East Roumelia, and thus allow Russian influences below the
Balkans, or of abdicating. He disappointed Russia by remain
ing, and becoming the popular and military idol.
Fifth : Russia— being disappointed — made a merit of vindi
cating the Berlin treaty, which the revolution that she had fos
tered had flagrantly repudiated.
Sixth : By these complications and indignities, Russia — being
herself entrapped — was cornpelled to resort to all the devices,
intrigues and protests of her diplomacy, by which, covertly and
openly, she has foiled Prince Alexander, harassed the regency,
rejected the Sobranje and its election of Prince Ferdinand, and
menaced his tenure of office, and the peace and order of the
united provinces.
During the existence of the recent struggle, there has been
no bloodshed laid at the door of Turkey. The drain on her
exchequer has been met. There has been no interruption of
commerce. Scarcely can we record one act leading to a change
in boundary or rule; and no convulsion either on account of
religion or politics. Turkey sits serenely, yet not without
observation, upon the old ways of international intercourse and
national conquest — as yet under the control of no other Power,
while discreetly and diplomatically deferring to all. She pre
serves her independence, and is regarded as a part of that Con
cert whose dread responsibilities are not unknown even in the
interior of Asia, and in the wilds of Africa, as well as in Western
Europe.

CHAPTER LL
RESIGNATION AS MINISTER — RETURN HOME — PRINCE FERDINAND,
 FRESH EVENTS  HOROSCOPE OF THE EAST — CONCLUSION.
During the summer of 1887 the writer enjoyed a recreative
sojourn upon one of the Princes Isles, At Prinkipo he was not
distant from the sphere of active diplomacy, which had no sur
cease during the summer and fall. Circumstances, partly domestic
and partly political, led him to resign his office as Minister, and
to return home to resume his former position as a Member of
Congress from the city of New York, Why he made this change,
it may not be entirely uninteresting to state. It was not because of
any dissatisfaction with the service, nor from any .derogative
treatment by the officers of the Porte or the Sultan, nor because
of any disenchantment of the Orient, as this volume, and another
upon the "Pleasures of Prinkipo," enthusiastically demonstrate.
The heart has no reason; or, rather, it has reasons of its own.
Call it home-sickness, or patriotism, or an inclination after old
and fixed parliamentary habits, or the ineradicable desire to be
near one's own — and you have the best explanation that can be
made for my premeditated and unprecipitate return. I had done
all that a Minister of my ability could do, to place the Legation
and the American interests in excellent condition. The treaties
pending during the service of my predecessors — Messrs. Boker,
McVeigh, Longstreet, Maynard and Wallace — I had the honor to
consummate with the approbation of all these Ministers, except
that of Mr, Maynard, who had died; and under the instructions
and, as I supposed, to the satisfaction of the President and the
Department of State. What more was there for me to do in
Turkey, unless I gave up the ani7/ius revertendi altogether ? What
remained could easily be accomplished by others of tact, pro
bity and vigilance.
With the consent of the President, kindly accorded, I returned
to America in the fall of 1887, and re-entered upon my old career
676

¦:^,

''-'-jy.-^rl.;

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENlLKt. 11 1M_L 1 LLL1.>.Y.,L' ul CjLLl.i_
CZAR OF RUSSIA.

