The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-18
IsMAIL
He Was n Man of Great Brilliancy of
Intellect and Born to Rule.
Harper's Weekly.

tAtA- ~ III IT.
Short, squat and fat. with scrubby red
hair and beard, thick sensual lips, and
coarse features, there was nevertheless
something in the appearance of the Khedive
Ismail that impressed the stranger seeing
him for the first time with a sense of his
being born a ruler, a man of great brilliancy
of intellect, as well as of innate refinement
and dignity. In many particulars he re-
sembled Napoleon III, at whose court he
spent much of his time prior to his sue
sceeding to the throne of his uncle. Said,
in 1888: and he had, perhaps unconsciously,
adopted many of the peculiarities of man
ner of the French monarch.
If France is indebted to Napoleon III for
her present phenomenal prosperity, Egypt
owes even more in this respect. to Khedive
Ismail, who transformed the land of the
Nile from a country sunk in the depths
of Oriental barbarism into a state which in
eminent is fully on a par with many of the
secondary powers of Europe. the present
standard of education in Egypt being dis
tinctly higher than that OF either Portugal
or Servia.
Although I was brought many times into
communication with the ex-Khedive, until
the time that he took up his abode definite
ly at Constantinople, in 1886, yet there are
wildly impressed upon my mind. One was
my first dinner party at the Palace of Alb
deem, in the early part of the seventies.
I had been presented to the Khedive in the
afternoon of that day by his Intimate friend
and crony, the late Duke of Sutherland, and
had been astonished by the knowledge which
he displayed of Japan, a country from
which j has just then returned, and about
winch little was KNOWN even III Europe at
the time. In the evening l was among the
early arrivals, and after paying my respects
to his Highness had the opportunity of
observing the manner in which he welcomed
the remainder of the guests as they were
conducted upstairs one by one by the cham
berlains on duty. The foreigners were
treated with a mixture of bonhomie and
dignity which was really very winning and
European. But one was reminded a mo-
ment after of the fact that the palace was
that of an Oriental ruler by the abject
cringing manner in which the native digni-
taries made their obeisance to the "Effen-
dina" as he was called.
The last occasion on which / saw Khe-
dive Ismail was four years after his deposit
ton and exile. 1t was just before his de-
parture for Constantinople, where he ended
his days in a species of gilded captivity,
never being permitted to leave his palace or
to receive any Of his foreign friends. He
was living at the time at the Villa Telfner,
at Rome. and had aged considerably. He
was as kind and IS genial as ever. His
there was a touch of bitterness in his con-
yersation which / had never noticed before,
but which was not surprising when one
recalled the treatment to which he had been
subjected by his former subjects, even by
his own son, and by all those European
royalties who had been so splendidIy enter
tasned by him when they had visited Egypt
during his period of power. Almost every
European court. save that of King Hum
in 1879. He was welcome nowhere, and |
often think that the mysterious and unex-
planned cause of his withdrawal to the
shores of the Bosphorus was to escape the
Sights and indignities to which he was
subjected in western Europe.