| Show J itA WITH SCANT AUTHORITY F E I J 4 l Where His Highness Goes to Pray A Khedive of Egypt orner of State Banquet Hall I A K 4 L I f i L lj I i I N I I I c f 1 1 j y to ri t of if Egypt may well wel well Ir l j h to wn HIS lIt I i A ADb tH a n IL Ie I tile the aey fth I th M AU Alt line to act t Ut ht d 1 of the jh E people bu buh be h is 1111 a a nominal ruler rute There III I iWI t hilt hi appearance or dally daily life Ut t u est that he be ht th of ofu u Pharaohs and Were Vere I for his e cort of 01 cavry and hi hiI I Z YoU would pa pass s him In the streets street of ff 11 irn without suspecting that 1 e as th of the place once held bet b by and Cleopatra Before giving fUrl her details about the it may bf wen well to dwell for tor a space upon thE caus which contributed l 1 his rt dure n Egypt h IM the scene of the Arabian TIghts Nights tales and to them might wel ell be added the fanciful but truthful story stor ot of Ismall Ismail that extraordinary spend spendthrift thrift whose unparalleled generosity and delivered unborn gen genErations rations of his countrymen Into fio fian n dal bondage and and deprived his own boirs of their birthright of authority Although this prince of spenders was wa waIn in power but sixteen years he saddled upon his people a debt of the largest sum ever contracted in a a similar manner by a single individual To rc squander this amount it was necessary sary for him to get rid of a day dayan da tn an average At first glance It almost impossible fo for one person pero I 1 i to tol i nf so much but even the briefest nt of the career of this open ha Oriental Is 18 sufficient to sho that a million dollars donars was as hardly pock Ct t for him Send a of Money One cf If his dau daughters once sent him hin hima a urite saying aying Please send end me a wa waon I iton on load of money I want It quick I This request corning coming so suddenly might easily asHy IIa have e 3 ed the proportion of o oa It a run on the bank but Ismail without 1 having baying th the slightest idea what the girl gir wanted with so much money promptly sent her a wagon load Joad of cash Whet When General Shermans daughter was Wag mar ned this improvident ruler sent her a handful of diamonds as a Wedding gilt gift The Th value vahie of th these gems was so great gr that when the question of paying dut duton duton on them arose it threatened to wreck wren The small family fortune Ismall Ismail was a great admirer of oC the United States Stat and an his guts gifts were not confined to Individual citizens of that country The great grea In Central Park New Ney York was wa presented by him Although this valued object had bad been secured to Alexandria Alexandri by the enterprise of Julius Caesar and andas an was as covered with hieroglyphics of the th time of Rame and Sati the Christian lan era era by twelve hundred pars ars lIe he gave it away to foreigners foreigner without a reluctance or re regret regrEt gret ThE Tho promoters of the Suez canal romed that this enterprise should cost Egypt nothing but by the time it ii Vas ready to open they had into treasury An ordinary nary man experience with that unblushing band of plunderers have haye had enough of the project but this forgiving OrIental merely tool took advantage of the occasion to dwarf an all anI hI I other acts of magnificence He In au a reign of festivities so sc sumptuous as to rival even the of Akbar In India Indio It took to convey his guests h Ia th the trIumphal opening procession through the canal The Sport of Kings Among long tho who accepted the spend spendthrifts thrifts i hospitality at this time ere half thE crowned heads beads of Europe in eluding the French the Aus AustIan ulan tIan Emperor and the d Prin Priness rin ess ss of Wales For a month Cairo waS was thE scene of the most ston idon of the modern east has ever seen An opera house was built for the production of the pera Aida Alda add after the first per I the composer was 85 given a complimentary pu purse of After his itis gu guests ts bad gone home and his auditors had bad footed up p the bills this masquerader In the role of found that his entertainment of them bad cost him It Is not that a man so fond of ostentation should have been suspected of gaining his po position by play When education educations was s completed In Parts he be returned to Egypt with big biK notions In his head but with an elder brother obstructing his wa way to the throne When a special tF n conveying t the P heir Ir apParent to a party in Alexandria o ran Into an ano o open over the Nile drown in jg him in his apartment the gossips n accused ot of re ref f for tor his brothers death The f 8 warranted this opinion I Ismall and his crony the dl di I ECtor of railways both boti of whom