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The. Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
i-miOTli W M iimmliiilii II iiiM.ihimi 11 U "i I l U"i ' W'J 1 " 11 ' I 'i ii i ' "T ii i i i i n
CI 11
ouxa
tery Unusual Details of Turkish
Family Life Told by an Amer
ican Woman Who Visited
for Six Weeks in the
By Blanche Arral.
FQlt sir weekB I lived in the
palace of Sultan Abdul Hamld.
For that period j wnB enter
talner for tbo strango child women
who wcro tho object of his suc
cessive caprices. I learned tho
tsccrets of their eouls and bodies. I
discovered that the existence of
these toys of an Emperor of the East
la a palace In fairyland with horror
as a cornerstonQ.
Sluggish ease, sweets-stuffed todies,
empty souls, vague yearnings for a
different life without will to seek It,
silken splfisbntws, the slaw death of
the finest instincts of womanhood, I
witnessed in tho month and a half
in which J, sans and danced to en
tertain tho human playthings of .ha
most cruel mpnarch In tho world.
I talked with and listened to tho
three hundred spouses of tho Em
peror of tho East I learned tho
secrets of their souls and bodies, and
my sou! was filled with an infinite
compassion for them. I would Ilka
to lead an army of women in an In
vasion pf that relic of the middle
ages, a country clinging barnacle
like to the twentieth century.
That which is of tho most vital
importance to every member of the
harem is accredited rank, Tho
dowager Queen of England was no
more reluctant to resign the honora.
of reigning Queen of England than
Is tho Sultana of Turkey her rank
as tho first lady of tho harem. Her
passing is moro than a grief. It is
n shame. She bows her head before
the nation and passes into oblivion
for tho same reason that tho Em
press Josephine was divorced and
banished, because sho has failed to
give tho Emperor n son. if she
achieves this tho first wife remains
the first, not only because she was
the initial wife, but because she has
earned tho right by bearing a Sultan.
" She is for life tho Sultana. Sho
may grow old, and they are old at
thirty In Turkey, and ugly, for theirs
is the typo of beauty that coarsens
with age, but she is the bead of the
harem, the first wife, the Sultana to
whom every woman, be she mere
visitor or one of tho three Teal or
two hundred so-called wives must
bend tho knee.
Beneath her on the stairs of
harem honor is the trio of other,
and later, wives. Allah, generous
deity of tho Turks, permits, and has
expressed in the Koran his consent
that every true and pious follower
of his may have four wives. Tho
trio that follow the Sultana nre
known as hanams." They reside in
the same palace with the Sultana,
and treat her with reverence, which
she returns with a distant conde
scension. Though outwardly all
deference and odnilrai' n each of
tho Uanams sherisbes in tho deepest,
darkest corner of her heart a hope.
If the Sultana should not bear a
son, or if her Bon should die, tho
Sultan may divorce her and raise
his faithful hanam to the rank of
first wife. This ambition, about
which no one of them would dare
speak by day, visits thenr dreams
by night. Ask one of the splendid
eyed creatures what sho dreamed
tbo night before and she will roll
those eyes and smile secretively, but
you know that if the most blissful of
dreams visited her it was that she
saw herself that greatest lady of
Turkey, the most honored in the
I East, tho Sultana.
v But tbo banams have one glory,
envied of every woman save tho
Sultana. They accompany her in
her drives. Veiled, they 0 forth
each day for a drive, sending glances
jf curiosity and pride abovo tho
swathed veils that hldo their brows
and chins, their noses and lips.
A New Plan to Make Girls Behave
THE problem of maintaining
disci plluo in schools ex
clusively for glrs has dif
ficulties well understood by most
ituchers iu such Institutions.
Frau Heluznwun, bead mistress
of n girls' school nt Lubeck, Ger
many, has recently ect forth these
difficulties in a magazine article;
but tne real value of the article
,les iu her account of a novel
expt'iliuunt which, contrary to her
etpectutlons, proved highly sue
c.sful. Despairing or obtaining
-rder rnd tlleelpllnc by the or
Hilary methods. 1'rau Heiiizmann
elded I" allow the girls to govern
th im selves.
The Kirls accepted the Idea with
oathustusm. "First of all It was
I i O i lUi will .
