The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-02
ABDUL THE DAMNED"
Bloody Secrets Revealed by
His Brother-in-LaW
WHO FLEES FOR HIS LIFE
Knife and Poison the Minis
ters of the Sultan's viii.


New York, March 1.-The Journal says:
Damat Mahmoud Pasha, brothar-in-law
OF the Sultan of Turkey, here describes
for the Sunday Journal the bloody and
terrible tyranny of his imperial relative
Abdul the damned as Mr.. Gladstone
called him.
| Mahmoud is regarded as the leading re-
| former of Turkey. lie was long Minister
| of Justice, but was dismissed from the
office by the Sultan.
A month ago Mahmoud suddenly fed
from Constantinople, and now he is n
Paris, where he wrote this article. 1T
| first it was stated that the Sultan was
extremely solfcitous about his r1other in
| laws whereabouts, and later that Nah
moud had taken with him vast amount
of jewelry belonging to his wife, the Sui
tan's sister. The first statement he ad-
mits. but the second he denies.
Mahmoud Pasha says that he fed to
save his life, and because further efforts
to reform Turkey from within were Use
less.
| I have fed from my country that
might labor for it, and also to save my
life.
Only by leaving Turkey could hope to
continue in any way the struggle to re-
form the dreadful and unspeakable mis-
government of the Sultan. If I had re-
NAMED I should certainly have suffered
death or torture and Imprisonment worse
than death. But it was not for that rea-
son that l fed, because If 1 could not
have accomplished any good by losing my
life L should not have hesitated. For
twenty-five years 1 have lived in immi-
nent, perpetual peril of the assassins
knife or the executioners bowstring.
The Sultan is despot through the pow
er of secret ASSASSINATION and terroriza-
ton. Unlike the Car of Russia, whose
absolute power is unquestioned, the Sui
tan is theoretically bound to observe the
laws of the Koran, as interpreted by the
Ulema, the council of theologians and
jurists. He avoids this obligation, not by
open defiance but by the secret methods
1 have referred to.
The Sultan was brave enough to
slaughter the Armenians in cold blood,
but against the subjects of his faith, who
periodically desire to improve their coun-
try, he works by treachery and secret as
sassination,
All who carry on the present rotten
government of Turkey live in luxury and
gain vast wealth. All would-be reform
ers can expect only death and ruin.
To my knowledge three thousand 'po-
litical prisoners have been arrested with
in the past three years. How many are
rotting away in the dungeons and how
many are dead L do not know
Beneath the Sultans palace of Dolma
Bagtche there are dungeons capable of
containing thousands. These prisons con-
meet by secret passages with the Bos-
phorous and whenever the Sultan wills
prisoner is put in a bag weighted with
stones and thrown into the water.
The whole Turkish Empire, I may say,
is a prison. Abdul Hamid keeps every
body in prison, from the Sultan Murad
down to the lowliest reformer in Con-
stantinople. The sheebahs, who have ac-
quired a little influence, Re forces to stay
at home
He keeps his hand on .Rasnad Effeudi
his eventual successor, VINO has lost all
his liberties. The Generals who are be-
loved by the soldiers he holds in leash
He keeps hold of any and every one who
dares offer opinion Or advice.
Whatever he has not directly under his
hand frtghtens him, and whatever he
thus does have in hand appears to him
menacing at the slightest sign of individ-
ual will on its part or Of a thought rot
the masters own.
He is the Sultan of the Terror, and this
fact haunts him even as IT does Oilers.
have done with it. It is easy to see
under what burden the Ottoman soul is
bending.
have not a soul slavish enough to die
in the inactivity to which they would
condemn me, in the tyranny that weighed
me down and in enforced completely
When my brother-in-1aw. the Sultan,
learned had succeeded in getting out Of
his reach, of his will, he set afoat q ru-
NOR that 1 had stolen jewels and doeu-
ments belonging to my wife killed slave
and 1 know not what. Today two of his
emisaries have turned UP here in Paris TO
try to induce me to return by making the
finest promises offering me my liberty.
the highest functions and greatest IA
vors.
What sort Of a sovereign is this who
has you accused of the greatest crimes
and then offers you the most fraternaI
welcome? He is false in one or the other.
or even in both.
He wants to see me back because he
knows my example will be followed BY
the numerous prisoners he Is keeping.
and that before long Europe viii De in
vaded by a wave Of accusers, refugees
from his prison.
I have committed no crime. and the
lamentations of my wife, who has stayed
behind with three children. is proof
enough that It is not a criminal she de-
plores the loss Of
For twenty-five years ], who was at
the head OF the administration. il ever
I displayed the slightest tendency 10 LIB /
eralism, was always thrust aside an.
condemned to the most humiIiating die !
ness.
For eight years I have tried 10 cnange /
this. offered advice and sent in memo- /
rails. Never have I rad 2 reply. ne
Sultan merely asked me BY wat riEhi !
mixed up in his affairs. and how / dared
TO do so.
championed the cause OF economy.
This sufficed 10 put everybody against
me, from the Sultan downward He him i
self draws Ssoas1a q year. and has & CO. /
90 3 year income besides
I aed IN order not 70 b the accomplish
OF ALL saw. II was Tot 20 escape cruel /
ties with which ! vas threatened. aa- 20 /
escape from the Sultan himself. though /
excited against n1e.
IN view q ali this resolved 70 gst a.
way from the sultaa's tyranny ard from /