were I to be passengers engers on the same 1 Irain t n excused themselves at the last Th mont nt The Man With One Thumb On fl occasion the khedIve that he wa as not afraid of blood hands A minister of his bis treas f airy d Into such a spendthrift L Imperial Palace at Cairo Children of the Royal Family that tat he bade fair 1 it the him lim self elf His HI ability to make mak such a dis display play could rould he be explained in no otIe way ay but that he was robbing his mas masters cash box Rumor had it that this thi unwise official had made overtures to toa t ta a certain foreign representative tive with wit the intention of placing himself and an whatever swag he could get away with wilh under the protectIon of another power Before he le could make this move moe how however however ever he was caned called to the palace and an annia his nia friends never saw him again N None Ko Koone one paid any attention to the report that he had been sent away on an im fin important mission the story got go out about his refusing a cup of pois poisoned poisoned coffee only to be strangled when the plan failed The details of the th tragedy became known and were re recited recited cited everywhere in public and privat even eyen to telling how the doomed man bit bitoff hi off the thumb of one of his assailants assailant during the It S gives yeii one a start star to have his informant conclude thi story by sHying See ee that man over ove there Well VeU one of his thumbs ilS ii gone This daring man who ho allowed noth nothing lag ing to stand between hIm and hIs fan fanI I tl dreams of grandeur had Jong Ion I sou sought ht to be entirely independent of o Constantinople Although he held beld his hi 1 place by favor of the sultan he wanted anted I to be free of all restraint and go it I I alonea monarch among monarchs As A AIt I it was he started out to reproduce the tb gardens of Paris in the desert sand and if he had succeeded in all his plans plan they might easil easily have included the thi gliding gilding of the pyramids How Ismail Was Crowned Believing that tile the sublime porte would surely grant him the severance he so earnestly desired he made his hi arrangements in advance He gave a banquet to a company of his closest closes friends concluding it with ith a most original ma inal surprise A duge pie which had hac adorned the center of the table during the repast when opened by the the chef released a slender girl dressed like a fairy This little sprite stood for a moment in the ruins of the crust that tha had imprisoned her looked about it in startling indecision then tripped Ill across the table to where Ismail sat and placed a crown upon his am ambitious ambitious brow But instead of elevation to nt which had thus been practically announced the sultan sent a r telegram addressed to Ismail dive of Egypt The builder of palaces on land and castles in the air did not fbi need to open the envelope to know its ui contents The whole story was in the th address He was dethroned in favor of 01 his son Tewfik Pasha As the dreamer sat brooding over his misfortune the thc bondholders were hurrying to take over the reIns of government in order to tc protect their Interests Ismail made ready to leave the country at once From his harem of a thousand beau beauties beautIes ties he selected seventy favorites to tc accompany him By forcing the others to disgorge theIr jewels and valuables he be managed to save a fortUne from the wreck of his affairs In addition to tc this he loaded a whole train with costly belongings from his numerous palaces transferred these to a ship at Alexan Alexandria thin dria and hIs countrymen knew him no nc nomore more until th funeral cortege of the wound Its way through the streets of f Cairo sixteen years later The tour tourist tnt now looks upon his mausoleum In Inthe Inthe the tafai Rafai mosque Itself an uncompleted uncompleted and crumbling relic of the reign of f him who wasted the substance of an empire for R a glory that was fleeting The FirstBorn Son Tewfik Pasha made thade a small place for himself in the history of his country His reign was as sombre as his fathers tad bad been brilli brilliant nt mother was vas a slave In harem barem and when the boy was born she was added to o her masters list of legal wIves Al Although though hough it is said that the father form formed ed d a dislike for this child of the slave shave he ie could never be persuaded to Inter Interfere fere ere with his rights as the first born the mothers of other sons in indulged bilged In much plotting to annul the rights of Tewfik their efforts proved unavailing Yet this young prince did didot not ot take advantage of that phase of law which made him eligible to the he Egyptian had only one wife if 