The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-31
BY WILLIAM THORP.
Copyright, 1904, by William Thorn.

ed and if they robbed caravans thew
would be sternly punished.
A rev weeks later a Bedouin chief
VINO mad heard of the proclamation
came to Marakesh to see the Sultan
and defy him to his face. His fore
iathers had always robbed caravans
just as they pleased, he said, and he
t eil'd 10 do the same, whatever the
Sultan might order
Some kings would have executed
him, or, at least, have thrown him into
jail for that bold proclamation. Not
so the Sultan. He said:
60 back to your tribe in safety and
honor In ten days time 1 will fol-
low you, with my army, and teach Won
that my word is law in Morocco"
After whirlwind campaign Mulev
reduced the tribe to subsection. and
the chief is now one of his closest
friends and one of the strongest sup
porters of his reform policy.
Muley finds plenty Of grievances and
wrongs to redress, for no country is
IN greater need of reform than Mo-
rocco. Wealthy men buy posts from
the government, or have bought them
IN the past, as governor, judges and
tax collectors. They generally pay a
heaVy price for them and get their
money back in the most promitive
manner. Being authorized to collect
the taxes and to throw the natives into
prison, they are, almost without ex-
ceptlon, merciless robbers. They have
spies, who report to them any native
who Is rich in money or goods. They
send for him and demand a consider
able share of his wealth. If he re-
fuses he is thrown into a noisome Jail
TO starve until he pays or dies.
The Sultan is doing his best to break
up this system, but it is not easy to
destroy in a year or two the corrup-
tion of centuries. He has raised up
for himself host of enemies by dis
charging and Furnishing tyrannous Off
GERS; but, on the other hand he has
endeared himself to the mass of the
people.
He is popular, except with the fanat-
ical element. They hate him because
he is fond of the society of Europeans
and is always playing with such
'feringhi toys" as magic lenterns, BIZ
cycles, automobiles and cameras. They
resent his efforts to introduce into
Morocco some of the features of
reformer is hard in an Eastern coun-
to be an absolute monarch.
The Sultan is fond of hearing about
the great rulers of the civilized world.
He asks his European friends dozens
of questions every day about Presi-
dent Roosevelt, Kaiser William, Presi-
dent Loubet and King Edward. He
wants. to know how they rule their
people, and whether they are faced
with the same troubles and perplexi-
ties as himself. The careers of Presi-
dents Roosevelt and Loubet interest
him intensely, for he canot under
stand how a man can rule a country
unless he it's king by divine right.
"Why do the people obey?" he once
asked a Europen visitor to his court.
"Why should the obey those men
any more than others? Are they the
greatest men in the country? Does
everybody see that they are the fittest
to rule?"
NO" was the reply. "They are
good men, but not necessarily the best.
They rule because they happen to have
been chosen. But they do not rule as
you rule. They simply administer the
laws made for them, as your gov
ernors carry out your DEGREES.
"Bismillah!" exclaimed the young
ruler. 'Then they are not rulers at
subject only to the Koran, and my
people obey me because Allah has
chosen me to rule over them. How
can a man rule in any other way?"
In spite of the reforms which the
Sultan has introduced, the country is
still abominably misgoverned, and the
people of all races and all classes, eX-
cept the highest, are grievously OPP
pressed alike by the Sultan's own
agents and by the tribal chieftains,
who possess much the same power as
the Norman barons did in the times of
Ivanhoe. They treat people who try
to resist their exactions very much as
Front -Boeuf sought to treat Isaac
the Jew.
Many of these chieftains, especially
in the south eastern part of the empire,
are very anxious to fight the French,
who are constantly encroachIng on
their territory and lending color in
other ways to the belief that they de-
sire to annex Morocco in the near flu
ture, as they have annexed Algeria.
The young Sultan fully realizes the
dangers of a conflict with France, and
knows that war would ruin his
schemes for the development and civ
ilization of his country. He therefore
uses his influence to keep his chief
power, although absolute, does not ex-
tend over the whole of Morocco. Some
of the more distant tribes scarcely
recognizes his temporal sway. He-a
Hght-hearted, lively young man, who
is Just about as unorthodoX as any
Mohammedan can be-is obliged to in
fluence these tribes in the capacity of
a great religious leader. The dynasty
of the Sharifs of Morocco is lineally
descended from the Prophet, and by
virtue of that descent Abdul Aziz us
head of the Melekite sect of Sunnite
MosIems, to which all the Moors be-
long. He also claims, in opposition to
the Sultan of Turkey, the title OF
Caliph of Islam and Commander Of the
Faithful.
BY welding this religious power
with a decision and diplomacy remark
able in a man so young and so vola-
tile he has been able, up to the pres
ent, to keep the peace between his tur-
bulent tribesmen and the aggressive
French. But If the French maintain