Bulgars May Plant Cross On St. Sophia.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 4, 1912:
Byzantine Edifice, Where Their Forefathers Were Made Christians, Goal of Fighters.
A TRADITION OF A MIRACLE
When Moslems Invaded the Church a Voice Foretold Its Recapture by a Regenerated Nation.
    "When the war with Turkey was declared, the one thought that sprang into the minds of every Bulgarian soldier was, "At last we will plant the cross once more on the dome of the Divine Wisdom." They thought of this because since childhood they had learned to look upon this aspiration as the highest afforded by their ideals.
    Every Bulgarian child is taught in his history class that in the tenth century his Slav ancestors were still pagans, and that the Greeks, then the most powerful nation, were urging them to join Christianity. About the middle of that century a deputation of Bulgarian grandees were invited to Constantinople by the Byzantine Emperor. They had hardly set foot in the imperial city when they were hurried to the famous Church of St. Sophia to attend divine service. Such was the impression made on the minds of the sturdy pagans by the splendor of the celebration that, without waiting for further persuasion, they returned home in haste, and being admitted before their own Emperor, the spokesman of the party expressed himself in words akin to these.
    "We have obeyed you in proceeding to Constantinople, where we were taken to the Church of St. Sophia immediately upon our arrival. This church is a celestial spot on this earth. The sights that enchanted our eyes and the music that charmed our ears therein could not have originated on earth. We therefore cannot doubt that these Byzantines are followers of the only true creed, in which we ourselves are now devout believers."
    The Bulgarian King is said to have been profoundly impressed by the remarks of his emissaries, and forthwith embraced Christianity.
    Thus runs the legend of the conversion of the Bulgarians to the faith of the Cross. Hence it is that the name of St. Sophia has more than a passing lure to them. Nine centuries have elapsed since that event. lts memory, however, has not been dimmed by the shadow of all these passing years. Nor could forgetfulness have been in the ascendant, since throughout ail this period the supreme head of the Bulgarian Church, the Exarch as he is called, has always resided in the Capital of the Sultans. Not even when the kingdom was freed from the Turkish yoke in 1878 was the Exarchate removed to a Bulgarian city. No wonder then that these valiant peasants of the Balkans look upon this war as holy.

Relics of Many Temples Here.
    This famous church, one of the most remarkable monuments of the genius of Christianity, stands in the midst of a strictly Mohammedan quarter in the heart of Constantinople. Since the day on which Byzance fell into the hands of the Turks, its walls have resounded with the chant of the muezzin and the monotonous recital of the Koran instead of the melodious Greek liturgy sung according to the orthodox rites.
    The edifice was built in the first half of the sixth century on the Augusteum, which was a spacious court, on one side of which lay the palace of the Byzantine Emperors. It is unique in the annals of architecture. The whole known world of the time was ransacked for riches for it. From ancient Ephesus the city Magistrates sent a gift of four marble columns of the softest shade of green taken from the site of the nuns of the famous temple of Diana. These support the large galleries. Rome, which had about that time handed over the mastery of the world to its eastern rival, contributed likewise in a generous manner. Eight porphyry columns that were originally part of the temple of the Sun at Baalbek wore sent by its citizens. Whatever could be taken from the most famous temples of antiquity was conveyed to St. Sophia. The temple hence presents a diversified aspect in its interior that does not fail to please.
    According to Greek historians, more than 10,000 men were engaged day and night in the work of construction during the six years of its building. The most famous of Byzantine Emperors, Justinian, directed the work clad as an ordinary laborer. Silver of the value of $200,000 was used in making various ornaments. The holy vases were of the purest gold, in which gems of inestimable value were set. Various historians assert that over $5,000,000 were spent on this building by Justinian alone.
    The whole undertaking was considered a pious one. This is well shown by the fact that every brick used for the dome was inscribed with sentences from the Gospels. Relics of saints were placed in the mortar that bound the bricks. The very workmen performed their labor while listening to religious choirs.

