The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-20
ROYAL LITIGANTs.
Their Appearance in New York
COurts-Thc SuItnn's Rifes-Queen
Victoria a Plaintiff.


w. A j., in the New York Post
Upon the wall of a lawyers office In
Wall street there hangs a rifle with a sa
| Der bayonet. Upon it are a number and
curious monogram in Turkish characters,
| the monogram of Ell Ghazi Abdul Hamid
Khan SAM. Sultan of Turkey. The rifle
is the mate of many thousands of wea-
pons now in the hands of Turkish soldiers,
| bullets from some of which already have
laid valiant Greeks low. The rifle is
souvenir of a law case notable in history.
1t was the only case in which the Sultan
| of Turkey was named as a principal In an
| American court.
The sultan figured at first as the plain
| tiff, but his suit was followed by counter
| suits, and in the years that followed his
name appeared on many legal documents,
| from a summons to an injunction, from
| stay to an answer to a complaint The
| case involved many hundreds of thous-
ands Of dollars; it concerned prominent
| banking firms in the United States and
| Europe A Brooklyn warehouse and an
insurance company were mixed up in it.
1t involved points of international and
maritime law that were never before
raised.
When the case was finally settled, the
found that he had in his possession a case
of dozen rifles that had been overlooked.
He decided to distribute them as souven-
IRIS to the lawyers who had appeared in
the several suits, but there were not half
enough rifles to go around. It is one of
these souvenir rifles that Is to be seen in
Wall street.
In August, 1872, a contract was made at
Constantinople between Abdul Aziz Khan,
at that time sultan of the Ottoman En-
pire, and an American arms company for
1000 rifles with quadrangular bayonets.
In the contract it was specified that the
rifles should be numbered consecutiVely,
and that each should bear the sultans
monogram The contract price for each
was to be 60 shllings, about SASS. The
following year the arms company closed
contract for 10000 more rifles two-thlrds
of which were to have sabre bayonets in
stead of quadrangular bayonets. This
change in the style of bayonet advanced
the cost of each rifle III shillings, about
$3.50.
No sooner had the arms company clos
ed the rifle contracts than IL assigned
them to the Providence Tool Company, a
manufacturing establishment capitalized
at only $4,000 To enable the tool COM
pany to carry out this stupendous con-
tract, involving nearly $S,0O0,OO0. arrange
ments were made for periodic payments.
The sultan agreed to honor drafts made
through certain English banking-houses
when his inspectors certified as to the
work done The contract proved disas-
trous one to the hitherto prosperous Tool
Company, and before the contract was off
its hands II had been compelled to make
an assignment.
The company, as soon as 1t was sure OF
obtaining the rife contract, gave up all
other work, and devoted all its energies to
fitting up it's shops for the making Of
rifles. When this had been accomplished,
the Tool Company had it's first, but by no
means the last experience with the ha-
bitual laxity in business of eastern poten-
tates. The Defender OF the Faith had
promised to supply a model rifle to be
used as a pattern. Months went by and
the pattern did not arrive. The employees
were idle, and the rehtted plant was not
earning penny.
AT last, the long-promised pattern ar
rived, but that was only the beginning OF
fresh troubles More and more serious
difficulties rose as the work went on. Time
and again the drafts that the sultan had
promised to honor came back protested,
and the Tool Company was greatly ham
pered for lack OF funds. Either from
scarcity Of cash In the treasury of Abdul
Hamid then sultan, or because he was
10th to part with his money, the drafts
were dishonored so often and so persist
emily that u came to pass that not a bank
IN London would accept them. The Turk
lsh government, however, was not wholly
neglected. Of It's contract. The Turkish
minister Of finance kept a close watch on
the amount OF the drafts whether they
we're paid or not, ana on one occasion
spont more than a hundred dollars Ia ca
bic messages, because n draft which he
thought ought 10 call for 1890 called for
n,GOi.
More complications arose. The steam
ship John Bramhall bound from New Ha-
ven TO Constanunoplo. with a cargo Of
1900 rifles and 5000 sabre bayonets on
board ran aground, and some Of the rifles
were damaged. Long correspondence.
both by cable and letter, followed. and
nnally a settlement was attained by the
Tool Company agreeing TO replace tho
damaged rifles out OF the insurance
money. More OF the drafts OF the Tool
Company on the Ottoman treasury remain
"a unpaid. To raise money 10 complete
The contract II became necessary to nego-
tlnte a loan: 4s.6i9 rifles and IS. 400 quadrant
gular bayonets were stored by the provl-
donce Tool Company IN the warehouses
Of r. T.. Bartlett a Co IN Brooklyn. and
pledged as security for a loan from Drexel,