The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-24 00:00:00

Seven ran.
ZETLAND PLATE.

Newmarket ................
Despair
Pilot

POS7AL COMMUNICATION WITH
FRANCE.

INSIDE THE R.AREIII.

We drove through a porte-cochiire into a large open
court, on one side of which hung a curtain similar to those
at the entrance of Roman Catholic churches. As soon us
we had got out of the carriage, a tall black man appeared,
handed us up the steps, and lot the curtain drop behind
us. At this moment, three or four female slaves arrived,
with large glass lanterns, and ushered us up a long stair-
case into a passege; in either hand were small rooms, in
which were other slaves, some embroidering others smok-
ing, or crouched asleep on the ground. This passage led
into a magnificent marble hall, the centre of which was
lighted by a lofty dome, and the four sides formed alcoves,
round which ran a lew divan. Here the slaves dis-
encumbered us of our wraps, and we proceeded
through more passages and staircases, some bf them
open to the air, then through several large rooms,
with only the usual divan for furniture ; most of
them were entered by a low step, down one or two, of which
I slipped. I began to think we Should never reach the en-
chanted spot, when signs of habitation, in the shape of a mule
Etude of red and yellow slippers, showed themselves. Two
more rooms, and a heavy damask was pushed aside, and we
entered a large apartment, at the further end of which was
a divan, on which sat two ladies, both young, and, one very
handsome. They were the two married daughters of Nateef
Pacha; the tallest and handsomest was the widow of Shereef
Pacha's eldest son, the richest proprietor, not of the royal
family, in all Egypt, She had loather husband a few months
ago, and on his death had returned to her father's house.
They both rose at our entrance, shook hands with us, put
their hands to their foreheads, and finally made us sit down
by them. As I had come unannounced, they were in their
home neglige, which I was very glad of. The widow was
in a dress of deep red Broussa gauze, and her sister in a
pink and white print. For coiffure they wore a Stamboul
crape kerchief, covering the top of the head and part of
the forehead; the ends are brought back and tied in front;
the hair is cut short, and is either braided or hangs down
to the ears. One slave girl had a long plait down the
back, but that is no longer the fashion—in fact, they cut
off nearly all their hair for the convenience of the bath,
and almost all the braids are false. After a few inquiries
had been made as to who I was, how many
children I had, and what I thought of Eastern man-
ners, the widow began showing us her dress, which she
said was a new stuff just come from Stamboul. I told her
I had been there, and had seen the material; I did not
say that it was four years ago. By this time cigarettes
and chafing-dishes had been brought us, and the room,
large as it was, seemed more than half filled with slaves,
standing, sitting, or crouching in different positions on the
ground, or on the low divan which ran down the two sides
of the room. A table on which stood some candelabra
with lights, and a sort of sideboard over which hung a
large mirror, completed the furniture. On either side of
the mirror was a cupboard, in the doors of which were in-
serted panels of carved wood. The walls were glazed
white, and round the top ran a border, painted with all
sorts of impossible trees, houses, and flowers. A nice little
boy, about five years old, who was running about, soon
became very friendly; he was the sou of the younger
sister, a fat little girl, who Was also brought in to
see us. The boy was dressed in a white blouse, full white
trousers, and the usual crimson tarboosh ; the girl in a blue
jacket and trousers, but her tarboosh was embroidered in
gold and pearls. Her nurse returned again with her in a few
minutes, carrying over her head a blue silk parasol, which
her mother, the widow, took and gazed at with almost as
much pride as at her child. I asked how long the boy
would be allowed to be present when they received female
visitors, and was told till he was eight years old, after
which a woman would be considered immodest who per.
mitted him to see her face unveiled.--Once a Week.

ADISAPPOINTMENT.

(From Punch'

It was thought that at length there was a change in the
American telegrams, and that we were going to hear of a
Federal success. The wire brought the following words:—.
" General M'Clellan has taken —',

Then came a hitch, but the spirits of the friends of the
North went up, and the Morning Star began a beautiful
article of triumph. At last the wire got right again, and
added—

"The Field!"
Whereat the Horning Star puts its beautiful article into itS
pockeit til further notice. However, things might hays
been m h worse, for though we did not expect the gallant
(and ill-used) APClellan to take Richmond, he might have
taken some more of his favourite homoeopathic medicines.

A NEW INFERNAL MACIIINE.—A Copenhagen
letter has the following :—" In the royal dockyard at
Nyholm experiments have just.beenlmade with a new kind
of infernal machine, which is said to be capable of destroy-
ing the strongest iron-cased vessel. The inventor is Lieut.-
Col. Ramsted, a Finlander, who has been in the Russian
service. The apparatus is extremely simple, and costs but
little."

ART.—Her Majesty has
FEMALE SCHOOL CF A
just granted her especial patronage to the Female School
of Art, Queen's-square, Bloomsbury. The sessions will
commence on the Ist of October, under the able superinten-
dence of Miss Gunn.
The Hon. Judge and Mrs. Hardgreave and Sir
Redmond Barry have arrived at Cavendish Hotel from dui
continent. Count Degenfield Schomberg and his two &ugh+
tern have left the same hotel for Portsmouth; and Bum;
de Biondel asd his two me fin Patio,

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2

...........
Seven .ran. .. 3
VOLUNTEER RIFLE PLATE.
Little Pinkie
Saltant

A letter from Paris says :—Talking of letters, I
may mention that the morning post from London
is of very little advantage to persons in Paris to
whom letters or papers are sent by it. Having
noticed how frequently these were not delivered, I
kept a memorandum on the subject for the six
nights from Monday, the 15th, to Saturday, the
20th inst. The result is that neither letters nor
papers due on the 15th, 17th, and 20th were deli.
vered until the next morning, an hour or so befr.fre
those sent by the night mail. On the 19th the
letters were delivered, but not the papers. The
proper hour of delivery is about half-past 7—a little
earlier or later, according to the part of the letter-
carrier's beat one lives in Part
from what I heur,
I believe the cause of the frequent non-delivery to
be that if the letters are not received sharp to a
particular hour the carriers go home for the night
Thus a matter of ten minutes may make all the difference, and probably often does, for it a
is un-
likely that the mail train is frequently much
behind time Surely 8 o'clock would not be an
unreasonably late hour for the delivery, which
is now fixed at half-past 7 P Another Post,.
office detail which is frequently complained of is
the very small weight allowed for a single letter
passing between France and England. It is only
three-fourths of the French inland w, and
believe only half that stipulated by Freuch eightG Cloven-
would 1
meat, it is understood, would not object to augment
the weight, and, if so, it is obviously the duty of
our Post. office to move in the matter. By the pre-
sent system persons are constrained to write on in-
conveniently thin paper or to pay double postage ;
and another inconvenience is that foreigners, accus-
tomed to a larger weight in their own country, are
continually understamping letters, which are then
charged on delivery something considerably more
than the whole proper postage would have been—at
what rate I cannot say, for, judging from my own
experience, it seems to vary in a manner obscure to
the non-initiated in post-office mysteries. At last
the French are beginning to use postage stamps
with rows of holes between them, as in England,
much to the satisfaction of the vendors, and also of
the general public. It is strange that this should
have been so long coming about in a
generally so quick to adopt improvements. country