Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-29
TROUBLE IN THE HAREM.
The Sultan Finds Three Hundre
 Wives Too Many.

The Sultan Finds Three Hundred Wives Too Many.
 From ths Glasgow Herald.l
 There is a screw loose in Turkey. Some plot or other has been discovered, and the consequences are being seen in a number of mysterious arrests, and in wholesale meas- ures of punishment against the press. ''The Times'' has been three times confscated within a month, and s'The Daily Chronicle has been interdicted altogether. The fact appears to be that & serious palace conspiracy for deposing the Sultan was detected in the very nick of time. The Sultan was so un- nerved 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 ha- rem, not 8 question of morals, but as 8 matter of policy, seeing that it was impossi- ble to exercise supervision over an establish ment of three hundred ladies. The Sultan, who is practically monogamist, would be glad enough to get rid of his two hundred and ninety y-nine brevet spouses, but the cus- toms 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 present of beautiful slave, and this young lady has forthwith to be trans- ferred to his establishment in the capacity of harem dame, with household of her own, consisting of at least four eunuchs and six female ssrvants-to say nothing of horses,
 
 of these households by three hundred, and it ceases to be astonishing that the expendi- ture of the Sultan's civil list should amount
 to four million pounds year. large item
 in this sum represents the dowers which the
 Sultan pays to his slaves when he marries
 them. To favorite officials about one hun
 dred girls are married from the palace year.
 ly, and each of them is entitled to receive
 ten thousand pounds. Unfortunately, the
 bridegroom who takes wife from the Sul-
 tan's hands must, at his earliest convenience,
 make present Of 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 doa There gre too many vest
 ed interests engaged in keeping the Imperial
 harem supplied with wives, and if the Sul- tan were to cashier his entire female estab- lishment he would certainly be deposed or murdered Sir William White is said to have advised his majesty to reduce his estab- lishment by not filling up the vacancies, but this is not easy, seeing that every cabinet minister and Pachs of note looks to passing his daughter through the Sultan's harem as l simple means of securing her marriage portion with the title of Falide, which may l be construed as Princess.
 The man who would come to the throne if Abdul Hamid were deposed is his brother, Rechad Pacha This Rsehad is virtually 8 prisoner in Yildis Kiosk, for he cannot go outside the garden gates without leave, and he never gets permission to take a walk or drive alone. He must always be surrounded l by guards and eunuchs. Rsehad, however, | is man of modern ideas, and lately he fell ] in love with an English girl whom he met boating on the Bosphorus, and to whom he proposed marriage after weeks acquain- l tanceship. The Sultan, hearing of this af- fair, has nipped his brothers suit in the bud | by ordering the young lady to leave Con- stantinople.