Some Leading Events in the Current Story of the World

SOME LEADING EVENTS IN THE CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. BY DR. J. M. TANNER, SUPERINTENDENT OF CHURCH SCHOOLS.

Miss Ellen Stone. In the early part of September, Miss Ellen Stone, a Protestant missionary for some twenty-five years in European Turkey, was captured by a band of Bulgarian brigands, and carried away into a mountainous district, a district practically inaccessible to all save those who are famihar with the country. Miss Stone was on her way from Bulgaria, north of the Balkan Mountains, to Salonika, a seaport town on the ^gean Sea. It is the old Thessalonica of the New Testament. Miss Stone started on this journey in company with some fifteen other persons, most of whom were as helpless as herself, and she started, it is asserted by the Turks, in the face of Turkish protests, and Turkish warning. The country is more or less infested by robbers, and is unsafe for ordinary travel. As a rule, the Turkish government recommends to those who travel through Macedonia that they go in parties of as large a number as possible, and that they take with them an escort of Turkish sol- diers.

The brigands, at the outset, made prisoners of the entire party, but, after a night's detention, released all except Miss Stone and Mrs. Tsilka, the wife of an Albanian, who shortly after her capture, it is said, gave birth to a child, and who afterwards died through exposure, all of which is mere rumor awaiting confirma- tion. The purpose of the bandits soon became known through a message from them announcing that Miss Stone was held subject to a ransom of twenty-five thousand liras, Turkish money, an

140 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

amount exceeding one hundred thousand dollars United States gold coin. The demand for the ransom was accompanied with the threat that unless the money was forthcoming within a given time, Miss Stone would be put to death. Efforts were immediately made, and the necessary amount was raised in this country and forwarded to Turkey, Numerous reports and alleged letters furnish the public very unsatisfactory information as to the real status of the affair. It

has been reported that Miss Stone was really put to death, but later the reports have been denied by a statement that private informa- tion had been received from the captive. Those best informed as to the character of these bandits, and who are familiar with their code of honor, assure us that the bandits mean exactly what they say, and that while the time of her threatened death may be post- poned, the event is certain, in case the money is not forthcoming. Some question, however, has arisen as to who these bandits are: whether they are Turks or whether they are Christian Bulgarians. Reports have been circulated from Bulgaria to the effect that they were Turks, but these reports have been very generally discredited, in view of the fact that great prejudice exists among all the Christian people of Turkey against the Turks. Tsilka, himself, is authority for the statement that at the time the party was cap- tured, a Turk was also taken prisoner, and was killed by means of his own knife in the hands of one of the bandits. As soon as our embassador to Constantinople learned of the unfortunate affair, he set out to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, for the purpose of urging the Bulgarian government to take steps to apprehend the abductors of Miss Stone. It is his opinion that these bandits are a part of a committee of what is commonly called a Macedonian Committee, made up of Bulgarians. It is the purpose of this committee to keep up throughout Macedonia, or Roumania, as it is sometimes called, an agitation that will lead to an uprising, and finally the dismemberment of Roumania from the Turkish Em- pire. Most of the inhabitants of that country belong to some Christian denomination, and the country lies between Greece on the south, and Bulgaria on the north, a large portion of the popu- lation consisting of Bulgarians and Greeks. For many years, dur- ing the discussion of the "Sick Man" and the breaking up of his

CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. ' 141

empire, there has been going on a lively discussion between the Greeks and the Bulgarians as to which should inherit Macedonia. Each of these nations is afraid the other will get the country, and the hatred between Bulgarian and Greek is much more intense, in consequence of such dispute, than that which exists between either of these people and the Turks. It is the business of this Macedon-

ian Committee to so keep up the agitation that the European pow- ers will be compelled to force Turkey to surrender practically all that Turkey owns, except Constantinople, in Europe. This com- mittee has been led by one Saraf of . The committee needed money to carry on its campaign, and began to make assessments upon the wealthy men of Bulgaria. If these wealthy men refused to pay, they were often assassinated. Something of a reign of terror was inaugurated. At last the committee was broken up, but it soon effected another organization for the purpose of obtaining plunder, and creating a spirit of revolution in Macedonia against Turkish rule. The Turks can hardly be held responsible for the acts of Bul- garian brigands, except that Turkey is too weak to maintain law and order in the mountain districts of Macedonia. At first, in this country, considerable feeling was aroused against the Bulgarians because of the fact that citizens of the United States, by means of the Robert's College on the shores of the Bosphorus, had expended many hundreds of thousands of dollars in the education of Bulgarian students, who are now leading officials in the Bulgarian govern- ment. Bulgaria is only nominally under Turkish rule, but Turkish sovereignty is theoretically supreme in that country. Strickly speaking, the Turks would have a right to pursue these Bulgarian brigands into the latter's country; but this, the great powers would not permit. This country of late has been in considerable suspense over the fate of Miss Stone and awaits with deep anxiety the out- come of the negotiations for her rescue.

