Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/143

Rh department at the capital, and saw one day that the same amount had been raised to 80,000 piasters before it reached there. This is but an illustration of daily and universal practice of the Turkish officers.

3. Delay. Delay is one of the proverbial characteristics of the Turkish rule. The words "yavash, yavash" (slowly, slowly), and "gelen hafta" (next week), are the constant utterance and the habitual motto of every officer throughout the empire. The Occidentals, though aware of the Turks' "deceit and delay," have not yet fully realized its depth. The crafty sultans played wonderful tricks in deceiving the European governments with their mysterious "yavashes," and the Government of the United States may keep receiving the same endless answer to its mild claims of indemnity for the mission properties destroyed by the soldiers of the Sultan. The Turks' "next week" will never come unless the language of gunpowder is used by Uncle Sam, as that is the only language the unspeakable Turk understands.

Electricity, so swift in its traveling throughout Europe and America, seemingly has lost its nature in Turkey. A message sent by telegraph to a distance of only twenty or thirty miles sometimes takes one or two days to reach its destination. The postal service is an eminent specimen of the Turkish promptness in business. The cities of 20,000 or 50,000 inhabitants receive mail but once a week, if they receive any, and that on the condition of entirely fair weather. The mail may arrive late in the