677

678 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
as a Member of the Forty-Ninth Congress, from which I had
resigned to go abroad; and as the Member-elect of the Fiftieth
Congress, to which I had been returned at the same election.
These duties, distant from the scenes and Diversions which
I have endeavored herein to portray, did not withdraw nor blind
my mind from the observation of the exciting events of the
Orient, and the vital problems still agitating the Powers and
vehemently pressing for solution. The regency in Bulgaria held
its own with remarkable and patriotic tenacity. The Russian
efforts to create trouble and rebellion in Bulgaria, through the
arrogant intervention of General Kaulbars; the complete abdica
tion of Prince Alexander; the struggles of the province and of the
Powers to place an eligible prince on the throne — these are fresh
incidents of current history. The tremulousness of the Continental
equilibrium occasioned by the jarring interests of England, Aus
tria and Russia, and the designs of the other " signatories," have,
contrary to expectation, left Bulgaria m a quasi unity with her
annexed neighbor, which Turkey did not seek to break, and free
from the open and active attacks, either by diplomacy or arms, of
any policy of compulsion from other potential quarters.
Various events have contributed to keep the peace and pre
serve the autonomy of the united provinces. Servia has not
forgotten the lesson which Slivnitza and the bayonet taught Her
Prince Milan and his beautiful Queen Nathalie have been almost
divorced, as well by domestic infelicity as by the partiality of
the former for Austria, and the latter for Russia. Servia there
fore still remains neutralized, if not Austrianized.
Greece, where the flame of Hellenic pride swept the classic
blue sky with lurid glare, has, under the new ministry of Tricoupis,
given her sedate and solid energies to the relief of her exchequer
and her taxed people, and to the arts of good neighborhood and
prosperity. Her king, who is at once affable and sage, has not
been remiss in cultivating these amicable relations, which betoken
a wise successor of the historic names of her splendid history.
Albania, Epirus and Macedonia have been learning how much
better it is to be reliant on their own resources and rule, rather
than by reaching out after the illusory nebulae of ethnographical
conditions, which cultivate no olives and grain, pay off no mort
gages, and support no families.
England has endeavored, with one foot on Egypt and the

RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH CONFLICT. 679
Other on India, to fix by treaty the right, in case she evacuates
the Nile, to re-occupy it when there shall occur certain emergen
cies affecting the canalization of the Isthmus of Suez, and the
material prosperity and political order of Egypt. Failing to make
such conditions with Turkey, she makes a neutralization conven
tion with France; but she continues to occupy Egypt. She will
so continue, so long as Russia threatens to compete with her in
the struggle for Asiatic dominion.
Russia constructs her trans-Caspian railways upon strategetic
lines, to concentrate, in some near future, her military strength
upon Herat, or by water to transport her armies and supplies to
those mountainous frontiers which open their sublime gorges
through Hindu-Kush into the heart of India. Water has been
drawn from the desert around Merv, and fuel from the oil wells of
Baku; pipes, naphtha, canals and the very vegetation of the far-off'
and far-famed hive of Central Asia, have been harnessed into
locomotive forces to finish her 1,000 miles of railroad wherewith
to bind the Caspian with the Oxus, and re-establish the ancient
Capital of Tamerlane — " Silken Samarcand." Russia is already
thundering at the outer gates of the British empire. Her
inimitable thunder is not heard so much by the Western Powers
as by the Ameers and other rulers of Asia; but England knows
what it means, and may well tremble for her supremacy in the
East This remote contest has never obliterated from Russia the
ambitious visions of Peter the Great, Catharine and Nicholas.
These visions can only find full realization by making Old Byzan
tium the ecclesiastical and secular capital of her continental and
imperial magnificence. As Constantine conquered by the sign of
the Cross in the sky, so Russia expects dominion by the obscur
ation of the Crescent of her ancient Ottoman enemy.
This programme finds many obstacles to its accomplishment
The alliance between Germany, Austria and Russia no longer
exists, so as to aid in the performance of this role. Austria —
whether allowed by Germany or not — now begins to assert herself
as against Russian schemes. Her sagacious emperor and his able
counselors consult the material interests of his diverse peoples.
They especially regard the trade and commerce of those who live
alono- the Danube and the Adriatic, and who are reaching out for
markets and enterprises, as well by her Lloyds and other

