The Sultan's Latest Craze.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 207, 18 June 1887, Page 7

The Sultan's Latest Craze.

The last craze of the Sultan is for what) may be called international astrology. Nob long since one of the most favoured persons in the household was the German confectioner, who in addition to making puff paste par excellence, was also an adept in divination by means of coffee grounds. But some months ago, I hear, a prophetic almanac, published in Paris, was brought under the Sultan's notice, and as his own name occurred in it frequently his interest was aroused, and a trusted officer at once communicated with the various Turkish embassies, the result being the collection and despatch to Stamboul of wollnigh all the prophetic almanacs of Europe. The tianslation of all the prophecies bearing directly or indirectly upon the Sultan followed, and, as may be imagined, the tabulation of them was not reassuring to his Imperial Majesty. But at this stage one of the chief eunuchs pointed out that as two of the almanacs drew directly opposite conclusions from a similar state of the planetary world, their statements were not worthy of confidence, and he himself offered, for a consideration, to interpret the voice of the stars. The Sultan accordingly found, with some difficulty, the ready money for an expensive astronomical apparatus, and the eunuch is busily at work casting nativities of the Sultan and the leading personages at Pera. For the present his Imperial Majesty will talk of nothing el.so. He has even forsaken the costly grand piano on which it used to please him to improvise.