Show I HEIR TO TURKEYS THRONE Iiitcrcitliicr Gossip About the Sultans Sul-tans Younger Illother uud Housu liolrt S Mr Richard Davey iperhaps the ablest and best inf Duned correspondent in Constantinople writes the following follow-ing interesting royal gossip to the Westminster Gazette Sultan AbdulHamid II has four living brothers These princes are the j I deposed and insane Sultan Murad V j who is his majestys senior by four years Rechad Effendi the heirappar I ent and two much younger brothers Wareddin Effendi and Suleiman Effendi Prince Selim or as the I Turks say Selim Sultanis the present pres-ent sultans edlest son but he stands no chance of succeeding to the throne I until all his uncles and the three sons of his eldest uncle Murad V are I dead because the succession in the I Ottoman imperial family passes to the eldest survivor and not from father to I son as with other European and eastern east-ern dynasties I In former times matters were consid rably simplified by a general massacre j massa-cre on the accession of a sultan of all I I the males who stood in the way of his i direct issue When you visit the Tu j beh or tombs of the imperial family I which surround the seven imperial I mosques you may observe that certain I of the coffinssome of them of mere 1 infantshave the turbans affixed to j I their heads slightly inclined to the left This means that the body beneath I be-neath is that of a prince who died a I violent death was murdered The fol I lowing description of Prince Rechad the actual heirapparent was given I me by Dr his physician He is about 50 years of age tall and well proportioned but inclined to stoop His features are regular his nose like that of AbdulHamid is rather Semitic Se-mitic in shape hooked eyes blue and hair and heard light red His manners are very gracious and easy and he is exceedingly generous He is probably not as intelligent as his brother Abd ulHamld but fae is nothing like so nervous although obliged to live a sequestrated existence in obedience to the absurd regulations and tradition of the Ottoman court and he is fairly well informed as to what is < taking place in Europe and in the empire He is not at all fanatical but sincerely religious re-ligious He has two wives Ilth highly educated ladles who speak French German and English The are wellborn well-born being the daughters of distinguished distin-guished pashas and have had foreign governesses They dress in the house like French women His highness has several children of whom three are boys Rechad iplays very well indeed on the piano and is a great admirer of classical music Like Sultan Abd ulAziz he is a good draughtsman and sketches very nicely I have seen sorne of his drawings and they really have L4H d i considerable merit being much above I I the average of amateur performances I was assured that Rechad is a cap Hal farmer baking a practical interest inter-est in his farm up the Bosporus which he visits daily his only relaxation in a life of stupendous monotony When he drives out it is invariably in a closed brougham escorted and surrounded sur-rounded by at least a dozen armed horsemen All the visitors even his medical man are searched on entering the Charagan palace where he resides as a kind of state prisoner for books and papers which are taken from them > and only returned when they leave the palace Thus is an intelligent and wellirrtentioned prince kept in I utter ignorance of the very things with j which he ought to be best acquainted in order to qualify himself to occupy the throne should he be destined to ascend its weary steps |