The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-02-24
HBDUL TEE DISMHL
The Daily Life of the Turkish Sultan Described by a
Former Official of the Palace.

encrusted with gems stands by it.
When the sultan is not smoking cigar
cites and tOiling over his desk, he is
pulling at his water pipe wrapped in
dreams as he gazes at the superb pan
Drama of gardens mosque, city and
wide blue waters that stretches before
him.
In this room he works long and hard.
Despite the prevalent belief, he IS not
a lazy man. He is very Industrious
indefatigably handling state papers
and reading reports and petitions OF all
kinds. Industrious, but useless, For
all his work practically comes to moth
ing. He does not understand the ex-
ceedingly complex condition OF the vast
and many-tongued empire he is sup
posed to rule. The instructions he
marks so carefully on the papers he
has poured over for hours are generally
so contradictory or so impossible that
his ministers are practically forced to
ignore them. They do it with fear and
trembling, but they are rarely detect
ed. The sultan appears not TO remem-
Der one day the systems and orders of
governments which he deliberately
framed the day before. In this respect,
as in others, he has the air of a man
who lives perpetuaIly in a misty, mud
died dream-muCh like the yellow, SOM
bre-eyed- Celestials that one sees suck
ing abstractedly at their long pipes in
our own ChinatOwns.
"Caliph of all the Faithful of Islam"
though he is. Abdul Hamid allows him
self one qualification that must shock
the orthodox MOhametan. He has es-
tablished a picture gallery at the pri-
vate palace and may often be seen
strolling up and down there, with his
hands behind his back, the perpetual
cigarette between his lips, intermit-
tently studying the works of art he has
gathered around him. I asked my
Greek friend how the Shadow of Cod
reconciled his taste with the express
prohibition Of the pictorial art solemn
ly laid down in the Koran.
He does not reconcile it; he COM
mits it, was the answer. He prob
ably thinks it a. greater crime than
all his bloOdshed. But he has one
excuse: The pictures are nearly all
worthless
It appears that the sultan has only
love Of pictures. knowledge and
connOisSeurship are not in him. He is
at the mercy of any smOOth-tOngued
seller of faxed" old masters that hap
pen by. His gallery is full of "Ra-
phaels, ''MuTillOs." Salvador ROsas.' -
fabricated ia our day at Amsterdam
and Vienna The only genuine pictures
of any value in his collection have
passed to him through dishonest hands
Without knowing it he has been a re-
clpient of stolen goods. Missing Gains
| boroughs and vamoOsed Van Dycks
ripped out of their frames in the ia
nous European priv2-e galleries are
/ said to be the main ornaments of his
collection. And certain picture thieves
| wise IN their generation when they
have made d feIOniOUs haul could hard
~ do better than hasten off to Con-
stantinOple and accept a big price in
money or jewels for the safe burial of
/ the stolen work in this most inaccessi-
bic of galleries.
One minor grief Abdul has always in
! his heart. He loves militarism, the
sheen of spears and the gorgeous pass
ing of finely-eqUipped soldiers But
fear prevents him from as much as
seeing a soldier when he can help it.
It IS not exactly that he is afraid that
] MS fighting men viii do him harm, but
they suggest ideas of violent death
and the lord of that military people
| turns CHASTITY green and trembles
like jelly when he is close to armed
men. It is, perhaps, a phase of his in
sanity; uncomfortable as it is pitiabIe
Even on the visit to the Mosque every
Friday-the MOslem holy day-When
the sultan whirls along for the brief
i've minutes drive from the palace es-
corted by small army to secure him
from his people, his carriage keeps
! the mathema teal center of the board
road to be as far from the troops as
possible. And the sultan shrfnks
to nothing in shis closely covered car
! rage lest perhaps a CLEAN of the sun
on a drawn sword should flash in on
MIN ana drag from him the we'll of ter
rOr he knows he could not keep back
Yet he is fond of his sOIdiers-at a dis
tance-and proud of them, The present
excellent condition of the Turkish army
is due to him, to his initiative. and to
the knowledge and skill of the German
military experts whom he hired to carry
out his plans. They have worked well
: together. At MOscohOri in Thessally.
! General NassOs, who had just come
/ from Crete and Joined the Greek army
after DhOmOkOs, quoted our General
Miles as his authority for an opinion
that the Turkish army was one of the
braveSt, best disciplined, most loyal and
efficient bodies of fighting men in the
world. The sultan would have hadl one
happy moment had he held that opfn-
ion. Yet after the end Of the war when
khelim PaScha begged him to review
and thank the victorious troops on their
return to COnstantinOple. the frightened
monarch angriIy refused.
The Turkish people were called by
Prince Won Bismarck, the gentlemen
Of the east" Their bitterest enemies
recognized the charm of their grave,
hnlshed courtesy. In these qualities
the sultan resembles his subjects. No
/ one has ever had audience with him
and not gone away deeply impressed
! by feeling that in any other role
/ than the dismaily exalted one he plays.
/ he would have been the most anaiabIe
/ of men.
Grave, sad, very courteous. winning
/ ~ kind that is the impression of him
given me the other day by VI. Georges
/ BeTTi, the socialist deputy of Paris.
/ who was presented to the sultan last
1 year.
That IS the impression the sultan al
] ways makes it seems. People forget his
/ crimes when they meet him. His sad.
/ brooding eyes are perhaps the sign that
! he cannot forget them himself.
STEPHEN AUSTIN.
/ Copyright, 1901, by the S. S. Mcclure
Company