The Daytona daily news., 1912-12-12

/ pretended to be. girl. scarcely
more than a child, strayed into the
room and stared In wonder at its rich
furnishings. From one gorgeous bau-
Bile to another she wandered, gazing,
examining. handling. At length, as she
| reached a table, she saw lying there a
| tiny jeweled, silver mounted pistol 1t
was unlike any other weapon she ever
had seen. The girl picked 1t up, turn
| ing 1t over and marveling at It's rare
| beauty. The man on the divan in the
shadowy corner opened his eyes and
slowly sat up.
What are you looking at?" he ask
ed gently.
"At this pistol, SIRE" answered the
girl.
And what are pistols made for?" he
queried in the same pleasant tone
Toto shoot people, SIRE faltered
the girl. little reassured by his gen.
tleness.
Quite So" yawned the man. And
l will prove 1t. Let me show you"
Whipping another revolver from his
pocket he shot the girl dead.
This Is typical anecdote of Abdul
Hamid, Commander of the Faithful =
The Prophets Vicsroy on Earth
the man who until last year was
sultan OF Turkey. It shows at once
his cunning. his heartlessness, his
deadly fear OF assassination. So deep
ly did he dread being killed that he
usually remained a captive in his own
palace, surrounding himself only with
those to whom he was more valuable
alive than dead, and at once Staying
any one whom he even remotely sus-
pected OF having designs upon his life.
The Yildiz Kiosk hid thousands OF
black tragedies.
Fear OF death made Abdurs life q
burden. It robbed him of slumber. At
times the only way he could be put
to sleep was by hearing some one read
aloud the story OF the awful punish
ments that had been inflicted on some
OF the slayers of rulers. These tales
OF torture.wou lull him to rest.
Abdul Hamid was born In 1912. He
was the second son OF sultan and
came to the Turkish throne in 1876
when his elder brother was deposed.
To make way for Abdul, another
brother was murdered and nephew
falsely imprisoned as a maniac The
new sultan began his reign by prom
ising countless reforms-and by per-
forming none of them His Balkan
States in those days were in wild re-
volt. At home, the Young Turk" move
mont olrnaHu ht,c 80
up the rotten government and TO abol-
fsh tyranny. The people murmured.
The Turkish crown seemed totterinE.
Abdul Hamid had before him a task
that would have crushed most rulers.
Yet he performed 1t with a skill that
stamped him as the subtlest and ablest
statesman of his day.
At the outset Of his career as sultan
the atrocities in the Balkans led Rus.
sia to declare war on Turkey. Russia
won the conflict and might have wiped
the stain OF Turkish crimes from the
earth had not the other European DOW
ers grown, jealous. They interfered:
saved Turkey and deprived Russia of
nearly all the fruits of her victory. AL
ready the sultan was beginning to
show his rare statesmanlike Quail.
ties.
In the peace treaty Abdul made
many fine promises. He kept none of
them, and he SO fooled the European
powers that he suffered no penalty
from his breach of faith. He choked
the voice Of liberty, silepced the
Young Turks" by force and made
himself sole master of his empire. BY
playing one nation against another and
by owing some of them huge debts
that his downfall might cancel, he
Kept the world at large from interfer-
Ing with his horrible plans.
For instance, in 1895-1S96 the signal
was given by him for wholesale mas
sacre of Armenian Christians. Thou
sands of defenseless persons were
slaughtered. A far lesser series of
atrocities had brought on a war with
Russia in 1871 Yet this time not one
European nation lifted a finger to
check the outrage.
But tyranny has always wrought its
own destruction. While Europe. bound
hand and foot by the web of Abdul
Hands willy diplomacy, took no step
TO check his crimes. his own people at
length rose against him. The Young
Turks grew too strong to be put
down. There was an almost bIoodIess
revolution in 1908. Abdul was de-
posed in April, 1909, and was sent to
Salonica as a state prisoner. His
younger brother, Mehmed, or Moham-
ed. was taken from a prison palace
where Abdul had confined him. and
was placed upon the Turkish throne.
That Abdul was deposed is but nat
uraI- The only wonder Is that he was
able to hold his shaky power in such
masterful fashion for a third OF a CEN
tury.