Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-12-28

ed that Abdul Hamid never roads, rover
writes and never cuufcrs with any one
According to this chrunrlcr, he gets all his
informution 10th concerning tie progress
of affairs in hi, own empire ana the re
maindCr Cf the world, through his two sCc-
rctarics. This writer further declares that
the sultan always has lis pct parrot in the
room when he listens to these function
aries, and that he pcrsistonty plays with
the bird all through the reading of their
reports. Tho recording secretary emit Is
first, and bis report consists of a synopsis
of the affairs Of the day. propositions con
corning the immediate course of the gov
ernmcnt ana information as to what has
been done in the way Of executing pre-
yiuus orders Occasionally the potcutate
mods, and every nod is taken by the sccre-
tary as an assent to some proposition y
memorandum is made, and eventually an
Trade thereon is issued. An trade is like "A
proclamation, or more properly, a Russian
ukasc, only moro So" TO question the
wisdom cf an Trade is to utter treason,
and treason is Il very serious matter in
Turkey Il j. apt 10 CvCntuatc in the bow
string and Ito sack. Very rarely j. TIE
Ljcct Of an iraGc well considered. L stn.i-
ly only the EarC,t outlines Of any given
proposition arc read to him, and the de-
tails Of is carrying out and Of the prOl'a-
bic effect thereof are not often known 10
the sultan, and yet the fate Of thousands
often depends upon just such hastily writ
ten decisions by this monarch After the
sultan has got through with this secretary
then comes another, who reads a synopsis
Of the news Of the day, both home and for
eign, including dispatches from I'll parts
of the earth ,oivod the night before.
Abul lIamil talks to them Of what lie has
heard and what he thinks Of it, TAis IS
called discussion " though only the
sultan takes part therein After it is over
the ministers retire toa little room, WhCIe
what they do can bc seen and what they
say can be heard by their master. Some.
times their views are embodied in the re
port read by the first of the secretaries the
next morning and sometimes not. Rarely
does the sultan pay even us scaut an
4 amount of attention as is above Ge.cribtd d,
or moro than two or three hours. After
noon lie fills up his time with the most
! trivial things, not the least of which are the
dancing and playing upon musical in
strumcnts of his 200 female slaves, or
odalisqucs all of whom are less than Is
years old.
Hero is another picture of the sultan,
painted indeed ly his only intimate friend,
Osman P;isha. hut probably Is lii:cly to at
least approach the truth a. the other. Ac-
cording to this authority, the sultan is
not ut ali II man If frivolous case and in.
doleHce lie is impressed with the thought
that in his hands are placed the keys Of
Europe and that the responsibility is
something enormous. He therefore reads
much, studies history profoundly, keeps
/ himself accurately informed upon all cur
rent events and the trend Of modern west
eTn thought
No man in all the Ottoman empire
works harder. lie rises with the sun, Of
ten after but an luur or two Of sleep, FIRE
qucntly having passed the night writing
with his own Land some important docu-
mcnt Of state. Since the affairs of the
Turkish provinces have come SO pron
ncnuy to the front the sultan allows no
order Of any sort affecting them To issue
without understanding it thoroughly or
without his own signature, and. according
to Osman pasha, II ruler moro thoroughly
in touch with the most remote parts Of
his realm would be very hard TO iina This
story goes on to the o1oct that although
tho sultan las hundred women in his
harcm, besides his 200 odali,qucs, NAL,
ing 800 In q z, he is thoroughly devoted to
his wife, by whom he has tAtco daughters,
Of whom be is very fond. Whenever lac is
tired Of the cares of state and the court, ho
betakos himself to the company of his
wife and the daughters, and the latter
play for him on the harp and tho piano.
He delights IN such melodies as arc to be
found in The Hugucnots" or selections
from Wagner, of whose Funeral March
he never tires The sultan then looks as
little like Turk as he possibly can and
yet be one. Put him into a slouch hat
and black clothes, and he would look not
unlike an American divinity student"
After all, the outside world knows very
little about the real personality and life OF
the SULTAN of Turkey.