Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1877 — The Turkish Minister of War. [ARTICLE]

The Turkish Minister of War.

The Pasha of Bagdad is the despotic ruler of the largest and most important Province in Turkey. He has the command of a large army which is stationed at Bagdad and other towns within hispashalic, which is bounded oa the east and south by the Persian frontier and the Gulf. M*re than once ambitious men holding this position, so remote from the home Government, have been suspected of designs to render themselves independent sovereigns—a design which was successfully accomplished in 1880, by Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt. At the time of my visit to Bagdad, the Governor was the present Turkish Minister of War, Redif Pasha, a successful General and a man of unquestioned energy and ability. Once, while I was in Bagdad, he had an opportunity to show his power as a despotic ruler, and he acted with a nerve and energy worthy of all praise. The Tigris, which had been on the rampage for two months, st last broke through the dikes some ten miles above the city, and the torrent sweeping down with irresistible force, did great damage to the crops, and in a single day turned the broad plain back of the city into an immense lake. The water was only kept from flowing into the city by an embankment outside the walls, which in many places was out of repair. Great fear was felt of such an inundation as occurred in 1831—the year of the plague—when 7,000 houses fell in a single day. Here was an emergency calling for prompt action. The Pasha issued an order closing all the bazar3 and shops, and for four days impressed the whole male population (foreigners excepted) to work on, the dikes. Half the force was sent up the river, and the balance set to work to repair the embankments around the city. I rode out in that direction one morning, and witnessed a lively scene. Several thousand men were at work, and the Pasha himself was on the spot, surrounded by a brilliantly-uniformed staff, superintending'the operations. These energetic measures saved the city. The break in the dike up the river was stopped, and the water gradually subsided. As there are no American Ministers or Consular Agents in this part of the world, before leaving Cairo I had inclosed a letter of introduction to our Minister at Constantinople, with the request that he would forward to me at Bagdad such credentials to the Pasha as might be of service in any excursion I desired to make to Babylon or other places of interest in Mesopotamia. Upon reaching Bagdad I found awaiting me a firman from the Turkish Government, addressed to the Pasha, and commending the American traveler in the strongest terms to his hospitality and protection. Upon my entrance to the audi-ence-room of the Pasha, I found him seated at the further end of the apartment, near a long table covered with papers, and as I entered he rose and advanced toward me, shook bands, and courteously motioned me to a seat beside him. He is a large man, tali and quite portly, perhaps forty-five years old, with a full face, brown beard, ana eyes sharp and piercing. His dress was entirely European, except the fee, without even a button to indicate his rank. His countenance indicates energy and firmness,*, and his manners are courteous and pleasing. Several officers of rank standing"near were presented to me, but no one was seated except the Pasha and myself. As he spoke only Turkish and Arabic, Mr. Btanno, a Levantine in the service of the Government, was summoned to act as interpreter. Our conversation was necessarily slow, but the questions and replies were very readily translated, and I felt quite at my ease. I found the Pasha very intelligent as to the geography and government of foreign countries, and he seemed fully to comprehend that England and America were two distinct and separate countries. He offered me every facility for seeing Bagdad, and said that, as 1 was the only American who had ever visited him, he hoped 1 would receive a favorable impression of the country.—HP-. P. Fogg, in Scribner’t Monthly. A four-yea r-old miss adds another to the list of remarkable juvenile speeches. She was asked where she expected to go when her mamma died, and replied', “ To the funeral, I s’poee.”