VIII ROBERT COLLEGE AND THE MISSIONARIES
Upon the summit of a bold promontory, overlooking the Bosphorus, almost midway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora, one hour’s ride by boat from Constantinople, stands a monument. No man could need or wish a nobler one. It is called Robert College, and was erected about forty years ago by a New York merchant, Christopher R. Robert, who was interested in Turkish trade. It has an appropriate place. A lighthouse should always stand were it can see and be seen, and Robert College has done more to enlighten the East than any other agency. Little passenger boats, like those upon the Thames in London and upon the Seine in Paris, run regularly or rather irregularly, up and down the Bosphorus, touching the many little suburban settlements along its shores. At Bebek, a pretty town much frequented by European residents of Constantinople, is a Protestant church, where formerly stood a temple to Artemis Dictynna. After the Turks obtained possession palaces were laid out there, and at one of them, called “The Kiosk of the Conferences,” the Sultans used to receive ambassadors secretly, without the knowledge of their ministers and other officials of the government, and there several important treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the European Powers were negotiated and signed. The Bosphorus is only about eight hundred yards wide at this point. Near Bebek was the celebrated bridge over which Darius led the Persian armies into Europe. A throne was hewn in a rock at the top of the promontory on which he sat and watched his army crossing from Asia. Two pillars of white marble inscribed with the names of the nations that contributed to his army formerly stood there, according to Herodotus, but have since been removed.
ROBERT COLLEGE, CONSTANTINOPLE
Passengers for the college land from the boats at Bebek and follow an easy path up a hill beside an ancient cemetery and under the shadow of the walls of Rumili Hisar, a mighty castle built by Mohammed II. in 1453 while he was besieging the city of Constantinople. Immediately opposite, upon the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, a similar castle was erected, and the two commanded the passage so that every ship passing up and down was compelled to pay toll. Mohammed called this castle Boghag Kessen (Throat Cutter), for he had a pleasant way with him. The ruins are as picturesque and extensive as any in Europe, and the towers are almost perfect after nearly six hundred years, although the floors and ceilings have long since fallen through. The walls have crumbled and much stone has been taken away for building material. They were originally thirty feet thick and thirty feet high, and were built with the greatest haste and energy. Mohammed employed 1,000 masons, 1,000 lime-burners and 10,000 laborers in the construction, and to each mason was assigned the task of building two yards of wall in three months. By this division of labor and responsibility the work was completed in the time named by the ingenious designs of the engineers, and the outline of the walls forms the Turkish word “Mahomet.”
There are other interesting places in the neighborhood, but Robert College is the most interesting of all. The institution is built and conducted upon the American plan. You might fancy that the dormitories and lecture-rooms and library of some institution in Ohio or Illinois had been lifted bodily and transported there. They are of solid masonry and as nearly fireproof as it is possible to make them. Dr. Washburn, the president, has a comfortable home within the grounds, of corresponding architecture and material, and the residences of the faculty are scattered around the neighborhood inside and outside the walls. It is not necessary to describe the buildings, for they are so much like our own. In the basement of the principal dormitory is the common dining-room at which the boarding students take their meals and the day students their lunches, and that, too, is conducted upon the American rather than the Turkish plan. The same can be said of the dormitories, the library and the gymnasium. The preparatory department has a new building, the gift of Miss Stokes, of New York, which cost $40,000. Other buildings are greatly needed, because the present accommodations are not sufficient for the demands upon them. It is a lamentable fact that students have to be turned away every year because there is no room for them. The institution has done incalculable good, but it might do more. Its usefulness could be materially increased with a little more room and a little more money.
The gymnasium and playground are considered of unusual importance, as the faculty encourage athletics not only for physical, but for moral and social culture. Football, cricket, baseball and other athletic sports are the most effective equalizers that can be adopted. The students of the college come from all ranks, castes and from every social stratum, but social distinctions are not recognized at Robert College any more than at our institutions at home, and there is always more or less difficulty in reconciling the representatives of the favored classes to the doctrine of human equality. The football field, however, is a pure democracy, where all meet on the same level and the best man wins the greatest degree of respect and exercises the greatest influence.
