davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17

ton. Ono man represented him as
asking very shrcwd business questions
about America with view to making
good foreign Investments; another
told of his wit and humor. One Bull
garian fricnd of mine the wife of "a
diplomat, sat near the Sultan at Il
theatre party i'll the palace on one
occasion. He said many flattcring
things to her and expressed admra
tion for fan she carried. at would
be far more beautiful, sire" was her
instant response, "if it were adorned
with your signature" Abdul Hamid
Immediately took the fan and scrawled
his name on it.
My friend was delighted, but the
following day a messenger called at
tho Bulgarian agency with n valuable
jcwellcd fan which the Turkish mon
arch begged the lady to accept, re-
questing Mt the same time the return
of the one which he had signed.
The Turks have a curious feeling
tUOuC signatures. IL IS superstition
that the person who possesses your
written name has power over you.
Abdul Hamid was extremely supersti-
tious. He was more influenced by his
astrologer than by any statesman in
his entouragc. The Turkish stamps
used to bear the impression Of the i'm
perial scala monogram known as the
tourah. At one time Abdul Hamid
suggested withdrawing the issue be-
cause people carclcssly dropped
stamped letters, and thus let the sa-
cred tourah be trampled in the mud
But when his postmaster pointed out
that the crowned heads Of Europe al
lowed their faces to be printed on
stamps he reluctantly withdrew his OBJ
jcctions.
l have often been asked about Alb
dull Hamid's wives and favortcs. This
was one of the ways in which he was
a mystery. We knew very little about
his seraglio. But | think it is we'll
established that he never allowed any
woman to play Dclilah TO his Samson
| and shear his strength. The Sultans
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
Epistle of Paul
Gave Him Qualns

"Why should you say. THY kingdom.
Gomez" inquired the official. ono
body's kingdom should come but our
Lord Sultan's!"
-."other time copy of the Epistl
t. the Galatians excited suspicion OF
treason. There is quarter Of Con
stantinoplc called Galata. and this
cristlc on the face of it was scditious
appeal to the people of that quarter
Sir Edwin Pears. the eminent English
lawyer, was obliged to go into court
and testify that the author of the let.
ter, one Paul, had been dead at least
seven years!
When the French actor Coquelin
came to Constantinoplc, his repersory
handed to the censors IL
Malade -lmaginairc" could not be played
because that seemed to reflect on Abdul
Hamid's hypochondria, and "Le Nissan
thropc" was plainly hit at the Sultan.
"rartuffe, the Hypocrite," was, again, d
too sympathetic role; finally, as the
Sultan seemed to have the whole list
of Molicre vices, nothing was left to
the distinguished actor but "Lc Medecin
Malgre Lui."
The Sultan left his palace only twice
a year, on special holy days; the rest
of the time he remained behind the
lofty walls of Yildez, protected by the
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
1! he,

money in the country flowed into the
bottomless pockets of the palace clique
and the Sultan. BY 1907, when Abdul
Hamid felt sure that revolution was
brewing, g Turk was in danger if he
were seen talking to European and
the coffee houses frequented by for
ejgners were forbidden to Moslems.
Ii Turkish acquaintance walked
along the bridge with us we felt
nervous fearing he or we might fall
under suspicion. He was in the
greater danger, however, as we were
protected by the American flag. If Il
Turk were once suspected, all his
friends and acquaintances would shun
him as il he were a leper. There is
nothing that we have learned of espion-
age in these years of the war that was
not outdone in Turkey in 1907, and all
because Abdul Hamid was trying to
dam up progress in the Ottoman en-
pire and keep himself on his tottering
throne.
Some of the stories of censorship at
that time were amusing, although VIC
we're always suffering inconvenience be-
cause of it. For although
tie Bible was allowed to be published d
there WAS trouble when any special re-
prints were made of separate parts
At one time some copies of the Lord
Prayer fell into the hands of the CEN
sors and were disapproved.
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
The Best Coffee Comes From
Place Where They Make 1t Best

