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Show ABDUL RECONCILED Now Thinks Rather of Food Than of His Wives. Former Ruler of Turkey Growing Ao customed to Surroundings at Salonika Sa-lonika Greatly Interested In Passing Events. Salonika. Abdul Hamid, the ex-sultan of Turkey, is slowly becoming more accustomed to his surroundings and reconciled to his captivity. He has cast off his morose demeanor, no longer gives way to outbursts of anger, an-ger, and conducts himself in a quiet and retired manner. Repeatedly he expresses his satisfaction satis-faction at being kept at Salonika, requests re-quests that he be allowed to remain at the Villa Allatini, and prays ..ttjat he may be permitted to live there ""JtlUr'"--end his days "like a good old man." For whatever may be the opinion of his former subjects, the ex-Sultan's confidence in his own virtues remains undiminished. "Why do my people say and write such bad things about me and attempt at-tempt to blacken my character?" he frequently demands. "Why do they revive everything that is bad and never mention all the good things I have done for my country? After all, the bad things were not due to me; they were the works of my councilors. council-ors. Every man I had round me was bad absolutely bad. I had no opportunity oppor-tunity of choosing my advisers." Very early In the morning Abdul repairs to a small ante-room overlooking over-looking a small portion of the main road. Here he takes up his position at the window. Almost his first occupation oc-cupation is to give orders to Emil Bey for his day's food. These orders, are handed to an agent of the municipality, munici-pality, who is detailed off to do the Abdul Hamld. necessary marketing. The cuisine is in the hands of one of Abdul's old cooks, who was specially brought for the purpose from Yildiz. The dethroned monarch's favorite delicacy is shrimps, which just now are in season in Salonika. He is now being accorded the greatest liberty, with pens and paper being supplied him, and he Is allowed, if he so desires, de-sires, to walk in the garden at wilL He has, however, up to the present, taken no advantage of this extension of liberty, preferring to remain cooped up in his little ante-chamber. He sleeps badly and often paces the floor of his bedroom the whole night through. For this reason every afternoon after-noon he retires for a brief siesta. Hei takes little pleasure in the society of! his wives and seldom sees them, with the exception of the mother of his son-Hamil son-Hamil Effendi, who is iji almost constant con-stant attendance upon him. His sole recreation lies in the newspapers, which are liberally supplied, and are read to him by his favorite wife. He takes the greatest possible interest in passing events, both at home and abroad, but outside of this he has no-occupation no-occupation and passes the day with the utmost monotony. Of late, however, how-ever, he has had a desire to employ himself with amateur carpentering, and in accordance with this idea a full set of joiner's tools has been ordered or-dered from a Paris factory. Various interesting conversations have been the outcome of Abdul Ha-mid's Ha-mid's newspaper reading. When he had been read the account of the investiture in-vestiture of his brother as sultan amid the acclamations of the populace, he was considerably agitated. "Why is it," he demanded, "that the people like my brother when they hate me?" "Because," he was told, "the people do not like what you like, and like what you do'not." A grunt of disapproval was the ex-sultan's ex-sultan's only response. |