Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1875 — A Turkish Spectacle. [ARTICLE]

A Turkish Spectacle.

Mr. Frederick T. Martin writes to the Troy Times as follows of a visit to Constantinople: At four o’clock on the day after leaving Syria we were approaching Constantinople, and in the Sea of Marmora, and here the gilded domes and minarets of the city and glittering crescents began to appear in sight. High above everything else towered the beautiful dome of St. Sophia, the ancient Christian church, but now the “ St. Peter’s” of the Turks. I shall never forget the effect this magnificent spectacle had upon me, so much more splendid and grand than I had ever imagined; and as we glided on, past palaces and gardens, I felt I really must he about to see an ideal city. The shipping in the harbor and the. sight of the lovely Bosphorus added much to the beauty of the scene. We had no sooner anchored than we were surrounded by crowds of carques, or little boats, and the cries of the boatmen plying for hire was something deafening. After a little time we were rowed on shore to the custom-house, passing through which we proceeded to the hotel, Armenians, in their picturesque costumes, carrying our luggage. It was now thaf we experienced our first disappointment, not to say shock of surprise. A lazy, idle and filthy population; streets never cleaned but by the rain—and we could not but ask ourselves if it was possible that, in such a place, health can ever dwell. The thing that most struck us was the dogs to b<j seen on all sides. They belong to nobody, but are fed by all; they act as scavengers/ feeding upon the refuse thrown into the. streets and upon the carcasses of other animals; indeed, I have seen them devouring the dead bodies of other dogs. Each dog belongs to a district of his own, and should he venture into that of another he is immediately driven off by the dogs that occupy it. After a walk of a quarter of an hour we reached the Hotel d’Angleterre, which we found very good and clean, and the proErietor immediately informed us that we ad arrived just in the nick of time to see a most wonderful sight—that on the morrow the Sultan was to go to the mosque in his barge, a thing he very rarely does, preferring on most occasions to go in a carriage. We did not fail to rise betimes the next morning, for all I had read in years gone by respecting the gorgeous appearance the Sultan made in his progresses in public had given me afgreat desire to see him. After breakfast we repaired to the shore of the Bosphorus, and threaded our way as best we could through the dense masses of people, and by the aid of great good fortune managed to get upon one of the projecting docks or jetties which runout from the shore, thereby getting an exceptionally good view. Picture to yourself a lovely, cloudless day, the hanks of the rushing Bosphorus lined with one seething mass of human beings, kept back by a continuous line of troops, with bands of music stationed at short Inintervals. From our standpoint we could command the marble steps of the Sultan’s palace, and we had not been standing many minutes before the sound of a great trumpet was to be heard, and we knew it was announcing the opening of the doors of the Sultan’s palace, and that he was about to descend to his barge. The procession had no sooner commenced to move from the palace than the firing of guns commenced from a fort situated above the palace, which was immediately taken up and answered by the men-of-war in the bay, and amid the shouts of the populace, strains of music and the boom of many guns the most imposing spectacle that I ever expect to see commenced its progress. As it passed on the different hands struck up, and I felt I had never been present at such a wonderful sight before. I will describe as well as I can the order of the precession. The barges were all of burnished gold, and glittered in the sun, the bows and stems sloping gracefully up. There were five in all. The first was rowed by twelve men and occupied by only a single aide-de-camp, who stood motionless, with his arms crossed upon his breast and 'his head bowed toward the boat of the Sultan. The second was rowed by sixteen men, and contained two of the Sultan’s staff standing in the same manner as the first, motionless as statues. The following and third barge contained His Majesty the Saltan, and I shall ever retain a vivid remembrance of the splendor of this sight. This barge was rowed by twenty-four men, and their motions were a perfect wonder to me. At every stroke they rose and stepped forward, and then receded to their seats with wonderful precision and regularity. The Sultan sat in the stern, under a magnificent canopy of crimson velvet, the '’ deep fringes of gold reflecting the rays of the sun. Two of his staff stood motionless before him, with their arms folded across their breasts and their heads bowed low; and they did not alter their positions in the slightest all the time they were in sight. The only contrast to all this splendor was the Sultan himself. A republican President could not have made less pretension to state and show than did this “ Shadow of God upon earth.” One order only glittered upon his breast, and he wore the usual Turkish fez. The Sultan’s barge was followed by two others similar to these that preceded it, but, instead of bowing toward his face, the officers were obliged to bow toward his back. We stood watching the procession until it was quite out of sight, and we could but feel that we hacj seen something we should never see again in our lives. The surroundings, the brilliant sky above our heads, the crowds of shipping of every nation, and the people in their picturesque costumes, the music and roar of the guns, all conduced to deepen the impression upon our minds. —Big Cow. one of the sub-chiefs of the Arapahoe tribe of Indians, stands seven feet high in his moccasins.