MARK TWAIN'S OPINION OF THE TURKS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2562, 23 March 1877, Page 2

MARK TWAIN'S OPINION OF THE TURKS.

'A writer in the Anglo-Indian Commercial Advertiser Bays z — , jZ t . , f r- ■ I have been rather amused, m glancing .' through Mark TwainV*'New ; ,?Pilgriin's Progress,'published a few years ago, to" read some'of his opinions. of.; the Turks, and to see how thoroughly the.writer.jthen ventilated the very ideas that iave been" * so prevalent in discussion during the past few weeks. "He says of the Syrians: If ever an oppressed race' existed, ,ifc is this one we see fettered around vs 1 under.'-the inhuman tyranny of the Ottoman-Empire. . I wish Europe would let Russia annihilate Turkey—a little, not much, but enough to:maker it. difficult to find the place again ' without 1 a !divining-rod or a diving bell. The Syrians are very poor, and yet fhey are ground down byfiys tern of taxation that would drive any other nation frantic.". Lastyeantheirtaxes were heavy enough, in aIF conscience ; but this - year they havejbeen increased by the addition of taxes that were forgiven them in'times of famine, in. forme^; years.; - the top of this the Grovernment levied a;taxofone4en v tb;fche whole proceeds of the land. This is only half the story. The pachjurf a pachalic does not trouble himself with appointing tax "collectors: r. He y .figures., up all these taxes; ought to;^amount to^jin a certain district. Then he farms ~lhe collection out. .. He-calls the rich men together ; the highest bidder gets the speculation, pays the pacha on;the spot and then sells out to smaller fry, who sell in turn to a horde of still smaller fry. /These latter compel the peasant to bring his little trifle of grain-to the village athis ownccost. It must be weighed, the various taxes set apart, and the remainder returned: taHthe producer. But the. collector delays this duty day after" day r while tiie'^ro. ducer's family,are perishing for bread* At last the poor wretch, who cannot but understand the game, says, ' Take a quarter, take half, take two-thirds if yoa will, and let me go!' It is a most out* rageous state of things. .Further on he says : 'We called at the mausoleum of : the 5000 Christians who were massacred in Damascus in 1861 by-the Turks, They say those narrow streets ran with blood for several days,! and that men and children were butchered indiscriminately, and left-to rot.by.hundreds; all through - the Christian . quarters; they say, further that. the stench was dreadful. All the Christians; who could get away fled from the city, and the Mohammedans would not defile their hands by. burying the dogs."/: The?thirst for blood extended to the highlands of Hermon and Anti-Lebanon, and ifr a short time 25,000 more Christians were massacred and their • possessions laid waste. How they hate a Christian in Damascus? and pretty much all over Turkeydoraar well, and!ho# they will pay,/or it when Russia turns'her forces upon tbemagain !-It is soothing to . the heart to abuse England and France forinterposing to save the Ottoman Empire from the destruction it has so richly deserved for a thousand years. It hurts my vanity to see these pagaus -refute to eat of the food that has been cooked for us, or to eat from a dish we have eaten from) or to drink from a; goatskin which - we have polluted with our Christian lips, except by filtering the water through a rag which they put over the mouth of it, or through a sponge! I never disliked a Chinaman as I do these degraded Turks and Arabs, and when Russia is. ready for war with them again, I hope England and ■ France will not find it igood breeding or good judgment to interfere.