The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-11-26
SULTAN OF SULTANS
The Weak and Vacillating Despot
DisturbS ALI Europe.
PEN PICTURES OF THE TURK
The Palaces. Harem and the Life
OF This Picturesque Anachron-
Ism. His Good Qualities Sell
dom Recognized.
From the philadelphia Press.

From the Philadelphia Press.
As long as any Christian land re-
mains under the Turk, there will be
discontents and disturbances and re-
volts and massacres: in a word the
Eternal Eastern Question" viii re-
main eternal. The Turk In Europe an
swers to Lord Palmerston's definition
of dirt; ne Is matter in the wrong
place" To-day the helpless babble OF
a man who can never make up his
mind" maunders on. while the COM
bined fleets of Europe and America
ride in the Bosphorus, to protect the
representatives of their government,
and on the part of the allied powers
to compel the sublime porte TO protect
the Armenian Christians from further
massacre. The black story Is an old
one. Twenty years ago the Bulgarian
atrocities startled the world. As long
as the Turk rules, the present state OF
things will go on Where the armed
Turk is, there can be no order; for the
presence of the armed Turk means the
commission of every form or outrage
without fear of punishment. Turkish
troops can never be put on peace
footing. for where they are, there can
be no peace, except In that old sense
in which men call 1t peace when they
have made II a wilderness. The sui
tan has sought to evade responsibility
ent succession of barbarities by dis
missing his grand vizier. while those
who committed the massacres have
been rewarded.
This ruler, Abdul Hamid. may be
the last OF the sultans. Beset by
burden of political complexities, threat
ened by revolt and conspiracies in the
very shadow of his palace. a ruler In
name and pomp alone. his only re-
sources are subterfuge. evasion and
Oriental despotism that Is undermined
by the gradual dissolution OF his poly
glot state, within and threatened dis
memberment from without. Abdul
Hamid IS not a man to be envied, al
though he spends more money than
any other man alive. The magnihcence
OF his court, the traditions that are
his inheritance from half century OF
Ottoman sway. the glamour OF the
system OF which he Is the glittering
orbital center make the descendant OF
Osman the embodiment or all the glow
and magic of the Arabian Nights vol
uptuous picturing. To the Western
eye there seems always hanging be-
fore Constantinople, a veil OF mystery
and separation. The sultan is a gor-
geous anachronism IN modern life.
Abdul Hamid IL Is not wholly re-
.sponsible for the rotten condition or
his empire. He Is a weak man with
intentions often good, carried along by
the resistless tide of the composite OF
toman mind and system. Prof Edwin
A. Grosvenor sums up the character OF
Abdul Hamid in a forthcoming work
on Constantinople, in these fiattering
words: sympathetic, generous and
large hearted, he endeavored to benefit
as well as rule his people. No other
living sovereign has equalled him in
gifts to the unfortunate and suffering.
n - H.
lagos cherish tokens of his interest and
regard.
He has shown a constant desire TO
advance education among his subjects.
In private conversations and official
utterances. he has frequently urged
the necessity of educating women At
Constantinople, as also in the pro-
vinces. there are numerously attended
and advanced schools for girls and
ed. all the expense OF which is defray-
ed from his own private purse.
The many political evils existing in
the Ottoman state, incurable because
inherent in Its very nature are not his
creation but his inheritance. These he
has endeavored to mitigate and re-
form"
THE POPULAR OPINION.
This eulogy sounds like bitterest
irony with the narrowing news of the
butchery Of thousands of his defense
less subjects that continue TO horrify
Europe and America. That countless
villages cherish tokens of his interest
and regard" seems to bear a double
reading. The sultan is either a much
maligned potentate or a thorough
paced villain, accordingly as one
chooses from the mass of opinions
afioat in relation to this little known
parsonage.
The sultan pirates OF education and
maintains a harem OF ], 900 women. Be
fore the European visitor he poses as
an enlightened monarch. and before
the fanatical Mussulman as the es-
sence or Moslemlsm. brutal. ignorant,
superstitious So runs the verdict that
accords more with the popular charac-
ter or the sultan, Abdul Hamid Ii. His
IS a government wherein the grand
eunuch, the head of the harem, stands
next In rank and importance to the
prime minister, q situation that Is a
keynote to the Turkish system.
The fun name of the sultan, now in
his SIND year. and in the goth year of
his reign. is worth the rewriting, for
the Oriental magnificence OF its sur
rounding titles
Sultan of Sultans, King of Kings
Bestower OF Crowns upon the Princes
OF the World, Shadow of God upon
Eartn emperor and Sovereign Lord of
me White Sea and the Black Sea. OF
Roumelia and Anatolia, OF Karsaman-
Ia. of the country OF Roum, Diarbel<ir.
kurdistan, Azerbidjan, Cham, Aleppo.
Egypt. Mecca. Medina. Jerusalem the
Holy, OF all the countries OF Arabia
and Yemen. and Monoer, Of an Infinity
of other provinces. gloriously acquired.
son OF sultan Abdul Mejid Khan, son
OF Mahmond Khan H., the Shah Sui
tan Abdul Hamid Khan"
This pale, dark man, clad in the
black frock coat OF European conven
tionality, wearing only the red fez as
the sign OF his race, is the Spiritual
head OF millions of Mussulmen. and the
absolute despot over 80, ZOO, 900 people
IN three continents. In his veins flows
the blood Of 20 successive sultans: he
is the Ast in the direct line from Os-
man. the heir Of the chieftain OF a
paltry nomad tribe. No other Euro
pean monarch can trace his ancestry
In so direct and unbroxen succession
through eight centuries, 20 the earliest
sovereign OF his race.