The Execution of Czolgosz* Tuesday, October 29, witnessed, in this life, the end of Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley. All the circum-

stances of this sad event, the imprisonment, the trial, and the ex-

142 • IMPROVEMENT ERA.

ecution of the man, are splendid testimonials of the inherent dis- position of the people generally of this country to adhere to the rales of law and order of our government, and it is fortunate, as an example to mobs, that no overt act was committed in the case of Czolgosz, but that he was permitted to be disposed of in a law- ful manner. It would be as a rule best "if the assassin could be entirely forgotten, and it is certainly gratifying that his last days passed without any great publicity to encourage others of his class to seek notoriety in a similar manner. The execution was most expeditious, and the manner of his execution rather commends the law of New York, by which its criminals are put to death by elec- tricity. It it said that the assassin, at the time of his execution, could not have experienced a consciousness after the battery was applied more than a fraction of a second. His body was so dis-

posed of that cheap sensation-mongers will be unable to remind the people of this country, by the exhibition of alleged skulls and bones of the assassin, that such a man has had an existence. What, however, seems most suggestive to the people generally of the United States was one of his last utterances that he was not sorry for his act, that President McKinley was "an enemy of the good people — of the good working people." This perhaps represents the debased feeling of a man who had become the victim of agitation. He probably imbibed that spirit from yellow journalism, which it is hoped the people of this country will do all in their power in the future to suppress.

The Liquor Problem. Now that Tammany Hall of New York City has been defeated, and the anti-Tammany forces are in control of the great metropo- lis of this country, the people of New York, as well as those in other great cities of our country are face to face with a problem that has perhaps contained within it more elements of human mis- ery and human destruction than any other one. It is not neces- sary to explain how drink shatters the whole life of man, but it is necessary to understand the best means of minimizing its harmful consequences. What is true of New York City is largely true of every large city in the United States. New York has been strug-

CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. 143

gling with the liquor problem for some time, and especially with Sunday selling. The conditions, therefore, under which liquors may be disposed of in New York City are somewhat interesting. There are really four legally recognized methods in the sale of liquor: first, by druggists; second, by grocers; third, by hotels;

and fourth, by saloons. The druggist sells on prescription, the grocer may sell in wholesale amounts liquor that cannot be consumed on the premises, the word saloon is self explanatory, but the sale of liquor by hotels is somewhat peculiar to New York. This method was established by what is known as the Raines Law. It is quite customary among tens of thousands of people throughout this country, and especially in the large cities, to make some form of light liquors a beverage, that is, wines and beer. This practice is quite common among a large proportion of what may be denomin- ated commercial travelers and tourists. They claim that they have the same right to take alcoholic drinks that their friends have to take a cup of coffee for their breakfast. The demand of this class caused the state of New York to yield to the sale of liquor in hotels on Sunday. A provision however was made that the hotel should be bona fide and to be bona fide it must contain a certain

number of rooms. Now liquor selling on Sunday, when men have leisure, and when out of employment they are disposed to carouse, is of course a most profitable buisness, however questionable an

occupation. The saloon element in New York soon found oppor- tunity to evade the law by selling liquor in a house containing a certain number of rooms. This evasion of the law had become all the more obnoxious because the extra rooms of the saloon were often used as brothels, so that the Raines Hotel, as it is sometimes called, became a dangerous den of vice and crime. The smaller saloon men, who could not afford the higher rent in order to com- ply with the hotel law, openly ignored it, and to their minds with abundant justification. How far the new government of New York City and that of our own capital may be able to control liquor traf- fic on Sunday is a question which the future alone can solve. One thing, however, seems to be apparent, and that is,that whatever may be said of the relative amount of liquor drank now and in times gone by, it is evident that intoxicating drink is yearly invading more and more the Sabbath day, and it is certain that the Lord's day is more