Robert College is not a missionary institution, nor is it sectarian in any respect. Its object is to afford the young men of Turkey and the surrounding countries facilities for acquiring such an education as will best fit them for professional and business life. It aims to combine the highest moral training with the most complete mental discipline. The purpose of the faculty is to adapt it to the needs of the people and develop Christian manliness among the students without attempting to teach them theology. The plan of discipline and instruction is the same as in the ordinary colleges in America. The recitations and lectures are all in English. American text-books only are used. Students are required to attend chapel daily and religious services on Sunday. No exceptions are made either for Jews or Gentiles, Roman Catholics or Mohammedans. They study the evidences of Christianity just as they study moral philosophy, political economy and geology. The course of study has been selected with a view to the practical application of learning, as well as intellectual development. The regular collegiate department occupies five full years. The tuition fees, including board and lodging, are $200 a year. Tuition without board is $40 a year, and tuition and luncheon daily $65 a year. There are several scholarships which are utilized to the assistance of worthy young men upon the recommendation of the faculty.
The board of trustees has its office in New York. The president is John S. Kennedy, the secretary Edward B. Coe and the treasurer Frederick A. Booth. John Sloane, Cleveland H. Dodge, William T. Booth, William C. Sturgis, Robert W. de Forrest and William Church Osborn constitute the board. The faculty is mixed, a majority of them being natives of the East—Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Roumanians and Turks—all graduates of the institution and members of the Protestant faith. Dr. George Washburn is the president; and his father-in-law, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, was the actual founder of the institution. In 1860 Christopher R. Robert, having visited Constantinople, was deeply impressed with the necessity for an institution of higher learning there, and invited Dr. Hamlin to join him in founding an institution which should offer to young men, without distinction of race or creed, a thorough American education. Dr. Hamlin opened the college in a rented house in Bebek in 1863. Mr. Robert furnished all the funds to sustain the institution until his death, in 1878, when he bequeathed to the college one-fifth of his estate, amounting to about $400,000. Articles of incorporation were secured in New York in 1864, and in 1869 the Sultan of Turkey was persuaded by the American minister at Constantinople to issue an irade conferring upon the institution all the advantages bestowed by the imperial government upon schools in Turkey. On July 4, 1869, the corner-stone of the first building was laid by E. J. Morris, the American minister, and it was completed in 1871. It still stands as the principal building of the college, and is known as Hamlin Hall.
Other buildings have been erected since with funds contributed by friends of the college in America, and since the death of Mr. Robert the endowment fund has been increased by generous contributions from other American citizens. The college is almost self-supporting. The receipts from tuition fees cover the salaries of the professors, leaving a balance to be paid from the income of the endowment fund which is greater or less according to circumstances. The total annual expenses are within $50,000 a year, which is a very small average for three hundred and eleven students, of whom one hundred and eighty-two sleep and board in the college.
The students come from all parts of Asia Minor, Turkey in Europe, Greece and the Balkan States—the largest number from the immediate neighborhood of Constantinople; the next largest from Greece, Bulgaria and Roumania, but almost every nation is represented. The Greeks outnumber the rest, having had one hundred and twenty-seven representatives in 1902, the Armenians one hundred and eight and the Bulgarians fifty-one. Then came the Turks, Israelites, Roumanians, Austrians, French, Russians, English and Americans, Assyrians, Georgians, Persians and Levantines in order. The parents of the students belong to almost every religious faith represented in Constantinople, and are willing to sacrifice their religious scruples in order to obtain the educational advantages of the college.
The policy of the Turkish government makes it difficult and often impossible for Turks to attend the institution, and hence there are no professed Moslems among the students. It would be unsafe and it might be fatal for any student to declare himself a Moslem. It is suspected, however, that students belonging to that faith have enrolled themselves as members of others. Young men who have come from different parts of Turkey to enter the college are often arrested and imprisoned upon their arrival. Dr. Washburn says, however, that the minister of police is usually reasonable, and when satisfied that they have come in good faith he delivers them to the treasurer of the institution and holds him responsible for their behavior. In 1901 one of the students was detained in prison for two months on the charge of bringing seditious literature into the country. The police inspectors found in his luggage two pieces of music which can be bought at any music store in Constantinople, but for some reason or another the charge was pressed against him and it cost his father a large sum of money to obtain his release.
The graduates are found in high places throughout the East. Many of them occupy conspicuous positions under the governments of Bulgaria, Roumania and the neighboring countries. At one time four of the Robert College alumni were in the ministry of Bulgaria, including the late Mr. Stoiloff, who was recognized as the ablest statesman in that country after Stambouloff’s death, and was prime minister from 1894 to 1901.
