The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-16

retaries or his chamberlains Once he
threw his instand at the head of Kut-
chuk-SaId Pasha, then secretary-in-c chief
of the palace, who was able to doge his
head IN time. Another day, suddenly en-
ragged with the same parsonage during
discussion on the Egyptian question, he
drew from his pocket a revolver and
threatened to fire at the pasha, who,
terrified, implored his pardon.
Fear of assassination is constantly in
his naind. and he goes always armed
with three revoIvers.
The royal marksman is always in prac-
tice, and SO accurate is his aim that he
can write his name with bullets on
wall at twenty-five PAGES.
But this is Abdul Hamid's madness,
this Tear of assassination.
You can judge of how it overtops every
other feeling with him when 1 tell you
how be killed his little daughter about
two years ago.
He has always a revolver or two
within reach, and one morning when the
girl was in the room with him she picked
up one Of them from the table. The
sultan saw her do it and the first thought
that flashed upon him was that some
enemy had trained his own daughter to
kill him. Instantly he snatched up the
other pistol and blew the little girls
brains out.
'One of his gardeners, working in the
park of Yildiz, seeing the sultan APP
proach unexpectedly rose quickly from a
stopping posture to assume a respectful
attitude. Abdul Hamid, startled at his
sudden appearance and suspecting some
evil motive, at once fired at him. The I'M
fortunate man expired soon after, and as
no weapon was found upon him it had to
be acknowledged that a blunder had been
committed.
.'AIl his other relatives he hates and
fears. His son, Selim Effendi, he has
long suspected Of wishing to kill him,
and this young man is practically
prisoner in the Yildiz Kiosk
''The sultan is entirely estranged from
his younger brother, Rechad Effendi, and
has surrounded him with spies. Murad,
of course, is his prisoner, and, though he
makes it his business to see him OCCASION
ally, he never speaks to him. and he is
going to marry Murad's two daughters
to men of low origin. Murad had a son.
but he disappeared long ago, and no one
knows what has become of him.
''In his palace the sultan is surrounded
by luxuries, but his perpetual terror will
not let him enjoy them. He has talented
orchestras to play to him and theater
in the palace to which he occasionally in
vites the ambassadors, but usually he sits
there alone, himself the strangest thing
to be seen there.
Crafty by nature. he is all gracious
ness and courtesy to the representatives
of other powers, but he is vindictive
and superstitious beneath the surface.
His riches are great, being derived
chiefly through the sale of too confis-
Gated properties Of those ta..:..4ed by
his orders. He has many wives, but
has never loved, and certainly never in
spired love in any one.
'He used to appear sometimes in pub
lie, but now is hardly ever seen. When
entertaining the ambassadors at dinner
in the great hall of the palace he gen.
orally shows himself and sits down for
a minute or two only, but is never seen
to eat anything.
mo matter at what time a fire may
occur, even if in the night, the details
must be telegraphed to the palace and the
sultan's permission gained before the
firemen can stir.
"Of course, ordinarily, this does not
take very long, but when the burning
house belongs to family that the sui
tan suspects of dsloyalty 1t is surprising
how long 1T is before the iremen get their
orders to go.
abdul Hamid will have no educated
people around him; he wants only those
who can be readily made his tools, and
he leaves really important political af-
fairs to the practical management Of
two or three members of the camariIla,
as the palace clique is called, while he
spends his time over the endless reports
sent in by his army of spies, filed with
the vilest ISLANDERS.
Fire has broken out twice in the
palace recently and probably any num-
Der of persons have been reported guilty
by the spies of the sultan. Now they
say that the Haznader Usta, one of the
women in waiting. is the guilty one, and
probably she will be made away with"
Everything in Turkey is sacrificed
ruthlessly to the whims, hatreds and
fears of the sultan. He is running his
country and slaughtering his people.
Every day from twenty to thirty are
made away with, either dumped into the
Bosphorus or exiled to some unhealthy
part of the empire where fever soon kills
them.
And as a rule, these people are inno-
cent. They are the victims Of the. sui
tan's endless army of spies, each of
them working to gain credit for himself
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