Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-14

Consul General Gummere.
has gwen unto our country the poss BILE task
of arbiter of the destiny of this last totter-
ing remnant of the once powerful Moorish
empire
In 1873 the Sultan Mulai Mohammed. who
had ruled over Morocco with material wis
dom. gave up the ghost. He was sue
ceeded by his Mulai Hassan. likewise
good MoSlem who we are told, led life
both sober and sedate. who spent his lei
sure hearing read the Moslem law, and
who. like unto his father would neither
a borrower nor lender be. He held to the
anti-foreign notions of his predecessors and
permitted an English knight to drill the
little army which he gathered about him to
keep the lawless hill tribes in check
The Woman at the Bottom.
Early In Mulai Hassan's peaceful reign
there entered upon the scene a Circassian
bee uty-the woman at the bottom of Nor
occo's undoing, all disgruntled Moors
will tell you today She bore the poetic
name CT Lalla R'kia and her family was
one which for centuries had supplied the
| harems of the great. But when Mulai Has
| san took her to wife. his dusky subjects
| frowned and bit their lips. That Arab and
! Circassian blood made evil cross was
prCverb of their ancestors and among good
| Moslems throughout the entire east.
| Twenty-fOur years ago Lalla X kfa bore
| Muai Hassan a son. Mulai Abdul AZlZ. and
| ten years ago when the old sultan died
| Lalla successfully intrigued with the grand
| vizier to place this fourteen-year-old boy
| upon the throne The tribes rose in dis
| sent, but were put down and the gates OF
! the royal palace were adorned with CORY
| heads while every tenth rebel captive had
| his hands struck off. The women of rebel
| families were driven In hordes to the slave
| market and sold
| Thus came to the throne Mulai Abdul
| Aziz the present ruler of Morocco. AL
| though, according to the traditions of his
| country he was of age at fourteen the
despotic Vizier Sid Ahmed was the power
| behind the throne until four years ago.
| when the young sultan depoSed his old ad-
| visers and drew about him circle or
| young couusellors. headed by a former
| minister to London and Paris. A vigorous
| administration of reform was fnaugurated-
| The prison system was modernized. a
| schedule of honest taxes proclaimed ana
| free trade was declared on the coast EURO
| peans were encouraged to visit the empire
| the sultan chummed with LONDON CORE
| spondent and a New York artist gave him
| lessons In painting. Good Moslems shook
| their heads, as they had done Wnen Lara
| R'kia had gained her mastery over tne Glu
| sultan A storm was brewing, but Muiai
| Abdul Azzlz scented it not. Such was the
| condition of affairs when the twentletn cen.
| fury dawned upon the last lndepehoeh'
| stronghold of the Moors-
A Medieval Empire.
| I'm 70 this time Morocco had been me-
| diaeyal empire. Except in Tangier. where
foreigners had been tolerated. Its people
we're still living as they had thousand
| wears before. Indeed, until this day the
| University of Fee teaches the geography
of Ptolemy. which. although written eigh-
| teen centuries ago, holds that the earth IS
| n globe but that it has no motioh anu
that the heavens revolve ABOUT IL Inc
| sultan is still absolute and may Deneao
| ftnCr n n.
| Slavery like brigandage. hourlshes as IL
did ten centuries ago. and pretty MOOR
ish girl can be bought today in the slave
| market for various sums up to $ooo.
| There are still no telegraph, no postal, no
| railroad systems throughout Morocco. In
| spite of the sultans western notions A
| proverb repeated throughout the empire
| says:
| ting is the best of all.
| This is the platform Of the conservative
| PARTY. knowing. as 1t does, that the secret
| OF the empires salvation was its complete
| isolation and shocked as 1t has been by
the following events of the past four
| years.
| PREVENTION was made by Russia when she
sent her first minister to Morocco In 1900.
This envoy of the car came at time
| when there was practically no commerce
between his empire and that of the sui
tan and when there was only one Russian
| subject in Morocco, and he Jew.
Gibraltar in Danger.
John Bull Immediately scented rat.
| Russian anxiety for a solitary Jew In .
| corner of Africa whose commerce would
not pay the salary of consul, not to say
a minister. was sufficient to excite the
| olfactory nerves of Britain. who knew ct
| once that the move was dictated by her
rival. France. John Bull had much at
stake In the situation of the Mohamme-
dan empire opposite Gibraltar, whose
great rock Will have lost it's meaning -
a stronghold when some enlightened
| power becomes intrenehed upon the
northern coast of Morocco. Truly, a gate
| whose two posts are divided between foes
| is no gate at all! And Morocco is to the
| western Mediterranean what Turkey is
| to the eastern end of that great sea!
| The next move on the checker board was
| the seizure by France of several GASES lyirg
| upon the projected French railway between
| Algeria. Moroccos. eastern neighbor. and
| the Niger territory to ths south-the line
l which will ultimately connect the Nedfter-