Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-29
and it is said that his influence was pur-
chasable.
A COSTLY EoUfPAGE.

A COSTLY EQUfPAGE.
The eunuchs, however, form but small
part of the servants of the palace. There are
something like 1000 people about the Sui
tan and the greatest part of these are EN-
ployes. The kitchens of the last Sultan had
800 servants, and it must take mum Der OF
hands to attend to the thousands of horses
and to keep the 200 royal carriages in
good condition. The Sultan has his bar
bers, his musicians and his boatmen, and
L am told that there are 100 porters
at Yildiz vino do nothing else but carry
burdens. The ladies of the harem have
their servants and the hair-dressers, and the
dress-makers must be numbered by hum
dreds. The less favored among the women
sometimes act as the servants of the others,
but mary of these ladies have their separate
establishments, with their own eunuchs,
slaves, doctors and beggars. They receive
visitors in their own apartments, and make
visits 20 the other ladies of the imperial
city, which is hidden behind the walls of
the Sultan's palace grounds. The feeding
OF six or seven thousand people every day,
year in and year out, costs fortune, and q
good part of the Sultan's ten millions year
passes through the hands OF his cooks. The
chief part of the cooking for the palace is
not done in the grounds where the Emperor
lives. The food is prepared at the great
palace of Dolma Bagtche, about mile
awav, and it is carried on trays on the heads
of the porters to the harem on the hill. 1t
is safe to say that large part of the best OF
its dainties are served cold.
The Sultan never eats with his harem and
it is not the custom for the sexes to eat
together in Turkey. His Majesty sits down
to his meals with his officers of State. He
L. ,r,1h he
uses Turkish article which is as thick as
molasses and as strong as lye. He has his
Ministers of State often to dine with him,
and be gives dinners frequently to the diplo-
mates at Constantinople. At such dinners
he sits down with his foreign guests save
when their wives are present, and he is said
to be very good dinner-table companion.
There are a numbero little rooms in the
palace to which he retires with such OF his
friends as he wishes 20 engage in private
conversation, and he carries on conversation
with foreigners through interpreters. He
can speak French, but prefers to use the
Turkish and an interpreter in his converse
tion. He believes in educating, and he has
a school connected with his harem where the
Little princes are taught French and the
modern sciences as we'll as the Koran.
TURKISH ETIQUETTE.
The guests of the Sultan never get peep
into his harem. The man who would at
tempt to enter the apartments reserved tor
the women would be punished with death,
and a eunuch in Constantinople has right
to knock down any man who speaks to a
lady under his charge. A foreigner was
nearly killed not long ago for addressing a
lady OF high caste on the bridge which
crosses from Stamboul to Pera, and no one
in Copstantinople save the Sultan has the
right to ask lady to take off her veil. Tn"
Sultan can go anywhere, and he can pene-
trate the harem of his officers il he will.
This right, however, is never enforced, and
he ha> quite enough to do to keen the peace