A Child's Costly Caprice

A bridge which the sultan ordered to be constructed in Constantinople was to have been finished by a particular day, but the contractor found that this would be irapossible with Turkish workrnen nnless he worked day and night. This he obtained leave to do, and the necessary lights and torches were supplied at the sultan's expense. All went well for a time till the unfortrunate coatractor was told that he must open the bridge to let a snip froru the dockyard pass through some time before the building was finished. He said it was impossible, as he would have to pull everything down, and it would take two or three months to replace the scafïolding and pile driving machines. But the ministers of marine and finance said, "If the sultan says it must be done, it must, or we shall lose our places, if not our heads. " So the ship carne out, at a cost of a little over L100,000 and a delay of three months in the completion of the bridge, all because the sultan found his small son crying in the harem one day, the child's grief beiug that, though he had been promised to be made an admiral, he could not see his flag hoisted on his particular ship from the nursery -Constautinoplo Letter.