The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-08-17
the suLIAn's HAREn.
Three Handroa Wives Too Many for Z
Celestial Potentate to Manage.

| There is a screw loose in Turkey
the continental gossip Of the Glas
Cow Herald writes. Some plot OF
other has been discovered, and the
consequences are being seen in a
anmber of mysterious arrests, and
ia wholesale measures of punish-
ment against the press. The Times
has been three times con6scated
within a nonth, and the Chronicle
has been interdicted altogether.
The fact appears to be that seri-
Gus Palace conspiracy for deposing
the Sultan was detected in the very
nick of time. The Sultan was SO
unnerved by the discovery that he
sent for Sir William White and
asked for his advice. Sir William
answered that the Sultan could only
live in safety if he put down his
harem, not as a question of morals,
but as a matter of policy, seeing
that it was impossible to exercise
supervision over an establishment
of 800 ladies. The Sultan, who is
practically a monogamist, would be
glad enough to get rid of his 299
brevet spouses, but the customs of
his dynasty forbid him to do this.
On his birthday, and on twenty
other days in the year, he invariably
receives from his mother the pres
ent of a beautiful slave, and this
young lady has forthwith to be
transferred to his establishment in
the capacity of harem dame, with a
household of her own, consisting of
at least four eunuchs and six female
servants-to say nothing of horses,
carriages and grooms.
Multiply the number of these
households by 800, and it ceases to
be astonishing that the expenditure
of the Sultan's Civil List should
to s4,OOO,OOO a year. A
large item in this sum represents
the dowers which the Sultan pays
to his slaves when he marries them.
To favorite officials about 100 girls
are married from the Palace yearly,
and each of them is entitled to re-
ceive 10000. Unfortunately, the
bridegroom who takes a wife from
the Sultan's hands, must, at his
convenience, make a pres
ent of a slave to keep the staff of
the imperial seraglio up to its
proper figure.
The Sultan loathes the whole
thing, but what is he to do7 There
are too many vested interests en-
gagged in keeping the imperial har-
em supplied with wives, and if the
Sultan were to cashier his entire
female establishment, he would cer-
tainly be deposed or murdered.
Sir William White is said to have
advised his Majesty to reduce his
establishment by not filling up va
but this is not easy, seeing
hat every Cabinet Minister and
Pasha of note looks to passing his
laughter through the Sultan's har-
I'm as a simple means of securing
1er a marriage portion, with the
title Of Valide, which may be con-
;trued as Princess.
The man who would come to the
,hrone if Abdul Hamid were de-
posed is his brother, Rechad Pasha.
This Rechad is virtually prisoner
n Yildiz Kiosh, for he cannot 60
outside the garden gates without
cave, and he never gets PERMISSION
o take walk or drive alone. He
must always be surrounded by
guards or eunucls. Rechad, how
'ver, is man of modern ideas,
md lately fell in love with an En-
,lish girl whom he met boating on
he Bosphorus, and to whom he pro-
'osed marriage after a weeks &C
The Snlfap hoor.