James Burrill Angell

“ From time to time men became so weak that they were led away to be washed and cared for. Near the close of the evening one man appeared to be raving crazy. There were musicians, flag bearers and light bearers in the procession.
I understand the demonstration to be one of grief for the death of Hassein and also of penance. Many of the Persian bystanders wept and some sobbed aloud. In the houses adjacent, groups of Persians were looking on in gravity. Some of them were weeping, some were partaking of refreshments.
The Turkish soldiers were present in force to keep order. ”

“ We went up the Nile to Philae, spent several days in Cairo, then went to Joppa and Jerusalem, to Jericho and Hebron, to Beirut, where we visited the American College as the guests of President Bliss, to Baalbec and Damascus, calling on the way home at Smyrna and making an excursion to Ephesus, finally reaching Constantinople on March 23. At every town which we visited in the Holy Land, the governors and military and civic officials, in obedience to the Sultan's orders, welcomed us on our arrival, and during our stay rendered us any assistance in their power. ”

“ Several of the men most prominent in developing the civic life of Bulgaria were graduates of the college. Perhaps no foreigner in the Empire was so well informed about the political condition of Southeastern Europe as President Washburn. So highly was his opinion valued by the British government that he rarely passed through England without being asked by the Premier or the Foreign Secretary for an interview. A few Turkish students were in the college classes, but owing to the attitude of the Imperial authorities not many ventured to attend. ”

“ Robert College had appointed a young graduate of an American college to teach the Oriental boys not only some branch of book learning but also the American game of base ball. In examining his baggage, the custom officers came upon a pitcher's mask. "What is this?" they asked themselves. "Some new kind of revolutionary weapon?" They detained it as a strangely suspected article. After a week's deliberation and full explanation by the American consul it was permitted to enter.
The Sultan watched with much interest the events of our war with Spain and especially the naval contests. ”

“ It is well known that German officers, loaned to the Sultan by the German Emperor, really planned the campaign against Greece nominally conducted by Edhem Pasha. One of the German officers who was wounded in the war told me that the Turkish victories might easily have been made more decisive if the German advisers could have persuaded the Turkish commander to get up and have any fighting before noon. ”

“ A lad who had been a student in Robert College found his funds exhausted so that he could not complete his education there. Having heard that the Sultan sometimes gave scholarships in a Turkish school, one Friday he pushed through the military lines which guard the Sultan on his way to the mosque, and threw into the carriage a petition for the scholarship. It is a tradition of great antiquity in Oriental lands that any subject may petition the sovereign. ”

“ I know of a district in which I can be elected." His friend besought him to remain, but immediately went away and spread the news among the officials at the Palace. They saw that in Parliament he could do much more harm than in Constantinople. Nothing more was heard of the scheme to banish him.
Since during the great fast of Ramazan it is impracticable to transact important business with the Turkish government, my wife and I left Constantinople on January 26, 1898, on my sixty days' leave for a journey to Egypt and the Holy Land. ”

“ On May 2, we attended the reception by the Sultan of the high religious and civic officials. This is held in the great hall of the Dolmarbatsche Palace. The diplomatic visitors, including the ladies, occupied the gallery. We were asked to be present at half-past six in the morning. The Sultan sacrifices a sheep but not in our presence. The ceremony began by the Sheik-ul-Islam approaching His Majesty and receiving a kiss on his shoulder. Then priests of high rank came forward and kissed the hem of the Sultan's coat. ”

“ Petersburg, and if he desired, I would ask him by telegraph to come to Constantinople and confer with him. I endeavoured to impress him with the belief that very much of our success depended on the man behind the gun. His mind was evidently turned more to our cannon than to our men. He said he had ordered some of the cannon. It is well known that he did finally order an ironclad of the Cramps of Philadelphia.
In this connection I may mention a singular fact about the attitude of the middleclass Turks towards us in the Spanish War. ”

“ It will be remembered that the Spaniards sent some ships of war as far as Port Said, on the way to Manila. They could not proceed farther without procuring coal. Tewfik Pasha asked me what international law required of his government about allowing the Spanish ships to coal. ”

“ He said he would follow the example of other nations and that the Great Powers guaranteed the neutrality of the Dardanelles at all times. I asked how about furnishing munitions. "Oh," he replied, "everyone knows we never spare so much as a pistol." ”

“ This unhappy remark being repeated, he was arrested, charged with threatening the life of the Sultan, convicted and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment. All efforts of influential friends to secure a modification of the sentence were in vain.
The other case occurred in the Turkish Medical School in Constantinople. Some men of revolutionary spirit gained access to the school and scattered incendiary circulars about the building. One of these papers was found in the room of a young student from Smyrna, though he affirmed through no agency of his. ”

“ It consisted of three principal sections of about sixty or seventy persons in each. One was made up of men beating their breasts as they marched before what seemed to represent a turbeh or tomb of Hassein, and responsively shouting something about him. ”