832 



TURKEY. 



secured at North Platte David Melisky and 

 Charles Reed, alias Dud Douglas, a noted Texas 

 murderer, for whom a large reward had been 

 offered. Both men were confined in jail in 

 Omaha. Several dispatches passed between 

 the chief police officers of Omaha and Austin, 

 Texas, regarding the prisoners, establishing the 

 identity of both beyond doubt. The first tele- 

 gram from Texas stated that Melisky was un- 

 der indictment for murder, and the second 

 stated that no appropriation had been made 

 for the officers' expenses, and consequently that 

 they could not come for the prisoners. The 

 third dispatch repeated this fact, and Melisky 

 was finally released in the District Court on a 

 writ of habeas corpus, even after having con- 

 fessed to the murder of three individuals. 

 Reed murdered three soldiers at Fort Griffin, 

 Texas, two years ago, while they were attempt- 

 ing to arrest him. He is twenty-two years of 

 age. He was also released after considerable 

 telegraphic correspondence, ending with the 

 following dispatch from Governor Roberts : 

 " Sorry to say we have no money appropriated 

 yet to pay expense, and no one to send after 

 Reed. Have been trying to do so for a week." 

 Great indignation was manifested against Gov- 

 ernor Roberts for allowing these two murder- 

 ers to be set free; and afterward, when he 

 commuted to imprisonment the sentence of 

 death which the courts had passed on two other 

 notorious criminals, Guard and Fields, the for- 

 mer convicted of murder in the first degree, 

 and the latter of rape. 



TURKEY, an empire in eastern Europe, 

 western Asia, and northern Africa. The reign- 

 ing sovereign is Sultan Abdul-Hamid II., born 

 September 22, 1842. He succeeded his elder 

 brother, Sultan Murad V., August 31, .1876. 

 The heir presumptive to the throne is his 

 brother, Mehemet Reshad Effendi, born No- 

 vember 3, 1844. 



The area and population of the Turkish Em- 

 pire, after the changes produced by the treaties 

 of 1878, are as follows: 



The receipts and expenditures in the budget 

 for the financial year 1295 (March 13, 1879, to 



March 12, 1880) were estimated as follows by 

 the Financial Commission (in piasters 1 pias- 

 ter = 4 cents) : 



EXPENDITURES. 



1. Publicdebt 165,048,851 



2. Dotations 205,757,248 



8. Restitutions 675,000 



4. Ministries 716,188,777 



5. Police and gendarmes 116,716,901 



6. Customs and indirect taxes 45,000,000 



7. Archives 6,000,000 



8. Forests and mines 12,000,000 



9. Posts and telegraphs 80,000,000 



10. Public health 7,105,169 



Total 1,304,336,441 



EECEIPTS. 



1. Customs 160,000,000 



2. Egyptian tribute 76,500,000 



8. Other receipts 1,188,082,000 



Total 1,424,582,000 



These estimates apparently leave a surplus 

 of 120,245,559 piasters. This result, however, 

 was obtained only by crossing out, in addition 

 to the interest of which payment was previous- 

 ly suspended to the amount of 1,338,840,622 

 piasters, the interest on the loan of 1855 to 

 the amount of 11,998,460 piasters, payment of 

 which has been guaranteed by France and Eng- 

 land. But, notwithstanding this operation, the 

 surplus is only an apparent one ; for if the new 

 loan which it has been intended to make should 

 not be brought about, one fifth of the taxes 

 and other receipts i. e., 237,616,400 piasters 

 would have to be used for the retirement of 

 the paper money. There will also be another 

 loss, as the remaining four fifths of the taxes 

 will be paid in a depreciated coin, making in 

 all a loss of 10 per cent., or 95,046,560 piasters. 

 Finally, the customs are paid in silver, which 

 is also worth from 5 to 6 per cent, less than 

 gold. The total deficit may therefore be esti- 

 mated at 342,272,960 piasters. The entire lia- 

 bilities at the close of 1877 were estimated at 

 6,130,000,000 piasters. 



The army in 1879 comprised 150,000 men. 

 of whom 18,000 were stationed in and around 

 Constantinople, 10,000 at Tchatalja, 30,000 in 

 Eastern Roumelia and the territory evacuated 

 by the Russians, 25,000 at Salonica, 17,000 in 

 Albania, 30,000 around Kossovo, and 30,000 in 

 Asia. 



Nothing definite is known of the total com- 

 merce of Turkey. The total annual value of 

 the imports is estimated at 537,500,000 francs, 

 of the exports at 496,250,000 francs. 



There are 1,243 kilometres of railroad in 

 operation in European Turkey, and 274 kilo- 

 metres in Asia. There are 334 post-offices and 

 417 telegraph stations. The length of the tele- 

 graph lines is 27,497 kilometres, and of the 

 wires 52,142 kilometres. 



The depreciation of the caimes (paper mon- 

 ey) had already in 1878 produced considerable 

 trouble, and in December of that year the price 

 of a gold lira of 100 piasters suddenly rose to 

 420 paper .piasters, and a crisis seemed immi- 

 nent. The bakers, who were forced to sell 

 their bread at a certain fixed price a measure 



