The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-02-24

for years an important place OF trust
at the Yildiz Kiosk He was, up to the
time of his resignation, chief clerk Of
the permanent staff Of the foreign Of
fee. Mr.. ArgyropOulO knows probably
as we'll as any man living, who dareS
to tell what he knows, the terrible Red
Sultan-"A bdul the Damned to quote
the English poet-and he speaks with
key, would probably result in his alb
rupt and final disappearance.
abdul is neither a demon escaped
from the pit" says ne, nor an angel
of light and mercy. He is just an
eastern despot surrounded by eastern
counseIors. Together they govern much
as the Caliphs of the Arabian Nights,
did; that is 10 say, with no sense of
the rights of the people or of the sane
tity of human life when 1t stands IN
the way Of their viii. They prefer to
do good as long as there is no state
reason or dynastic necessity for doing
harm"
All the heinous crimes with which the
sultan's memory will be forever
stained in history are to his mind only
an unpleasant necessity of the art OF
governing the east, says Mr.. Argyro-
poulO. Abdul Hamid governs in his
own way, the only way he knows; the
way of MahOmet and of all the Otto
man rulers who followed him.
The reforming sultan, Mourad,
(
have been a constant and most serious
menace to the peace Of the state Abb
dull keeps him forever imprisoned, or
as some say, has had him secretly as
sassinated and heaved from the bridge
of Galata to float away down the deep,
dark-fiOwing Bosphorus. The Armeni-
ans were turbulent. unbelieving, in fact
generally a nuisance; so he did not
mind the Kurds killing them like sheep
and his own Janissaries helping the
murderers. People who irritated him
/ personally or who cOnSpired to alter
the condition of things in the govern
ment, We're by that very act dangers
to the country; it was a holy and
wholesome thought to have them dag
gered or poisoned and flung to the
/ sharks before they could do harm
! These are the ideas that justify the
sultan to himself. And they do not
| prevent him from showing a most par
adOxicaI tenderness of heart in affairs
where his political ideas and his per
sonal safety are not involved.
For instance. this terrible potentate,
before whom his most trusted ministers
tremble, is often, says Mr.. Argyropou-
/ 10. moved to tears by some piteOuS let
ter from a peasant of the far interior
whose wine crop has been blasted Band
who has hired the village scribe to
] recount his misfortune to the king
/ Lord. Protector of the Faithful and
DOing-Hand of Allah" And the Do
g-Hand7-does. The grim sultan
touched by the misery and the simple
/ ity of his petitioner, sends orders that
the man be relieved, mentioning the
sum to be given. It is estimated that
the sultan spends in this way some
$500, 600 from out of his private purse
yearly. He contributes also large sums
every year to hospitals and schools
maintained by Greeks, Armenians and
Jews in COnstantinOple and Smyrna. A
3 of he
sent a shiplOad of wheat and figs to
Ireland in As, the terrible famine year,
when black misery broOded over the
scarcely known land far away in the
/ 'unbelieving" north. Even the glaOur
Patlanders feel within the ken of
Turkish pity
To his servants and attendants, also,
Abdul is very generous when he does
not think they are laundering to as
sassinate him. # that idea gets into
his nina, they are likely to drop out
UnObtruSiVely from. circulation, but
otherwise he strews their path with
/ flowers; or 20 speak directly, he
presses. jewels, money, honors and kind
words upon them whenever the occasion
presents itself.
Probably the best paid private
functionary in the world is the faster
OF the sultan's table, the important
sinecurist entrusted with the task Of
slipping a spoonful of everything his
/ master is to drink and muaching a
mouthful of every article of solid food
set for his eating. This person re-
ceiVes the salary of a cabinet minis
ter and is kept in good humor by val
liable presents, rings, jewels and price
less 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 abiect daily fear of assas-
int in lSr0rr
sure that his faster" will play no
tricks on him. 1t would obviously 'be
quite easy for this dignitary TO absorb
an uncOntaminated spoonful carefully
marked on dish and allow his master
to swallow cheerfully a substantial and
effective dose Of arsenic in the rest.
The red sultan's' daily dread of
violent death is a whispered common
place in Turkey. But my Greek friend
declares that the miserable monarch s
brain has finally turned through fear.
/ The sultan, according to him is really
| insane, a victim of hOmicidal mania,
which perpetually incites him to deeds
of blood. He is certainly the most
melancholy of rulers. No one has ever
seen him smile since he was quite a
| boy when he first mounted his depOSed
brothers throne. His eyes are always
1 full of brooding sadness Almost the
only amusement he allows himself is
{
| Yildiz Kiosk, smoking cigarettes for
hours at a. time, while afar off at the
extreme end of the apartment a couple
/ of singers chant in the gloom some of
those long mCnotonous Turkish songs
whose strange cadenCes rise and fall
| with hypnotic effect. The singers have
often thought they heard him sobbing
to himself in the intervals of the chant.
When he gives the signal and the lights
are turned Up his eyes are seen 10
be shining like stars in his salloW face
and he retires to his private apartment
with the tOttering steps of man
plunged in a dream. 1t is a strange
pleasure.
A more normal taste exhibited by the
silent, brooding Padischah is the love
of flowers. 1t is the brigl test side to
his nature. He has a passion for
roses, as indeed most Orientais have
Every room ana corridor Of the private
apartments at the Ytldiz Kiosk is filed
with superb rose trees in full bloom
at all seasons of the year. And when
the sultan gives audience to ambaSsa-
doris or other distinguished visitors
in the reception palace at the other
end of the imperial gardens, ten
minutes walk from the Kiosk, the
throne room is all aglow with the
| same gorgeous plants. and immense
| golden vases filed with the lovely 5ios-
SONS are set around the steps of the
canOpied divan. Persian gardeners.
who, by tradition, are the most highly
| skilled in the art. are imported to
| keen the palaces stocked with the most
perfect blooms that can be obtained.
Every morning some hundreds are
brought from the gardens for the pal
| ace use and of these the most beauti-
=