Eleven different services are held in Protestant churches in Constantinople every Sunday in four different languages. Three by the Church of England—one in the chapel of the embassy, for the British ambassador has a chaplain and a physician furnished by his government, as well as a secretary; at St. Paul’s Church, which was erected fifty years ago as a memorial to the English soldiers who died in the Crimean war, and in a chapel in the suburbs at ancient Calcedon. At a chapel connected with the Dutch embassy, union services are held by the Presbyterians, Methodists and Dutch Reformed. There is also a chapel connected with the German embassy and a Lutheran chaplain. Besides these there are churches under the direction of the American Board of Foreign Missions, attended by Protestants at Robert College, at the American College for Girls at Scutari and at the American and English colony at Bebek on the Bosphorus. The Scotch Presbyterians and the Established Church of Scotland each has a house of worship, and the French Protestants residing in Galata and Pera have a very pretty church. Protestant missions to the natives are scattered all over the city and are conducted by British, German, Dutch and American societies. The American Board of Foreign Missions has one hundred and seventy-six missionaries in Turkey, including forty men and over one hundred unmarried women. The British and Dutch Reformed missionaries are almost as numerous. In all Turkey there are about 50,000 registered Protestants and 13,000 communicants in the various churches, being mostly Greeks and Armenians. As we were particularly interested in the work of the American missionaries only, I did not obtain the statistics of the others, but the American Board alone has one hundred and thirty organized native churches, twenty-five of which are self-supporting. In the city of Constantinople are two large congregations of Armenian and Greek Protestants, who have already purchased lots to erect houses of worship and have raised funds for that purpose, but are prohibited from doing so by the officials. They have made applications for building permits frequently from time to time during the last eight or ten years, which have always been denied them, and even the American minister cannot exert sufficient influence to secure that privilege. No Protestant church can be erected in Constantinople. No man dare sell a piece of land for the purpose. The churches already standing have been erected under the patronage of the different foreign legations and embassies.
A number of high standard colleges are maintained by the missionary boards in Turkey, as well as schools of all grades. The colleges are now educating a total of 3,000 students, and the pupils in the schools number over 20,000, most of these institutions being self-supporting. The students come chiefly from the mercantile class, and only about one-fourth of them are Protestants. The remainder represent all creeds and races, although the Mohammedan believers are few. More than three-fourths of the students pay full tuition, ranging from $40 to $250 a year, according to location and circumstances. There are scholarships for the benefit of poor students, but they are usually reserved for such young men and women as are studying for the mission work and for teaching in the mission schools.
From 1856 to 1876, from the Crimean war to the reign of Abdul Hamid II., the present Sultan, religious liberty prevailed throughout all Turkey, and, the government encouraging Mohammedans to enter the schools, they came in large numbers. But under the present Sultan the policy has been to restrict education and keep the people in ignorance, and no Moslem can attend a Protestant school without rendering himself and his family the objects of suspicion and persecution of all sorts. The father may be arrested upon false charges, sent to prison and his property confiscated, or the son may be accused of “discontent” (a crime which is very prevalent) and be sent to prison for months or years, or some member of the family may be charged with membership in the “Young Turkey” party, which is an offense punishable by death or banishment. Any of these things is likely to occur without the slightest justification, and they are intended as discipline to prevent proselyting by the Protestants among Mohammedans, and to make the Protestant schools unpopular. A Christianized Mohammedan cannot live in Turkey. He is compelled to leave the country, for as soon as the fact is known he is either assassinated or thrown into prison. Mohammedans who accept Christianity are very few. A somewhat notable case occurred recently—perhaps two. I have heard two versions with different names, but am confident they refer to the same person.
The son of a prominent pasha who held a commission in the Turkish army became acquainted with an American family and visited them frequently for the purpose of improving his English conversation. He became quite intimate with them, accompanied them to church and read books on religious subjects which were loaned by them. He decided to formally renounce the religion of his fathers and become a Protestant, but was compelled to leave the country as soon as his intentions were known. If his father had not condemned his own son with great promptness the entire family would have been involved in danger. The young man fled on an English ship, reached the United States about the time of the opening of the Spanish war, enlisted in the army, served through the Santiago campaign, was promoted for efficiency and has since been appointed a second lieutenant. It is impossible for him to return to Turkey. He would be assassinated by some fanatic if the government police did not get him first and arrest him upon some pretext. He would then disappear and nobody would dare ask questions as to his fate. It would be dangerous to do so. This case is known to every Protestant family and throughout the upper classes of Constantinople, and all other examples of the conversion of Moslems are equally familiar because they are so few. There is, nevertheless, a good deal of missionary work done by the Protestants among the Mohammedans, and at least 5,000 copies of the Bible in the Turkish language are sold in the Ottoman Empire every year, which shows an interest among the people; but the government officials and the Mohammedan priests are so vigilant that the purchasers would not be willing to have their names known. In fact, the Bible House was prohibited from publishing the Bible in the Turkish language for many years and was originally compelled by the censor to print upon the title page a warning that the book was intended for Protestants only.