white men. We had gone up and down
mountains by rail and OH foot. had ad
mired the blooms i'll the Plaza dc
-Armas, and were tired and hungry and
the little old posada looked better than
Ritz. Moreover, it was nearer. There
was sopa, much pcppcrcd, arroz con
polio, all omelet.
There were other things ! forget;
there were delicious oranges which
his honor could hardly peel fast
enough for US, and bottles Of good
Spanish wine which sells in New York
as Bordeaux. But the coffee ] can't
forget. 1T realized the dream OF Bril-
lat-Savarn-' black as the night, stronf.
as the devil. and hot as hell"
HIS honor, much pleased with tn >
pleasant things we said about the cot
tee, admitted frankly that there was
no coffee IN the world equal to that of
the Province of Orientc, and none so
good IN Oriente as that of El Cobre.
He pointed out to us the hill where it
grew, and said that real coffee must
be freshly picked, dried, sorted, roast
ed, ground, brewed and drunk. Word
OF caballero. he was right. But this
variety of Cuban coffee is not export
ed, and will not be. People grow
enough for themselves. To gair a
profitable market would be an expcn-
sive undertaking, for it would mean a
campaign of education in los EE. UJ.
where people know everything worth
knowing and have to be shown.
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17

said about it in the newspapers. And
q vast majority of them stopped wit.
the head line and the three or fou.
paragraphs following it. The inert
table took place Somehow or oihe
the newspaper reading public got ;s
icea that the samurai ate fire when
other people ate rice; and blood nj
warm and fresh-was his normal bew.
age. Nobody tried to correct th,
Chiefly because there is little cor,ssl
lEg an Anglo-SaXon brain once CO..
viction takes a firm root in il and
also because the only thanks nan
would have received for his troubles
would have been a collection Of nicely
printed rejection slips from the editor,
Of magazines and papers.
But the fact stands nevertheless
that the samurai is by 10 means &
fight loving animal. Indeed, in the Old
samurai days. a mere man of the swcn
was looked down upon as a rough
hcwn warrior. The beau IDEAL Of th
samurai was the wedding of the soldis
, and the scholar in one and the SAINT
man. This is the reason why muc,
tabled warrior went into the thick oil
the fray With a Towering spray d,
cherry in his Quivcr. Tho battle val
lost-as any popular lsd-sngins
nurse maid will tell you-and as The
shades of night fell upon the STAINED
field. the warrior sat himself down fol
the performance Of the time honored
rite of hdrGkiri (not harikari; then
Is 10 such thing outside Of all The
STANDARD dictionaries i'll English.
1t WAS the custom Of the samani
from time out of memory to con.
pose farewell TO life in classic couple:
called Ntd before performing the AMI
able rite. The samurai with tho fus- /.
crIDg spray followed the usage. And
his farewell couplct was an apology
nothing less-and an expression Of
| deep-fclt regret that the hot day hx
been so rude and hosrtlcss to the co!s
and perfume and the tender delicsey
the cherry flower! Defeat and his Sss
death were matter Of secondary eas
sldcration with the salnurai.
The master of the art Of eword-i;l
the halocd days of the Elder Nippon-
rovcr gave the final secrets TO hi; dlsl
ciplcs unless unless he was sbsoluRll
convinced that his pupil was first OF 81
the master of himself and his tempt'I
that he gave every promise of wIeldll9
the blade only for the defence OF tal1
weak and the defencoless and in ta1
cause of justice. 1t was the same VIII
the master of jujutSu. Otherwise
would have been like putting lignHs|
torch into the hands of q lunatlc.
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
BY l.. ]. de Becker

~ I'D YOU sec, tucked away in the
4 war news the other day, brief
cablegram saying that Britain
was threatened with a shortage of tea {?
Want moment, madam. This is not an
alarmist story, and ample supplies for
these United States arc coming across
the Pacific. But if youNrcad that item,
which carried merely a ono line head,
you must have observed that the out
ragged populace complained that an of.
fort was being made to convert tight
little England into coffee drinking
country. OF course, that isn't so, for
the British own too many tea planta-
tions. and the temporary scarcity was
due to the diversion of shipping from
the Oriental trade to war purposes.
But it made a deep impression on my
mind. "How," | said to MY wife, "can
the English novelist get along without
tea? If his hero and heroine can't
descend from the pinnacle Of climax
without the tea table, how are next
:
Business Of swapping on and off the
electrics, quickly taking up the tele-
phone receiver, dressing for dinner.
running ones car through the hedge of
honest Hodge, all these things are
necessary to the novelist. But tea is
vital. Coffee won't do at all, except in
Germany, where they used to serve it
with glass of dark beer on the side" /"
My wife. however, wasn't listening.
She had just persuaded the grocer to
let her have two pounds of sugar, and
was reviewing the possibilities thus
offered for q dessert, for she had
boarded pound and half. and felt
passing rich. She heard but one word.
That suficed, as usual, to change the
current of my thought, the drift Of the
conversation.
Coffee? Did you ever taste such
coffee" she said, 'as we had in FL
Cobre last winter?"
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
But the Coffee
Arrived Safe

