The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-05-03
HOW THE NEW SULTAN LIVES.
His Hours, Habits and .Intimates---After
Dinner Tnlks..-Fondness for Music.


Dinner Tnlks---Fondness for Music.
The Pail Mall Gazette says: The
sultan leads quiet and orderly Life, is
systematic in his habits, and takes care
OF his health. He retires early-gener-
ally before eleven o'cloek-and by SIX in
the morning he is in his library or ca6i.
net de trauil "a fact Of which l myself
am frequent witness), where he spends
the greater part of the day. Here he re-
ceives the papers sent to him from the
Porte: all of these he reads carefully
his uncle never did-and never signs
one until he thoroughly understands its
purport. Among the people he likes to
see are George Zariff, the banker, and
Hobart Pasha. With the former, a
shrewd old man of seventy, well versed
in matters of public interest, he talks by
the hour as to what may be done to I'M
prove the state of the country. With
the admiral his relations are more conf
dental; he makes him the channel OF
his unofficial intercourse with our en-
bassy.
In the evening the sultan frequently
asks one or more of the ministers to dine
at the palace, and after they have dined
engages them in conversation on public
affairs, which are often protracted to o
late hour. The day before yesterday
Safvet Pasha mentioned to me casually
in conversation that on the previous
Sunday evening the sultan had thus de-
tanned him in tete-d-tete colloquy,
which lasted for three hours. Recently,
too, Edhem, Djevdet, and Redif Pashas
passed the whole evening with the sui
tan discussing public affairs. Again, Ali
Pasha, lately recalled from his miserable
governorship of Mostar to be Vail OF
Adrianople-the Ali who preceded
Sadyk as ambassador at Paris-had q
long interview with the sultan before
going to his new post. In this interview
the sultan cross-questioned him very
minutely regarding the causes of provin-
cial maladministration. Ali Pashi ex-
planned to him the vice of the whole
system, the sultan listening with marked
attention. In taking leave of Ali the
sultan requested him to come to Con-
stantineple once month In order to
confer with him on provincial affairs.
Another person who has lately seen the
sultan is Photiades Bey, the Ottoman
minister at Athens, who says that the
sultan asked him number of very SEN
sible questions about Greek politics and
the social and industrial condition Of
Greece as compared with that of Turkey.
All these men, who have lately seen the
sultan, bear testimony to the soundness
of his bodily health and Of his mental
powers. No one says he is a great
genius, but all agree that he is modest,
Intelligent, eager for information, and
greatly interested in the affairs of the
empire.
As regards amusements, learn that
he inherits his fathers fondness for
music, and that he has "turn for me-
chanics. Paul Dussap was the music
master Of his boyhood, and he it is who
conducts the sultan's musical evenings.
I asked D. how these evenings were
passed-unless the sultan is very busy
there is always music-and he replied:
"The sultan likes the piano with string
ed quatuor; after playing few pieces
thus arranged, he generally asks me to
sing, and then he talks Of music. He
likes the quaint wildness which belongs
to Turkish music and to its more civil
Ized Hungarian brother. At his request
composed march for him, in which
he particularly wished to have the
rhythm of the I" Marseillaise combined
with the characteristic modulations OF
Turkish and Hungarian music. He told
me to "keep it as much like his fathers
own march as could d. played the
march to me, adding that the sultan had
made several little changes before au-
thorizing him to have it scored for the
full orchestra. These little matters,
wholly unimportant in themselves, help
to throw light upon this question, and
give an insight into the sultan's mode OF
life.