The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-01
1t Was Unlike Any Foot Had Ever Seen.

diery, an event which II was my Gus
tom to commemorate as a boy by
| wearing sprig of oak leaves in my
| cap. BE good enough to tell me
more"
His excellency regarded me with a
look of pity for my shortcomings, as he
replied:
The night 1 have described was that
on which Abdul Aziz Khan, the Refu-
gee of the world and the shadow of
God, was forcibly deposed from the
Sultanate and made a captive in his
| own palace.
AS soon as morning had come, the
news of what had taken place was all
over Constantinople. 1t did not take
the diplomatists in Pera wholly by sur
prise. For some time past Abdul Aziz
had been unpopular with his subjects.
To him had been attributed the misfor-
tunes which were gathering round
Turkey, and which seemed to threaten
the dissolution of the empire. There
had been more than one armed out
break in the capital, ministry after
ministry had been set up only to be
thrown down, and a feeling of unrest
was in all mems minds.
1T appeared that this state of things
had eliminated in the meeting of a Sc
cret council of the great Pashas at the
Seraskierate, which is, as you are
aware of. the headquarters of the
army.
The council had been called sudden
ly in the dead of night, by Mehemed
Rushdi Pasha, the grand vizier, but
for whom. il was said, the revolu-
ton would have taken place before
AT this council the principal ulemas
of the Moslem faith attended, and the
head of their body, the Sheik-ul-Islam,
officially pronounced that a commander
of the faithful might be lawfully de-
posed. Thereupon, the agents OF the
conspiracy received their orders the
palace was surrounded with troops and
the men-of-war, which / had seen illu-
minated prepared. to cut off all egress
on the water side.
These arrangements completed,
messengers were sent secretly into the
quarter of the palace in which Mehe-
met Murad Effendi. the sultan's ne
phew, was kept a prisoner by his sus-
picious uncle. The prince was SNUG
gled out in safety. escorted to the Sc
raskierate, and there proclaimed as
sultan to the sound of a hundred
guns
I'm this way was the monarch of a
great empire dethroned, and his crown |
given to another. without the loss of a /
single life. and with hardly a commo-
tion in the streets. Believe me. my
friend, we have yet much to learn from !
these oriental people.
''Constantinople was settling down |
again after it's excitement, and ] was |
to believe that nothing more |
would happen, when the news of the /
arrived. About midday a |
steam launch left the Dolmabacheh /
palace and came down the Bosphorous,
at the residences of the am
bassadors, and bearing Suleiman Bey,
the secretary of the grand vizier, who
to each of the foreign
in turn the tragic It'd
ngs that Abdul Aziz had refused to
his deposition and had died by
his own hand.
IT was with my chief when Suleiman
Bey reached the French embassy, and
as the ambassador had no secrets from
me l remained while he delivered his
He appeared much agitated.
a thing which is most unusual in an
oriental.
1.-The ambassador and were, of
course, overwhelmed by the announce
nent which he made TO us. While the
Bey was speaking my chief glanced at
ne and I read in his eyes the suspic-
on which had already formed itself
n my own mind. This sudden death
" an inconvenient and dangerous
prisoner was an event which IL was
'asy TO understand in an eastern
.ourt
Evidently the grand vizier had anti
ipated the feeling with which this in
would be received. The sec
'etary went on TO say
My master has thought IL his duty
O communicate the fullest particulars
( this affair to the representatives of
he powers at once. The body OF the
ate sultan is still lying in the room in
which IL was discovered by his attend {