Sultan's Family
Turkish women are tho most in
quisitive in the world. '
Speak to the Sultana or a hanam
pf.tho women of the harau and sho
will say, "Wo are four, not counting,
of course, our maids of honor and
slaves," And this, from their point
of view, is quite true, for they
ignore the moro than two hundred
others, those women at whom they
curl the Hp as interlopers, beautiful
playthings of a brief whim. To the
legal wives all these others are
women who dwell in the silence and
the shadows, women who dp not
exist
And do you think of those two
hundred women as enjoying tho close
friendship of the Sultan? By no
means. Of these women, whom we
by courtesy call wives, and who are
named nccording to tho poetic fancy
of the Sultan Abdul Hamld named
them his "graces" there nre six or
eight relngnlng favorites. While
they enjoy tho royal favor they ure
tho women of third rank In the royal
household. When thpy lose It others
are elevated to their places. Thus
HIS' Oriental Majesty, while pos
sessing three hundred "wives" In
name, has actually only a meagre
ten or a dozen at a time. I
Beneath these in rank, and
despised by tbo reigning favorites,
but curiously content with their fate
of exemption from their ruler's ad
miration, are the nearly two hundred
other women, the retired or unap
propriated concubines. Theirs would
seem to he an unhappy lot, but tbey
view it with Eastern calm. If His
Majesty tires of them their fato is
either that as a special mark of
royal favor, he marries them to one
of tho officers of hla court, who
rises many grades in court rank
through this alliance, or he simply
forgets Fatlma or Alma, who be
comes a companion and gossip to '
tho Inmates of the harem.
I discovered thnt some of these
women I knew at least twenty of
them had been gifts to tho Emperor
of whom he never availed himself.
As we receive unappreciated gifts at
Christmas, which we placo in tho
bottom of a bureau drawer and for
get, so are these beauties, captured
and brought to the palace by some
officer of tho court In hope of pre
ferment for tho servlco, presented
to His Majesty, sent to one of the
group' of nouses that Is the harem,
and forgotten.
Fifth In the descending scale are
the maids of honor. These wait
upon the wives. Not upon thoso
decided what the office bearers
should do. This wus done by the
girls themselves, who .bought of
many things that 1 -ould never have
dreamed of," says Frau Holnzmann.
"Then the officebearers were
elected. To my astonishment tho
most disturbing members of the class
headed the poll. In ono class the
first elected was a girl who contin
ually came late to school. She was
appointed monitor with two prefects,
one of whom was famous In tha
school for her pranks, uud the other
a girl who constantly had 'unsatis
factory' ns tbo mark for her work.
At the same time some of the 'pat
terns' of tile class wero chosen to
look after the classroom cupboard.
"Then came the choice of punish
ments, which nil the girls sought to
make more severe thau their mis
Copyrtcht 1112, br
women who r.re called by courtesy
wives, whom the -married quartette
never meet and never mention, but
the legal spousos of the -Sultan.
These correspond to tho maids of
honor of the queens of any court of
Europe,
The sixth in the scalo are the
waiting women, a highly specialised
class of servauts who wait upon the
maids of honor and upon the women
who are never mentioned by the
wives. These captives in the pal
ace have not, as the queens, maids
of honor of their own, nor even n
waiting woman for each, but a
group of them is served by one of
the waiting women.
Seventh in the social descent from
the Sultana Ib the;group of Bpacial
attendants, the entertainers as sing
ers and dancers, tho women of the
wardrobes, the women who under
stand the subtle art of the perfumed
bath.
The lowest grade is that of the
women slaves, born in tho palace,
and children of slaves horn In the
palace. These iierform the most
menial services In' tho household of
women. They are the scrub women
nnd char women, the cooks and
dishwashers. Like the rest of their
sex they nre deemed in Turkey
creatures without souls.
Do you imagine that in the harem
oxlBts Jealousy? Jealousy of rank,
yes, but of that primal jealousy of
tho femalo for her mate there is or
seems to be, none. The women gladly
adorn each other for a visit to His
Mojesty's quarter of the palace. If
tho Sultan shows marked admiration
for ono of them, the others appear
to be delighted, as a family are
charmed when some one praises tho
youngest or prettiost of tho house
hold. Tho retired concubines lend
tho reigning favorites tholr Jewels,
that thoy may bo moro lovely In
his regal sight I observed this
closely and studied It while singing
for theso women and I nscrlbo it to
two causes. One Is tho lack of real
affection by any of tho-womon for
their fractional spouse. Having had
no part in choosing blm thoy do not
love him. Another reason is the
chlldllkcness of their natures. Were
they women of fully developed brains
and hearts they could not but be
Jealous. The trend upward of the
human race Is continuously toward
monogamy.
When the ruler of Turkey, weary
of uffairs of stale, wishes to rest In
the society of women of his house
hold, an addc-de-camp sends a mes
tress thought necessary. For gross
forgctfulness girls were made to
learn so many lines of verso by
heart; tor restlessness they were
mado to stand for ten minutes dur-
i',!BAjcs.s.0"- tTh0 Blrls proposed
that tho time should be for a whole
hour.)
