The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1876-05-25
The Sultan of Turkey.

" hat an unhappy gentleman, is Abdul
Aziz, the Sultan of Turkey In the way
of wives alone he has enough care to make
any man round shouldered, for he supports
sixteen harems and maintains more than
twelve hundred women. If he loves them
| all, his heart must be "a harp of"-more
| th.n-''a thousand strings" Before such
blaze of connubial profuseness, our own
Salt Lake Prophet doth pale his inetfectu-
al fires, and doth dwndle to the proper
tons of Il tallow dip before the noon dav
sun. Then to have three thousand servants
at ones elbow for personal attendance
alone, as the Sultan does, would breed ac-
! cident and confusion in any we'll regulated
family, and must do so even in that of the
Grand Turk while 10 be cared for as he
is by fifty physicians, would seem cause
sufficient to send any man to two or three
dozen deaths. The Eastern followers of
Esculapius are surely not SO energetic as
are our Yankee doctors, for it only takes
one or two of the latter to kill man
From one point Of view the Sultan's NAL
ady calls
Not for Escuapian, but for moral aid"
But Of all the eleven thousand persons
who compose the retinue of Abdul Aziz,
those watchers over the harem, the black
eunuchs, described az two hundred stronq
and no doubt they are-must be the
least agreeable persons to have around
Considering his extravagant court, it is
not surprising that the Sultan of Turkey
is defaulter, well nigh hopelessly in
debt.
But all these narrowing domestic trou-
bles and cares are mere bagatelles -trifles
light as air-compared with the prese MT
political difficulties of the Sublime Porte,
which the recent murders at Salonca have
aggravated The flames of religious
warfare are ready to burst forth at any
moment III the Ottoman Empire, and
blaze into horrors never before equalled
in the history of the world. The fero-
cious spirit of the Mohammedans would,
at the least opportunity, stalk forth and
massacre Christians with selfapproving
religious fanatcism. To control the Mos
lens, to subdue these turbulent zealots,
must be the labor of the Sultan, if he
keeps his throne And yet he must not
for q moment appear to show undue IA
yor to his Christian bjects-though it is
fact that he does evidently desire to
deal justly with them Last week he
caused six of the assassins at Salonica to
be executed, and put two hundred and
sixteen persons under arrest, who are
charged with completely in the murders,
but what the effect Of this prompt action
will be, the future will show. On the
other hand, as a sop to Cerberus this
frightened Sultan remembering the fate
of Selim Ill. in 1909 has lately yielded
to- the will of the Mohammedan mob, led
by the softas of the mosques, so far as to
change his Prime Minister or Grand Viz
er at their demand.
An additional cause for the Sultans un-
easiness is in the fact that the jealous dogs
OF foreign war lie watching off the shores
of Turkey in their iron clad ships, ready
to spring at the throat of the Porte The
three great Christian Powers, Russia, Aus
tria and Prussia wish an excuse to destroy
the Ottoman Empire-while Russia, more
impatient than the others, waits for a
chance to pocket the Golden Horn. AL
ready it is predicted that the final and in
evitable result must be the expulsion of
the Sultan from Europe.
The tacetious suggestion has been made
by one or two journals that the managers
of the political parties wait upon the en-
ergetic Emperor of Brazil and invite him
to exchange his southern throne for the
executive chair at our White House. 1t is
a fact that in comparison with the public
men of this country Dom Pedro has all the
advantage. Here is an Emperor who rises
at four O'Clock in the morning. retires at
midnight, and in his waking hours does
the fair work of two days. There is plenty
of "push and go" in Dom Pedro; he is
what Webster was called = "a human
steam-engine in trousers"
Thomas w. Piper the murderer will be
hung tomorrow, the goth, without fail.