to temporize again. A large force was sent in to disarm
the garrison and to drag Abdul Hamid off his throne. And at the very
head of that force, together with a hundred of his best men, marched
Yani Sandanski, the abductor of Miss Stone, the slayer of Prince
Ferdinand's chief conspirator in Macedonia, Boris Sarafoff, the
brigand chief who represented the people of Macedonia, but had been
outlawed in every Balkan State. What could be more symbolical of the
partnership between the Macedonia Committee and Young Turkey than
that Yani Sandanski should be one of those who were to drag Abdul
Hamid off his throne and send him a prisoner to Saloniki?

At that moment, and for some months after, it looked indeed as
though this union of previously antagonistic elements in European
Turkey would effectually balk all the intrigues, not only of the
little Balkan States, but of Austria and Russia as well. Nothing
could have been more disappointing to the tribe of diplomats than
this unexpected turn of events.

Undoubtedly most of the Young Turk leaders were sincere and really
wished to establish a new Ottoman Empire based on a broad
citizenship of all its peoples and the elimination of religious and
racial differences from politics. Many of them were out-and-out
Socialists, as was Yani Sandanski himself, who saw far-off visions
of a great European, if not a world, confederation which should
banish war entirely from the earth.

But unfortunately Young Turkey had a bigger task on its hands than
it could swing. The Mohammedans of Macedonia and Thrace had been won
over to its progressive ideas. But the people of Islam on the other
side of the Bosphorus had yet to be heard from. And when they did
make their voices heard, it was not in favor of recognizing the
giaours as their political equals.

Perhaps, even, if left to itself, Turkey, under the guidance of the
new and younger elements, might eventually have emerged triumphant
against the dark forces of fanaticism and reaction. But it was not
to have that opportunity. The solidarity of all the Turkish
subjects, especially in European Turkey, would be nothing less than
a calamity to all the Balkan States. There would be no "oppressed"
brothers to rescue, consequently no pretext for that territorial
expansion which they had all counted on to take place some day in
the future. There could be no Greater Hellas, a Byzantine Empire
reestablished, with Constantinople as its capital; there coul