The Washington times., 1901-10-13
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Abdul Hanid.

Abdul Hamid.
1.-THE Private Life, of the Sultan Of Tur-
key by Georges Dorys is a book which
will have additional interest for some
readers from the fact that it nearly cost
the author his lie. In the preface, by
Arthur Hornblow. it is stated that the
name Dorys is pseudonym, and that the
authors father, the late Prince of Samon
was one of the Ministers of the Sultan,
and at one time Governor of Crete. NJ.
Dorys has also been sUb-correspondent
of the London Times" Since the publ
cation of his book, he has been con-
demned to death, and the Sultan made
every effort TO have the work suppressed
in foreign countries when he found the
author beyond his reach.
The biography Is not a loving one, but
that the Sultan is much fairer than he
is painted few readers of the daily pa
pers will believe. The picture here pre-
sented is that OF a sickly, degenerate,
suspicious, cruel and vicious tyrant, tax
ing little interest in anything but sup
posed conspiraeies against his life or
other affairs directly concerning himself.
To an intense egctfsm and self-conscious-
ness has, in the course of years, been
added an immense suspicion of everybody
about him, and the result is anything but
pleasant for the people corrected with
the Yildiz Kiosk. The figure of the Sui
tan would be pitiful were it impotent.
When clothed with the power of life and
death it becomes sinister, repulsive and
hendish. The superstition of Abdul Ha-
mid is not the least prominent character
istic of his nature; and NJ. Dorys relates
with apparent gravity some anecdotes of
his practicing of occult arts before his
ascent to the throne:
"a confirmed adept in magic and
the black arts, this prince, who was
either very much behind or little
ahead of his time, cast magic spells
more than five centuries after Charles
de Nalois and twenty years before NJ.
de Rochas, whose experiments with
mental suggestion recently have stu
pefed the scientific world. Later, in
fact, he is said to have had made by
a othsayer-toward the end OF Mou-
RAIDS reigE-a wax doll representing
his brother, the young Sultan, and
which he himself. now heir-presump-
tive, pricked with the traditional pins;
then he gave the doll back to the
sorcerer, to be put in the cellar OF his
hovel at Stamboul, wretched place
possessing, it appears, particularly un-
healthy properties. And there, in the
dark. the black magician, seated on
the Koran, made funereal incantations
and invoked the evil spirits by striking
Mourad's efflgy with a branch of a
thorny rose tree in order TO hasten
, the fall of the young monarch by ac-
celebrating the progress of his malady.
Hamid also had made, by an Armenian
tailor named DjumboussiaH, a coat
which mysterious rites endowed in his
eyes, with harmful properties; then,
it is said, he made a present of the
coat to his brother"
In regard to the Sultan's personal ap-
pearance NJ. Dorys says:
Time has worked great changes in
his Majestys appearance, and ii is
only with difficulty that one can now
recognize in him the Prince Hamid
represented in the portrait taken of
him at the time he mounted the
throne.
His jaws have grown broader, Civ
ing to his face n brutality it did not
have before; the cheek-bone. formerly
unnoticeable. protrudes prominently
on hollow cheeks, which have been
covered for more than twenty years
by a short beard, now quite grey, and
which he himself dyes very clumsily
various shades Of brown and browEish
red with a mixture of coffee and gall
nut, the recipe for which was given 7
him by q sheik.
His forehead bulges out slightly, |
and he conceals his badness under
the enormous fcz which he has made
fashionable in Turkey, and the form, /
size, and color of which mak, the
emaciated paleness of his face seem
even more sickly.
f1lE nose mas become more hooked
A stronger mustache, also dyed, which
his delicate and thin hand often ca
resses with mechanical gesture, now
conceais almost entirely the upper lip,
which is thin and cruel The lower
Hip has become still thicker and has
accentuated his sensual expression
The line of cruelty, which completes
the character of his mouth, SO inter
esting for the physiognomist is also
deeper and more apparent.
The fiattened temples. with the
widely separated orbits, have become
more hollow, and in the depths of the
eyes, now half hidden under the droop-
ing eyelids and heavy lashes, seems
to be smoldering the vacillating flame
Of his glance.
The eyes are the most disconcert-
Ing part OF this complex physiognomy.
Rejecting usually uneasy melancholy
and falseness, at other times they will
stare for cong time into vacancy as
though absorbed in thought. and then,
If fash of anger or fear lightens up
the da grey iris, the color of
stormy sky. they instantly become re-
narkably keen and alert. and like the
eyes of the insane, cause those whose
glance they meet a painful impression
that can be borne only after ag IA
miliarity.
In short, the entire physiognony OF
the Sultan confirms his divers charac-
teristics, even that Of the hypocr.tical
Eentlencss that he assumes at times.
"Of medium height. slightly rickety |
on his legs, ard painfully thin. he
seems now only to have his breath
left, ari. in fact, IL is his nerves that
keep him alive. Such a constitution
must necessarily influence his mental
fly. Abdul Hanid is. I'm truth vic
tim OF neurasthenia and "A monuman-
lac. His physical condition alone can
explain the contradictions of his char
ecter.
"A Turk who has lived a long time
In close intimacy with him has said
of him. ! do not yet know whether
he is intelligent or stupid. courageous
or cowardly. sane or mad His psy-
Geological condition presents a prob
ien-but a problem that can be solved
by study.
The Sultan is very intelligent. But
tyranny and the continual fear in
which he lives have led him TO devote
all his energies to his personal preser-
walton, and TO use only the faculties
which constitute to that end such as
distrust cunning and the instinct of
defence. These faculties are mon
strously developed. to the suffocation
Of the others. and in his brain. wea ried
by neurasthenia. have become tyran-
nical passions. Thus In the progress
OF time. Abdul Hamid has ended by
becoming a true nnonomaniac of the
class known to doctors as the 'perse-
cutting prosecuted
Further NJ. Dorys thus analyses the
ultans character:
''If, as has been said, generalizing
rather too freely, cunning is the intel
hgence OF the Oriental people the Sui
tan may be considered among them as
a man OF genius 1t was, indeed, by
cunning that ne arrived in