Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 2, 1906

In the July number of The Missionary Review of the World there is an interesting article upon Turkey and the work of the missionaries in that country. Some idea of the way in which governmental affairs are administered may be obtained from the following extract:—

The government is not one of “justice tempered with mercy,” but of injustice tempered with money. The sultan shuts himself up in his palace grounds, and apparently gives no thought to the welfare of his people. The fire regulations in Constantinople illustrate the character of this government, of the sultan, for the sultan, and by the sultan. When the flames are discovered by the watchman on the Galata Tower, the news is first telegraphed to the sultan, saying in what quarter the fire is, so that his majesty’s nerves may not be overtaxed. Then a crier runs through the city shouting that there is a conflagration in such and such a district. The primitive fire apparatus is caught up, and the volunteer fire company—with a mob bent on plunder—starts for the scene. Before any attempt is made to extinguish the flames, the owner of the property must sit down and make a bargain with the firemen as to the price of their services. Usually more damage is done by the mob and the piratical fire company than by the flames. It is little to be wondered at that most Constantinopolitans prefer to be at the mercy of the fire than in the

hands of the firemen. But in any case the sultan is not annoyed!

This glimpse of life in the dominion of “the sick man of the East” is rather entertaining to contemplate at a distance, but the reality must be exceedingly trying to those who are compelled to endure it. Mohammedanism means barbarism.