These Softas are the most fanatical of the Moslems; their entire training is one of bitter intolerance and hatred of Christianity; they have been the inciters to riots in many cities in the Turkish Empire, notably in that of Constantinople, in September, 1895. The number of Softas in the Empire, is said to be about 30,000—8,000 of them being in Stamboul.
His majesty has at times sought to have some of them return to their native provinces, but to this, great opposition has been shown, so that he was obliged to abandon his first plan and get rid of them quietly. From time to time numbers of them have been put on board of transports for unknown destinations.
“The Turks are upon Us.” A Panic in Stamboul.—Page 110. While the photograph, from which this illustration is reproduced, was taken in Stamboul, it would answer equally well for the panic that prevailed among Armenian merchants, everywhere, whenever the cry was raised that the feared and hated Turk was coming. Costly merchandise was quickly thrust behind doors, that were as quickly barred against the common foe, and children were hastily summoned from the streets. That such scenes have their ludicrous side, is evidenced by the upsetting of the young man who, in his haste to gain a place of safety, has trodden upon the trailing end of one of the rugs which the venerable dealer in such merchandise, is in equal haste to place beyond the reach of the marauders.
The New Grand Vizier on his way to the Sublime Porte.—Page 127. The renowned office of grand vizier, in the realms of the Ottoman Turk, is a very precarious and dangerous post. Rifaat Pasha, the latest appointee, is the nominal head of whatever government may be supposed to exist at the Porte. He has been many years in the civil service, and has been Governor, successively, of the former Danubian Provinces, of Salonica, of Smyrna, and of Monastir, and latterly Minister of the Interior.
Explaining the Inflammatory Placards.—Page 146. There is a cry for reform in the system of government in Turkey, and revolutionary placards are posted up almost daily in the streets of Stamboul. The police specially patrol the streets at night with the object of tearing down these seditious utterances. The illustration shows a man of education, explaining to some of his more ignorant fellow-citizens, the meaning of one of these placards, that has escaped the notice of the police.
Taking Armenian Prisoners to the Grand Zaptieh Prison.—Page 163. Over the portal of the Grand Zaptieh Prison, Stamboul, might well be inscribed “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” The engraving gives a forcible illustration of the brutality exhibited by the Turkish soldiers and police towards their prisoners, whom, in many instances, they literally dragged to their place of confinement.
British Cabinet Debating the Armenian Question.—Page 182. The councils of the English Government are more important to the welfare of the world than the decision of any other European power. But British interests—interest on Turkish bonds held in London—have been paramount to all questions of righteousness and humanity; and Bleeding Armenia cries in vain for deliverance from the accursed rule of the Turk.
The British Mediterranean Fleet.—Page 199. When the squadrons of the great powers began to assemble in Eastern waters, it seemed for awhile as if the day of reckoning for Turkey had surely come. The British fleet is seen in the harbor of Salonica, ready for action. At this time the French ironclads were in the Piraeus, the German warships off Smyrna, the Italian and Austro-Hungarian squadrons had started for the East, and Russia’s fleet was close at hand in the Black Sea. A single warship in front of Constantinople would have restored order in Armenia; none were sent.
Types and Costumes of Kurdish Gentlemen.—Page 218. The Kurdish costumes are picturesque and nearly all the tribesmen are magnificent horsemen. They are always formidably armed. They are very cruel; fierce in battle; merciless in torture and outrage of their victims. They have neither books nor schools; not one in ten thousand can read.
A Common Scene in the Streets of Erzeroum.—Page 235. A camel caravan from Persia passing through to Trebizond. Some of these caravans consist of as many as eight hundred camels—estimating the value of a camel at $150, which is moderate, we have the sum of $120,000 as the worth of the caravan, without counting the vast stores of merchandise. This immense trade is for the time destroyed and the inhabitants of Erzeroum reduced to great extremities.