The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-13
MEHRTIET ALI.
The Merry Mussulman Who Censured the
Grave Members of the Berlin Congress

The Merry Mussulman Who Censured the
Grave Members of the Berlin Congress
Berlin Correspondence Lcndon Times.
1t is just five years since the Berlin Con-
guess assembled, yet its resolutions have not
to this day been fully carried out, and the
effects of Its decisions are scarcely beginning
to be felt. Some of its embers, however,
are already undergoing the Judgment of his
tory, while Others, thrown into the back
ground and almost forgotten, may bitterly
contrast the solemnitv of that moment at
Berlin with the obseurity of the present, and
with the ingratitude of human memory
Out of the twenty plenipoten tiaries five are
dead-Mehemet Ali, Herr Won Bulow Lord
Beacensfield, Baron HaymerEe and Prince
GortchakoH. Mehemet Ais death, in the
course of an expedition. to Albania surprised
none who had closely observed him at Berlin.
Turks are not long-fived when they are so
witty. When he chose to reveal his inmost
sentiments, nobody ridiculed Turkey more
amusingly After dinner given at an en-
bassy | had the good fortune of seeing the
unvarnished Mehemet Ali. He had drunk
G1piously, cohcealing his glass with a kind of
Mussulman shame, in both hands, and empty
ing 1t every time at one draught. The
weather was hot and the burgundy entered
his head. After dinner he, member of the
English embassy and myself, entered a small
saloon. He sank on a sofa, and, with ges-
ture of man feeling relieved, threw off his
fez and burst out laughing. Reforms to be
carried out in Turkey had just been men
toned. Said he:
ut always makes rue laugh to hear of re-
forms in Turkey. 1t is like telling man to
walk on his head. / once commanded at
Serajevo. A peasant of the neighborhood
came with three horses, laden with oats for
the use of the cavalry. The oats were taken
and warrant was given to him phe peas
ant took it, and in order to get paid sooner
GOV hapRQbnaSb TirSr IN tho CLARK wi O
to order payment, next to the one who
should eountersign the order, lastly to the
man who should exchange the provisional
warrant for definitive one. Three days
later he was brought in gagged, because he
had had an attack of madness and had
threatened an official who had asked him for
backsheesil. With backsheesh after back
sheesh he had sold his three horses sacrificed
by degrees the price of his oats, and ii he
had had fit of violence it was because he
was still asked for backsheesh, when neither
horses, oats or anything else had been left
him. | gave him assistance, SO that he might
return home. Yet you want to introduce
reforms into such country"
Once in the humor, he told us host of
anecdotes, sparing neither men nor things.
He said to me:
did you know Ali Pasha, who was famous
during the Empire and whom the porte sent
as am baSsador to Paris at the most critical
to drink that, by the Sutan's orders, only
settler water was given him when he dined
at the palace. One day we amused ourselves
with filling the siphons with champagne
At the end OF the dinner he was too drunk
to stand. You see, said the Sultan, who
imagined he had been drinking seltzer the
prophet is furnishing you for your intern per-
ance, SO that now whatever you drink makes
you tipsy.' Next day he drank seltzer
again, but it only made him feel little UNI
comfortable What a pity, remarked the
Sultan, that the prophets punishment lasted
only for one meal "
/ Poor Mehemet Ali was one of the amuse-
ments of the congress. He read poems, told
anecdotes, and recovered all his European
wit and exhuberance, and it cost even Prince
Bismarck an effort to keep his distance from
this merry Mussulman.
at would amuse me" he said to me one
day, ito talk with Mehemet Ali. He m ust
be subtle fellow ('Das ist doch in feiner
Kerl') to have attained his position. But
really cannot | must uphold the dignity
of the Emperor, who must have felt hurt az
the choice Of this plenipotentiary. can
perfectly understand his having escaped, at
| twelve years of age, from a ship. ] think
that in his place l should have done the
same But really, when one reflects that he
has turned renegade; that, after having been
| French and German, he has become Turk,
and that as a Turk he has passed through q
career which conforms so little to Mecklen