Troops Revel In Capital.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 24, 1912:
Constantinople Cafes Full of Men Absent Without Leave.
Special Correspondence The New York Times.
    CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 13.- The situation in Constantinople is more serious than it has been at any time since the war began. The foreign population, non-partisan and now amply protected by a dozen battleships, can look on serenely as one of the greatest dramas in history is being played before its eyes. The native Christian population is in abject terror, fearing dally that massacres such as have been perpetrated along the line of retreat of the Turkish armies will mark their return to the city. At the same time there is the hope that the Bulgarians will enter the city, and that by some miracle the cross will replace the crescent permanently in the city of Constantine.
    The Moslems are dispirited, so dispirited that there does not seem to be in them the power to make a heroic stand for the defense of the last soil of the empire in Europe. The bitter truth of the unbroken reverses of Ottoman arms in their contest with Greeks and Servians as well as with the Bulgarians is now beginning to permeate the masses, and one would think that the Turkish people would show the agony they must feel. But such is not the case. Every man goes tranquilly about his day's work, and it looks as if the people believed it was Allah's will that the Giaour should triumph.
    Some patriotic spirits among the younger generation have endeavored to inspire the people to resistance to the bitter end. During the past week the Young Turk leaders have been in evidence again, and have managed to bring pressure to bear upon the Cabinet. The guns from the warships have been hurried forward to Tchatalja, and the fortifications of the mouth of the Bosporus on the European side have been deprived of their guns.
    Several lines of trenches have been dug, and a band is going through the city trying to enroll a "national guard" of 40,000 people. Imams (Moslem priests,) have been sent to the front to exhort the soldiers to die in defense of their religion. But there seems to be no ginger left in the Turks. Their old fighting spirit has left them, The population, of Constantinople seems to have no desire to fight, and volunteers are few while the coffee houses are full.
    The people can hardly be blamed when they see the streets full of soldiers in uniform wandering aimlessly around. Most of them are deserters, who flaunt their cowardice with impunity in the face of the Government. A few are soldiers who have been discharged from the hospitals, and refuse to return to their regiments. Kirk-Kilisseh and Lule-Burgas were sufficient for them in the way of battles. But when you talk to these soldiers they immediately deny that they are afraid of the enemy. "We do not go because there is no bread. There is something to eat in Constantinople," is their simple explanation.
    The soldiers are only following the example of their officers. One hears a lot about the under-officering of the Turkish Army, which has probably been one of its greatest sources of weakness. Constantinople is full of officers in fine uniforms. They seem the least depressed of all in this great city, and laugh and chat and eat in the cafes as if the Turkish Armies were at Athens and Belgrade and Sofia.
    During the respite of the past week the Ministry of War has made a strenuous effort to fill the ranks at the front. Proclamations have been posted that no soldiers shall be in the streets, and that officers must report to headquarters. As this had no effect a warning was issued yesterday to the effect that every officer and soldier in Constantinople who had not reported to his regiment, or to the Ministry of War to give his reasons for being in the city, within forty-eight hours, should be arrested as a deserter and brought before a court-martial for summary judgment. If this measure falls through, we shall know that there is no strong military authority in Turkey any longer, and that the demoralization is complete.
    Another element which adds to the general confusion is the unceasing horde of refugees whose numbers are now so great that they cannot be assimilated in this great city. In Stamboul, the tramway street leading from the bridge over the Golden Horn up to Sancta Sophia is like a barnyard. Quaint little wagons with straw coverings are stationed everywhere, and all the animals of the family are gathered around — cows, buffaloes, sheep, goats and chickens. The authorities have endeavored to move these refugees over to Asia, but they come too fast. They have brought not only panic but also cholera with them, and it is feared that their filth will spread the disease. The ferry-boats are busy every day taking these poor victims of their own ill-founded fears to Haidar-Pasha, where they are put on open flat-cars and sent out along the Anatolian Railway line. One of these cars is detached at every station, and the refugees must leave it before nightfall, when the empties are gathered up and taken back for the next crew. It is a historic event, this transferring of the refugees to the other side of the Bosporus. For it is the Turk going back to Asia!
    The wounded and ill are now arriving in great numbers by train, by carriage, by autobus, and on foot. At the Sirkedji station they are brought in promiscuously, wounded, fever stricken, and cholera patients all together. Many are lifted dead from the railway wagons, and the dreaded cholera is naturally spread. If this were June or July instead of November the plague would sweep like wildfire over the city. The horror of these daily arrivals from the front is beyond description. I believe the poor soldiers would have suffered less had they been left on the battlefield.
    The ill-concealed gloating over Turkey's misfortune which is apparent in all the European press, and the lack of sympathy which is so painfully evident among those powers which had led Turkey to believe in their friendship, have resulted in a feeling of resentment against Europeans which is quite natural.