It is said that war will break out in the Balkan provinces in the spring, a war which will involve both Turkey and Austria.
The Balkan provinces are Servia, Roumania, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. If you look at your map, you will see that they lie between Hungary and Turkey.
The Sultan of Turkey is so convinced that such a war cannot be avoided, that he is doing everything in his power to raise money for it.
He has given orders that the taxes must all be collected by the new year, instead of May, in which month they are generally paid.
To accomplish this the unfortunate people, particularly the Christian population, are being very roughly dealt with.
It is stated that the Sultan will not recall his troops from Thessaly until the war indemnity has been paid, and that Germany is upholding him in his determination.
The reports of the various officers of our Government have followed the Message of President McKinley.
Every one is somewhat shocked to find that the tariff bill, which was to put such a lot of money in our treasury, has fallen far short of the expected results, and, indeed, has not produced enough revenue to pay the expenses of the Government.
If the receipts from customs are not larger during the next few months than they have been during the last, the country will be $65,000,000 behind at the end of the year, and Congress will have to devise some plan for raising this sum of money.