0 The experience f Tewfik proved an another anthor thor other case whee e the sins of the father were ere visited upon the son He came cameto to 0 office almost shorn ot of power at a aIme time Ime when his people loudly t 0 him for assistance Being unable to obtain help from hIm they blindly fol fo lowed a false leader joining In the re revolt volt olt agaInst foreign Intervention which brought rought oi o the ent Alex andria and the rout at Tewfik was a weak and spineless crea creature creature ture or he would never neer have Ilave allowed the rebel leader Arabi t foment the trouble which could only lead to more humiliation for the hapless Egyptians Had he shown a little of the Iron one would to find in the blood of a descendant of Mehemet AU All he would have mastered red the situation and kept his people from theIr folly Reign Was Short Tewfik lacked Jacked the courage o 0 de demand demaud maud mand the sword of the rebel leader at atthe atthe the crItical moment but he was not a coward in iii other wa ways He did not run awa away when the fighting began He remained In his palace at Alexan Alexandria dna dria within range of the bombarding guns throughout the entire engage engagement meat ment Afterward when the cholera became an epidemic in Cairo he went fearlessly among the sufferers per personally personally the work of relief A Although he was not strong enough to turn back or even check the wave o 0 misery his fathers rathers recklessness hud hind brought upon Egypt he accepted his unwelcome heritage without corn plaint easily winning sympathy for his inte Integrity ity and s where he failed to command respect for Tor strength and initiativE colorless reign was short He had been in his grave three years before the body of his exiled father was brought home When Tewfik died his eldest son was an earold student at Vienna The youthful prince hastened I Ito I to Cairo to assume th the dignities of Although Abbas Hilmi II has lIas little oD opportunity to make use of any ability hf he may pos possess ess he is re rc regarded I as a much more capable and better balanced character than either his father or grandfather At first he I I was disposed to chafe under the re imposed by the English an but he soon recognized the fOlly of trying to make any kind of resistance and now seems quite re to accept things as they are In his marriage he partly followed the example of both his Immediate predecessors Like his father he took but butone butone one wife and like his grandfather he married a slave Americans Like the Khedive The Khedive Is now n 31 years old He is short and thickset with an ev cv evi i ident tnt tendency fatness as his lii age increases He speaks six lan languages languages and is an a accomplished musi dan etan His visitors find him remarkably lly bly well on an all the Issues of the hour and interested in whatever makes for the bett betterment of the con conditIons of mankind Instead of lend lending ing himself to tHe silly vanities with which so monarchs fritter away their time we kind him an enthusiastic tic poultry raiser and nd a scientific breeder of fine stock Americans like the Khedive because lie he has common sense to take his po position posItion so so sensibly He indulges in no more morl display than Is necessary to maintain the dignity of his position His cavalry escort is small his dress is modesty itself and although his one annual entertainment is an dab orate and expensive affair it is not more costly than he can afford He Hehm hm has large holdings of city real estate and farm lands and is ig s said id to be rap rapidly idl idly Increasing his fortune by person personally any ally supervIsing his Investments We Ve read in the paper that His Highness is q quite ite well satisfied with the demon demonstration demonstration of what a certain kind of American merican 1 farm machinery can do and that lie he has purchased several carloads of the same for use on hIs estates It is a proud Droud tenant ho can show a personal receipt in the Khedives own handwriting and yet there are many for he negotiates even the small smallest est of his affairs I am sure that most visitors to Eg Egypt pt receive a good Impression of th squat little man who hurries back and forth between his farm and the palace that is controlled by foreign foreigners ers Most strangers in drIving across the Nile bridge notice the bronze lions that typify England in her attitude of waiting not only waiting for the interest in intErest tErest on bonds but watching for the chance to perfect a title to this fruitful land AU All who believe in liberty hope that t the bondsmen will be paid and that the of the Nile who are the oldest and hardest voik ing in the world ma may eventually come into their own |