6 8o DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMA T IN TURKE Y.
Steamers as by the system of railroads projected in the Balkan
peninsula, and whose termini are at Varna and Salonica. The
traditional mission of the Austro-Hungarian people lies in these
directions of potential commerce and dynastic rule.
The Berlin treaty allowed Austria to occupy Herzegovina and
Bosnia. Servia is almost ripe for annexation to her double crown
without protest from the Kaiser or his Chancellor. Germany,
to-day, holds the balance, or, rather, she places the jeweled and
victorious sabre in the scales to determine these grave eventualities.
" Why, then," you ask " did she not protect Prince Alexander
on his throne? " Perhaps, because he was not entirely suited to
the situation; or because his military feather was rather too pre
tentious, and the enmity of the Czar too pronounced and bitter
toward this prince, for the continuance of the harmony at that
time prevalent between Germany and Russia.
After a long hiatus — after scouring the world from the Rhine
to the Caucasus — Bulgaria, in defiance of the Berlin treaty, selects
a prince. It is Prince Ferdinand. Whence comes this prince ?
Is he of faery-land ? What supernal spirit supplies the audacity
thus to accept a battered crown in derogation and defiance of the
Great Bear ?
If it comes to a prodigious pedigree and royal blood, this prince
combines enough to double the size of the Gotha Almanach.
His genealogical ramification reaches deep into the nadir and
mounts high into the zenith. It is English, German, Portuguese,
French, Belgian, Danish, Brazilian and Austrian. Since he
has grown in our esteem by his prudence and pluck, may I be al
lowed to place his portrait in this volume between the antagonis
tic Alexanders — the ex-Prince of Bulgaria and the Emperor
of Russia? Besides, since he is to play such an eminent part —
until it please the Powers to issue a prescript otherwise — let us
ponder, in behalf of the harassed and infant principality, the con
sanguinity which Ferdinand bears to all the royalties.
Prince Ferdinand, born in 1861, is the son of the late Prince
Augustus of Coburg-Kohary, and the grandson of Prince Ferdi
nand, uncle of the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Ernest II.
His grandfather's brother, Leopold, ascended the throne of Bel
gium in 1 83 1, and was succeeded on it in 1865 by his son Leo
pold II. , the reigning king. Ernest II.'s brother, Albert, married
Queen Victoria in 1840, and in 1841 became father of the Prince

PEDIGREE OF PRINCE FERDINAND. 68 I
of Wales, the heir apparent to the throne of Great Britain. Prince
Augustus's brother, Ferdinand, married in 1836 Maria da Gloria,
Queen of Portugal, daughter of the Emperor of Brazil, Pedro I.,
and in 1837 became father of the late King of Portugal, Pedro V.,
and in 1838 of the present King, Dom Luis. Prince Ferdinand's
mother. Princess Clementina, is the daughter of Louis Philippe,
king of the French in 1830-48, and the aunt of the Comte de
Paris, who now unites in his person the pretensions to the throne
of France of both the elder and younger (or Orleans) branch of
the House of Bourbon. Clementina's sister, Louise of Orleans,
was the consort of Leopold I. of Belgium. Clementina's brother,
the Due de Montpensier, is the husband of the Infanta Louisa,
sister of the ex-Queen Isabella II. of Spain, and aunt of the late
King Alfonso XIL, father of the present infant King Alfonso XIIL
Clementina's nephew, Gaston of Orleans, Comte d'Eu, son of her
brother, the Due de Nemours, married in 1864 Isabella, daughter
of Pedro II. of Brazil, and, as his only living child, heiress appar
ent to the throne. Another son of the Due de Nemours, the Due
d'Alenfon, married in 1868 the Bavarian Princess Sophia, sister
of the Empress of Austria. The Comte de Paris's daughter,
Amelie, was in 1886 married to the Duke of Braganza, Crown-
Prince of Portugal. Princess Marie, daughter of Due de Chartres,
brother of the Comte de Paris, was married in 1885 to Prince
Waldemar, son of the King of Denmark, brother of the King of
Greece, and brother-in-law of the Czar of Russia and of the
Prince of Wales. Of Prince Ferdinand's two brothers, one mar
ried a daughter of Leopold II. of Belgium, and the other a daugh
ter, now deceased, of Pedro II. of Brazil. Of his two sisters, one
was married to Archduke Joseph, a second-cousin of the Emperor
of Austria, and the other to Duke Maximilian, brother of the
Enipress of Austria.
Notwithstanding all this confusing array of the bluest-blooded
royalty, Ferdinand does not please Russia Non constat, but
that he may please Germany, England and Italy; and certainly
Austria. If not avowedly, yet covertly, Austria props his romantic
though doubtful establishment Bulgaria seems content.
Why not ? Already, out of his own full purse the Prince
is generously aiding in the completion of the railways of Bul
garia, to which that government is pledged. The election in
October, 1887, shows only twenty-seven Russophiles to 200'patri-