Two weeks later we were in Port-au-
Prince. having sailed on the Montreal,
an old steamer belonging to the Com
pagnie Generate Transatlantique, which
the Huns sank as she was returning
from France to the Caribbean Thank
God, she landed her cargo, many tons
of coffee. which were hoisted aboard
as we stopped at Petit Goave, Mira
goane and other little ports of the
Haytian Republic, before the subma-
rine got her. The poilus needed it,.
But in Port even though
lodged in villa once the residence
of President Simon, we wondered why
the French should prefer the coffee Of
Hayti to that of Brazil, and sighed
for the aroma of the Cuban berry. We
knew that the French, a race of cpl
cures, cheerfully paid twice as much
Ter the product of their former colony.
NJ. Louis Borno, Secretairc dEtat
pour les Atfaires Etrangeres, considered
this fact conclusive. He confessed to
Me with the frankness of the Alcalde Of
Ell Cobre that Haytian coffee was
the finest on earth, that it's flavor was
unrvalled, that it flourished without
cultivation, and was the chief source of
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
Her Paintings and
Decorative Arts

Japan had little trouble in spealH
to her neighbors through her pictofs..
e.yptic and other decorative arts. u
did not take much painful educasn'
for our Dutch friends to appretSa
our gold lacquer. Brocades, car'!nss
Satsuma wares, spoke in lansssee,,
which laughed at dictionaries wv,
widely. to all the peoples of the ea5',
In fact, that peculiar expression =
emotional life which is and mas pss s.
Nippon's very own, and which is csin
the Japanese art, has been the ~ !.
contribution Nippon has ever made
the worlds stock of real wealth.
At that. it was Utamaro. Hirosnss
Hokusai and the rest of the dlsrsp.l
table brethren of the Ukiyoe sew, nv,
whom the Occident understood pew w.
all and above all the Japanese PAN.
ers. And they were not mere s.,, eu.
mon, untutored people of the OcelO..
who appreciated them. Undispu',,i
masters of craft and famous men :
art did Whistler and La falt
They ranked Hokusai with RemoIsa.ss.. =.
placed him among the immortals o. v,
art world. This is enough 10 g',ss
IeNeIeHt Japanese petiidhe' ,..;u
flesh. All of which goes TO empaassss ~
the fact how little Nippon is unuS, s;,
stood even where she is most ess.; ..,
read. Ghosts OF Sesshu and Se'.ss. ~
That there are actually people W
would put the frivolous skete1.vaS; I.a;.u
the street scavengers of the oA.
school over the chaste beauty - -
exquisite simplicity of Sesshus a.. -
les! But when one calms down ~
thinks it over, it is quite a step cs.
appreciation of Whistler and dc Y" y,
court brothers of the halfpenny - :,
anese prints in understanding wha'
had to say 81
And now that the beginning 80,
been made, now that even IN the "a, Il,
~ and particularly stony field o. IN i,
anese music pioneers are ness'tb s Il
over the horizon, let US hope 'oI .n, 3
best. The young musician from NO, no
may be the John the Baptist Tor s shs,
coming We all have wished iol ~.
| many weary years.
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17

highly paid Albanian guard and large
force of sentries and catered to by a
whole village of industries.
He had his private theatre, where
Coquelin played his slender repertory,
and Bernhardt, Rejane and Jane Had
ing gave special performances for him.
Despite the Moslem rule that no rep
reservations of anything either in the
heavens above, the earth below or the
waters under the earth shall be made,
he had fine picture gallery of m odern
paintings. He lived in great luxury,
but was said to be abstemious as TO
food and consistently Mahometan as
to drink. He offered wine to Christian
guests, but never touched it himself.
Every one came to him. Even the
Kaiser, when he visited Constantinople,
waited upon the Sultan in his palace.
Had the Kaiser realized that to the
Turk the man who pays the visit is the
inferior and that to the Moslcm it
would seem to be proclaiming the su-
perior sovereignty of the Sultan, it
might have dashed his pleasure IN the
political pilgrimages" he made 10 the
Ottoman Empire.
He Had Amnities
f or the Kaiser
But one feels that the Sultan and
the Kaiser were elective affinities and
met on many common grounds. No
cruelty was too great for either OF
them when the dynasty or territorial
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT was in question, as :he
! Armenian massacres of 1896 and 19le
have plainly shown. Abdul Hamid was
a clever diplomat, playing off one
power against another. He was q
master Of secret diplomacy of .hc
worst sort, of delay and the broken
promise and the tearing up Of scraps
of paper" He was clever enough tc
hold back the revolution in Turkey fcr
thirty years and fool everybody who
trusted him-but. the end came.
A new day has arrived" said /
man servant TO me soemnly upon ny
return to Constantinoplc in September
! 1908. Indeed it seemed so. The vas
depression that had settled over th'
land was lifted. The army haC forcct
constitution on the Sultan, and h'
was no longer the autocrat, but
shrinking old man. At first he accept
~ the change with so much adron
ness that the people cried: "Our Padi
shah has given us this constitution.
But underneath his smiling acceptance
/ he plotted, plotted. The wonderful
honeymoon of Turkish history SLOW
4 ly wore off. 1T was the greatest eX
perience | ever lived through those
months Of ecstatjc freedom when every
Ottoman stretched his arms in the JOY
of broken chains. ] know how the freed
people of Russia felt last spring. The
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17

