in 1889, they were
much more so in 1898; for on this second visit, the Kaiser kissed the
Kalif on both cheeks and called him "brother." Then after having made
arrangements for the German building and the German control of the
Berlin to Bagdad railway, William II went on to Jerusalem. There he
stood in homage before the Holy Sepulcher, and afterward before the
manger in Bethlehem. A few days later in Damascus, a chief Moslem
city, he spoke to the Mohammedan officers then ruling the Holy Land,
and in the course of his speech said, "His Majesty, the Sultan Abdul
Hamid, and the three hundred million Mohammedans who reverence him as
Kalif may be sure that at all times the German Kaiser will be their
friend."

Abdul Hamid was a Turk, a Mohammedan, and a Sultan. As a Turk, he
believed all other people were no better than animals; and that it was
no more of a sin to kill a man, woman, or child of another race than it
was to kill a dog or a rat. As a Mohammedan, he believed that killing
a Christian gained merit in the eyes of Allah (which is the Mohammedan
word for God). And as a Sultan, he remembered how he had lost Serbia,
Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Roumania. These Balkan states together with
Bosnia were formerly a part of Turkey in Europe. Most of their
inhabitants were Christians and were more progressive than the Turks.
As they advanced in education and wealth, they revolted and gained
their independence in 1878. As Turkey lost these, the Sultan feared he
might lose Armenia, his last remaining Christian province. This was
Turkey's Armenian problem. The Sultan attempted to solve it in true
Turkish manner,--adopted later by the Huns in Belgium, but never
carried out so relentlessly as in Armenia.

Between the two visits of Kaiser William II, Abdul Hamid had been able
to put into effect some of the ideas in which he believed. First he
made a plan to kill about two million of his subjects living in
Armenia. Here it was that Noah is said to have landed with the ark on
Mt. Ararat after the flood had partially subsided, and here was a
people called Armenians and a country called Armenia long before the
time of Christ. But the Turk said in the days of Abdul Hamid, "There
is no such country as Armenia," and the Armenians were ordered never to
use the word or to speak of their country for it had disappeared, and
they now lived in a Turkish province. Abdul Hamid determined the
people should also disappear.

It seems almo