The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-24
ABDUL THE DISMAL.
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE TURKISH
SULTAN.

No Smile Ever Appears on the sui
tRn's Face-His Only Pleasures Are
Flowers and MOurnful Music-His
Remarkable Art Gallery Made Up
of Worthless Purchases and Price
less LOot-Dread of Assassination
Has Driven Abdul Insane Says MIR.
Argyropoulo-Thoug He Loves
Military Display the Sight of an
Armed Soldier Strikes Unconquer-
able Terror TO His Heart-His Prl-
waite ChaFIties--A Great Worker,
but TO No Purpose.
Copyright 1901 by the S. S. Mcclure Co.
Paris Feb l.--There has just come to
Paris Greek. Dimitri Argyropoulo, who,
like many of his countrymen, held for
years an important place of trust at the
Yildiz Kiosk. He was. up to the time of
his resignation, chief clerk of the per-
Argyropoulo knows probably as well as
any man living. who dares tell what he
knows, the terrible Red Sultan--"Abdul
the Damned" to quote the English poet
and he speaks with a freedom which, If
exercised in Turkey. would probably re-
suit in his abrupt and final disappearance.
Abdul is neither a demon escaped from
the pit" says he. NOR an Angel of Light
and Mercy" He is just an Eastern despot
surrounded by Eastern counselors. To-
gether they govern much as the Caliphs
of the Arabian Nights did. that is to
say, with no sense of the rights of the
people or of the sanctity of human life
wien 1t stands In the way of their will.
They prefer to do good as long as there
is no state reason or dynastic necessity
for doing ham,"
All the hideous crimes with which the
Sultans memory viii be forever stained
in history are to his mind only an UNI
pleasant necessity of the art of governing
the East, says Mr. Argyropoulo Abdul
Hamid governs in his own way, the only
way he knows the way Of Mahoulet and
of all the Ottoman rulers who followed
him.
The reforming Sultan Mourad, whom
Abdul Hamid replaced would have been
a constant and most serious menace to,
the peace of the state. Abdul keeps him
forever imprisoned or, as some say, has
had him secretly assas mated and heaved
from the bridge of Galata to feat away
The Armenians We're turbule MT unbeliev-
ing, in fact generally a nuisance: so he
did not m nd the Kurds killing them like
sheep and his own Janissares helping the
murderers. People who irritated him
personally or who conspired to alter the
condition of things in the government
We're by that very fact dangers to the
country; it was a holy and wholesome
thought to have them daggered or pois-
ored and flung to ire sharks before they
could do harm. These are the ideas that
Justly the Sultan to himself And they
do net prevent him from showing most
paradoxical tenderness of heart in affairs
where his political ideas and mis- personal
safety are not involved.
For instance, this terrible potentate he
fore whom his most trusted minister's
tremble is often, says Mr. Argyropoulo
moved to tears by some piteous letter
from peasant of the far interior whose
wine crop has been blasted and who has
hired the village scribe to recount his mis-
fortune to the king Lord. Protector of
the Faithful and Doing Hand of Allah"
And the "Doing-Hand The grim
Sultan touched by the misery and -he
simplicity of his petitioner, sends orders
that the man be relieved, mentioning the
sum to be given 1t is estimated that the
Sultan spends in this way some $500 900,
contributes also large sums every year
to hospitals and schools maintained by
Greeks, Armenians and Jews in Cons an
tinople and SMYRNA. former Sultan
of Turkey by the way, sent a shipload of
wheat and figs to Ireland in '4S, the ter
ribe faminine year. when black misery
brooded over the scarcely known land far
away in the "unbeieving' North Even
the gisour Patanders fell within the ken
of Turkish pity.
To his servants and attendants, also
Abdul is very generous when he does
not think they are hankering 10 assas-
sinate him. If that idea gets into his
mind. they are likely to drop out unob-
trusively from circulation, but otherwise
he strews their path with flowers, to
speak directly, he presses jewels money,
honors and kind words upon them when
ever the occasion presents itself.
Probably the best paid private func-
tionary in the world is the "taster" of the
Sultan's table the important sinecurist
entrusted with the task of supping a
spoonful of everything his master is to
drink and muncbing mouthful of every
article Of solid food set for his eating.
This person receives the salary of a cab
met minister and is kept in good humor
by valuable presents, rings, jewels and
priceless, silks, from the disposal of which
he may treble his revenues. OF course
that is not all pure-souled generosity on
the Sultan's part. As he lives in abject
daily fear of assassination he has an in
terest in feeling sure that his faster"
will play no tricks on him. 1t would OBJ
viously be quite easy for this dignitary to
absorb an uncon illuminated spoonful care
fully marked ON a dish and allow his
master to swallow cheerfully o substan-
tial and effective dose Of arsenic in the
rest.
The RED Sultan's" daily dread OF vio-