NJ us who lived in Constantinople
Abdul Hamid was a mystery, n
fear ard constant sinister in
Euencc. We never spoke his name in
the street; we never pointed at his
palace; we Ncvcr noticed his outragcs.
It was best to keep q close mouth and
eyes straight ahead in the years l was
in his city.
I saw him several times; once on his
Friday attendance at the mosque a
gorgeous affair of prancing chargers,
flying banners, strange uniforms and
a bowed old man. Another time saw
Abdul Hamid cn the occasion of his
annua! reception 20 his officials at
Dolma Bagtche Palace. l was net far
from him that morning. looking down
from the diplomats gallery. The great
throne room with its superb chandelier,
its gilded galleries, from behind which
vciled ladies pecred; its long lines of
pink Persian carpet, over which the
brilliantly uniformed officials advanced
and retreated after kissing the tassel
OF his majesty's throne and the deeply
impressive Moslcm priests in green,
white and mauve robes and tur
bans. all formed a splendid setting
for the lonely figure i'll frocE coat and
gray trousers who leaned on his shin
ing scimitar as he rose to greet the
Sheikh- -ul-Islam. His hooked nose and
swarthy skin suggested the Armenian
mother he is said to have had. His
black eyes we're piercing under the
shaggy brows: his pointed black beard
dyed, Ii rumor be correct), his slight,
bent figure, which yet gave the spec
tator an impression OF lonely majesty,
made him a very remarkable parsonage.
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
fear of the Germ of liberalism entering

fear Of tho germ Of liberalism entering
from Europe.
He kept out of Turkey all books that
mentioned Turkey or Islam. He cen
sored all mail, and all parties and
gatherings of people. No clubs or
meetings were allowed. The news
papers were a nullity, all real news
being forbidden, and discussions on
the weather and reports of people
forbidden because they transmitted
messages so rapidly that treason might
be hatchcd over them. Typewritcrs
wcro prohibited because they might
write reasonable words. All the
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
There Were Many
Who Admired Him

Abdul Hamld had charm. Every one
who met him felt it. Many European
and American visitor to the Porte,
after dining at his table, came away
with glowing reports of the Sultan's
sraciousness and interesting convcrsa
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
1t Was Black,
Strong and Hot

And, of course, hadn't. We we're
the guests of the Alcalde, having jour
neyed over from Santiago de Cuba
vi der the escort of one of the Cover
nor's aids to pay our respects at the
shrine of Nuestra Sonora de la Carload
y de los Remedies, whose true image
is honored by many pilgrims, and to
see the great copper mine, the NEST
ancient in America to be worked by
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
By Adachi kinnosuke

IAPAN is trying at last to speak
language that will be understood
by the Western world. She has
been dumb neither blind nor deaf, Oh,
far from it-but dumb. That is, IN
ternationally speaking. She is about
a two-year- old internationally speak
ing just beginning to clothc the pro-
fundity of her thoughts and emotions
in lisping monosyllableS.
She had not the slightest trouble to
make herself intelligiblc to herself
TO her own people any more, | fancy,
than two year old baby has. But, to
tell her twcnty-tivc-centu tury-old emo
tlons TO her foreign friends, She has
been under decided disadvantage.
Many things have made this matter
tangled. The first means through which
she tried to talk internationally vas
war-thc Chinese and the Russian
wars. That was exceedingly unhappy
both for her and for her ncghbors.
When she remained utterly sllcn, IN
other fields OF cndeavor, tho outside
world took her for sullcn, autocratic
warrior Aud that is precisely the i'n.
urcssion about her which is moro uni
vcrsal even at this time than any other.
The actual fact is about as far from
that conception as the East is IRON
the West.
Tales, fairy and otherwise, about the
y hor
deal to do with the wide spread of
this notion. The entire Empire OF
Japan Gncluding Taiwan, Chosen and
Karafuto as Formosa, Corea and jap
anese Saghalen) has population Of
q little more than T3,00o,000. Out of
that number there arc not more than
100000 Of the descendants Of the old
Samurai class--less than 3 II per cent.
And the vast majority of the postcrity
OF the old-timc warrior class arc quite
as peace loving nowadays al their pres
cnt professions in which they engage
bank clerks, stock brokers, public
school teachers and painters of paper
umbrellas. To conjure UP modern
Japan out of the heroic and swash
buckling deeds OF tho old aamurai days
is about as logical as to coniure up
the Fifth Avenue rug merchant from
Greece in terms of Sappho's lyrics OF
of Perlclcan orations. But that is pre-
csely what a large portion Of the en-
lightened peoples of Europe and of the
United States have been insisting on
doing with japan.
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17
The Trouble With
Telling the Truth