682 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPL 0 MAT IN TURKE Y.
otic Bulgars elected to the Sobranje; and as Bulgaria is pleased
with the prince, and does not yet seek to be an independent repub
lic, whose business is it to interfere ?
France seeks alliance with Russia, and has tendered to the
Porte guaranties against further English encroachments and
permanency in Egypt. In this, the republic of M. Grevyhas the
sympathy of the emperor Alexander. Russia returns the cor
diality of France ; and Germany, ever alert, makes a threatening
note of the strange entente cordiale between Cossack and repub
lican. Russia, therefore, receives a counterblast in Berlin on the
Boerse, and in Bulgaria from Bismarck. Turkey is thereby
encouraged, as she always is, by the jealousies and collisions of
the great Powers ; and resolves to stand loyally by the Berlin
treaty. To stand ? Yes ; but to make a move ? No, Without
a move, what avails the impossible coup de thddtre called " the res
toration of the status quo ante " .?
These events look to the retention of Prince Ferdinand. The
purchase of 200,000 repeating rifles by the plucky little Power
gives much meaning to the situation. Prince Alexander abdicated
because the Czar was inimical to him personally, if not otherwise.
Prince Ferdinand holds on, despite the frowns of Russia and the
hostility of France.
With her other and vast schemes, how can Russia make war
upon Bulgaria or upon Ferdinand ? If she does, the war will not
be of that insidious insolence and domestic limitation which Kaul
bars attempted to provoke. Will Abdul Hamid, with his views of
a juste 7nilieu, veto the election of this prince to gratify the old
enemy of Turkey? Will Russia seek compensation for its fail
ure on the Balkans by taking the remnant of Armenia from the
Sultan ? Dare Russia, in the face of her bankrupt treasury and
her dynamitic Nihilists, strike down the little principality which is
struggling to be autonomous and free ?
However these questions may be answered — which one of the
six Powers is to be aggrandized or humiliated by the result,
whenever any change takes place — Turkey is to be the victim.
She is dressed with ribbons and flowers for the sacrifice. The
Balkans are the pawns on the board to be moved for the gratifica
tion of dynastic ambition. Why should this be so ? Is there
disorder in Bulgaria or East Roumelia ? No! Is there a lack of
firmness at the palace of Yildiz or at the Porte ? If so, it is not

