The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-16
The sultan Pictured as a Hnrd-WOrk
ing, AbstemiOus Gentleman.
Buffalo Courier.

Buffalo Courier.
If the Wallets of potentates and other high
mightinesses would turn to biography, the
world would be greatly edited. No valet
of the kind is now recalled, but private Sec
retaries sometimes leave graphic accounts
of their royal masters. No chronicle of this
confidential sort would arouse. more interest
than one of the vie intime of the Sultan
of Turkey, one of the most Shut-up SOW
ereigns in the world. True, many a story
of life in the Yildiz Kiosk is printed, but
can they be believed? One writer will make
the Sultan out to be a brutal tyrant, an
other will picture him as the most indus
trious, self-denying prince in the Eastern
hemisphere. A portrait of this latter de-
scription was printed awhile ago in the
Westminster Budget of London:
Lord of a hundred stately palaces OF
marble, master of scores of charming sum-
mer residences, able on the instant to make
his own any building in the empire on which
his eyes have rested with pleasure, Abdul
Hamid prefers as IL residence the modest
suburban villa of Yildiz, three miles from
STEAMBOAT. The life he leads within its
walls is one which would make the naughty
lips of his magnificent predecessors curl
with wondering contempt. How should
they understand q Sultan who works from
sunrise to sunset; to whom Incidence and
luxury are alike unknown; in whose exist
ence no pageant, no banquet, no parade,
find a part: who often allows years to pass
without signing a death warrant; who casts
no second glance on the beauties from CIR
cassia or Georgia, presented by those who
wish to do him pleasure, and who pays
little more attention to such as are already
within his harem?'
This does not read much like a descrip-
ton of the ~unspeakable Turk, but it must
be borne in mind that many English jour
nalists hold a brief for the Turk, and their
business is to make out that he is not as
unspeakable as he is reputed TO be.
II our English reporter is trustworthy,
the Sultan is as busily occupied every day
as a President of the United States. He
rises at dawn, from the pie of rugs and
cushions thrown on a mattress on the
floor" For an hour he is occupied with
fbO ah1utiDnS prescribed IN the Koran
and with prayer. He then takes a cup
of black Turkish coffee with waters and
81 few dates. 1t is the rarest thing in the
world, says this writer. for anyone to see
the Sultan in the act of eating. When he
gives a state dinner he touches nothing
himself, merely making a p~retense or eat
ing. Whether this abstention is due to fear
of poison or to a MuSSulman practice not
to break bread with giaours is not ex-
blamed by the writer above quoted. At his
private meals he always has present a
tester. who goes through at least the form
Of eating a portion of every dish sent In
by the royal cook. 1t is said that this has
of late years been one of the duties OF
Osma1 Pasha.
over state papers, dispatches of his repre-
sentatives at foreign capitals, and trans
lated extracts from foreign papers. These
duties. with directions to his ministers and
secretaries, fill up the forenoon, He then
takes an hour off for driving In his park
or reclining in a boat on the lake In the
grounds. The dreamy. half-closed eyes OF
the monarch are hXed languidly on the
scene around him, while the eternal Gig
arctic between his thin and well-cut lips
afford him all the entertainment he re-
quires."
The afternoon is consumed by giving aus
diences to ministers. home and foreign,
chief representatives. of the faith, and
agents of the Turkish secret service. Aft
er dismissing ali these the Sultan enjoys
another hour TO himself and then appears
either at a state function or ~retires TO the
harem. where he Will spend hours playing
with his children. His elder daughters
sing and dance for him, and he will hold
long intimate conversations with his foster
mother. to whom he Is devoted.
1t is very pleasant to know all this about
the Sultan. There are writers. however,
who have painted portraits of him OF a
different complexion. But that is quite aa~
other story.