The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-29

soon learned to indulge herself still more in
praV1ng tnat or those Europeans whom she
wished 20 Initiate. From folly to vics there
Is but one step, and in this case it was soon
passed, let US hope 10 be soon repassed again.
Aireaoy there are examples of ladies, well
educated and having resid ID many years in
Europe, who live perfectly free from the
ancient trammels without for that abandon
ing the code Of honor existent in every coun-
Try, audit is high time their example should
De followed When this has occurred,
Wnen Turkish girls will have learned that
no well educated christian lady would make
signs TO man she did not know, that no
woman with the least atom of self-respect
would answer a man who addressed her in
the street, that in all the world divorce is
shameful when it occurs from any short
coming on the part Of the wife, and that all
women divorced for such q cause lose their
caste, she will be really progressing, and we
may at last hope to be happy, honored, free
Ike those women whom we wish to initiate
All this, however, is a secondary question
What we need the most, what we must
strive for with all our forces, is the aboli-
ton of polygamy, and tO that we must help
ourselves by enfranchising our slaves. AS
long as slavery continues TO exist polygamy
Will reign in our harens in its worst form.
Leaving out all auctions Of humanity,
slavery Is worse bane TO us than to them
selves. With slavery non-existent no Tur-
klsh girl will agree to occupy the second
place IN husbands home, and we will live
without the perpetual jealousies, the thou
sand worries which are the real causes of
our unhappiness. 1t is not we'll understood.
think, in Europe that harem very rarely
contains more than one legitimate wife,
who Is sometimes CircasSian but usually
Turkish girl. II Turkish girl, when she
marrles she comes to her husbands nome
with ten or twelve slaves, who count
as part Of her dowry; while, on
the other hand, if slave herself,
her husband buys them for her, which comes
at the end to the same thing. For, how
ever civilized our husbands may be, there
is too much of the Turkish nature latent in
them to keep them from casting longing
looks In the direction of those girls, and
none OF them are too shy or too backward
TO reject his advances Evidently they
know that it is the only chance they have of
gaining high position in society, and they
can hardly feel for mistress who
has never felt for them. They
usually do attain their wishes, the
mistress remaining powerless to prevent it,
as her husband has the law on his side. If
she Is an energetic woman, she sometimes
sells the slave-which, by the by, she can
not do now-or she goes back to her fathers
house; IN either case, however, she is usually
defeated, as the husband soon begins again
with another slave and the father, who
himself has, perhaps, five or six wives, can
not but give reason to his son-in-
law. In the course of time the slave, being
an odalisque, and having children nearly as
old as those Of her mistress, becomes as
powerful In the household as the original
lady; but still, it must be we'll understood
that her contract is not written, and that
she ls still considered slave. OF course it
would be impossible for a Turkish girl to
accept such position, while, on the other
hand, no man would care to really marry
two wives; and thus in striking slavery we
strike polygamy at its very roots, and it is
obviously for our good to do it.
Against this, however, many object ns
will arise, as was shown when the English
government took the matter in hand in
Egypt. 1t took many battles to rid America
from slavery. but none of the argumen Is
urged there would be OF any use here. The
Americans used slaves as chattels; they
were to them the source of immense for
tunes and nearly Indispensable as can be
proved by the list of those proprietors dur
ing the war. In onr case slaves are an ex-
pense without which we could easily do. Let
US, however, grant that, except Armenians
and Greeks at Co1stantinople and fellahs in
Cairo, we can find none to serve u.s. But is
not that little because we do not want to
search for others?
Are there not at Constantinople thou
sands and thousands of the poorer classes
who are dying with hunger, and who, If
they were educated to it, would make ex-
cellents servants! 1t may be objected that
the poor of Turkey are too proud to serve as
servants, and that it will be well nigh i'm
possible to bring them round to my views.
But that is only because they do not know
better, and the first step would be to give
them the opportunities to attain those
nights we have reached ourselves, taking
care, however, to educate them so as to
avoid those shoals against which we were
shipwrecked ourselves This is few free
schools, conducted by enlightened directors,
and where the teachers are chosen among
the pure and kind-hearted women who
abound in Europe, would do easily. This
gained, progress would soon teach them that
servltude Is no shame, and that 1t is better
to work than to starve.
think have proved that slavery is not
really necessary, and that it would better
our condition to end it. We pretend to be
civilized and we only initiate the vices of
christians without learning what is good in
their customs; seeking oaly our liberty, we
neglect to think of our comforts, and forget
that while slavery is breaking the spirits of
thousands of our fellow creatures we have
no right to complain of being trammeled
Our first duty to ourselves aud to them is
to erase the greatest blot In our fame,
greater still because not even countenanced
by our religion; and little by little, by
showing by our conduct that we are ripe for
it. we may hope to obtain the rights refused
to us.
Without this every act, instead of tending
to the ACKNOWLEDGMENT Of our privileges,
only serves to show US in more despicable
light to the eyes of the million who gaze
on N