se details are, perhaps, useful for the better understanding of the
disturbances that came thick and fast when in August, 1914, the
war-madness broke out among the nations of Europe. The repercussion was
at once felt even in our remote corner of the earth. Soon after the
German invasion of Belgium the Turkish army was mobilized and all
citizens of the Empire between nineteen and forty-five years were called
to the colors. As the Young Turk Constitution of 1909 provided that all
Christians and Jews were equally liable to military service, our young
men knew that they, too, would be called upon to make the common
sacrifice. For the most part, they were not unwilling to sustain the
Turkish Government. While the Constitution imposed on them the burden of
militarism, it had brought with it the compensation of freedom of
religion and equal rights; and we could not forget that for six hundred
years Turkey has held her gates wide open to the Jews who fled from the
Spanish Inquisition and similar ministrations of other civilized
countries.

Of course, we never dreamed that Turkey would do anything but remain
neutral. If we had had any idea of the turn things were ultimately to
take, we should have given a different greeting to the _mouchtar_, or
sheriff, who came to our village with the list of mobilizable men to be
called on for service. My own position was a curious one. I had every
intention of completing the process of becoming an American citizen,
which I had begun by taking out "first papers." In the eyes of the law,
however, I was still a Turkish subject, with no claim to American
protection. This was sneeringly pointed out to me by the American Consul
at Haifa, who happens to be a German; so there was no other course but
to surrender myself to the Turkish Government.

CHAPTER II

PRESSED INTO THE SERVICE

There was no question as to my eligibility for service. I was young and
strong and healthy--and even if I had not been, the physical examination
of Turkish recruits is a farce. The enlisting officers have a theory of
their own that no man is really unfit for the army--a theory which has
been fostered by the ingenious devices of the Arabs to avoid
conscription. To these wild people the protracted discipline of military
training is simply a purgatory, and for weeks before the recruiting
officers are due, they dose themselves with powerful herbs and physics
and fast, and nurse sores into being, until they are i