A cafe in Constantinople, in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Constantinople had been the capital of the Ottoman Empire since 1453, when Sultan Mehmet II conquered the faded Roman Empire. As the nineteenth century progressed, the Ottoman Empire gradually lost control of its vast territories, which had included several Christian countries such as Greece and Romania. Defeat in the Great War was followed by a revolution, and in 1923 the Republic of Turkey was established under Mustafa Kemal ‘Ataturk.’ The capital today is at Ankara over in the east; Constantinople has been renamed Istanbul.
A FREE people are a social people, fond of friendly intercourse. Cheerful converse and unreserved communication of sentiment soften the nature, refine the manners, expand the heart, and enlarge the understanding. Freedom of speaking and acting is the source of civilisation.
A nation of slaves is a nation disunited; no social ties, no unbosoming of friendship; suspicion and fear is in every breast; conversation is uninteresting, and consequently not sought after; hired buffoons and low jesters are the speakers to the gloomy audience, or they sit in sad and stupid solitude, smoking a narcotic herb, or taking lethargic opium; insulting haughtiness and ridiculous pomp take the place of that elevation of sentiment, and dignity of character, which alone exalts the man of high birth or office above his fellow citizen; disgust and gloom hang over their countenances, and innocent mirth is deemed indecent.
