HAROUN-AL-RASCHID UP-TODATE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10193, 30 October 1894, Page 4

HAROUN-AL-RASCHID UP-TO-DATE.

From Budapest* tie Daily Telegraph's cor« respondent writes;— The immortal Caliph Harouu-Al-Rssohid, daring whose beneficent; reign Siubad the Saibr saw and did such extras ordinary things, mad 3it a practice to disguise himself an a simple citizen and mix with Ilia oeople in their pleasures and amusements in order to be able th) better to see himaelf as others saw him. Aid he generally succeeded. Angels, too, have bien known ta dwell among men once in a while'just to see how things wera going on, and on occasion to lend a helping hand. Bat, heretofore, it would nob appear that history records any instances of personages lower than celestial spirits or monarchs resorting to this use of the incognito. Nor did there seem any opening for other people. Why, for instance, should a'vizier disguise himself as a subject, seeing tiat without any disguise he is this and nothing mora ? It was reserved to a Hungarian Minister to break fresh ground in this direction a few days ayo. Count Andor Festetics, the new Minister for Agriculture in the Kingdom of Hungary, is a man of initiative and enterprise, and it pained him to notice that the Socialistic movement was making rapid progress ia the district of Alfold. He inquired into the causa o'i the dissatisfaction of tha working population, but received the old cut and dried answers which satisfy most official minds: "Demagogues, agitators, &o." Finding that it would bs useless to adopt any measures against the Socialists without having first discovered the origin of their dis« content and tha secret of their success, ha resolved to go among them ss a friend, and ta hear what they might have to say on the sub*, ject. He therefore put himself in comumnics-! tion with a lawysr, who had studied the mattec on the spofe—Dr Szeleofcey,—from whom ho received lebte<s of recommendation to various Socialistic leaders, among.others to men who. are under the supervision of the police, and to some who are about to be tried foi inciting to class hatred. Ths Minister. disguised himself completely, and presented himself to the demagogues, who received him very cordially, and initiated him into the whola history of the movement. Tfcey told him that for years ya3t a large number of workmen had been employed in constructing the dams which are destined to protect the district from inundations, but that these works being now finished they were thrown out of. employment, or practically so, as they hava only SO days' work in the year. They ara unable, therefore, to support their families, and welcome any movement, Socialistic or Governmental, which promises to batter their lamentable condition. The Miniates is now resolved to find employment for all these: people, by ereutiug a sugar manufactory iv tha district. Ke intended to prosecute his inquiry in other parts of Hungary, and was ia Osczhazn. among the malcontents, -when h!3 friend and eonlidsuifc one day unthinkingly addressed bid as "Your Excellency." These words, like the strode o£ midnight at Cinderella's ball, broke the spoil, and Count Festetics beat a hasty retreat. But he now knows at least what he wants, and how to work to effect it. The affair is cansiog a gocd deal of talk all over Hungary, and the Minister for Agriculture has become one of the most popular msa in the Government.