The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1854-03-06
THE PERRYSBURG JOURNAL.
Trading i'm Ladies.

Trading in Ladies.
Many rich Turkish ladies carry on a trade.
Tor winch we have no name. They keen
what may be called Nurseries Of Wives and
Mothers and find both pleasure and profit
III training their young proteges to the du-
ties OF married life. Their agents 90 about
collecting the raw material of their manu-
lacture; picking up orphans, foundlings, or
lhe children OF poor parents; for i'll the East
there is no prejudice of birth, and the lady
Is distinguished from her servant only by
education or wealth. The task Of training
Is not dlihcult. Not much knowledge is
IeKpected from an oriental matron: and in
thlS case, at least, neither the idea of virtue
nor cOnlentment is inculcated We haye
already limited i'll what way the flock OF
young maldens is made to contribute to the
development Of the young masters of the
house. The rest Of their instruction is
simple enough. They are early ready to be
sold as wives or mistresses.
Beautiful girls are often bought by these
professional farmers in high life for eight or
ten pounds, and afterwards sold for four or
five hundred The profit constitutes the
pin-money of the harem. A number of old
WOmem-brlde brOkers-carry on the trade.
TO which not the slightest idea of shame is
attached. They discuss the price of their
merchandise as openly as if they were selling
a par OF slippers or IA parcel of perfume.
Sometimes they act as agents for some old
gentleman, who finds his house lonely and
his purse sufficiently full TO enable him to
indulge IN the luxury of a companion and
sometimes they undertake the still more
equlvocal task of going about warming the
lmagnatlonS of the Gagged beauties. They
generally take money on either hand, and it
muSt be admitted that many good matches
are struck by their care.
There Is no prejudice against partners
obtained by these means. On the contrary.
many Turks prefer damsels brought up in
tins way perhaps because they are without
the cumbrance of relations-especially when
they come from the harem of minister or
other great tunctionary. The wife of Res
child Pasha, who by the way, is no poly
gamlst has generally some forty Young
creatures to dispose of and finds no Difficult
ty in getting rid of them The demand is
always equal to the supply.
From this class, and from the Georgia
slave market, most of the consorts of per.
sons hlgbln rank are taken Such are the
mothers Of the Sublime Porte, ay, and all
of the sultans that have ever reigned on the
shores OF the Bosphorus; for the sultan does
not, in those simple countries. either beg
the hand of the princess he has never seen, or
common man. choose a wife
among the coquettes of a ballroom. The
state provides the parties of his couch. At
various periods Of the year fixed by law, the
Council of Ministers and the Ulemas, in
conclave assembled, note, as it were, sub
Sldy of girls, bought at the public markets,
or at private sales. and send them with high
solemnities into the arms of his Sublime
Majesty. On these occasions the sultan
goes in pompous procession to the mosque /;
and, no doubt, thanks Heaven for the supply
OF angels whicl have come TO illuminate his
solitary hours Life in the East.
METHODIST CHURCH SUIT 1t is we'll known