THE YOUNG TURK 
81 
religious forms. The total abstinence 
from intoxicating liquors among the 
Moslems is due to a strict tenet of their 
religious creed. 
The Mohammedans worship the same 
God as do the Christians, with a devo- 
tion that is inspiring to any one devoutly- 
inclined ; and even in their reverence of 
the great Head of the Christian church 
they set an example worthy of emulation. 
If one would visit the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and see 
the devotional attitude of the Moslem 
^uard the government of Turkey is 
forced to maintain there to keep the 
peace — not between the Mohammedan 
and Christian, but between the Christian 
sects themselves, who there worship at 
the shrine of our Saviour — he will be 
forced to blush for his own religion 
while he pays a tribute of respect to 
Islamism. 
That detestable subject of polygamy 
among Mohammedans of today is not 
fully understood by us. While plurality 
of wives is permitted by the Koran, its 
practice is unquestionably dying out in 
Turkey. 
the; leading woman of turke;y 
One of the finest women I have ever 
met, who is of the Mohammedan faith, 
is now engaged in Constantinople in a 
propaganda for the education of the 
women of Turkey, which is full of prom- 
ise for the social status of the mothers 
of the country. 
To this grand woman I cannot refrain 
from paying a tribute of greatest re- 
spect. Helideh Salih, a graduate of the 
American College for Girls, is the lead- 
ing woman in Turkey in popularity and 
influence. She is at the head of this 
organization for the redemption and up- 
lift of her countrywomen. Already has 
the government, at her instigation, of- 
ficially installed five Young Turkish 
women at this magnificent American 
school of learning, in cooperation with 
her work. 
I am sure that American women could 
not read the pathetic cry of this Turkish 
woman to more civilized womanhood for 
their support and sympathy without a 
heart pang that would shake their very 
souls. I wish I might give it in full. 
"Come," she says, "to this land where 
the most terrible want of knowledge ex- 
ists. . Come and help us to disperse the 
dark clouds of ignorance." That grand 
American woman. Miss Helen Gould, 
has already answered her appeal with 
munificent aid through the American 
College for Girls, which now has hun- 
dreds of young women students of pure 
Turkish blood, where during the Hamid- 
ian reign it had but one. 
I have stated that Turkey is as far 
advanced in popular government today 
as were the American people at the end 
of the first decade of its constitutional 
history. This is no idle statement, and, 
as a matter for comparison, I would like 
to recall a brief outline of the events oc- 
curring in our own country during this 
period : 
In the heyday of our prosperity, we 
are apt to forget the mistakes made by 
our forefathers in their efforts to estab- 
lish popular government, only remember- 
ing the grand things accruing from their 
endeavors, after a long experience in 
handling the Ship of State. 
Three years after the Treaty of Peace 
established between the revolting Ameri- 
can colonies and the Mother Country, 
1783 (the same period of time that has 
elapsed since the constitution was pro- 
claimed in Turkey), we find, according 
to history, that the citizens of the various 
States in the American Union discovered. 
hy experience, the disabilities to which 
they were subject from a want of proper 
system, and began to clamor for reform. 
Commissioners, called together at a 
weak-hearted convention in Annapolis, 
announced that "the crisis is arrived, at 
which the people of America are to de- 
cide the solemn .j^uestions, whether they 
will reap the fruits of independence and 
of union, or whether, giving away to 
unmanly jealousies and prejudices, or 
to partial and transitory interests, they 
will renounce the blessings prepared for 
them by the Revolution." 
During seven or eight years, in fact, 
after the War for Independence ceased, 
the nation was humiliated to the quick 
