The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-26
THE STRANGE SULTAN
 OF FlR MOROCCO An English Writer Finds in Him a Dual
 Personality.
WEAK, PROUDLEARNED
He Starts Modern Reforms But Relapses Into
 the Moor.


 spotless garments, with the hood of his sulham over his head, is not so much like the Sultan of Morocco as the living embodiment of one of the Apostles-which one would be difficult to say. Abd el Aziz is such a strange ly dual personality, such a contradio- tion in temperaments and tempers, writes Frances Campbell in the Lon don Daily Mail
 Personally his appearance is very striking, vet he is not a tall man, but rather short, short necked and ap- preaching dangerously near to em- bonpoint. But he has such dignity and distinctton such an air of impc- rial yet genial pride, such instinctIve command, that he would be recogniz- led in a crowd as one born in the pur- pie and accustomed to homage.
 Moreover, in spite of his monastic retirement and seclusion and the fewness of those he meets from out side, he never dcscends to familiarity With his intimates never allows them to forget tat he is My Lord the Sultan .and they his servants or subjects; Abd el Aziz never doffs the grand manner. But for it all the duality of him is most striking. Thus there is one of him that is a great scholar, learned in all the abstruse questions that dis tinguish Arabic literature and Per sian thought. For instance, the Ger man ambassador to his court quoted wrongly in conversation a line from one of his rare old Arabic books lie had brought the Sultan from his mas ter, William II of Germany. Abd el Aziz unconsciously, almost, repeated the line as 1t is written, in that beau- tiful classical Arabic that hardly any one in Morocco speaks-save perhaps one or two of the ministers, the Sul- tan, and Dr. Rosen It is quite poss- ble that the ambassadors slip was intent-no dne knows better the subtle fiattery contained in such a mistake, and no one less likely to make it, save for purpose, than Dr, Rosen, philo- .sopher, scholar and diplomat.
 The Beloved covers his head in the Moorish fashion, but the concealing folds that encircle his head do not hide away the beautiful modelling of his brows or the delicate outline of the eyebrows and nose, The eyes are large, long and luminous, filled with that melancholy anticipation we see in Van Dyck's portrait of King Charles the foreEnoWledge of suffering, and who knows what else? The upper portion of his face is wholly poetical, scholarly and aristocratic. The fall ing off comes with the mouth, loose Tipped and thick with a weak, vacil- Hating chin and feeble jowl with a forward droop,
 A man weak and unstable, who de- bends for his impressions on another stronger can himself, too weak to resist too indolent to resent. Shut off as he is by his advisers from all contact save what they carefully choose in the world, how can he be otherwise than a succession of refee- tions, mirrorlike in the transience? At once foolish and determined, strong and feeble good and bad and withal a very brave man, who has had the courage to fight against the instincts of his race and family and attempt to rule in an enlightened modern Nash long to the age of Genesis.
 Yes, says Abd el Azi2 now, when the Nazrini talk of reform, but the time is not yet. Haste is of the de- ! will! Yet he is the same man who was persuaded into new system of taxa tion that left the Moors in condition of absolute want, and who by the same influence was urged to drag Mulai Idres, the hitherto invioIable forth an assassin from the shrine of lsanctuary of Morocco and the holiest mosque, and put him forthwith to death. The man deserved death, but not according to his lights and those of Abd el Aziz and it is that fact, and not all the other things in him offen sive to his people, that hass turned them against the Sultan,
 The dancing girls. the motor cars. the bicycles and photography, the au- dience to e woman of evil character, the receiving of all and sundry who might choose to travel to his court all these things and many ohters that gave offence have been set right. True, the electric light installation and the telephone wires still disfgure his pal ace courtyards but the Moorse have grown accustomed to these, perhaps they might condone them in time-if they could forget the man who was dragged out of the sanctuary and put to death for killing a Christian. And they might, had England kept faith with Morocco. The Sultan never re- ceives Christian women now, not even ithe Bashadaw ladies. He sends them Igifts when they come with the mis- Isions but he does not see them. He is wise when it is too late.
 I wonder if the Sultan is dull in his great palace. in the great gardens that surround it: I wonder if the poet and scholar in him recognize in the wild, picturesque ,unkept medley some like ness to himself; the inharmonious growth of weed and flower, of corn ad thistle, poppy and fig, of orange land devils apple-good and bad hope Ilessly mixed beyond all assortment,
 Yet despite all Abd el Aziz is the most charming, the most polished and delightful of romantic personali-