Dome Was a Bold Conception.
    The most noteworthy feature of the edifice is its dome. It represents the materialization of one of the boldest conceptions in the history of architecture, for it was here that a circular structure was first laid over a rectangular base. This departure was due to the daring of Anthemius of Thrales, one of the most renowned engineers of antiquity. The problem was solved by the building of a huge square formed by columns the heads of which were connected by arches to one another. It was found that by simply fitting the corner of this frame to the crown of the arch the resulting uppermost surface was that of a circle whereon the dome could be conveniently erected. This is the famous pendentive of Byzantine architecture.
    The diameter of this remarkable dome is 107 feet and its height is 40 feet These proportions impress one with the idea of beholding a huge inverted bowl above one's head. Everything appears to hang in mid-air, so much so that the boldness of the execution cannot pass unnoticed. A row of small windows, some forty in number, are pierced at the base. This produces effects of surpassing beauty, for the light is thereby not only softly dispersed, but is also uniformly distributed. It is narrated that Justinian had abstained from inspecting the building, shortly before its completion, and that when the day of inauguration arrived, the only remark he could make was: O Solomon, I have surpassed thee indeed!"

Christian Pictures Were Preserved.
    During the days when Constantinople was a Christian city, the base of the dome was covered with mystic representations of the Virgin and the saints, which were executed mostly in beautiful mosaics. To-day as one stands below the dome, the eye, cast upward, meets huge discs on which gilded Arabic inscriptions have been painted against a green background. The only vestige of Christianity still in evidence is represented by the wings of huge mosaic archangels, which have been carelessly overlooked by the Turks. It must be stated in all fairness, however, that the obliteration of Christian pictures has been confined to whitewashing the Byzantine paintings.
    Many are the legends connected with the edifice. One of the most universally spread is connected with the fall of Constantinople, and is known to every Christian in the Balkans. The terrified populace sought shelter within the church, and the Turkish soldiery, bent on massacre, swarmed in. Terror was communicated to the priests, and they endeavored to escape in the crowd. One, however, stood undaunted, a wooden cross in his uplifted hand, calling on God to work a miracle. A Turkish janissary approached him with drawn sword, and was about to make short work of him, when the walls behind opened and swallowed him up. At the same time a loud voice was heard to proclaim that a regenerated Christian nation would again be the possessor of the sanctuary. Every Christian soldier approaching Constantinople knows this tale.             E. R.

WON'T ACCEPT ARBITRATION.
Balkan States Must Destroy Turks' Army, Declares Prof. Pupin.
    Prof. M. I. Pupin, who holds the chair of electro-mechanics, and is Director of the research laboratories at Columbia University, delivered a lecture on the history or the Balkan States and the causes of their attack upon the Ottoman Empire last night before the congregation of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, at Ninety-sixth Street and Central Park West. Professor Pupin is the honorary Servian Consul at the Port of New York, and is a recognized authority upon the Near East. He was introduced by the Rev. Dr. David G. Wylie, the pastor of the church.
    "I know the East because I was born there," he said. "By race I am a Serb; by education I am an American. In order that you may follow me intelligently, I desire to explain just exactly what the Balkan States are and where they are situated. These little countries which are now making a righteous war upon the Turks are situated in the Balkan Peninsula, between the Danube on the north and the Aegean Sea on the south.
    "The land of the Balkan peninsula is fertile. The climate is perfect; the country is the most beautiful on God's green earth, and the inhabitants are a sturdy and industrious race. Yet the fair valleys are sad and are filled with tears, and have been for more than 500 years. The Greeks are in the south, the Serbs in the northwest and the Bulgarians in the east.
    "The Serbs came to the Balkan peninsula in the sixth century. They found the Romans settled on the coast of the Aegean, and they drove them to the east, where they finally settled in Roumania. The Rumanians are not allies of the Serbs, Bulgarians, and Greeks in this crusade. They still retain the characteristics of the old Romans and have preserved their racial identity even better than have the Italians.

