The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-19
copyrighted, 1896, by S S, Mcclure,
Limited)

The character Of the sultan of Tur
key is the most profound mystery of
our time. Some of US have seen him.
We know his origin and history, we
have studied his rule in his own CAPT
tai, we are acquainted with the facts
of his reign, and we have questioned
the few men who, during recent years.
have talked intimately with him face
10 face. But all this affords no clue TO
the mystery. Here is an Asiatic. first
a debauchee and later a religious IA
matte; who has hardly seen a civilized
city or had civilized man for his
friend; who lives in the strictest seclu-
e'on, fearing instant assassination;
who rules over a people, nine-tenths ,of
whom look upon him as a political and
religious usurper; who has seen during
his reign vast territories detached from
his kingdom; who has been crushed in
z great war; who has let a powerful
feet go to utter ruin, and splendid
army totally degenerate; Who finally.
was once the ally of Great Britain and
France, and is now without support
er among all nations. Yet he is abe
10 defy Europe; with impunity to out
rage the conscience Of the civilized
world; 10 trample under foot every sol
emn engagement that has been Wrung
from him: to score one diplomatic vic
tory after another over six OF the most
experienced and willy ambassadors liv-
ing; to laugh at the pressure Of pow
ers whose battle ships could lay every
coast town in Turkey in ashes in
few hours, and who could set in motion
ten millions Of men; and, finally, when
he has at last been constrained TO
promise life and liberty to an oppressed
people, deliberately set about to eXter-
inmate them This man, l say, is the
greatest mystery of our time. More
over, l do not believe anybody lives
who can explain him. Certainly, make
no pretenSe TO do so, but have recent
y been studying him at rather close
range, and that l am not without some
intimate knowledge of his movements
Is perhaps proved by the fact that
knew and published in the London
Chronicle his acceptance of the pro-
5eet of Armenian reforms tWenty-four
hours before anyone else in Europe.
Therefore, 1 may perhaps throw lit
tie light upon the mystery.
THE PERSON OF ABDUL HAAIID.
Take the outward man first. Abdul
Hamid Il is short, bent in the back.
languid in movement. with occasional
paroXysnas of nervous activity. He has
large ears q large nose, large lips. large
hands and large feet. His eyes are
grayish, his hair is thin and dark like
his beard, his teeth are long and yell
low, and his complexion is like parch-
ment that has been roughly folded a
dozen times. That is, everything in his
appearance contradicts the idea that
he is an Osmanti-a pure Turk. In
fact, he is an Armenian. His mother
was an Armenian slave, and unless
tradition lies, his father was not the
Sultan Abdul Mejid, but the latter's
Armenian gardener. The Turks to a
man call him 1.-The bastard" and tell
you With many circumStantial details
now his mother lavished upon the pie
bian of her own race the favorS which
she succeeded in Withholding from her
alien if august lord and master. In
this fact of his origin is to be found
the secret of the sultan's intense and
nreasoning hatred of the Armenian
race and also the explanation OF many
practical qualities of craftsmanship in
which he eXcels the Turk. For the
Armenians are the Jews Of Turkey, the
buyers and sellers, the money lenders
and usurers. the bookkeepers, the spec
ulators, the commercial parasites.
Thus, though Abdul Hamid II has
played with success many a game in
which a Turk would have been utterly
worsted. and though he is in name and
position the thirty-fourth man who has
glrded on the sword of Osman in the
sacrosanct mosque Of Eyoub on the
Sweet Waters of Europe, he does not
really belong TO that race which Free
man declares to have produced
more great leaders of men
than any other that has ever
existed. He is So years old, and he