Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-23

of colonial business Dernburg the elder
was among the German editors who recent
ly paid visit to London. and 1t was he.
as the most representative veteran of the
party, who was selected to place wreath
on the bust of Shakespeare at STAFFORD
on-Avon.
Young Dernburg's business. or series OF
directorships is said to have brought him
In an annual revenue of something like
f12.50O. which he Is willing to surrender
for the beggarly ESQ a year attaching to
his new colonial Office but the extent of
his sacrifice may we'll be doubted. as Ger
man incomes. even of the most prosperous
business men. rarely rise to anything like
the former figure.
His present appointment is an experiment.
Undoubtedly it has been prompted by the
kaisers conviction that an empire, or at
least colonial one should be run on the
lines on which great business concerns are
managed. When the emperor was last in
this country he met Mr.. Chamberlain at
Sandringham. and in the course of con-
versaton with him one Sunday morning on
his way to church said: What l most ad-
mire about England is her colonial policy"
to which the other replied. with laugh:
We'll, sire. that Is precisely what we
never had" but 1t appears that the en-
peror Is now about to go one better and
adopt colonial policy sensible business
lines. and Herr Bernhard Dernburg. the
son of Berlin Journalist of Jewish ex-
traction. is to be its instrument-with
what success We shall probably not have to
wait long to see.
All kinds of rumors are still current re-
garding the health of the Sultan Abdul
Hamd and in spite of his temperance
at the Selamlk the last two Fridays,
there is doubt that his condition is far
from brilliant 1t is. of course. extremely
difficult to get accurate information about
man who. like the pope. sits a willing
prisoner behind the walls and bars of his
palace. But the Yildiz Kiosk resembles no
ma Ia in he 9rtp o n
q century the building of this enormous
compleXe went on interruptedly, and it Is
not finished yet. 1t is an endless mass of
small houses kioSkS and palaces from the
Merassim palace. built especially in 1888
for the accommodation of the German en-
peror to the Petit Trianon." little palace
which owed its existence to some oriental
Pompadour or Montespan.
Within the walls of Yildz Kiosk there
is everything. There COW stalls and
meadows artillery arsenal. a porcelain
mandatory, carpet mandatory, etc,
all of which work exclusively for the sui
tan. Behind the smallt fortified central
palace in which Abdul Hamid is barricaded
the town of YildiZ Gor so l may call IT. is
spread out For this palace of YildiZ is
a town in which 1000 men of the Imperial
Guard live and al least 5000 other people,
all people who here watch over the sultan S
safety and his health or minister to his
amusement.
In addition to the chamberlains, officers.
secretaries and officials of every kind is the
harem with the sultan's hundreds of wives.
Seventeen hundred tables are laid in Yildz
Kiosk every day. The salaries each month
amount to million francs. But the
sultan is rich over and above his civil list
of sc, o00,G00 francs. or G1,2OO. 900 For him
self Abdul Hamid is not eXtrava giant; on
the contrary. he is a man of simple hab
Its. His clothing is very simple and re-
sembes that of any other Well-to-do in
habitant of Constantinople.
But the commander of the faithful drives
all the court tailors to despair. for none OF
them Is allowed to approach his sacred
person. but must judge the fit of his clothes
from respectful distance. Formerly the
sultan was a great lover of coffee and
cigars. When he went walking in his gar
den he was always accompanied by his
coffeemaker, who was expected to prepare
a cup of Mocha at any time and in any
place Now the sultan no longer goes
walking. Sick tired of life and suspicious
of everybody, he seems a burden to him.
self, and his former distractions, reading
and the theater (where he was generally
the only SPECTATOR, no longer amuse him.
1t is we'll known that the sultan barely
eats anything. The meals prepared for
him are still brought with great pomp es-
cOrted by soldiers. and when the dishes
go past every one must bow low. But
Abdul Hamid hardly touches them and gets
up from table a few minutes after he sits
down. He was always a great lover of
animals, and had a regular collection of
them in YildiZ Kiosk that 1t was his chief
pleasure to feed and caress. -
BY the time the next London season is
at hand we shall have altered our dinner
hour The king favors the idea. and ali
his majestys friends are understood to
agree with him. The fashionable hour for
the evening repast will be 6:30 to 7:3O, in
stead of to Q, as heretofore.
The primary reason for the alteration 10
that now almost every one who values his
=, 1icr,t1
requires dinner earlier Moreover the new
departure will make things much pleas
anter. the longer evening will afford
people better chance of getting in good
time to the theatcrs 1t will give more
time too. for the playing of bridge or
whatever craze may have superseded it,
anu will furnish a further advantage in
the fact that devotees of Hygeia will be
able to obtain more sleep.
In the new condition of things lunch is
to be served at l sharp, and a number of
people are suggesting that it would be adj
viSable to drop afternoon tea altogether
Select Suburbia is agitated by this social
amendment but the gentleman who dimes
at Rowton House (the SiXpenny lodging
house) is disinclined to alter his meal times
to please anybody.
OF all the love dramas in the realms of
romance that of ''rristram and Isolde"
seems to have lived and to be RELIEVING
through the ages no other story has
latest stage version at the Adelphi tonight
and 1t may be said at once that the lofty
reputation of the theater acquired under
MIR Otto Stuart's regime will be sensibly
strengthened by production which in al
most every way claims admiration. 1t is
practically impossible to say how often the
story of ''Tristram and Iseult"-the nomen-
clature favored by Mr.. Comyns Carr for
his ttle-has stimulated the minds of poets
during the last seven eight centuries or
how often il has served under various dis
guiseS the basis of European poems and
plays since the birth of literature And
yet it can never be said to have been popu-
larized until Wagner stepped In and with
'musiCs sweet air" through the famous
operate version. directed the attention not
merely Of nterateurs, but of the educated
world in general to the poignant attributes
of the legend.
The difficulty of apportioning the best
features of such story for ordinary dra-
matte purposes is far greater than is the
case with opera, and Mr.. Comyn Carr
evidently experienced many obstacles In
making the material go to the length Of
four acts Wagner practically cut the
whole of the incidents which led up to the
passage of the Inflated lovers from
Iceland to Cornwall and dealt only with
the drinking of the potion, the secret love-
making In the garden and their discovery
by King Mark and the final tragedy.