LATEST PHASE OF THE IMBROGLIO. 68

o

shown. Is Turkey to be partitioned and Bulgaria to be Russian
ized, in our day and generation, without a struggle ? Are there
no factors to countervail these schemes and safeguard the people
of the smaller states ? Yes : the united Balkan states, Austro-
Hungary, and the Sultan as the Caliph of Mahometanism — these
three elements of strength, along with the regenerated humani
ties and liberties of our age, can master the situation without the
active alliance of England, Italy and Germany.
The step taken by Prince Ferdinand must have been coun
tenanced by Austria. It seem to have received the acquiescent
regard of Germany. No armed intervention by Russia will be
brooked. The great danger is from that Machiavelism in which
the Muscovite excels, and as to the practices of which there is,
on her part, no fluttering impatience or cessation.
Last month — October, 1887 — Russia prepared to foment dis
turbances in Bulgaria by renewing the Kaulbars tactics. She
sought Turkish assistance in favor of her General Ernoth as a
commissioner to regulate the recent elections. The Porte fought
shy of the device. It failed. By its failure Ferdinand becomes
more securely seated upon his throne. He is no longer called
the "reckless, foolish Ferdinand." He seems to-day to be sur
rounded by a devoted nation, which, if not great in numbers and
area, is courageous in action, and may in the outcome succeed in its
aspirations for self-government, despite the wiles of diplomacy
and the forces of autocracy.
The present position of the matter at Constantinople was
considered less than a month ago, at a special cabinet council.
Its 7?iazbata was certified to the Imperial Chancellery in the form
of a reply to Germany. Its tenor was that — Russia excepted — ¦
none of the Powers had formulated a solution of the Bulgarian
imbroglio, and that the Russian proposition of intervention along
with Turkey, was not approved by the Porte. It was only submitted
to Germany with a view to the intervention of the latter, ct litre
facultatif. Germany was sought by the Porte as the medium to
reach all the Powers for a solution ; the Porte still adhering to
its idea maintained since September, 1885, that the Berlin treaty
should be maintained in its integrity. The Porte, ' however,
promises adhesion to the decision of the Powers. This means
delay, discussion and disagreement. Meanwhile Russia is foiled,
and Ferdinand becomes every day more and more "a fixed fact"

684 DIVERSIONS OF A DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY.
What the Powers may do, by sheer force and by selfish nego
tiations, when they next meet in conference, is not clear. All
prophecies may fail. The ulterior motive of Russia to control or
capture Constantinople, with its prosperous commerce and domi
nating position, surely cannot receive encouragement It is an
impossibility. Turkey has shown extraordinary force of arms
and activity of movement, sufficient self-confidence and opposi
tion to self-effacement, to make her position respected, and, so
far, sufficient for the maintenance of the peace.
What will be the finality of these complications with such far-
reaching results, is indicated by the events every day transpir
ing. Whether the pivot be in Persia, Armenia, Egypt, Bulgaria,
Macedonia, Afghanistan or India, the most momentous crisis
known since the fall of Constantinople in a. d. 1453, or certainly
since the fall of Sebastopol, impends imminently over the great
ruling Powers and peoples of three continents.
What may be the horoscope of the Orient, cannot be read in
its serene stars or by its astrological professors. Indeed, it puz
zles the best rational prescience of the Occident — quickened by
the sense of self-interest and the sensibility of ambition. But the
world has progressed too far on lines of light and liberty, to resign
itself to the control of a Power like that of Russia — a .Power
loaded at home with debt and goaded by despair, and every
where, at home and abroad, challenged by protests against its
conduct and continuance.
On the contrary, the Padishah of the Ottoman state — the
Pontiff of the Mahometan faith — is emerging from the eclipse
of the last few decades. By energizing and elevating his people;
by the revival of education and religion; by advancing his sub
jects in the arts of a new civilization — he prepares the very ele
ments that are tempestuously raging around his throne and capi
tal, to become the allies of his personal strength for the durability
of his rule. In the words of his father, Abdul Medjid, he would
"make the political, civil and religious conditions so equal
between Mussulman and Christians of every denomination
throughout the empire, that there no longer would be, under the
laws of the Sultan, but one and the same people under different
races and religions. In a word, to nationalize all the fragments
of nations that cover the soil of Turkey by so much impartiality,
amenity, equality and toleration, that each of these populations

THE DESTINY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 685
should find its honor, its conscience, its security, interested in
concurring toward the maintenance of the empire in a species of
monarchical confederation under the auspices of the Sultan."
In endeavoring to realize ths ideal of his father, the present
Padishah excites the admiration and subserves the interests of
mankind. His people will shake off the incubus of " destiny." As
Lamartine once said to Abdul Medjid, when he was the guest of
that Sultan at the beautiful kiosk of Fhlamour :
" The fatalism of your race and religion will become the fatal
ism of heroes — which determines its own destiny."
THE END.

<;JEUNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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