The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1909. THE MAN-SLAYER.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 3310, 1 May 1909, Page 4

The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING SATURDAY, MAY 1,1909. THE MAN-SLAYER.

Describing the opening of the. new Parliament in Constantinople a correspondent erf the Otago .Daily Times supplied an interesting sketch of the funner Sultan of Turkey: —“A figure seemed to truss the sunlight ; the silence of death fell on the crowded room. Abdul Hamid had entered. \\ ith his bent form, his hooked nose, his ashy face, his faded overcoat, and his tottering steps, the old Padishah resell] Irk'd a perfect Shy lock on the stage. Despite his dyed heard he looks hi.s lull (IS years, even when seated in his carriage, hut when walking, or rather shuffling about, he looks lit) years older. Oil the pre-

sent occasion lie entered by mistake the empty hox intended for the heir apparent, and as Olinlib Pasha, the Master of Ceremonies, tried to explain matters to him, lie exhibited lor a moment the pathetic hesitancy of an old man whose hearing is not good, and whose mental apparatus is rusty; hilt finally lie shuffled feebly info the central box, and stood there looking ,on the crowded hall, and loaning, as usual, on his sword. If. was a supreme historical moment, but the chief actor cannot he said to have

<ut an imposing figure. He is imposing only by his crimes. This «utitling, narrow-minded old man, who

lias so much innocent blood upon, bis head, was now for the first time facing his masters. He seemed rather to be facing his judges. He looked like a prisoner in the dock rather than a ruler blessing his people. The young Czar is not a particularly im--posing personality, hut at the opening of the first Duma he bore himself like a prince. Abdul Hamid looked like a man who expects corpses to rise from the grave and denounce hill}. Dazed, honor-stricken almost, the aged Sultan looked downwards as if ho saw something supernatural, unseen by all else. His eyes wandered slowly around the hall while everyone waited, standing, ill painful suspense. At last, his glance rested on some familiar face—there were certainly very few of them in that hall—and lie brought his white-gloved hand to, his lips and then to his forehead in sign of salutation. Then the Padishah turned his old worn eyes in my direction, and involuntarily I shivered, for these were the eyes that had gloated over the severed and pickled head of Midliat Pasha. This was the man who had employed 50,000 spies in Constantinople alone, who had been the cause, of so many strange disappearances among people wlio had come to call on him, of so many bodies found floating in the Bosphorus. We shudder when we think of Nero, and thank Cod that there are no such crowned monsters now, but we overlook the claims of Abdul, one of whoes many official titles—and, I think, the most suitable of them all—is Hunkiar (the Man-slayer).”