"Up to th' time Abdul Hamid wint thrapezin' around Constantinople in a
hack an' havin' his pitcher took be amachoor phottygrafters his job was
secure. Up to that time whin wan Turk talked to another about him they
talked in whispers. 'What d'ye suppose he's like, Osman?' says wan. 'Oh
me, oh my,' says th' other, 'but he's th' tur-rble wan. They says his
voice is like thunder, an' lightnin' shoots fr'm his eyes that wud
shrivel th' likes iv ye an' me to a cinder.' But whin Abdul, be damid,
as th' potes call him, made th' mistake iv pokin' his head out iv th'
palace 'twas diff'rent. 'Well, who d'ye think I see to-day but th'
Sultan. I tell ye I did. What is he like? He ain't much to look at--a
skinny little man, Osman, that ye cud sthrangle between ye'er thumb an'
forefinger. He had a bad cold an' was sneezin'. He wore a hand-me-down
coat. He has a wen on th' back iv his neck an' he's crosseyed. Here's a
pitcher iv him.' 'What, that little runt? Ye don't mean to say that's
th' Sultan.--Why, he looks like th' fellow that stops me ivry day on th'
corner an' asks me have I anny old clothes betther thin what I have on.
An' to think iv th' likes iv him rulin' over th' likes iv us. Let's
throw him out.'
"So it was with me old frind Abdul. Wan day a captain an' a squad iv
polis backed th' wagon up to th' dure iv th' palace an' rung th' bell.
'Who's there?' says th' Sultan, stuffin' th' loose change into his shoe.
'Th' house is pulled,' says th' captain. 'Ye'er license is expired. Ye'd
betther come peaceful,' he says. An' they bust in th' dure an' th'
Sultan puts a shirt an' a couple iv collars into a grip an' selicts
iliven iv his least formid-able wives to go along with him an' they put
on their bonnets an' shawls an' carry out their bur-rd cages an' their
goold fish an' their fancy wurruk an' th' pathrol wagon starts off an'
has to stop so that iliven iv thim can go back an' get something they
f'rgot at th' last moment an' th' ex-commander iv th' faithful says,
'Did ye iver know wan iv thim to be ready, Cap?' an' th' captain says,
'They're all alike, Doc,' an' th' dhriver clangs th' bell, an' off goes
th' mighty potentate to a two-story frame house in Englewood. An' th'
sultan's brother is taken out iv a padded cell where he had been kept
f'r twinty years because he was crazy to be sultan, an' is boosted into
th' throne. An' he has his pitcher took an' is intherviewed be th'
reporthers an' tells thim he will do th' best he can an' he hopes th'
press won't be too hard on him, because he is a poor loonytick annyhow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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