The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-16
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hasten the fall of the young monarch by
accelerating his malady.
The intrigues surrounding Abdul
Hamid's accession to sovereignty are
made much of, and it is said that he dis
played shocking indifference to the pitia-
Bile condition of his brother, whose al
, legged madness required that he vacate
the throne.
The twenty-five years OF captivity and
the horrible life Mourad as led have
had of late a disastrous effect on his
health, and the victim is now really done
+ for What is most surprising is that
Mourad has been able to survive so long
an incarcerat ton. .
1t is said that Mourad is mad but it is
not So He is perfectly sane. He is very
weak, perhaps, for he has been confined
twenty-five years II
Mourad came to the throne after the
death of his uncle, the Sultan Aziz, who
was assassinated-fOund dead with his
veins slashed open.
There can be no doubt that the man
ner Of his. uncle's death shook the Sui
tan Mourad great deal. Then it was
a bad time-just before the Turko- Rus
sian war.
Mourad had some trouble with his
i mead, and he drank to get relief from it,
He drank too much, and had delirium
tremens. So the grand vizier and the
other officials asked Abdul Hamid to
take the throne for little while, and
it was agreed that Mourad should be put
away, but that his confinement should
not exceed seven years.
But as soon as he got in power. the
present sultan made a fortress of the
palace, abolished the constitution and
has never allowed his imprisoned elder
brother to go free. l do not believe the
world realizes the things that have hap
pened in Turkey since then.
Abdul Hamid stops at nothing. He has
attempted bribery in the strongest places
He tried to buy the London Times, and at
the opening of congress at Berlin he said
to his minister, Savfet Pasha:
with million pounds Turkish we
could silence Bismarck"
Abdul Hamid is a skeptic. He fears the
unknown, and the nightmare Of death
often haunts and torments him. At such
times he prays with fervor with fits and
starts. He has even been known, thew
say, to have made secret vows and to
have imposed notifications on himself
In order to please Allah and redeem his
sins; but he soon becomes discouraged
and relapses into his skepticism
Like all despots, Abdul Hamid has an
intense fear of death, and breads con-
tagious diseases in particular While
sui helr-apparent he met one day in his
park at Kiathane, a gypsy who, at the
princes request, told his fortune, and
ODDLY enough she predicted exactly what
has happened since: his rapid accession
to the throne, fortelling the tragic cir
cumstances by which it would be attend
ed, as we'll as a long reign, wars. etc.
concluding with the ominous wores f:
\ our death will be caused by an illness
coming from outside" Consequently
cholera and the plague have no more de-
term1ned enemy than the padishah; and
II Constantinople of today boasts in time
OF ep1demics an almost perfect system Of
sanitation and advanced colleges for the
study of bacteriology, it owes them to the
gypsy of kiathane and the sultans Gre
dulity.
There is no precaution he does not take
to guard against possible contagion. Nat
urally very clean man, washing himself
every five minutes-there are lavabos in
every corner of his apartments-and ex-
ceedingly particular, the sultan pays the
greatest attention to everything relating
to health and antiseptics, and follows the
progress of bacteriology with passionate
interests.
Abdul Hamid is the victim of a VIC
lent temper.
Once when favorite parrot perched
on window sill screamed the name of
an attendant whose presence was not
desired, but who came in response think
ing his master had called the sultan few
into rage and seizing the bird wrung
it's neck.
Several times he has beaten his sec