The educational system of the Turks is not entirely bad, but is mostly for religious instruction. The mekteb, or primary schools, are numerous, and afford every boy and girl in the city an opportunity to learn to read and write and obtain a knowledge of the Koran. Such schools are attached to every mosque in the empire. The ibtidaiyeh, or secondary schools, afford opportunities for learning geography, arithmetic, history and the modern languages, but there are only twenty of these schools in all Constantinople for a million and more people. The medresseh, or colleges, teach philosophy, logic, rhetoric, theology and Turkish law, and generally take the place of the universities found in other countries. They are the highest educational institutions maintained by the Turkish government. There are schools of law, medicine, mines and forestry, art, and a manual-training establishment supported by the government, with nine large institutions for military and naval education. The Greeks, Armenians and Jews each have their own schools connected with their churches and maintained by private contributions. Some of them offer a high standard of education and have fine libraries.
There is a Protestant college for girls at Scutari, on the opposite side of the Bosphorus, which offers education for young women and has an average of one hundred and seventy-five pupils. It has been established for a quarter of a century, and has sent out a large number of useful teachers of nine different nationalities, who are now engaged throughout different parts of the Turkish Empire and the neighboring countries. Miss Mary M. Patrick, the president, is assisted by a faculty of six American professors and fifteen other instructors. You must not think, however, that the Americans are the only people who are doing good in an educational way in the Sultan’s dominions. The English, the Germans, the Swiss, the French and the Austrians all have institutions for the education of the natives, more or less supported by charities.
The editor of a Turkish newspaper is surrounded by numerous embarrassments, yet, notwithstanding the strict censorship to which it is subjected, the press exercises a much wider influence than it is given credit for, considering that the first newspaper was not published, and that no private printing-office was allowed in Turkey until during the Crimean war. There are daily papers in all of the large towns of the interior. Each vilayet, or province, has an official journal. In Constantinople the newspapers are innumerable—political, religious, literary, scientific and commercial—and are published in more different languages than in any other city in the world. There are papers in Arabic, Armenian, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Syriac, Persian, Spanish and in three different dialects of the Turkish language. During the Crimean war papers sprang up in Constantinople like mushrooms, and were free so far as formal regulations were concerned until a press law was promulgated in 1861, under which the publication of articles reflecting upon the Sultan, the government, the church, the police and other officials was prohibited and certain political and religious topics were tabooed. In case of violation of the law the responsible editor was punished by fine, imprisonment or the suspension of his newspaper.
A few years later the minister of the interior assumed arbitrary authority over the press, and when an article appeared that displeased him he punished the editor, suppressed the paper and confiscated the property at his pleasure. This continued until about 1886, when a preventive censorship was adopted and a press bureau was added to the private cabinet of His Majesty the Sultan. Representatives of this bureau are detailed to assist the editors of newspapers and are paid by them. Liberality is a matter of mutual agreement. The more they are paid the less trouble they cause, and if they do not receive as much as they want they generally find means to revenge themselves. The censors have desks in the newspaper offices and proof slips of every article must be submitted for their approval, which is indicated by a rubber stamp and signature. The proof slips thus marked are carefully filed away for the protection of the editor. The censors are usually incapable of forming an opinion as to the merits or effect of a political or economic article, but have a quick eye for prohibited subjects and words. Editors very soon get to understand them, and by the exercise of a little tact are able to handle them without difficulty. But certain rules must be observed. Nobody, of course, dare speak ill of the Sultan or of his government. Everything done by them must be approved; foreign relations cannot be touched upon, and religious discussions must be avoided so far as they affect Mohammedans. Nothing can appear which relates to political revolutions, insurrections or disturbances of any kind in other countries. If all the cabinets in Europe should resign, if a political revolution should break out in England and King Edward’s throne should be overturned, the fact would never be mentioned in a Turkish newspaper. No particulars of the assassinations of King Humbert and of President McKinley were printed—only the announcement of their deaths, which the readers would infer were due to natural causes. It is not safe to let the discontented element in Turkey know that kings or presidents can be killed. They might take a hint.
