The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1909-07-01

perity, as nothing to his mind in com
parison.
Pressed more by intrigue, religious
dissension and progressionist agita-
ton on the interior than by the for
eIgner without, Abdul Hamid was
forced into exerting the powers OF
despotlsm with their full rigor and
severity. He took the powers away
from ministers whom he could not
trust, and reduced his viziers and
pashas to fgurehead courtiers He
Entrusted his tasks Piecemeal to
agents, temporary emissaries who had
no hand in the general scheme. He
played race against race, sect against
sect, among his subjects and his fol-
lowers.
He made no attempt to reform the
Turkish courts and bureaus. One
man against the whole organism OF
corruption. It would have seemed for
him hopeless, with hungry Europe,
waiting the moment OF weakness, al
ways lying at his gates,
He Is accused Of fomenting the Ar
menian massacres Of 1895 and 1896.
II is not known what secret part he
may have had in the atrocities, but at
| least the rumors connecting him with
them we're unsubstantial. What adj
vantage he might have expected OF
the course which lost him foreign
/ sympathy more than any incident OF
his reign is hard to see.
II not a liberal. Abdul Hamid did
not reign thirty-two years without
performing some valuable services in
improving the conditions Of the em-
plre. The Turkish army. up to the
time Of the Young Turk outbreak.
was highly respected by the military
authorities Of the neighboring Pow
ers. The Ottoman Government under
Abdul Hamid first took the initial
steps toward forming an educational
system. The city OF Constantlnople
first became to have a daily press.
The Sultan, born in 1S42, Is sixty
six years old. He came TO the throne
on August 81, 1876. at the age Of
thirty-three. He was elevated to sue
coed his elder brother, Amurath ",
removed from the throne at the out
set Of the Turco-Russlan War as an
incompetent.
Before reaching the throne, Abdul
Hamid Travelled through Europe as a
young man with his uncle, the Sui
tan Abdul Aziz, and learned much OF
European ways. He was highly
thought OF in consequence OF this
and OF his gallant fight against Rus
sla during the early years OF his reign.
Indeed, Lord Beaconsfeld used Of
him the words later most bitterly
contradicted by Gladstone: He is
not a tyrant he is not dissolute, he
is not a bigot or corrupt"
In his personal life, at least, as
separate from his conduct as ruler,
the reputation of Abdul Hamid bears
out the estimate OF Beaconsfeld.
Regular Of habits, abstemious and
industrious the Sultan has been
nearer an ascetlc than the traditional
voluptuary. He has never drunk
wine, he has risen early hours and
eaten sparingly, through many years.
He has had numerous favorites
among his harem and there have been
born to him fourteen children, per-
haps considerably less than the aver
age of the families Of the Grand
Turks.
He has taken his recreation in
driving and riding, chiefly in attend
ing the opera occasionally on the
visits of opera companies to the cap
ital. He has passed almost his en-
tire time secluded in the Ylldiz Kiosk
palace beautifully located three
: miles outside of Pera.
. The Sultan. whatever his course
with others, has spared the lives oil
relatives, even those most preiudicia
to his security. Not all the Sultan'
have acted as mercifully. His elder
brother, Murad w. lived out his life
, relegated after his disposition to
fine palace on the Bosphorus. His
younger brother, Richard, is still liv.
/ ing after life spent in seclusion anc
! under surveillance lest he should
enter into seditious plots.
r on the whole, Abdul Hamid has
, ruled we'll according to the despoti'
, traditions Of his race. He has beer
) popular with the common soldier, the
, peasant and the ignorant and ortho
dox Mohamm edan. He has beer
. hated by the foreign-minded reform
= ers in Turkey. by the court intrig
uers in Constantinople and by the
. foreign Powers, impatient at the bar