The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-16

of harem life, are no longer mysteries At
the door the lady-visitor is met by eunuch.
They pass through halls and anterooms,
across q marble-foored court where a foun-
tain plays, into a chamber whose walls are
decorated with colored arabesque devices,
the floor spread with Turkish carpets, and
the centre occupied by scarlet velvet tGkhts
or cushions. This is the waiting-room.
Beyond is the parlor where the lady receives
her guest. 1t is perfect in every appoint
ment that Oriental luxury can supply.
Reclining upon the velvet-em broidered mU-
mud, the hostess seats her visitor by her side.
Three girls with large black eyes and luxu-
rant raven hair approach, kneel, and present
silver-gilt vases for ablution. Two others
with censers perfume the apartment. Three
more, with trays containing sherbet and gold
embroidered napkins, followed still by three
others carrying china-oups of coffee on salvers
of gold inlaid with emeralds, enter, kneel,
and present the refreshments. Truly, Moslem
wives are not barbarians.
The lady from whose narrative we gain this
knowledge was then conducted by her hostess
to the private rooms. She describes them
as magnificent. There were thirty bedcham-
bers. The mattresses we're covered with
gorgeous silks. Upon the walls hung choice
paintings. Wardrobes were filed with rich
dresses Drawers full of fine linen, toilet
tables with needle-worked covers of snowy
whiteness, dressing cases filed with house
wifery implements, jewel-boxes of earrings,
necklaces, and brooches, and mirrors reach
ing from roof to floor, made every apartment
a boudoir of elegance and taste.
From the dormitories to the terrace on the
roof Of the palace, where, shaded by avn
ings, they could see perhaps the finest pano-
rama of water and land in the world, and
thence to the gardens, occupying three
quarters of q square mile, intersected by
rivulets the walks marble-paved, and the
banks fringed with grass and flowers, the
lady was conducted to the drawing-room,
where she was to presented to the mother,
sisters, and wives of the pacha. There were
more than twenty present. They were vari-
ously engaged in sewing embroidering, lace
making music, and games. The furniture
of the room was in exquisite taste. Good
humor and the utmost civilities abounded.
Four of the ladies present we're the wives of
the pacha-one Koordistan lady, one
Georgian, and two Circassians. The hus-
band entered the room-a man of COM
manding stature, with black, copious beard,
and sumptuously dressed-as any gentleman
would enter his parlor, and with as little
ceremony on either side. In the midst of a
brief conversation, carried on in French the
voice of the n1OIJah was heard calling from the
minaret to prayer, when all dropped devoutly
on their knees. Whatever they may be en-
gagged in, Turkish men and women always
perform their religious duties when the set
moment arrives. The merchant driving
bargain or lady dressing for evening, the
Judge delivering law from the BENCH and the
sultan himself receiving his court, break off
at once, kneel, PROSTATE themselves, and pray
at the hour appointed. Devotions ended,
the American lady made adieus and departed,
escorted by the same keys-bearing eunuch
through the doors and stairway.
Cairo is nearer to US, by half the time, than
it was when first saw it, twenty years ago.
The grand canal is making wonderful changes;
but the harems remain, and will remain, the
same. In the secluded suburbs of the half
Frank city, the traveller might pause to-day
near dull, dark walls, over which plantain-
branches wave and scents of flowers steal,
and listen to the laughter of the odalisks
within. A song by half-cultivated voices,
clapping of hands, tinkling of bells, shouts
of girls engaged in merry games, the brief
hush at the time CT prayer, and the renewed
sounds of hilarity when the minutes given to
religious forms are past-all tell Of at least
one successful communism in the world, 8
communism five thousand years old before
Owen failed in realizing his socialistic theo-
ries at New Lanark, or Noyes succeeded in
puzzling psychologists by his successes in
Oneida Eastern wives are not convinced OF
the hardship of their state They
are ignorant of the sweets of liberty that
women enjoy in Europe and America
have never witnessed the felicity that crowns
fashionable life in Paris or New York
know nothing of the peace of mind that re-
wards London ''season" or Washington
winter; and have never dreamed of the disin
! terested affection of ballroom bellies in q
country where women are free. To be sure
! there is at their disposal all that their lord
can command of luxury and pleasantness
his wealth is boarded only for their delight
and their children's good; he permits himsel
no ostentation or pleasure apart from them
the time is weary that absents him from
home; and he never denies reasonable re-
quest of wife or child. Criminals are lee
blindfold to execution, because to meet
woman and touch her garment is to secur,
pardon. But wives are guarded from tempta
ton; they receive visits from none of the
other sex, and they are ignorant of the world
What woman would submit to these?
Seriously, however, the Eastern woman
seems as happy as her European or American
sister. Plurality of wives is no more hideou
to her than it was to the favorites of thu
pstriarchs. She feels no more disparagemen
as second wife than she would as secon(
daughter jealousy is aroused, not by atten
tion to another wife, but absence from all
In harem of hundred ccupants-mothers
children, and servants-there are rarely fou
wives-the limit restricted by the Koran-an'
oftentimes but three or two. There is perfec
order; harmony prevails-at least such is tn
universal testimony of Franks and Asiatics
Intimate friendships are formed. No publ
opinion is braved; and, though the Mussul
man has no blind confidence in the strengt
of woman's character, holding fast to Mo
hammeds aphorism, ''If you set butter in tn
snn IL will snrelv malt - ard regards il NOR