The trouble was in this simple fact:
That comparatively few people had the
time and taste to read it through. but
the Americans, read What few % people
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17

festivals, gods and various and million
other things which she has called into
existence for the only and exclusive
reason Of making this rheumy-j jointed
donkey engine called life transform
itself into 4 merricr merry round
for her little men and women?
The Ancient Dream
OF the Bright Sword
why, the Japanese games for New
Years alone would fill good sized
volumcif one were to compile differ
ent games from different sections of
the empire. Among them, there may
be few war games. And even they
arc very apt to be new ones, invented
since Nippon had joined the civilized
nations of the world since tho Rus
sian war--not n native heritage from
Elder Nippon. We might as we'll con
tcss also that quite a respectable num-
ber of the future hopes Of masculine
Japan dream of shining as soldiers
nowadays. But that usually happens
after heavy dose Of gift candy or
sound session with the parental rod
OF Elder Nippon (of which so many of
our foreign friends and critics think
in terms of blood and iron) the only
children unnatural enough to dream
such a dream were tho children Of tho
samurai class; that is TO say. the chill
drcn Of the professional soldier class
And they were a ptfully small portion
OF large number of people. This much
is true beyond d cavil
The shadow OF mlitarism rarely
darkcncd cradle or robbed the lustrc
New-York tribune., 1918-02-17

income to the people and to the gov
crnment. III attribute its Wonderful
superiority to tho SOIL he said. "Wha.
the element is that gives so remarkable
Il blend of strength and bouquet | do
not know. But while our tobacco is cX-
Ccllent, I'm told it does not equal that
of the Vuelta Aba jo, and, in the same
way, Cuban soil cannot produce good
coffee. The Central and South Ameri-
can cotfces, Of course, are not to be
mentioned on the same day with ours"
1t CHANGED that being up to view the
sunrise ono morning, Il most delectablc
fragrance stole up from the neither
regions of the villa, and ! promptly fol-
lowed it to its source. The cook had
Just made coffee and was serving it to
the domestic staff Thereafter in Hayti
, was an carly riser, for the coffee was
made only once day, and it seemed to
me that NJ. Borno might be veracious
gentleman, notwith outstanding his expert
ence i'll diplomacy.
The Favorite
Fruit Of Pigs
In Santo Domingo City, where !
gorged myself on papayas, much to the
amusement of the citizens, who said it
was the favorite fruit of pigs, the coffee
was excellent Senor Don Francisco J.
Peynado did not hesitate to say that it
was the best in the world. He had
been Minister to Washington and was
Secretario de Hacienda under the last
Presidency and had travelled much in
Europe. | thought he ought to know,
but | asked him if he liked the coffee
in Paris.
He said it was fairly good, and then
| told him what the French thought
about coffee and their preference for
Haytian imports. "How can anything
in Hayti be as good as we have here ?"
he asked. And he seemed to have a
hazy recollection that when his father
vas minister Of the Republica Do
minicana in Hayti he always had his
coffee sent from home. He added that
several important New York hotels
were importing coffee from Santo Do
mingO.
Not more than a dozen Porto Ricans
Dragged to me about their coffee in
San Juan, but they seemed to have an
impression that its flavor was too
delicate for n palate accustomed to the
gross creations of Santos and Rio.
There would be millions in it, they
thought, If people only had sufficient
refinement and good taste. This
seemed reasonable" l thought, as
slipped my cafe solo in little restau-
rant in Gale Allen, two blocks below
the Governors palace. at IS good
coffee" Returning to New York some
weeks later, Senor Eusebio S. Azuiazu.
Secretario Particular to the President
CT Cuba, asked ME to dinner. And I