Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-04

with unlimited money to spend on toys.
One day he tried an automobile and nearly
blew himself up. Then he soon smashed
1t, as he smashed everything. The phono-
graph sent him into ecstasies but he was
not thoroughly happy until he pulled it
to pieces to see where the voices came
from.
My friend used to amaze the unsophis-
tfcated Moors and his conjuring tricks his
ventriloquism, and his hypnotic seances.
They thought it was black magic. but the
sultan was not taken in. He has shrewd
mind of a skeptical turn. He made my
friend show him low to do the tricks, and
before long he became pretty good at par
lor magic himself.
Mulay as Photographer.
Photography interested the sultan in
tensely He had magnificent assortment
of cameras. and soon learned how to use
them, although in doing SO he broke one
of the tenets Of the Mahommedan religion.
which forbids the representation In any
form of any living person or thing. He
liked being photographed. but 1t had to
be done ION the quiet" to avoid raising a
storm among the fanatical Moors.
One day he was photographed in a curl
Gus way. 1t was a solemn feast day. The
populace assembled by thousands outside
the palace and the sultan, who as head
of the Melekite sect of the Sunnite Moham-
medanS, is pope we'll as king, in Mo-
rocco. had to go out and bless them.
Against the law he permitted us to be pres
ent and witness the ceremony from behind
q screen which hid us from the people.
AS the sultan blessed them, my friend. the
conjurer, took snap shot of him with
tiny kodak which he had hidden beneath
his coat, with the lens exposed through
one of the buttonholes. If he had been de-
tected he would probably have been
roughly handled by the fanatcal mob, and
the sultan could hardly have saved him.
The Sultan Rivals William Tell.
Among the numberless toys imported
from Europe were several fine rifles and re-
volvers. These the sultan understood. for
he had been trained to arms from his
youth, like all the Moors. have never
seen a finer shot. He has nerves of iron,
and an unerring eye.
One day he told my friend. the conjurer.
that he would shoot an egg of the top OF
his head without hurting him. My friend
naturally suggested that he should try the
experiment with somebody else. At that
the sultan good naturally called up one OF
again. Then he made the officer, much
against the latter's will. shoot the egg
off his rulers august head, which the man
did successfully.
Mulay Abdul Aziz struck me as being In
every way a capital fellow. thorough
sportsman, and an excellent type or the
Mahommedan gentleman. He Is generous
to fault, brave as lion, gifted with a
good deal Of native shrewdness and eager
to learn the ways of the great world De-
yond the borders of his own country. He
was perpetually questioning US about Eu-
ropean ways. European institutions and
European inventions.
America he seemed to have hardly heard
of. He regarded England as the greatest
power in the world, France as the second
and Spain as the third. These are the
powers with which he comes most In con-
tact. He had heard vaguely that Spain had
been beat ten in war by America. but when
I described to him the thoroughness or the
defeat he was quite surprised.
The Moors are an intensely fanatfcal peO-
pie and they objected strongly to the sui
tan's dabblng with European inventions
which they regarded as new-fangled de-
growing when 1 was in Morocco, and was
one of the things that led to the recent
revolt.
Why the Sultan is Hunting for Fun.
His majesty is anxious to travel and
learn from Europeans how to govern his
country in just and progressive manner
Those Europeans who know him best say
that he has in him the making Of a great
monarch, as soon as his play time is over.
But just now he is young man Of twenty
five, full of the joy of life. eager to see
everything and do everything, and anxious
to make up for the time lost while he was
kept secluded in the harem for the first
six years after his fathers death by BIS
MARKHAM grand viZier, since dead. He Is
never happy unless he is doing something
fresh and exciting, and he contains in his
head as much deVilment as score OF
lusty American college students. And to
satisfy this longing for fun Sultan Mulay
Abdul Aziz has a treasury containing MIL
lions-and there is no inquisitive finance
committee to audit accounts.