THE SULTAN'S PRIVATE LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12242, 11 April 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE SULTAN'S PRIVATE LIFE.

STRANGE EXISTENCE OF A MAN HAUNTED WITH TERROR. There appears in Pearson's Magazine for March a remarkable article dealing with the Sultan of Turkey. It is written by the son of a gentleman who was at one time an official at the Court of the strange personage who rules his Mohammedan Empire from within the walls of the Yildiz Palace. It is a curious storya story of a nervebroken olcl man, who clings wildly to life, though through his fears life has long ceased to bring enjoyment. Yildiz Kiosk is perched on a high lull overlooking the Bosphorus, and around its broad acres are drawn tail walls and stiong fortifications. Within, mosques, pavilions, and chalets are sea,tiered in the strangest profusion, varying in their styles of architecture with the restless caprices of their builder. It is indeed a town in which are factories, arsenals, stables, and barracks garrisoned by 7000 soldiers of the Imperial Guard and populated by some 5000 creatures of an Eastern Court—wives and concubines, slaves and eunuchs, servants and musicians. Near the centre is a simple wooden chalet, with some 24 rooms, luxuriously if barbarously furnished, and here or in a little neighbouring kiosk, walled with cement, the Sultan of Turkey lives out his haunted life. HIS BEADY REVOLVER. Always he carries, a revolver hidden somewhere within the folds of his robes— when he is receiving anyone in audience his ri<nit hand is never far from the place where the revolver lies. With painful anxiety he watches the slightest movements of anyone who is admitted %*o his presence. Living in • mortal fear of assassination, a. brusque movement, a quick step, even a. change of attitude is enough to make him start in terror, and to send his right hand to his revolver pocketand often, overoome by sudden fear, he whips out his revolver and shoots some wholly inoffensive man or woman. . When walking one day in the park at Yildiz the Sultan came upon a gardener kneeling on tho ground, intent on his .work. Sliddenly becoming aware of his Royal master s approach, tho man rose up quickly, to assume a. more respectful attitude. Fatal movement; for. instantly, startled by the man's sudden uprising before him, instinctively suspecting treachery, the Sultan drew his revolver and fired, and the man dropped dead at his feet. When searched no weapon was ' found upon him, save his gardening tools. Abdul Ha mid' groundless fears, thoug.i they do.not always have such tragic sequences, invariably lead to unpleasant scenes. Only great presence of mind, on the part of a suspeotod person will save the situation. Thus, a trusty Minister, Hakin Pasha, was in the Sultan's room, and noticed that a draught was .annoying His Majesty. His sudden movement, as he quickly rose to close the window, was enough to send the. Sultan's hand to the revolver that lay concealed beneath a handkerchief, and-it was. only by sitting down as quickly as he bad risen up that lie escaped a bullet from the revolver. ... ' And once, one night when the Sultan was lying.in bed, he summoned his Chamberlain, Baghib Bev, in audience. Leaning over the bed, to light a cigarette at the Sultan 9 command, he happened to make a movement which sent his master into paroxysms of 'j fear. The Sultan imagined that his Chamberlain meant to strangle him. Seizing his ..wrists, the terrified monarch held them fast until his wild shrieks brought the guards rushing to his aid. FEAR OF POISON. . Of poison' he has an equal fear to that which he displays against more open assaults. His private kitchen is a veritable fortressa tiny "chamber with barred windows and massive door. This is how the Sultan is served. As the hour of dinner approaches two high officials bear a little four-legged table, set with the Imperial dinner-service, before tho —followed by a lackey with a tray, on which are spread the dishes. These are' totally enveloped in a black sheet, the ends tied and sealed with red wax by the Kelardji. Behind marches another servant, ' bearing bread, and a fifth brings up the rear with a ,sealed bottle of water. ' All who encounter the imposing cortege bearing the dinner bow low before it as it passes to the Sultan's apartment. The din-' ner is received by the Kelardji, who breaks the seals in tho presence of His Majesty with a solemnity fitting the occasion, and , offers each dish in, turn. - : Merely touching one or two, Abdul Hamid —who is' as abstemious as he is suspicious— orders the remainder to be carried to such courtiers as he desires to honour, for it is no light favour to be allowed to finish a Sultan's meal. _ . Now and again the Sultan is seized with a fit of suspicion, and, pretending that he detects poison in a dish, suddenly orders the Kelardji "to ' taste it, narrowly watching the effects of the experiment. '• Another precaution that he takes is to surround himself with a number of cats and dogs, throwing them scraps of food, and seeing that they survive before he ventures to eat himself. _ Fond as he is of sheep's feet stewed in sauce, and all kinds- of piquant dishes, the Sultan holds boiled eggs in esteem above everything, considering thai they are less likely tc convey poison than anything else. LOTC OF ANIMALS. In this curious character we find some startling manifestations. He is very fond of animals. There is a menagerie in the . palace, and well-built kennels for his favourite dogs. His- stables contain magnificent horses, conspicuous among them a superb white charger, a present from the Czar. He li*s many birds—parrots, pigeons, some rare specimens presented by the Mikado of Japan. . Stranger still is his love for flowers. ! His gardens have been well laid out, and are kept by many gardeners. Yet this same Nature-lover can be guilty of the blackest inhumanity. We read : " Several of the kiosks in Yildiz are set apart a3 prisons and courts o£ justice. The Sultan's secretaries usually aot ; bj judges, and try the cases of those whom the spies . have accused of conspiracy against the throne. The Sultan, hidden behind curtains, • often takes part in-the proceedings. Tortures »re applied to extract confessions or the denunciation of accomplices. One horrible instrument of torture was invented by the-Court jestera device _ for r pressing and crushing all the most sensitive parts of. the body, causing frightful pain, but not death. Another favourite method of torturing a; prisoner is to place boiling eggs in his armpits. -Deprivation of sleep is a punishment often put in force, with the inevitable result of .madness. A hundred other barbarities are oantmonly practised in Yildiz, rahftia? from the most refined to the mest bestial tortures." . ■, . .At the end of this article we find a picture of this horror-haunted man when darkness and silence fall on the world outside the palace walls. With the doors locked by his

own hand, and the lights ablaze, it is not until the night is far spent that he seeks his bed.

"Lulled at last to sleep by the music of the band, the trampling of the guards' feet, and the crooning voice of the reader, the Sultan passes a few moments of unconsciousness, only to wake with a start from a terrifying dream, and hastily to summon some trusty councillor, who will banish the vague terrors that haunt his uneasy mind; or to call his soothsayer to his bedside, to give the interpretation of his dream. "Thus, with fitful slumber, broken by horrible dreams, from which he starts shrieking in terror, the Sultan passes the nijjht watches, until daylight comes again, to bring comfort to the faint heart of the old, sick man of Turkey, whose maxim is, The State lam —and after me the deluge I' "