The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-05-20
TURKISH WOMEN,

conception in England as to the status
and treatment of women in Turkey.
Most persons imagine that every Turk
is more or less Bluebeard, with four
wives at least, and as many concubines
to boot as he can afford, the whole of
whom are the mere slaves of his caprice,
jailered by eunuchs, and without any
domestic authority of any kind. Moth
ing could well be further from the
reality. Instead of this paradise plu-
rality being the rule polygamy is fast
going out, as, of the present generation
wives, while the majority have only one.
Odalisques, again, are the luxury" of
the very rich and a very rare luxury,
too, for in Turkey, as in the west, wives
are jealous of treir rights, and-what-
ever may have been the laxer rule in the
good old times-they now-a-day set their
faces stoutly and successfully against
illegitimate rivals. The Kahnum is, in
reality, as much mistress as any western
wife of the day, and has, if anything.
more than her fair share OF authority in
doors. Instead, therefore, of the harem
being prison guarded with bolts and
bars, it is rather sanctuary, from which
care and trouble are excluded. The
nssss alone is always the bread-winner !;
he alone bears the attendant anxieties of
life, while the woman passes her days, i
net in Areadian innocence and calm at
least free from the frivolous and not al
ways innocent amusements which some
times make up the existence of her sisters
in the west. The Turks are, unfor-
tunately, not free from evils, many in
troduced from this side of the Alps, but
there is one evil-thc social evil-which
has no home among them. The yashmak,
feridgie, and shalwar, it is true, still hold
their ground, but feminine coquetry has
long since displaced the old opaque
swathing, that hid everything except the
eyes, for the diaphanous gessamer,
through which the whole battery of the
wearer's charms plays as if no single fold
of muslin remained. The bright eyes
flash and the pearly teeth dazzle beneath
the veil, which from the fineness of its
texture, no longer serves to conceal, but
rather adds an additional charm to the
beauties of the wearer. The yellow pa
poosh, too, has largely yielded to the
elastic European boot; but the Lewis
Quatorze abomination and its "graceful
grecian bend" are as yet foreign to the
precincts of Stamboul.-Belgrauia. 8.
THE NAN WHO SWILLOUED Il FORK.
New York Times Paris Letter.
Some of my readers may remember
Phomn,e n la tourchette, OF the young man
who swallowed fork, and they may be
glad to hear further of this singular case.
We have had two of the kind-the Ital-
ian, Cipriani, and the young clerk Lesuer.
Near two years ago he was at table with
some comrades, who were conversing
about the Indian jugglers and their trick
of swallowing a sword. Lesuer claimed
that it was very simple, and, to prove
his assertion, took fork by the tines
and pushed it down his throat. A spas
uOulC CUutIdCt'Oll vi uiIC VI cams IOoh IL
from his fingers and carried it down the
passage into the stomach. For a long
time efforts were made to reach the fork
by the mouth, but it was finally ascer-
tanned to be i'm his stomach, and Lesuer
was given up for lost. He was shown at
clinical lectures, and then went into the
country. A report came that he was
dead, and | believe that I published it
as fact But as Lesuer did not fail in
in health, and continued strong and
hearty for over year, some of the doc
tors thought flat the fork could be re-
moved. Baron Larray and Drs. Liable,
Lepera and Prof Gosselin undertook the
operation-begun some weeks ago. They
began by burning down slowly to the
stomach with caustic, and determining
an adhesion of the coat of the stomach
with the outer edges of the hole thus
made with the corrosive: When this
adhesion was complete, an incision was
made in the stomach and the fork drawn
ont with forceps. 1t was.is blacFs ink.
but not worn to any, extent. Lesuer is
now regarded out of danger. If they I