The Washington times., 1915-01-25
Think OLD SULTAN
WILL COME BACK"
Turks Believe Abdul Hamid Has
Plans All Laid for His Res.
toration to Power.

CONsTANTINOPLE (Via Rome to
New York;, Dec. 25.-The thoughts Of
all Constantinople. II, not all Of Turkey,
have suddenly, as II by magic. become
centered upon one single man.
BY strange oddly. too, this man IL
not the one who for the moment 10
most In the public eye. Enver Pasha.
with his thirty-two years of age. his
imperial alliance, his ministry of war.
and his grand ambition to put the old
Turkish empire back on the map awak-
ems no especial interest in the Turkish
mind
Enver is a daredevil boy. they say.
who has secured for himself the chance
to have his fling, and they are quite
willing that he have l. II he makes
S.M.4s T%s sa or oo ssv' sn 81 'hs Ss Ssss
kew has suddenly begun thinking about
another man. and who, by way OF
strange contrast. is the one who at the
public eye.
Thinking About Abdul Hamid.
Abdul Hamid the old Sultan. the man
whom the boy Enver put down and out.
and by whom he Is now kept shut up
In a little white prison palace over on
the opposite shores Of the Bosphorus-
this is the man OF mystery. the man of
hypothetical possibilities about whom
Turkey has suddenly set itself athink-
ing
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 cruelest
the cunningest. the inhumanest. the
cleverest old lara Turk. every inch
of him-who ever sat on the Turkish
throne? These are the question, e., al n
ussS hsSy is ,0%sy sySer fsnrf o wsoe
population who would not give at leas
three. II not all. of the four wives &C
corded him by the koran to be able tc
peep in and solve the riddle.
Abdul Hamid Is now seventy-two
years of age. From the night In 1905
when Enver and his band Of Young
Turks deposed him. shutting him up firs'
| in the green high-walled villa Alataini
theirs. not his-taking him to his pres.
ent prison palace at Constantinople. the
Turkish public has known very little
about him. At periodic interval IL the
wcrd Is passed around that he Is insane
But no one believes this. In the first
place, they figure that Abduls master
mind, which for a quarter OF century
kept the minds a-bobbing Of most OF
! the other European monarchs. ISM
the kind to get cracked: In the second
place. they know just how much 1t IL
| to the interest Of the people keeping hin
shut up to have 1t believed that he Ii
| insane.
In Tomb-like Seclusion.
And then. too. despite the tomblike Sc
clusion In which he Is kept apart from
the world. there creeps from time tt
! thn NJ oh
which the old Sultan is declared te
have uttered and which. far from Great
/, Ing the impression that he Is insane
|, give vent to the ID IA that he Is very
very much in his right mind. that he l!
livery. very much in touch with everything
without. and that he is waiting very
very foxily-just as foxily as he evel
did before--for the moment when hi,
prisoners may have hung II emselves t.
, step out and rule again.
And. 1t Is only recently-yery recent!
since Enver drained oil Turkey OF III
last man. its last ''piastre." its last ami
, nal. its last mouthful Of food to carr,
! out his ambitious projects. that tn
Turkish ear has heard a fcw phrases
reputed to have come from the inside o
the little white prison palace tina
leaves no doubt that the Sultan know
| what all the rest Of Turkey outside tn
| prison walls-namely. after Enver th'
deluge.
| For to the average Turkish mind
there now remains no doubt tina
I Turkey Is today playing its last card
, II Enver. with the help Of German!
| and Austria. is victorious In his plan
But II Enver fails, there ia no one VIII
does not realize that the last re
source of Turkey will have been spent
! This will mean also that Enver an