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Sultan to Decapitate His Court AstrologerBy WILLARD W. GARRISONSoothsayer Gets In Bad with the Stars and Is Now in Jail-COT' r t a s ■TROLOGER AUDI’L HUD A'SNew Year's offering to thesultan of Turkey will be tlw former's head.This is thelatest bit ofwireless news from the imperial palace at Con stantinople, and it is vouched (or by hord High Guardian of Hi# Majesty's Wearing Apparel Mafid Mohammed. who whispered the words tcros# the plaza to a tali blonde lady who was interested in stats before they thrust Hilda into jail.II all came about in this manner:At a recent star chamber session set ween his majesty and the court astrologer, Huda informed the sultan that as far as he could discern by daylight the orbs of the universe were tn their correct positions, thus lending security to the monarch.A few days later the Young Turks Btarted revolution.A few days after that the sultan was compelled to proclaim that the epUalright# constitution of IS76 would again be in force. This he did with onePALACE OF THE SULTAN IN CONSTANTINOPLE,ABDUL HUDA.eye pinned upon the threat that ihe empire would be disrupted by the malcontents.Then he fired the cabinet.And appointed a new one.Finally a minor palace official attempted to locate his majesty's vitals between the ruffles of the latte r'a coat of mall.Each day as his majesty smoki-d his long pipe, dismissed these disturbances by a new shifting motion, the impression began to gain si length wit it him that all was not serene.The use of the word serene In his thoughts immediately recalled the star predictions uf Abdul Huda, hut then no better star-gazer was to he found la the empire, for had not the Imperial guardian of the Turkish empire tested him many times and found that Ale ilul's predictions were always trim? Ha hud.Then mentally the sultan went over what his astrologer had told hint only the Friday previous,Mara, the star which portemb'd foi ( war, was gradually failing away, find ■ Huda had alao said that within a lew 1 weeks there would probably lie uo' Mara.The big dipper, suggestive of lie-J horn of plenty, was brighter then ever. It was true, for had nut Huda tn ail Ids wist* raving said it?Mercury, the swift one, whom ev isteace was a memory of work, win. j Siam to go into a perpetual total t-i-ilpse, #o hud Abdul said.Hilda's inside reasoning hud also depleted the eventual unlou between, .1 miller and Venus, which, of course,augured well for friends of the sultan.Surely, then, there was no cause for troublS, the ruler soliloquized to himself. He paused and pondered and then lit up with a new kind of tobacco.Fifteen minutes elapsed.Ha. I see it all. he whispered to the royal fox terrier. Huda's In had with the stars,Then in a loud voice:Corporal of the imperial guard, front;’*In came the trusty band, weapons tn hand.■‘Hunt up Abdul Huda, royal astrologer, and bring him hence. ordered his majesty.Within a few minutes. Huda, his trunk packed for his vacation, was ushered into the regal presence, well knowing that the signs had been switched under his eyes.Off with his headV' shouted the sultan, rising from the divan.Fifteen brown forearms pulled 15 shining sabers and were ready to deliver the fatal stroke with the same regularity that governs up-to-date melodrama,Stay, slaves,” quoth hts highness, I would fain give him a worse punishment before 1 am ready to deprive bint of what little gray matter there may be beneath that bald pate. To the dungeon with him.The day's routine over, the sultan re-seated himself upon the divan and Thought of what had hast be done. Finally he decided that there could be no place just like jail as a punishment. and so Huda remained there.However, the story goes, the former student of the stars’ will offer up his head on New Year's day as his sacrifice for getting into the evil graces of the stars.Previously everything had looked splendid to the monarch. The Young Turks had not objected to his harem until Huda got in bad with the planets and many of that party had promised to leave the country rather than be called to purgatory by decapitation.As each step in this fearful condition of things came to his mind his royal highness decided that it looked darker for Abdui Huda's head and also rather dark for Abdul Second’s safety, the latter being the sultan himself.There was no one else to blame It on except the astrologer. Had not hts plea of sickness when other nations pressed hi in for the return of their loans, always been sufficient to quell ihem? It had, and he could see no other reason for the status than by returning to his original reason.If things went wrong in this manner Huda must have been in league with the palace camarilla.A double tap at a secret bell, an order shouted down the speaking tube and the officials of the palace camarilla were pinched.This retinue Included Riza Pasha, the farmer minister of war. and Rag-hlb Pasha, one of the justly exalted and highly honored court chamberlains. Because he considered the dignity of lils position Raghib barricaded himself within his cyclone cellar a few plazas from the royal mansion and prepared to sell his life as dearly as possible. He opened fire on the police, but ids ammunition soon gave out and the minions of the law escorted him into the royal presence, who meted out 30 days and costs In the royal dungeon.Because the court soothsayer's report had been doctored, the sultan set about to corral the enttr£ body of hangers-on, who dally loafed about thecourt. This done he issued notice that parliament, representing the people, would be held in the fall.He had to Issue the notice himself, for the former power behind the throne—Achraed Izzet Pasha, his secretary—smelling the trouble by a far better method than that which the astrologer possessed, skipped the country and a few days later was reported in the L'nited States.Then in view of the new order of things within his realm. Abdul 11 decided to call home his ambassadors at foreign capitals. Hence not long ago w-e read in press dispatches that Mehmed All Bey had been recalled from Washington and a successor appointed. The Turk recalled from the national capital is no other than the father of the missing secretary, and as a consequence it was expected that the pair would connive together I as to the best mode of procedure In the present ease, for both might be made a part of the consignment of corpses which the sultan had billed for the morgue on New Year's day.Thus by the foregoing will he seen that things are in a had way in Turkey.IZZETT PASHA.and despite the fact that they cheer the sultan outside of the palace until he has to empty the court water pitcher upou them so that he may sleep in peace, many of the tall Turkish minds have announced that they “are going away from here, never again to return.And the cause of all this trouble, according to those who sympathize with his majesty, is none other than Huda himself.Therefore he is pining away the idle hours In the Jail's solitary confinement pen. playing solitaire with the covers from Turkish cigarette boxes, which the guard shoves toward him with his manna and water twice a day. The only solace which he had on first entering the Jail was that within two munths He would have a full pack of cards for the) fiirniidiQj him u box of cigarettes with each meal. That Is, Ills friends did. For they provide his luxuries, while the actual budll) necessities are given by the rider himself,However, let It he said that the us-Irologer does nut know of Ills fate, and lie probably will not until the time comes for hi in to In.- led util to sacrifice his sturfllb-d cranium to the art which he has studied throughout his ill years.As Turks go be Is a young mao still, and being unmarried there probably will be few who mourn him. His only acquaintances were court officials, and they had little Jove for him for the reason I hat he would at every opportunity lithe their predictions from their mouths and nu n lug them Into magic Turkish words return them to tire miIiuii as sayings item the ZodiacPower Behind the Throne Gone and the Monarch Is Compelled to Dictate His Own “Copy— Cheering of the Multitude Outside the Royal Palace Greatly Disturbs the Ruler— Granting of Constitution of 1876 Is Great Victory for Young Turks Party—Other Events in Revolution of Form of Government.* Wise Sage Will Offer Up His Head as New Year’s Gift to Turkey’s Highest Potentate—Recital of the Country’s Trials and Tribulations— Some High Officials Flee—Others Are
Newspaper Details
The Green River Star
Green River, Wyoming, US
Fri, Oct 23, 1908
Page 6
Full Page
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USA 03 Dec 2024
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