Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-02-07
All Eyes Are. Upon the
Aged Prisoner
Now.
Deluge to Follow
Ambitious Plans Of
Enver Pasha
by HENRY WOOD.

New Ork) Dec. 22.-The thoughts or
all Constantinople. If not all Turkey.
have suddenly, as If by magic, be-
come centered upon one single man.
BY "A strange oddity, too, this mar
is not the one who for the moment.
is most in the public eye. Enver
Pasha. with his 32 years of age. his
imperial alliance, his ministry Of war.
and his grand ambition to put the
old Turkish empire back on the map.
awakens no especial interest in the
Turkish mind.
Enver is a daredevil boy. they say,
who has secured for himself tho
chance to have his fling, and they
are quite willing that he have it. If
he makes good all very well. They
are quite willing that he have all tho
credit and reward for 1t, too. But II
he doesn't make gOod-well, that IL
how all Turkey has suddenly begun
thinking about another man, and
who, by way of strange contrast, is
the one who at the present moment
Is farthest from the public eye.
May of Mystery.
Abdul Hamid, the old sultan, tho
man whom the boy Enver put down
and out, and by whom he is now kept
shut up in a little white prison pal
ace over on the opposite shores OF
the BOsphorus-thisi Is the man OF
mystery, the man Of Hypothetical pos
siblities about whom Turkey has
suddenly set itself a-thinking.
what is passing at this precise mo-
ment, what schemes are forming in
the mind Of that foxy old man-that
man who was the shrewdest the
crueIost, the cunuiugest. the inhumau-
est, the CleVerest old lara Turk.
every inch of him-Who has ever sat
on the Turkish throne? These are
the questions all Turkey Is today ask
Ing itself, and there is hardly a mem
.ber of the whole population who
would not give at least three, II not
all of the four wives accorded him
by the Koran to be able to peep i'm
and solve the riddle.
Rumored He is Crazy.
Abdul Hamid is now 72 years -
age From the night in 1903 when
Enver and his band Of young Turks
deposed him, shutting him up first in
the green, high walled villa Allan
taini at SalOnika, but later for
safety's sake-theirs not his-talling
him to his present prison palace a 4
the Turkish public
has known very little about him. In
this first place, they figure that
AbduTs master mind which for
quarter of century kept the minds
a-bobbing of most Of the other Euro
pean monarchs, isn't the kind TO get
cracked. In the second place, they
knew Just how much it is to the in
d ~. L. OH
up to have 1t believed that he is In
sane.
And then, too, despite the tomb
like seclusion in which he is kept
apart from the world, there creeps
from time to time to the ears of the
Turkish words which the old Sultan
was declared to have uttered and
which far from creating the impress
sion that he is insane, give vent to
the idea tnat he is very very much
in his right mind, and that he is
very, very much in touch with every
thing that takes place I'm the Turkish
world without, and that he is waiting
very, very foMly-just as foNily as
he ever did befOre-for the moment
when his prisoners may have hung
themselves to step out and rule again.
Deluge Is Coming.
And it Is only recently-very re-
cently-in fact since Enver drained
all Turkey Of its last man, its last
"piastre," tia last animal. it's last
mOuthful of food to carry out his
ambitious projects, that the Turkish
ear has heard a fCw phrases, re
puted to have come from the inside
of the little white prison palace that
leaves no doubt that the Sultan
knows what all the rest of Turkey
outside tho prison walls-namely, af-
ter Enver the deluge.
For. to the average Turkish mind,
there now remains no doubt that
Turkey is today playing it's last card.
If EnveT, ~,.h the help of Germany
and Austria, Is victorious in his plans
to retake Egypt, then the die is won.
But If Enver fails there Is no one who
does not realize that the last resource
Of Turkey will have been spent. This
will mean also that Enver and tho
young Turks must 20. and then-wul
the old sultan come back2
This is the great Turkish question
Of today, and the great bulk of the
Turkish public is most favOrably in
clined to accept its answer in the af-
firmative. Time after time since Abb
dul Hamid's imprisonment plots have
developed to liberate him and re-
place him on the throne. Ostensibly
these plots have all developed from
without Those who profess to know,
however, are quite certain that all
developed wilhln-that the master
mind OF the foxy old Turk has ever
been at work just as keenly, just as
active as in the days ne sat upon the
throne.
And So c.1e In all Turkey today
doubts for moment that Abdul
Hamid has the plans all laid for his
restoration should the psychological
moment through n failure OF the
Young Turks, ever come. The setting
aside Of his brother, whom the Young
Turks placed upon the throne, would
not for Abdul be a matter OF incon-
venience. Since Mahomet V was
picked upon by the deposers OF his
brother TO be the latter's successor
they are declared to have kept his
wine cellar and harem SO well stocked
that the carer Of state rest most lightly
upon hH Nfs.nders-so lightly I'm fact
that their removal by Abdul would
hardly be noticed. provided the harem
and royal cellars were left undis-
turbed
Whether cr,not Abdul would be per-
mitted to remain on the throne by the
powers would be a question to be de-
cided later. But for the moment, all
IfNnV lf.anH 1nlf a. A l. ~