The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-09-17
HEAVEN WITHOUT = Man.
eff Had Only kA.sd n Napkin 20
Cover azy Face Il should Have
Laid Down and Died On the
Spot.

Laid Down and Died ON fh'
Spot.
That bewitching enchantress, Olive
/ Harper, whose pen is magic wand IL
unfolding beauties to the minds eye
writes from Constartinople to the Alta
California her experience in a Turkish
bath:
1 On entering we were conducted to &
/ large room, where we must undress anC
leave our things. l think there were near
| ly fifteen women in all stages of undress
who all paused to regard US while we
disrobed. Men can pull off their most
sacred garments, toss them in heap, and
run about as if rothing were amiss; but
somehow felt as Eve did when she made
the discovery that she was little too
thinly clad for that time of the wear.
A servant caught up our bathing dress-
es and left the room, reckoning us to
follow, we ran the gauntlet Of hundred
pair of eyes before reaching the divan,
where | was laid, laid like defunct still
no clothes on. l raised my head to see
i'll could not find friendly towel, bun
he attendent ducked my head back on
the pillow, as much as to say, ''lie there"
was SO sleepy that l felt like calling
very hard names when the woman came
and made me get up after she had rub
bed me down like "a race-horse, with a
pair of very starchy gloves, which left the
skin as red as a lobster. Then, all being
in the same state, we were led into another
great vaulted, marble hoored room, where
the divans are made of marble, which Is
not at all soft to lie on This room was
warmer than the last, the more vapory,
and the vapnr more perfumed with san
dal-wood. After lying a few moments
the marble grows soft, and a sense of the
most delicious repose comes over you.
You feel soft languor and dreamy
content, and your eyes close, and you lie
with smile of exquisite laziness on your
lips, and your imagination flies off in
every possible direction, when the repose
is again rudely broken, and you have
again to move on.
NoR, indeed, opens the door of paradise.
You are led, still without otter covering
than nature permits You, into a long
circular room, with marble pillars supper
ting the blue dome that is bespangled
with stars. All around the room is
marble divans, and in the center of an
immense fonntain in the basin there are
sixty or seventy girls and women playing
in the warmed perfumed water, or lying
in all attitudes on the marble edge OF the
basin. The water rises in one grand
column over fifty feet, and falls back into
the upper basin, while the lower one is
undisturbed, except by the beautiful white
forms that it delights to receive.
Small fountains were placed at regular
intervals around the large room, and from
these the attendants poured continually
over the bodies ofthose who lay over the
divans warm water, which was carried off
by pipes.
One attendant stood at my head. hold |
ing my gold embroidered bathing appara-
tus. one lathered me with periumed soap
ill | began to imagine myself gigantic |
rose. Hold this printer somebody. I |
Another attendant rubbed me with gloves |
made Of sponge, and another poured |
warm water over me incessantly, not |
dashed it, nor let it trickle, but just emp |
tied the beautiful chased silver ever over
me with the gentlest OF motions, till it |
seemed like a caress. The soap Of bitter !
almonds was rubbed on my face, and |
another kind rubbed in my hair, then !
more perfumes, flowers, and sweet singh = /
voices, and forms of heavenly beauty. /
Time and the outer world were lost in this
trance, and [ desired nothing
else IN this world to make me content |
for life. to lie there on the marble and |
dreamily watch the glorious white of the
living statues with long black hair and
large dark eyes; to see the soft, undua-
ting motions of those swimming in the
Il eli of ha
lovely forms stretched at full length on
the fountain, and others laughing, sport
ing, mingled with affectionate glances,
aud resting i'll the water on the marble
floor, dripping from every limb the per-
tuned water that glistened on their limbs,
and the trickling Of the fountains and the
rosy, subdued light that stole through the
iealously guarded windows were enough
TO send one of an Imagination like mine
off into the realms of fancy, and make
one believe it was the Promised Land,
and cause the whole soul to be satisfied
with the enchanting picture, which need
ed no imagination to embelIish. For,
after all, what is the heaven we have
been taught to believe in but place
where all is light, and perfume, and love,
and beauty; where every sense shall be
and every desire filled with
pure and exquisite fullness? It is true
that in this heaven of mine there were
not any men, but did not miss them in
my supreme content, nor, think. did
any of the women who were lying about
,lasped in each others arms or laughing
and sporting in the water, and [ think
now, as l have before, had just as lief
have my paradise an exclusive one, where
no man could come.
Just as arrived at this sensitive con-
clusion my attendant aroused me from
my dreams of perfect peace by pointing
to the fountain and signifying that was
also to get in. My four friends then
made their appearance with the servants
and our luncheon, and nobody can tell of
the comical look of US FIVE, sitting round
the basket eating. and without any clothes
On. have seen many sights in my life,
but we women around those baskets, with
chicken legs in our hands and glasses of
wine and other things, were too perfectly
ludicrous for anything, and laughed till
[ couldn't eat. If l had only had nap
kin to cover my face I think should