Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1894 — HE IS A GOOD FELLOW. [ARTICLE]

HE IS A GOOD FELLOW.

A Traveler Has a Good Word for tho Original Turk*. Of the Turks it may be doubted whether they should he called a nation or an agglomeration of individuals of many races who find one common bond in Islam, says a traveler writing in a current magazine. In the first mosque you enter at haphazard, you may see the pure Turk, often as fair and flaxen as any Norwegian, prostrating himself and repeating his prayers beside the blackest of black Africans. And as you enter the sacred place both, at tho self-same moment, will instinctively glance at your feet to see whether you have taken off your shoes or have slipped on a dusty pair of the “babuj” which will generally he offered you at the door. Among Mohammedans, as among Roman Catholics, universality of common practices has something imposing in it, and you instinctively respect the Mohammedan for requiring you to reverence the spot on which he prays. And here at the very outset let me say that after many visits and some residence in the East I am strongly inclined to believe in the original Turk—when he is to be found. Greeks, Armenians, Persians and Africans have given him a bad name by calling themselves Turks and sometimes by misgoverning his country, but he himself is a fine fellow, and belongs to the superior, dominant races of the world. He is naturally a fair man, with blue eyes and of fiesh complexion, well grown, uncommonly strong, and very enduring. He is sober; he is clean; and he is honest even to his own disadvantage, being by no means a match for the wily Greeks and Armenians who are perpetually fatteping on his heart. There is a common proverb in the East to the effect that it takes ten Jews* to cheat an Armenian, and ten Armenians io cheat one Persian. The pure Turk has no chance against such people.