Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-05-26

out behind her by some of the slaves to
take the weight of it from her head. The
whole front of her dress was a mass Of dia-
mond and pearl necklaces, and IN the midst
of them, in conlica1 contrast, was a photo
graphic likeness, set in jewels, OF hel
''narsty" old papa. She made her way
very slowly up the long room to a little
boudoir at the end, and, after resting ter
or fifteen minutes, came slowly down again
| in just the same way and disappeared il
the darkness, followed by the whole pro
/ cession.
! As soon as the crowd would permit fol
| you must remember that there were {
| thousand women in the room and not ont
man--we made our way up to see the little
boudoir itself, which was now thrown open
| ''There was richness" for you-the WALL
covered from floor to ceiling with artifcia
| flowers, the divans all of white damask anC
gold, and all over the carpet thick sprink
| ling of gold spangles, which sparkled i'll The
| light like SO many diamonds. We gathered
up few of them with our plebian fingers
and then went back into the room to fine
another ceremony going on-the distribu
ton among the dancers of presents from
the Princess. These were brought in large
velvet and satin cases, and proved to be
camels hair shawls, which were unfoIdec
and tied round the necks Of the women un
til the poor and fortunate things were hal
buried in them. There were about twenty
dancers, and each one got at least siz
shawls. Ali the time the presentation was
going on, the musicians were playing away
for dear life, and the rest of the harem were
joining in a wild shrin cry of pleasure and
! StI1f
whether they got any shawls or not.
| As for the personal appearance of the
| hOuris, if you want to cherish the illusion.
of your childhood, you had better continue
| to read the poets, and only see them witt
their wells on. In the sacred precincts Of
| the harem, with the 'sburko" off, and al
! the mystery torn away, they become mere
! homely, common, dOwdy frums. Out O.
| the eight or nine hundred native women in
the room, there were perhaps six that were
pretty and attractive. The others were
either the coarsest of thick-lipped negro
girls, of the regular Congo type, Or over
grown, unwholesome, desperately stupid
looking white women. A good many, to
be sure, we're thin and sickly, and good
many very old and haggard, and all OF
them, almost without exception, had q
pitifully forlorn, aimless, hopeless look, like
poor, miserable, imprisoned slaves as they
are. Their dresses, too, strikingly pictar-
esque in the first general effect of color
and light, were, when seen in de-
tail, a very funny mixture of Ori-
| entail gorgeousness and cheap Euro
pean fnery. Stripes are evidently the mode
| Just now in Cairo, and the baggy trousers
and overdress were made of striped mate
rails of every texture and color under heaY-
en-crimson and white satin, blue and gold
orange, rose color, the most vivid green,
purple, and every possible shade OF al Of
| all of them, in velvet, satin, silk, grena-
dine, gauze, and calico. The overdress is
made like a loose blouse or double-gcwn,
and beltt 4 in an easy way round the waist,
so as entirely to hide any comeliness ot
form there might be. The walk is nothing
but a waddle. Over this costume, to give
/ greater elegance, some of them had put Oh
old-fashioned European coats of the com
monest material-co cotton velvet or delaine-
and of antedilugian cut; and all of them
had perched on top of their heads the most
abominable little pork-pie hats of every con
ceivable color and covered with bugles and
cotton lace and artificial flowers and mara
bou feathers, end all the tag-rag and bob
tail scrapings of milliners' finery which are
so dear to the hearts of factory girls in
America. Nothing could be more comical
than the reappearance of these ancient hor-
hors in the innermost ganctum ofan Egypt,
ian harem, or than the sight among all
these gewgavs of q superb hanging dia-
mond ornament for every woman in the
room had at least one magnificent jewel
somewhere about her, pair of earrings,
or a necklace or tiara. All seemed to
fare exactly alike, white and black, homely
or not, and to be on precisely the same
footing as far as costume and jewels were
concerned, except the four special and le-
gitimate wives and their daughters. These
were dressed in full European ball dresses,
coiffure, corsage, flowers, and all, and were
handsome, stylish-looking women, over
| loaded with superb jewels. One of them
the mother of the little bride, had really
sweet and interesting face and was very
active in making things ego off well," Just
like hostess at home. A younger sister
| of the bride, who is to be married soon, is
handsome blonde, and quite like any
| girl of her age at home in dress and style.
| We saw nothing more of the poor little
pale Princess. The band soon took theil
station part way down the staircase as .
signal that it was time to go. So we took
our last look at the extraordinary scene oi
| barbaric splendor and pathetic misery,
made our way down stairs, reclaimed ou1
/ shawls, and were handed over once more
to the black gentlemen outside, who mar
shalled us down the interminable arcade,
which is as curious and Oriental feature
as any, and put US into the carriage AT
the hotel we found the gentlemen of ou1
party including the Consul General, who
came over from the Consulate on purpose,
wide awake and eager to hear the story.