Nowhere at any of the courts of Europe do the diplomatic representatives of the United States appear to so great a disadvantage among the ambassadors and ministers of other Powers as at Constantinople, and Congress should do something to improve their position for the dignity and honor of our government. If there should be trouble at the Turkish capital to-morrow or next week—and it is likely to occur at any time—the American minister, the members of his legation, the consul-general and his staff and their families would be compelled to take refuge at the British embassy. They might, of course, go to the German or Russian embassy, but our relations with the British are more intimate there, as well as elsewhere, because of a similarity of language and mutual interests. At all capitals the interests of citizens of the United States are protected by the representatives of Great Britain when our own ministers are absent, and vice versa, and the records of our legations and consulates are always intrusted to the British diplomatic and consular officials, and theirs to ours, whenever necessary. Our minister and consul-general, with their secretaries and attachés, would be welcome at the British embassy, which has often extended its hospitality to their predecessors, but it is nevertheless a humiliating fact that they are dependent upon other nations for protection when Uncle Sam is great enough and rich enough to provide for his own agents in foreign countries.
The doctrine of extra-territoriality prevails in Turkey—that is, the citizens of each nation residing there are tried for offenses according to their own laws, and before their own diplomatic and consular representatives. It does not matter who the plaintiff is. He may be a Turk or a Dutchman; the nationality of the defendant determines the court and the law by which an offense shall be tried, for every offense he may commit, from murder down to petty larceny. Hence court is held regularly at the various embassies and legations, petty offenses being tried before the consuls, and those of a more serious character before the minister or ambassador. The Turkish officials have nothing to do with them.
Turkish law is founded on the Koran, the teachings of famous Khalifs and other disciples of Islam, and upon decisions rendered upon questions proposed to the Sheik-ul-Islam, the head of the Moslem Church, who is the court of final appeal and has authority to overrule all magistrates. The teachings of the Koran and the prophet and such precedents, maxims and decisions are codified and published in a volume divided into chapters relating to commercial affairs, penal offenses, etc., and the canon, or ecclesiastic, and common law. To them are added the firmans, or proclamations, of the Sultan, which permit or forbid certain things among his subjects, and the regulations provided by the police authorities which generally stand from year to year. The kazasskers, or justices, as we would call them, a body of theologians, jurists and teachers of Moslem law, are supposed to assist the Sheik-ul-Islam in the investigation and decision of questions of law, and prepare briefs for him to sign. There is also a court known as the Ulema, of minor jurisdiction.
All residents of Turkey are supposed to belong to some religious society, or millet, and are reached through the head of their particular community. Theoretically each millet is allowed the free exercise of religion, the management of its own monasteries, schools, hospitals and charitable institutions and in certain cases judicial authority. The chief millets are Roman Catholic, Greek, Orthodox, Armenian, Jewish, Protestant, Bulgarian, Maronite, Nestorian and Greek Roman Catholic; and each citizen, no matter how humble, is required to be registered as a member of one of these millets. In case he has committed an offense he has the nominal right to appeal to the head of his sect for protection, and on the other hand the patriarch or chief of each millet is nominally the medium through which the laws and orders of the Turkish government are enforced; but this is purely theoretical. Men who are accused of crime or misdemeanor are hauled up by the Turkish police and cast into prison without mercy or justice and remain there until their friends can raise money enough to buy them out or the diplomatic agent of their government appears to protect them.
In the embassy courts no account is taken of Turkish law or mode of procedure, and the proceedings are conducted exactly as they would be at home. Our consul-general has a clerk of court, a United States marshal and other judicial officers, whose powers and duties correspond precisely to those of similar officials at home, and our government has a prison also for the detention of offenders. The business of the United States court, however, is very small compared with that of other legation courts, because we have very few citizens in Constantinople. There are only about two hundred Americans in Turkey all told, and they are mostly missionaries, who do not often appear in the consular courts. But some of the embassies—the Russian, the German, Austrian and French—do considerable business.
