The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-01-23
he AN ARMENIAN
sasaT Norman Says The Sultan is Not
Himself a Turk.
ABDUL HAND "THE SHADOW OF GOD"
Henry Norman, ortbe london Chron'
iclc, Writes InforninglS OF the
MINI Who DeGes All Europc-The
Unspeakabic Horrors of Yiidis
Palace, ahe SnItnn.s Residence.

49, - eahskNsf !"
Copyright, 1896, by S. S. Mcclure, Lin
The character OF the Sultan of Turkey
is the most profound mystery Of our
time. Some of us have seen him we
\ know his origin and history. we nave
studied his rule IN his own capital We
are acquainted with the facts OF his
reign, and we have questioned the few
men who during recent years nave
talked intimately with him face to race.
But ali this affords no clue to the mys-
terry. Here is an Asiatic. first Il dehau-
chez and later n religious fanatic. VINO
has hardly seen n civilized city or had
n civilized man for his friend: VINO
lives in the strictest seclusion. fearing
instant assassination: who rules over
q people nine-teenths OF whom look uFon
him as a political and religious uSurp.-
er; who has sean during his reign vast
territories detached from his hingdonl;
who has been crushed In n great war:
who has let a powerful fleet go to utter
ruin, and n splendid army totally de-
Senerate; who. finally, was once the ally
Of Great Britain and France. II Is
nov without q supporter among ma
tions. Yet he Is able to defy Europe;
with impunity to outrage the conscience
Of the civilized world: to traniple under
foot every solemn engagement that has
been wrung from him; to score one dip
lomatic victory after another over six
of the most experienced and willy am
~bassadors living; TO laugh ut the pres
sure of powers whose battleships could
lay every coast town In Turkey In ashes
i'll q few hours, and who could set III
motion ten millions of men; and, finally,
when he has at last been constrained
to promise life and liberty to an cp-
pressed people. deliberately, set about
to exterminate them. This maj | say
is the greatest mystery of our time.
Moreover, ] do not believe anybody
lives who can explain him. Certainly,
! make no pretense to do so. but l have
recently been studying him at rather
close range, and that | am not without
some intimate knowledge of his move
ments is perhaps proved by the fact
that knew. and published in the Lon
project OF Armenian reforms twenty
four hours before any one else in Eu-
rope Therefore. l may perhaps throw
a little light upon the mystery.
THE PERSON OF ABDUL HAND.
Take the outward man first. Abdul
Hamid III Is short, bent in the back.
languid in movement. with occasional
paroSysmS of nerovuS activity. He has
large ears. a large nose, large lips. large
hands and large feet. Fills eyes are
grayish, his hair Is thin and dark like
his beard, his teeth are long and vel
low, and his complexion is like parch-
ment that has been roughly folded a
dozen times. That is everything in his
appearance c~ontradicts the idea that he
is an Osmant-a pure Turk. In fact.
he is an Armenian. His mother was
an Armenian slave, and unless all ira
dition lies. his father was not the Sultan
Abdul Mejid. but the latter's Armenian
gardener. The Turks to a man call him
"the bastard and tell you with many
circumstantial details how his mother
lavished upon the plebtan of her own
race the fayors which she succeeded
in Withholding from her allen. IL august
lord and master. In thisf fact of his orr
Gin Is TO be found the secret of the Sui
tan's intense and unreasoning hatred
of the Armenian race, and also the eX-
PLANTATION of man practical qualities
OF craftsmanship in which he eXcels the
Turk. TO the Armenians are the
Jews of Turkey, the buyers and sellers,
the money lenders and usurers. the
bookkeepers, the spectators. the COM
mercial parasites. Thus. though Abdul
Hamid II has played with success many
q game in which n Turk would have
been utterly worsted. ant though he is
In name and position the thirty-fourth
man who has girded on the sword of
Osman in the; sacrosanct Mosque of
Eyoub on the Sweet Waters of Europe,
he really does not belong to that race
WHlcn FREEMAN declares to have pro-
duced more great leaders of men than
any other that has ever existed. He Is
6s years old, and he succeeding his elder
brother, the deposed Murad V. three
after the latter succeeded his
uncle, the deposed Abdul Azz, namely
on August 3lst. 1876. at the moment
when Servia was waging war against
Turkey and only eighteen months be-
fore the Gar would be doing so. too.
He r%ejoices In the official titles of sui
fans of Sultans. King of Kings. Be
slower of Crowns Upon the Princes OF
the World, Shadow OF God Upon Earth.
Emperor and Sovereign Lord of the
White Sea and the Black Sea. of Rou-
melia and Anatolia," and n dozen
places. including Jerusalem the HOLY,
and Manager of the 1nfnity of Other
PROVINCES G~loriously Acquired" Ac-
cording to the theology of Islam. God
evidently casts a very dark shadow.
HIS DAILY LIFE.
From the man, let us turn to his da ilv
he. On he Bosphorous, q few miles
above Constantinople, is the palace of
Ooimabagheheh. 1t is a dream of
sIhite marble, a perfect fairy creation,