"The girls wished for still severer
punishments for grave cases, and
proposed buulshmcnt from the cluss
for a week. This I thought too sc
vere, and thoy made it four days, to
bo applied only with my permission.
But tlnully it was reduced to ban
ishment for a single morning.
. "The result was that the leaders
of disorder soon became model mem
bers of the class. Once n month
comes another election, und now
aduys the honors of election are
most kceuly coveted."
tb Slur Company. Grtfct Britain
f" Thr Sultana HaJLl I 'ZWr 1 "
Hi. Principal Wife V ITW lllflLlP'fc 11 4J1
sage to the palace In which the four
wives resido together, or to the group
of houses where the ther women
live. But tho difference in the nature
of the message is significant To
the Sultana or a hanam, the black
man bows low and says: "His
Majesty will grace this household
with his imperial presenco in an
hour." To ono of the "graces of the
harem" the notice is more per
emptory. "You will pay a visit to
Mis Majesty's palnco In an hour."
In tho Western world It Is little
known how tho harem Is recruited.
Tho Sultana and the banams are
usually women of royal, or at least
of noble blood. They are partly
PMOTO
OTTO 5AKONV
Mme, Blanche Arral, Who Was a Harem
Visitor for Six Weeks.
educated In music anu the lan
guages. Tho others are presented
to the Sultan on feast days, by
members of his court who nre seek
ing favors, nnu for which some ure
elevated to higher rank J'olltlcs ln
one sense, proctirlsm In another!
Some ure beguiled, as was the case
of tho Viscountess Almii Zurok de
(.'otirluiidou. Into I he palace, be
lieving It to be u muKt'iim or u ren
taurant Some are kldnanr.iul. x
JllchU Reserved
The Sultan of Turkey
and the 300 Ladies of
the Royal Harem in the
Order of Their Rank
few, dazzled by the
stories of the eane
nnd luxury of life
In the harem, vol
untarily accompany
tho officers of the
court.
Accjpted us mem
bers of the huge
rum 1 ulna house
hold, the lazy, fat-forming life beglni.
The women rise ut eight plunge
Into a perfumed Imth. nnd eat In n
leisurely wuinnur tliflr breakfiibt of
fruit and rice and one of the green
naiads, rouiiilnc for example, which
they lake with suit to clear their
complexion. Then they saunter
Into tht KiirtU'ii mid stroll about or
sit among tin fif .vers A groii!) "f
Ihem, surrounding u tr-e and Hut
Uni nnd laushltiH as w'lo'cheartol y
fir DOOR OF OHE SULTAN'S 3IARIM
-WHICH IS GUATOED WIGHT AND DAY tfjglL
HfcWrfArtJSlffiffl lis- .
Life, Unless Married
Fifty Ladies in Waiting Who Arc in Attendance on
the Two Hundred Concubines.
Zulcika, the Newest Favorite
as school girls, is one of the pret
tiest sights I have seen in all Europe
While they chatter In the gardeu.
or after thoy have gone back to loll
in their rooms, plntes of fruit are
served If they wish them, but they
eat only two meals u day. The last
is dinner, tho hour for which differ
In Summer and Winter, because It
occurs tw hour before sunset,
cluee they must retire at sunset
Thn-0 times a day they pniy, a
laamlng tu the ground, their faces
toward Mecca.
All of the Intervening time th-i.r
spend at their toilets. A Turkish
uoiiiiiu. havtug nothing else to il.i.
dawdles over her drewlus for thr
or four liouni twice a day, once
after breakfast, tbo other in prepa
ration fur dinner
Twice o week tlie ruter'nli'iTs o'
Two Hundred Retired Concubines
Who Were Once Favorites, and
Who Must Be Supported for
Off to Friends of tho Sultan.
Twenty-eight . Dancers, Mas
cuscs, Manicure .s, Hair
Drcsscre and Entertainers of
t
the Harem Ladies.
of the Sultan.
the household or visitors like my
sulf, dance or uig or read ut a re
ception. Tho child women ure easily
entertained and are effusive In their
praise. Occasionally they go forth
iu companies of eight to twenty, un
der guard of a black man, to visit
other barcnis. i
. hus their lives go on, being swal
lowed up lu u marsh ns sluggish
streams trail .wu Into the noth
- IngnexH of a sodden meadow. I ant
unspeakably sorry for them. If. as
when j mil tiamin tta hla
thane and wnt Into retirement tak.
lug only a handful of the women
with hlin, theso poi t - nires are
cast Into the world, they are help
.uhh HopiVssl.v they binu Into a
Itre if degr Sillon, The women of
I Turkish 'i-ircm -ir tbp helpless
wards f a nreles world