The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-02-01

more influential than the two former. If
to these be added the name of ellis Ex-
cellency, Yefer Agha, Chief Eunuoh, +"
there is nobody else in the whole Turkish
empire who counts. | must pay this
man the compliment of saying that he is
the most repulsive object in human shape
that have set eyes upon. At the Friday
Sslamlik he is the last person TO pass be-
fore the Sultan arrives. The broad in
cline from the gates of Yildiz to the
portals of the Hamidleh mosque is crowd
ed with troops in a dozen picturesque
uniforms, squadrons of cavalry block
every approach, brilliant aides de camp
and general Off GERS stand in rigid groups
the clash and clang of q dozen military
bands has suddenly ceased, in the recep-
ton pavilion the diplomatists are posted
at one window and the favored guests at
another, the roadway has been sprinkled
with sand, every twig carried off, every
wind swept leaf removed, every footmark
erased by a long broom, and the whole
tention, when from the palace huge
figure energies. dressed in fez and a long
black frock coat, and marches down the
middle with Slow waddl1ng steps, cast
ing arrogant and insulting glances to
right and left. This is the chief eunuch,
and he is followed by dozen of his I'M
speakable tribe. Formerly their horrid
Interpretations were concealed under long
robes. Now these are emphasized by
European dress. Pct-bellied, long-legged,
splay footed, thin-shouldered, beardless
abortions, with dropping jaws ana bulg.
ing lips, their eyes filled half with fear
and half with defnance, poor sexless
beasts, lowered foroibly with all the
Vices Of civilization and of savagery, and
cut off from the virtues of either-you
shudder to your marrow as they pass.
THE SULTAN'S MUTE EUNUCHS.
| There is something in Yildiz, however.
worse even than these intriguing keepers
| of the Pearls of the Harem. Hidden
away from common sight and hearing are
the mute Eunuohs rendered also speech
less in earlier childhood. These are the
people of the dagger, the pillow, the
bowstring, and the swift-running river.
| In the old centuries, when the foreign
Ambassadors were thrust into the imper
ial presence with the cry, Let the dogs
come and be fed,'' a cannon doomed from
the seraglio battlements as the strangled
corpses of the victims of displeasure were
| flung into tho Bosporus. No cannon
nowadays announces the tragedies of the
Palace of the Star, but they occur all the
| same There are plenty Of dungeons
there, and they have been full lately.
| Men told in whispers in Constantihople
the other day how seventeen mon had
beec bowstrung there in a single night.
And any Turk who trusts you can tell
you of score of men who have recently
/ been summoned to Yildiz and never seon
again. Within its walls live the ex-Sul-
tan Murad ", whom the Young Turkey
or Constitutional party would set upon
the throne; and the white-faced son of
Abdul Aziz and his ravishlng Circassian.
These know well that the moment Abdul
Hamid feels himself on the eve of depo-
sition will be their last. They are cut off
en- TREY from the outside world, and
never door opens behind them but they
yelp of the mute executioner, springing
upon them bowstring in hand. Within
the whited sepulohre of Ylldiz at the
end of this nineteenth Christian century,
deeds are daily done OF which one dare
hardly think, beside which Sodom and
| co roSpnokahln mi
| ties.
| Yet Abdul Hamid II. seems to sit firm
| ly on his throne, secure in the jealousies
of the great powers, unable to agree upon
the division of his kingdom. One Of
| them will do nothing to introduce stabil-
| ity OR further autonomy into the Balkan
peninsula, preferring to wait till the ripe
and rotten fruit shall drop into her lap,
and the hands of the others are thereby
| paralyzed. And if the Sultan loses heart
for moment in the desperate game he
is playing, he can find fresh courage by
thinking, as Prof. Grosvenor in his great
| book has recently reminded us, that the
British Embassy stands upon land pre-
sented to England In gratitude for help
against. France in 1901; that the site OF
the French embassy was given to France
in thankfulness for aid against England
in 1907; that the shaft among the cypress
es in the cemetery at Soutari commemor.
ates English and French support against
Russia in 1857, and that another column
on the Bosporus tells how Russia saved
Manmoud II. his empire In 1888. "You
think us weak" said Turkish states
man recently to foreign Ambassador,
"but in truth we are very sti ong, for our
strength is rooted in your divisions.
/ HENRY NORMAN.
| The History of the Fork.
| 1t is 900 years ago since the fork made
It's first auDearance in EurODe like man