Russia is a prisoner as to
access to the Mediterranean, and so to the Atlantic, and so to the
world at large. If she is at war, she cannot float her fleets. If
she is at peace, she cannot sell her grain without going roundabout
through her neighbors' lots. Turkey stands the tollman at the
turnpike-gate, controlling and usurping the highway of all nations.
Maps are fascinating reading. "Neb" must not think that religious
faith ever occasioned a war. Russia sincerely desires the protection
of Greek Christians in Roumania and Bulgaria in Europe, and Armenia in
Asia, but she wants also to send her ships free to the winds through
from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Look at the map once more,
"Neb," and see how much of a great country, fertile, strong, and
industrious, is closed and shut against the outer world by the
absolute Turkish control of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
* * * * *
Indianapolis, 1877.
DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have taken every number of your splendid
magazine, and I will now try to do my share to entertain the
others.
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