The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-22
THESULTAN AT HOME
\
How the Great MOhammedan
Caliph Rules COnStantinOple.
HE LOOKS LIKE JAY GOULD.
With Millions Year and Hundreds of Wives
He is hot Happy Something About His
Power-IIis Love for Horses.

CONsrANTINOPLE, September :, 1889
Especial Correspondence of THE HERALD
On the 9th of next September, Sultan
Abdul Hamid will be forty years
old He has an empire nearly half the size
Cof the United States, ever which he is alb
solute ruler, and
HIS WORD MEANS LIFE AND DEATH
10 more than thirty three million people.
Nc is the spiritual head of the great Mo
hammedan religion, and 2OO0O0,O00 lips
speak his name in worship every day.
Multitudes in India, North Africa, China
aud South Europe look upon him as the
Shadow of God, - and, like the Turks of
Asia Minor, regard him as the representa-
tive of MahOmet. He has an income of
SlOOO0,OO0 year. His treasury is filled
with diamonds. His palaces are numbered
by scores, and he counts his Arab horses
by the thousands. He has countless ser
wants to satisfy every wish, and his harem,
filed with the beauties of the Orient is re-
plenished every year with the fairest of
the young female slaves of Georgia and
Circassia. If physical comfort, sensual
enjoyments and worldly power are the
chief ends of life, this man now in bis
prime ought to be the happiest man in the
world. He is, on the contrary,
ONE OF THE MOST MISERABLE.
Every one of the roses of his life conceals
4 thorn, and in each of his palaces the
skeletons of fear hide in the closets, stand
behind the marble columns Of the saloons
and poke their heads out at him through
the perfumed steam of his luxurious Turk
ish bath Having absolute control over
millions of lives, he exists in daily fear of
1.-The loss of his own. and he trembles as he
spends his nights and days inside his great
palaces surrounded by his guards. He
moves among his people only when he is
forced to do so by the religious observances
which are incumbent upon hin as the head
of the Mohammedan religion, and his only
outing is on Friday afternoon, when he
goes in state to worship at the mosque.
This ceremony is one of the grand sights
of COnstantinople. The people would rise
in insurrection If the Sultan omitted it,
and it takes 1000 troops to guard him on
his way from his palace to the place of
worship.
THE PAvoRITE MOSQUE OF THE SULTAN
is that of Hamidiea. 1t was built by him,
and it is a beautiful structure of white
marble with great minarets rising hun
dreds of feet above its airy dome and look
ing over the Bosphorus, STEAMBOAT and the
sea of Marmora. 1t is near the Sultan's
great palace called Yildiz, ard it is in the
English quarter of COnStantinOple known
as Pera. A wide winding road leads from
the palace to the mosque, and at the side of
this house has been builtby the Sultan for
distinguished foreign guests This house
is Just opposite the mosque, and its win
dows command a fine view of it and the
roads leading to it, Armed with the card
Nj the American minister, and accompanied
HEy nv Mohammedau guide, | was received
by the officerin charge when l called at this
house yesterday. l was given a seat at
one of the windows, and for two hours pre-.
ceding the ceremony, | was interested in
the massing Of the soldiers and in the pre-
paration for the coming of the Sultan.
First came a little army of carts drawn by
donkeys and led by
BARE-LEGGED MEN IN TURBANs.
These carts were filled with soft yellow
sand and this sand was spread over the
road to the depth of several inches. The
Sultan's royal bones are too holy to be
jolted over cobble stones or macadam, and
whenever he goes out to drive the road
over which he intends to march is covered
with sand. After the carts came water
wagons and the sand was sprinkled to
make il softer and firmer. As time goes
on the soldiers march up division after
division and rank themselves along the
highway. There are regiments of cavalry
on the finest of Arabian steeds, each regi-
ment having horses of the same color, and
nearly every regiment uniformed differ
emily. Here is a troop of Circassians with
black caps six inches high upon the crown
of which are white crosses. They are
dressed in European uniforms, and upon
their breasts are rows of cartridges. Be
low them are cavalry from Asia Minor,
and coming down the hill in the distance
aIJS troops after troops of bronze faced,
fine looking men i'll turbans and caps on the
finest of Arabian horses. The soldiers are
Nall, broad shouldered and straight Down
another road march long lines of infantry,
some in
GREEN CoLORs OF MAHoMET,
and others in clothes of blue trimmed with
red AS the hour for the coming of the
Sultan approaches, the roads turn into
rivers of color, and along the side of them
back Of the soldiers, are seen the curious
characters of a Mohammedan crowd
There at the right is patch of white, and
YOU note that the hundred ballOon-lil1e bags
OF white cotton or silk, which seem to
stand upright on the ground, are alive, and
taking your glass you see that out of each
bag near the top peeps two black eyes, and
YOU know that these are the ladies Of
several MOhammedan harems, who have
come out to get view of the Sultan Now
come the officers of the court. They drive
up in carriages drawn by magnificent
horses. Some of them come on horseback.
and the breasts of all are covered with
medals. while their clothes. of European
cut, fairly blaze with gold lace Each
man wears bright red fez cap which looks
like gigantic red tumbler inverted. and
these caps crown the heads of the soldiers
as well, making the whole crowd look like
a great human flower bed of red
There is
A CHEER PROM TEN THOUSAND THROATS,
and the music is heard in the distance.
The cry goes up that the Sultan is coming,
and now around the corner preceded by
gorgeously dressed guard upon horseback,
surrounded by officers with drawn swords,
comes a low barouche drawn by the most
magnificent black horses you have ever
seen. These are driven by a coachman. !
EhOse body is respondent in a red velvet |
Suit embroidered in gold He has fez cap
on his head and, as he holds the reins tight, |
his gold sleeves hang down like those of the !
ladies' fashionable dress of some years ago |
The carriage is black but the trimmings are
gold The lamps at the sides are gold, and |
the horses are respondent in gold buckles !
and trimmings. In the carriage itself three |
persons are seated. On the front seat I
note a fine, gray whiskered old man. II is |
osMAN PAsHA THE HERO OF PLEvNA,
and beside him is younger man, favOrite |
of the Sultan. On the back seat sits tie |
Sultan himself. He is more simply dressed |
than any one of the 10000 people surro; nd |
1n& him. and his clothes are the morning |
suit of a gentleman, the coat cut high at !
the neck like that of an Episcopal clergy