The native honesty of the Turks is proverbial, and in illustration thereof the following story has been widely circulated.
An Englishman having landed a cargo of goods at one of the custom-houses in the East, was unwilling to leave them at the wharf unguarded; when he was told by the officer, that there was no need for apprehension, as there was not another Englishman within fifty miles!
Whatever may be the truth of this statement, it may be observed, that some of the Osmanlis of the present day have so far advanced in civilization as to even excel in this respect their present honorable Allies! For, the idea that to rob the treasury of the sultan is not defrauding the people, has led the officials into all the wiles of corruption and systematic cheating—so that cheating and bribery may be considered as the corner stones of this vast edifice.
In the purchase of government supplies there is a display of honesty on the part of the officials, and also of the European merchants, who endeavor to underbid each other in prices, which may be considered by an outsider as ruinous, but on the contrary, always proves profitable to the co-partners in the speculation.
On a certain occasion 780 pieces of cotton cloth were palmed off upon the government by a European merchant for 78,000 pieces! for which amount the Treasury gave a note.
Such instances are not of rare occurrence, nor confined only to officials—they pervade all classes. Hence the scullion cheats the cook; the cook the steward; the steward the master; the master the efendy; the efendy the pasha; and the pasha the sultan; and why not? Where the strife for aggrandizement and power is so great, and the battle not to the brave and good, but to the wealthy and intriguing, there is little or no inducement to honesty and good faith.
Russia seems to understand our people better than any other Europeans, owing perhaps to her natural proximity; also since “a fellow feeling makes us wond’rous kind,” she knew where to touch the sensitive Osmanlis, when she provided Prince Menschikoff, on his late mission to Constantinople, with a surplus fund of 300,000 Paul Imperials, or over a million of dollars!
It is not, however, only in Turkey that bribery and corruption prevail—even Europe, France and England, the very centres of civilization, have furnished sad examples of personal aggrandizement, under the garb of patriotism.
Nevertheless, it is eminently true, that those of the people who have retained their primitive simplicity are truly honest and confiding; while others have become contaminated by the corruption of the court, and the grasping spirit of European adventurers.
Many of the peasants remove to the metropolis, with the hope of bettering their condition. Some of them become hamals, or porters, Tellaks, or attendants of the baths; cayikjys, or boatmen, common laborers, venders in general, and others, domestics in private houses.