Serbs Converted In Eighth Century.
    "The Serbs, who constitute the two neighboring kingdoms of Montenegro and Servia, were converted to Christianity in the 8th century and in the 9th century two Servian priests went into Russia with the Gospel and the books of the Church printed in the old Servian tongue, known as the old Slavonic language, and succeeded in converting the Russians to Christianity. The same books are still used in the Russian Church and the services are still conducted in the same tongue, which explains the reason why the Russians and Serbs have such a close fellow-feeling to-day. "
    Prof. Pupin then explained that the people of Croatia were Serbs and that the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, now part of Austria-Hungary, were formerly part of Servia. Albania and Macedonia, now under Turkish rule, he explained, were largely inhabited by Greeks, with an admixture of Serbs.
    "The Serbs possessed an ancient civilization," he continued. "In the twelfth century the son of the Servian King went to Mount Athos and studied in a monastery and absorbed much of the Byzantine civilization. Upon his return he became an archbishop and divided the kingdom into twelve bishoprics. To each bishopric he attached a free school where children could go and receive an education. This was the first public school system in Europe. During the fourteenth century the Turks swept into Europe driving every race before them and conquered the Balkan peninsula. Every Serb knows that on June 29, 1389, the glory of old Servia was gone after one of the most bloody battles ever fought in resistance to a foreign invader by a soldierly and patriotic people. The Turks crossed the Danube and conquered Hungary and proceeded as far as Vienna, but finally recrossed the Danube and made Turkish provinces of the Balkan States.
    "It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that any opportunity was presented to the Balkan States to throw off the Ottoman yoke, and that was with the Turkish rising of 1820 when Greece became a principality. By the treaty of 1878 the Balkan peoples were robbed of the fruits of a victory which they had won with their own naked swords, when Bulgaria and Servia became principalities under Turkey by the action of the powers. It is because of the disregard of this treaty that the bloodiest war of modern times is now being fought.

Nothing to Arbitrate.
    "It is useless to talk of arbitration in this war, because there is nothing to arbitrate. It is not a bold move on the political chessboard, nor is it the result of territorial disputes. The allied States are not seeking to acquire foreign territory. This war is a revolution of the united Balkan States against Turkey and against every European power which does not agree to the declaration that all men are entitled to certain inalienable rights — to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are guaranteed by the powers in the Treaty of 1878 in Article 23.
    "It was agreed under the treaty that the rights of the Balkan peoples should be carefully preserved and that promise has never been kept. Austria was the first to break it when she seized Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    "It has always been the part of European diplomacy to promise something that can never be fulfilled, and when the powers promised to the Balkan people who were under Turkish rule the enjoyment of those things which are the rightful possession of every human being, they knew that those promises could not be kept for the simple reason that the Ottoman Empire conquered like the Normans conquered. The Turks confiscate everything that has any value, such as land, and destroy every institution not sanctioned under the Koran. "The Turks took the land, and the Christians for 550 years have worked it on shares, dividing their crops with their Turkish masters and paying one-tenth of their possessions each year to the Sultan in the form of taxes. At one time they even exacted a blood tax and took from each family the eldest son. These boys were sent to Constantinople and reared as soldiers. They were educated as Moslems and were trained to become the most fanatical and most wonderful soldiers in the world — cruel, fierce, and barbarous. They were then turned loose to prey upon their own people. All of them were Serbs. The girls of the Serb families the Turks took for their harems.
    "The Sultan was wise enough to grant certain rights to these conquered Christians, however, because he knew that the Turkish land owners were drones and that it was the Serb and Greek and Bulgarian peasants who were the bees. The great trouble was that these rights could not be enforced if they were violated, because they had to be taken into Turkish courts to be tried and no Christian could establish his rights before a Moslem Judge. In 1878 Servia saw that the only way to get justice was to buy out the Turkish landowners in those provinces in which Servia had received control. Greece did the same thing, and so did Bulgaria. The powers proposed reforms which did not touch the rights of the Moslem landowners, but these were futile for the reason that the Turk holds land in return for military service which he has rendered and for prospective service which he may be called upon to give. In other words, the Turkish Army is the landowner, and the only way to free the Balkan peoples still under Turkish misrule is to destroy the Turkish Army. There is no other way, and for this reason there can be no arbitration."