The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-25
A SOVEREIGN WITH LIMITED AUTHORITl
The Khedive and His
Heritage OF
Waste.

EAIRO-Having to take orders
from London and pay tribute to Con-
stantinople, the Khedive of Egypt
may well be said to be a ruler in
pawn. His Highness. Abbas Hilmi
IL, Is the seventh of the Mehemet
Ali line to act as the head of the
Egyptian people but he is only a
nominal ruler, There is little about
his appearance or daily life to suggest
that he is the successor of the
Pharaohs and Ptolemies. Were it
not for his escort of cavalry and his
fez, you would pass him in the
streets of Cairo without suspecting
that he was the occupant of the
place once held by Alexander and
Cleopatra. Before giving further
details about the Khedive it may be
well to dwell space upon the
causes which contributed directly to
his reduced position.
Egypt is the scene of the Arabian
Nights tales, and to them might we'll
be added the fanciful but truthful
story of IsmaiI that extraordinary
spendthrift whose unparalleled gem
crosby and wastefulness delivered
unborn generations of his country
men into financial bondage, and de-
prived his own heirs of their birth
right of authority. Although this
prince of spenders was in power but
sixteen years, he saddled upon his
people a debt of 450,O00000 dol
cd
in a similar manner by a single in
-dividual- To souander this amount
it was necessary for him to get rid
of $4,000 a day on an average. At
first glance it would seem almost i'm
possible for one person to spend so
much, but even the briefest account
of the career of this open hearted
Oriental is sufficient to show that a
million dollars was hardly pocket
money for him.
SEND wAGON-LOAD OF MONEY
One of his daughters once sent
him a note saying: please send
me a wagon-1oad of money. I want
it quick" This request coming SO
suddenly might easily have assumed
the proportion of a run on the bank, |
but Ismail, without having the slight |
est idea what the girl wanted with |
so much money, promptly sent her a |
wagon-load of cash. When General
Sherman's daughter was married this t
improVident ruler sent her a hand |
full of diamonds as a wedding gift. |
The value of these gems was SO great I
that when the question of paying /
duty on them arose. it threatened to !
wreck the small family fortune.
Icp adn Of
United States, and his gifts were not
confined TO individual citizens of that
country. The great obelisk in Cen
trail Park, New York, was presented
by him. Although this valued OBJ
ject had been secured TO Alexandria
by the enterprise of Julius Caesar,
and was covered with hieroglyphs of
the time of Rameses and Sati, ante
dating the Christian era by twelve
hundred years, he gave it away to
foreigners without a moments r.
luctance or regret.
The promoters of the Suez Canal
promised that this enterprise should
cost Egypt nothing. hut by the time
it was ready to open they had reached (
deep into Ismails treasury. An or 4
binary man, having his experience (
with that unblushtng oaad OF piur- 4
derers, would have had enough Of '
the project, but this forgivinS
Oriental merely took advantage al
the occasion to dwarf all ris other
acts of magnificence. He inaugurated
a reign of festivities so sumptuous as 4
to rival even the eXtravagances OF {
Akbar of India. It took focty-right I
ships TO convey his guests i'll the (
triumphal opening procession through
the Canal.
THE SPORT OF KINGS.
Among those who accepted the
spendthrift's hospitality at this time
y ere half the crowned heads of Eu- (
ope including the French Empress
he Austrian Emperor, and the Prince
md Princess of Wales. For a month Il
afro was the scene of the most u =
azzIing succession of gaieties the II
modern East has ever seen. An opera
louise was built especially for the pro- )
uction of the opera Aida, and after II
he first performance Verdi the COM
POSER, was given a complimentary
,urse of thirty thousand dollars. At
er his guests had gone home and his II
uditors had footed up the bills this d
in the roll of Croesus \
ound that his entertainment of them +
ad cost him twenty-one million dol a
ars. >
IT is not surprising that a man so o.
ond of ostentation should have been W
OF gaining his position by Vi
ouI play. When Ismaifs education "
as completed in Paris he returned
n Eeypt with big notions in his head, e