Each of the European Powers, even Holland and Belgium, has a handsome residence and legation building. The German embassy is one of the finest edifices in Constantinople. None but the palaces of the Sultan exceed it in dimensions or pretensions. It stands in a conspicuous place and may be seen from all parts of the city. The Russian embassy is an enormous building, surrounded by a high wall, and has a hospital connected with it. The British embassy is also a fine building. Our minister usually has to live in a hotel because it is always difficult and often impossible to rent a suitable residence. At present only one house in Constantinople fit for the purpose can be secured. It belongs to an Italian nobleman who has returned to his former home in Italy, and stands in one of the most convenient and desirable sections of the city, but the cellar is full of water and cannot be kept dry. The walls are saturated with moisture, and hence the prospect of leasing it is not good. Usually the United States minister rents a residence at Therepia, a suburban town a few miles up the Bosphorus, where several of the European governments have legations for the use of their representatives during the hot season, when the heat and the filth make it impossible for them to live in the city. On the first of July the entire diplomatic corps moves en masse from Constantinople to Therepia and remains there until the first of November, when it is again safe to return. The ambassadors or their secretaries come to town nearly every day for the transaction of necessary business and to communicate with the officials of the government, and are provided with yachts for the journey. Our government is the only one of importance which does not have a yacht for the use of its minister lying at anchor near the custom-house. During the summer months he is permitted to lease a little steam launch, but at the close of the season it is sent back to its owner.
These yachts have, however, a purpose which is much more important, but it is not often mentioned. The condition of affairs in Turkey is similar to that in China, and the members of the diplomatic corps are exposed at all times to the same dangers that imperiled the legations at Peking two years ago. When a mob of Moslems, whose religion teaches them that it is their duty to kill Christians, takes possession of the city of Constantinople, it does not distinguish between foreigners. All persons who do not profess the Moslem faith are infidels and must die, no matter whether they are Armenians or English or Austrians, and the police and other officials have no means of controlling or directing the ignorant and fanatical Turks. It is considered necessary, therefore, that the members of the different embassies and legations should have means of escape always at hand, and hence the long line of steam yachts anchored at a convenient situation near the foreign quarter of the city. Germany, Russia, England, France, Austria and Italy always have gunboats anchored in the Bosphorus as an additional protection. The Turkish government requires them to be small. As a rule it will not permit a foreign man-of-war to pass the Dardanelles, but these guard-boats, as they are called, are admitted to be necessary by the police themselves, and by special treaty provision are allowed to anchor off the city.
Public confidence in the government is so small that nearly all the European nations have their own mail service. The British, German, French, Austrians and Russians have distinct and separate postoffices, because the subjects of those nations residing in Turkey cannot trust the Turkish mails. This is done with the consent of the Sultan, and is regulated by treaty stipulations. The postoffices are open to the public and can be used by anyone. The mail is put into bags, sealed and shipped by railroad to the nearest convenient point within the territory of the nation interested. The British mail goes to London, the French mail to Marseilles, the Austrian to Budapest and the Russian to Odessa. The seals are broken at those places, and the contents of the bags are turned over to the regular postal officials. At the British postoffice British stamps are sold, surcharged with the value in Turkish money. The same is true of all the other postoffices.
Tourists can no longer visit the great “Cistern of the 1,001 Pillars,” which was formerly one of the most interesting objects in Constantinople. It was built in the time of Constantine for the purpose of storing water, is one hundred and ninety-five feet long, one hundred and sixty-seven feet wide and twenty-seven feet deep. The roof is sustained by a vast forest of columns, and it is the popular notion that they number one more than a thousand. It is estimated that the cistern formerly held enough water to supply the population of Stamboul for ten days, but it has not been used since 1850 for that purpose. Constantinople has an excellent water system carried in aqueducts running to various quarters of the city. For many years this and several other great cisterns, having been pumped out, were used for storage of government supplies, but of late they have been practically abandoned, and certain Armenian manufacturers of rope, carpets and other articles which required more room than light, have been using them rent free, because of their large size and other advantages. During the massacre of 1896, however, the Turkish mob surprised the Armenians at work in this cistern and killed between sixty and seventy in cold blood. Their bodies were allowed to remain in the cistern unburied and are there still. Hence it is not an agreeable place to visit.
Two thousand children, orphans of people who lost their lives in that massacre, are employed in a carpet factory in the suburbs of Constantinople.
PART II
Bulgaria
PART II
BULGARIA
