RANDOM READINGS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 551, 19 March 1913, Page 2

RANDOM READINGS.

M&URKEY, 'AFTER TWO XEARS.," What the lYoung Turk revolution has really done for Turkey may be realised by the evidence of Mr. D. G. Hogarth, who describes the more striking changes in an article under the above heading in the "Contemporary.' 3 Mr., Hogarth, who knew Turkey well, through personal acquaintance extending over twenty years, before the revolution, recently revisited Constantinople, and appears to have been astounded by some of the outward effects of the new regime. One thing which the revolution has done he describes as almost a miracle to anyone who knew the old Turkey:

It has made the man in the street speak freely and aloud, and look his fellows in the face unafraid and unalarmed. This is no fancy of mine. In former days one was conscious, the moment one left the railway station or landed pn the quays of Constantinople, that the men in the streets who were not hectoring or cursing or silent were speaking under their breath. Their eyes habitually looked downwards or sideways, and should they be turned up a moment one saw suspicion or fear in most. Now you may walk about Stamboul, Gala- / ta, and Pera from end to end and not see that hunted look or hear those whispers. The difference after two years is extraordinary. That which used to distinguish the Constantinopolitan crowd from every other in Europe has ceased to be. The man in the Grande Rue or the Stamboul bazaars demeans himself, "mutatis mutandis," like any other man in any other European capital. To have changed the demeanour of a whole civic society from anxiety and fear to carelessless is an achievement which, were it the only one to the credit of the Committee of Union and Progress, and even should it not endure, amply justifies that Committee in its existence. The longer one stays in Constantinople the more evidence presents itself that the present freedom is a real thing. Sitting from time to time in one or two of the great Pera cafes, I have' caught conversation in Turkish, Greek, and French at neighbouring tables touching freely and earnestly on such topics as one used to hear mentioned seldom or never even with closed doors. The action of Ministers, particularly of David Bey, was being discussed everywhere in a tone of the frankest criticism. Walking down the street afterwards with thoughts on the past, one was brought up short by book-shops displaying recent French and German works on the most forbidideo sciences; by the sight of Turkish ladies emergjing from Christian shops in veils no longer and little thicker than are worn by their fashionable European sisters; by photographs of the Ministers and the heroes of the revolution. All this will sound commonplace enough to the frequenter of other cities, but let it be borne in mind, what Constantinople used to be. SOME STIA.GE STORIES.

John Temploton, the fine old Scottish tenor, was never so miserable as when he was cast to sing with Malibran. Very often she was displeased with his performance, and one evening she; whispered to him, "You are not Ficting properly; make love to better'''; to which—so it is said—Templetcm innocently replied, "'Don't you know I am a married man?" Evidently the lady did not think there was anything serious in the circumstance, for not long afterwards, when in "Sonnambula" she was on her knees to Templeton as Elvino, she succeeded in making the tenor & cream with suppressed laughter wh<sn he should have been singing, by tickling 'him vigorously under the. arms!

wa,fe as remarkable for his pamses as the Kjembles, and he reduce d them to a system ; there were tlaree—th.e moderate, the long, and tb«e grand* pause. .While making the last one night the prompter, thinking he had forgotten his part, gave trim he "ward; finding he still remairaed silent, he prompted louder; sti3l Macklin did not speak, and the third time the prompter's voice was heard distinctly in front: upon which, boiling with fury, Macklin rushesd off the stage &ni knocked the man down, then, returning to the footlights, said coolly, by way of explanation, "The -fellow interrupted ma in my grand pause."

C;ttalani, like -most "prime donne," had a weakness for showing off her jewellery. "You brooch?" she wouiM say. "De Emperor of Austtria g-.we me dis. You see dese earnings? De Emperor of Russia gave Ine dea e. You see dis ring? De E.otperor Napoleon gave m<e dis?" ; and so on.. Brabam, the eminent tenorf, in imitation of this, would say, po anting to his umbrella, "You see dis? De Emperor of China, gave me dis." Then, pointing to his teeth, "De Emperor of Tuscan?y ga ,ve me dese." —The "Erai.'i'