Prince of True Believers

A theoretical despot, technically absolute, actually impotent, arrived at Paris last week, swathed in billowy garments, bedecked with Orient gems, surrounded by 100 six-foot Negro guards, by many a caid and pasha.

President Doumergue and French officials, numberless, bustled to welcome Mulai Yusef, Sultan of Morocco, Amir-el-Mumenin (Prince of True Believers). Soon that portly sovereign was installed in the magnificent residence of Baroness Roger, lent for his accommodation.

Divertissement. It is the duty of M. Theodore Steeg, French Resident-General in the French Protectorate of Morocco, to "advise" (command) the Sultan as to his every official act. Through this politic subterfuge, the despotism of Mulai Yusef, unrestricted by any law, civil or religious, is employed with great convenience by France. Last week General Steeg "advised" his puppet-Sultan, though informally, to observe the dancing of the so-called Charleston by Occidental females of fashion at the Chateau de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne.

Docile, Mulai Yusef went with M. Steeg. Pressmen hovered. Many a female Charlestoned as though intent on spraining both her ankles. The Sultan's brow clouded in thought.

"They are not paid to do it?" he asked.

"They are not," smiled M. Steeg.

"They cannot perhaps afford to employ servants to do it?"

M. Steeg shrugged: "Que voulez-vous? They could but they do not."

Portentously, the Prince of True Believers delivered his opinion: "I cannot see why it must be done.

I do not understand how men can allow their wives and daughters to do it. Let us go. . . ."

Next day, cheered by the hundreds of Mohammedans resident at Paris, Mulai Yusef dedicated the first Mosque to be erected in France. Gazing proudly about he remarked with satisfaction that all women present were veiled, conducted themselves with decorum.

Banqueted by M. le President, Mulai Yusef, mindful of the Koran, sipped iced tea from a champagne glass.