Читать книгу The Story Teller of the Desert—"Backsheesh!" or, Life and Adventures in the Orient - Thomas Wallace Knox - Страница 83

A couple of years ago the Sultan commanded that a conservatory should be erected in his garden. Glass and other materials were ordered from Europe, and hundreds of men were set at work. It was finished at a cost of over a million of dollars, and His Majesty went to see it. The old idiot—I wish to be respectful as he is a Sultan—was not in a good temper for some reason, and determined not be pleased. He raised his languid eyes to the roof of the building and then turned away.

“I don’t like it,” he said; “destroy it!”

And before night every piece of glass was broken, and the beautiful conservatory was leveled. This is the way the Sultan and his government have been using the money borrowed at a high rate of interest; and they are now borrowing money at high interest to pay that interest. This thing will go on until Turkey can borrow no more money, and then the whole concern will collapse. When she can’t borrow any more, the probabilities are, she will stop the interest on her present debt and give herself no trouble about the principal. Turkey, as a nation, is very much like a great many of her subjects. Every traveller in the East will tell you that he is constantly appealed to to give “backsheesh”—i. e. a gratuity—not only by those who have served him, but by those who have rendered no service whatever, and do not expect to. From the time you enter the Orient till the time you leave it, that word is dinned into your ears so continually that it seems like one prolonged echo.

As the natives, young or old, masculine, feminine, or neuter (the latter are the guardians of the harems), appeal thus to the individual foreigner, so Turkey as a nation squats or stands before other nations, and takes up the perpetual demand for “backsheesh.” The foreigner, when first entering the Orient, generally submits to the appeal, and gives of his abundance; but he soon finds that begging is universal, and that the purse of Fortunatus would soon touch bottom. So he becomes prudent, especially as the Oriental is never satisfied. Whether you give copper, silver, or gold, by the piece or by the handful, is all the same, the begging or rather the demanding continues.

The nations and moneyed men of Europe are learning the habits of the Turk, and emulating the example of prudent travellers. Turkey is about at the end of her borrowing, and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire is one of the near possibilities. Russia is patiently waiting; Austria is waiting; Prussia is waiting; and the other nations are waiting for the dissolving view which will enable them to reconstruct the map of Europe. None of them are likely to take any measures to hurry “the sick man” to his end, as he is going in that direction with a rapidity that ought to be satisfactory to the on-lookers.

Through fleets of ships and steamers we threaded our way from Galatz and along a tortuous channel through a forest of reeds, till we passed Selino, and were tossing on the waters of the Black sea, with the prow of our steamer towards Odessa.