The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-24
PRINCE OF THE DESERT
THE ROMANTIC STORY OF JOHAR
 OF ARABIA.
He Was Once u slave--Now He Holds Sway Over Vast Horde of MOham- medans- Groves and Wells of Jowf

Sway Over Vast Horde of MOham
 medans- Groves and Wells of Jowf
 When you buy pound of dates from
 the grocer or from the pushcart mer
 to swell the revenues of one of the most
 singular rulers of one of the most sin
 gular countries in the World-Johar
 Prince of the Desert, who rules in
 Northern Arabia over vast area made
 up of fertile oases scattered over a
 great sea of sand His kingdom is SC
 ancient that its origin is unknown and
 he himself is an adventurer who has
 seized upon throne; slave who is
 now lord over millions. The United
 States is interested in him, for he is a
 great raiser of dates, and we are going
 to start that industry in this country. And Turkey is interested in him, for
 she wants to occupy his capital in or
 der to bolster up her power in the < Arabian peninsula. Among the mon-
 archs of the earth none is so pictures
 que, not even William of the many
 uniforms, as the Prince of the Wilder
 ness. The Sultan Johar keeps his state 'at Ell Djof or Jowf, the most import
 ant town in Northern Arabia. The
 present disturbed state of Arabia < and the fact that Jowf is at the inter-
 section of all the caravan routes which
 traverse that section of the country
 have recently brought this prince and
 the land he reigns over into notice; for
 his capital is the strtegic key to all
 that section. Few Christians have
 penetrated to Jowf, and of those who
 have done so not all have returned to
 tell the story of their adventures.
 Johar is a gigantic negro, six feet in
 height and black as the ace of spades.
 One day now more than half a century
 ago some slave dealers came into Jowf
 with a gang of weary and exhausted
 negroes which they had driven before
 them across the desert from the great < distributing mart of Bagdad whence they had been forwarded from the slave shows. A weary lot were masters and slaves when from an eminence
 Ahey saw the domes and minarets of
 Jowf rising above the forest of date palms which stretched around the city, ia gigantic emerald in the golden set Dting of the yellow sands.
 To the slave market the next day there came an officer of the household of the Prince of the Desert looking for likely blacks for the service of his mas ter. Among those he picked out was bright little pickaninny about 10 years old. The little blackamore was taken away to the great castle, built of mud bricks, which stands on a hill overlooking the city, and was establish ed as a page in the court of the Prince of the Desert. When his highness doz- ed the boy kept the flies off him with | waving plumes of marabout feathers | and when his highness was awake he | amused him with his antics and his | ready wit and pleased him by his de- voted service.
 Johar, the prince called the boy, and | A he grew older he developed in stat xant1 increased in wisdom, until he becarffe the princes chief adviser and the staff upon which he leaned in his | old age. Tn fact the real ruler of the desert kingdom was the negro Johar for several years before it pleased Allah to gather the old sultan to his fathers. So when the prince died and had been properly mourned by his sub 1ects Johar quietly gathered up the reins of government and announced that he would try to fill the gap left in the affairs of state by the late lamented prince.
 There was some opposition, of course, l but Jol1ar had mild and effective way of dealing with rebelious and ambi- tious sheiks which caused them to dis appear from the scene of their activi- ties, and soon the wicked ceased from troubling in the kingdom of the desert, and Johar has now reigned undisturbed for thirty four years. In that time he has achieved a reputation for justice which has spread from the gates of Damascus to the borders of Nedjed and from the Red sea to the Persian gulf. By the wells of the desert, when the long dusty caravans rest at night i and the tinkling of the camels bells are stilled, the wandering Arabs tell { of the Just judgments of Jofar. Every Johar holds his court before his castle gate in Jowf. Dressed in Rowing robes of white, with jeweled ] algret shining in his turban, he sits ,rl a raised dais with his armed guard around him and attended by his officers , # state Here he awards punishments I Q the wicked and praise to the just, , iuQ QeC1QeS ulSpuleS among ms people. ' Johar's castle stands in large court !; 1ard surrounded by three strong walls, z with watch towers forty feet high at z he corners, and it's one entrance de- : ended by great iron doors covered with plates of iron. A guard is always at V he castle gates and a strong garrison Ii within the castle. The guard of the I Prince of the Desert is armed not with < Lncient Arab guns but with modern 6 epeating rifles They are a savage f ooking lot whom one hardly would like ,- 0 meet in a lonely way, but they are ', devoted to the prince. When Johar goes G broad, riding upon his Arab steed gor- q ,eous with gold-plated housings and D eweled bridle reins with slaves and 4 minister's of state and mounted soldiers = bout him, drums beating and trum- 4 ets blowing, his black face shining |, rom his white garments he certainly a looks the part" of the Prince of the I. )esert.N
 Turkey would like very much to get he Prince of the Desert to make sub d 2. sction to the sultan at Stamboul and dmit Turkish garrison into Jowf. W rom that city operating along the aravan routes from oasis to oasis, the turkish power could be extended over e II Northern Arabia and the rebellous II