Omaha daily bee., 1883-01-12
PRIZES OF TsE HaREM.
How English Girls Are Decoyed Into
the Seraglios OF the East.

1t is quite notorious, says tho Lon.
don World, that every hsrem in tho
East aims at getting a European tom
ant for it. Year after year girls are
reported to bo missing from London
or Paris or Brussels without any one
knowing what has bscome Of them
Iaa few days they arc forgotten; they
may have drowned themselves, become
reformed, or died their usual death
Sometimes the story is that the girl
has boon decoyed to Belgium; though
why Belgium, which is blessed with a
plethora of that particular speoies Of
fratlty, hhould cart Goals to its own
Newcastle 10 o easy to explain.
Meantime i. ia impossible to pass along
the streets # London without poeing
snsky.cyed Ofientals peeping into the
faces ot millinery girls; and no must
be all unobscrvent traveller indeed who
has sailed In " Peninsula and Oriental
steamer for Alexandria or Pert Said
without meeting the same rsp9oailions
escorting rory.cheeked dsmsels Cairo.
ward. The supply is perhaps a little
less than 1t used to be when lsmail
Psshs raj special trains for the ON.
veniencc If his consignment from Eu.
rope. But thai in Egypt, India, Tur.
key, aud the Orient generally every
harem Of any consequence keeps In
lite gilded clge n or mofa frail or
foolish Britsins is q fact which it is
needless trying to deny, though it is
humiliating to confess.
These wretched girls are tempted
by q life of ease and indolenco. They
are dazzled by a show of jewels, fine
clothes, and tho stories Of tho gorge.
Gus east, and find too late that they
have entered a squalid prison, amid
women as herthed az any whom the
world a show, and with whom 1t Ii
impossible 20 exchange o word tc
while away the loneliness of a life
which has lost it's novelty. So Ions
as they keep the favor OF their lore
they are objects of persecution anG
plots; whom they lose it their lot il
unhappy beyond conception. Such
stray lambs are seldom sought after
though to their relatives they ara a
much lost as if they had plunged int
the sea. The harem rarely surrender
it's prisoners, and if 1t did they ar,
too ashamed to return, poor aud dis
iliusioned. Again and again have ru
mors reached Delhi of Genera
Wheeler's daughter and other Eu
ropear ladies being kept in the harem
TO which they were dragged durin,
the Indian mutiny. Bpt soon tn,
scent is lost. If there is any truth Ii
the gossip it ia certain that the oh
jects of it are just beyond the chance
of recovery for whoever tt.
harem owner induces t,
his guests he takos car
to make an exception in favor of hi
Ferringhees. But If silly dsmsels err
through ignorance and a love of lazI
ness, what is to be said of wome,
reasonably well educated who calml
to crafty ambition, to spite some
body, or from some vague idea Of "tt
romance of the thing"--sell them
selves In cold blood to an eastern poi
e~ntste? The unhappy Mrs. Digby
after a varied marital experience, Q.
poused the dirty Bedouin cam,
driver, Mijuel of the Mizrab. WIS
her opinions were she kept to hersei.
for, q parian among her kindred, Lor
Ellenborough's quondom bride fe
sour to all the Christian race. 1t mo
be that this hatred is shared by--an
constitutes their approach to happ'
nesp of--the wesk.fac e ONE WI
have chosen to be barem Britona.