66 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Hamdi Bey has agreed to open an art 

 school for women some day in the neai 

 future. In fact, there is no subject that 

 is being discussed with greater interest 

 and vigor in the Turkish press today 

 than that of the education of women. 

 Now is the opportunity for foreign edu- 

 cation in Turkey, when not only the 



Greeks, Armenians, and Bulgarians de- 

 sire American education, but the Turks 

 themselves look to America for help. 

 They are crowding into our schools, and 

 there is not room to receive them. 

 American education in Turkey is a pow- 

 erful ally to the Committee of Union 

 and Progress. 



SUNSHINE IN TURKEY * 



By Howard S. Bliss 



President Syrian Protestant College at Beirut 



THOSE of you who have had the 

 good fortune to visit Constanti- 

 nople know that the gloom of a 

 rainy day in that city is exceedingly 

 gloomy, and you also know, if your so- 

 journ has been somewhat prolonged, that 

 the glory of a sunshiny day in Constanti- 

 nople is exceedingly glorious. Such a 

 day was yesterday — a day that stands out 

 and to all appearances will stand out in 

 the history of the Ottoman Empire as one 

 of its great days ; and in your behalf, 

 I venture to say, as well as in behalf of 

 our fellow-citizens throughout the coun- 

 try, we may well thank our representa- 

 tives in Congress for sending across the 

 water to the people of Turkey good 

 wishes and congratulations upon the oc- 

 currences of yesterday. 



As you read the papers last evening 

 and this morning, you followed in imagi- 

 nation that crowd as it surged down 

 from Galata over the bridge and up the 

 slopes to the Mosque of Sophia. You 

 saw the Sultan start from his palace and 

 take that route which is a new one for 

 His Majesty. Everywhere the appear- 

 ance of the streets indicated that it was 

 a festival day. The splendid Turkish 

 soldiers, than whom you can find no finer 

 set of men in all the world; the Turk- 

 ish flags, the huzzas of the people, the 

 crowds of women — now a new factor in 

 the gatherings in Turkey; not only the 

 houses, but even the mosques, crowded 



with spectators looking down upon this 

 new, strange scene — you could see it all ! 



I took the pains today to look up the 

 record of the meeting of the first Parlia- 

 ment, in 1877, and there appeared in the 

 London Times a long letter from a Con- 

 stantinople correspondent describing the 

 opening of that first Parliament. Appar- 

 ently all the details were given, but the 

 account lacked those characteristics of 

 popular enthusiasm which fill the ac- 

 counts that appear in today"s papers; 

 and this enthusiasm of the people is full 

 of happy augury for the future. 



The scene in that Parliament chamber 

 yesterday, where the Sultan, after his 

 speech had been read before the repre- 

 sentatives, j >ined in the prayer of the 

 judge — the priest- judge — who asked 

 God's blessing upon that gathering, was 

 a scene of great solemnity, followed by 

 a scene of great enthusiasm, participated 

 in by hundreds of thousands of men, 

 women, and children. 



The contemplation of all this takes us 

 back five months, to those other scenes 

 that accompanied the strange events in 

 July. None of us had the remotest idea 

 that the revolution was coming so soon. 

 Although I was not present, I know 

 something about the effect that was pro- 

 duced in Beirut, Syria, when it was an- 

 nounced that the constitution had been 

 granted. Beirut is the largest seaport 

 town of Syria. It is a city of one hun- 



An address to The National Geographic Society, December 18, 1908. 



