The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1910-07-22
The Sultan OF Sulu And His
Wives.

liadp Mohammed Momool Kram is The first Am
erlcan snltan
He rules The Sulu archipelago of the Ihppines, and
his rule recognized by the recent visit President
Jacob .. Schurman Of Mckinley Philippine commiss-
Ion and by an arrangement to support by American
money ms tWeke wives and his picturesque court
From all accounts Hadii is not much Of a sultan but
doubtless the breed can be improved Meanwhile
Hadji will have to do.
President Schurman, who went to the Sulu archpel-
ago TO take possession OF our new sultan reports that
he Is 30 years Old The cunning Suu photographers,
however, make him look younger. There is a whole
harem of suanas who 60 with the sultan like chromos
with pound of tea
They are all American sutaras now and form pic
tuesque adjunct to American society. The costume
which sutana consists of an undershrt three
sizes too tight and pair of boomers three sizes too
big. They also have kind of shawl for cool weather.
Anyone who has seen Little Egypt dancing the COO
chee-cOochee will have pretty good idea of what an
American sultana looks like
A mother also comes with the sutln. She was dig
inally slave girl but Hads father fell in love with
her beauty and married her. The sutana Immediately
acquired such an ascendency over him that she
cognized as the real ruler of tre Suu archipelago.
But the SDaniards became dissatisfied and depOSed
the monarch, naming in his stead gentleman named
Paduca Marasari Mauna Amil Maunin Harun
Nanasd.
The old sutana was greatly displeased but she laid
in supply of corrosive subllmate and sent word
to the usurper that she wanted TO marry him.
But it was not to be, Paduca had heard about the
careless way in which corrosive sublmate had been
handled in the royal palace and sent word that his staff
of Sutanas OvercrOWded. He added that he had
at first considered the matter favoraby, but on second
thought preferred to die natural death. Neverthe-
less his reign short Hadj returned tothe throne
moved his sultanas back into the serago and now the
sutana enjoys the triumph of seeing her starred
the only original Oriental potentate connected with
the free and enlightened government OF the United
States.
But she still retains the corrosive sublimate habit
and only recently when foreign ship in port, she
endeavored to eplenish her stock by pretending that
it needed to kill rats. In case the sultana ever
comes to visit her great and good suzeraln at the
white house in Washington this will be remembered.
Sultan Hadji who 1t is to be, presumed, Will be the
father of long line of Yankee sultans, is small man
light of limb and intellect In full dress he resembles
a Spanish bull fighter with Oriental trimmings tie
wears light pantaoons rides well and when he goes
armed presents an alarming aspect.
On these occasions he carries barong which resem
bles butchers clever. a long krlsS (dagger with
wavy snake-like blade and big two edged sword, be-
sides pair of horse pistols The barong is said to be
one of the most horrible weapons ever constructed and
a reasonably smart man can cut foe into with tiff
the foe doesn't see him hrst-as easily as small boy
cuts down thistle In this case 1t is considered the
right thing to catch the enemy behind IN the small OF
the back and cut nearly through him at the waisne.
When Hadji comes to do homage at the presidents
knee it will be well for his brother American to keep
an eye on the barong.
Although he is a real, sure enough sultan, Hadji
doesn't live in the style which sultans are commonly
supposed to keep up There lots of ordinary gro
GERS and flour and feed merchants in this country who
have better homes than Hadji Mohammed Momool
Kiram In fact, it is only two stories high, and it is
said to look quite like the homestead of Missouri far
mer 1t is also said that there American seraglioS
in Salt Lake City that would make Hadjs zenana look
like 80 cents. Moreover travellers who have been in
troduced to the sutanas of Suu say that there is only
one good-looking woman in the whole bunch, and that
even she has chewed much bete that her mouth re-
sembles cake of tar rather than rosebud. On the
whole the new American sultanas are likely to provea
lob lot dear at any price and of little credit to the Am
ericans who engineered the deal.
Of course it is needles to say that the only American
sultan is Mohammedan and while he will accept his
politics from Washington he will take his religious tone
from the defender of the faithful in the Ydiz Kiosk
at Constantinople.
When President Schurman called on the sultan at
Maibun he found that he had already begun to adapt
himself to American fashions and was wearing an or
dnSry full dress waistcoat over white nlghtgown.
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