Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1891-09-18
EGYPT SLAVE GIRLS.
Their Life Compared with that Of the
English Drudge.

, Inc Engllsn drudge rises early an
goes to bed late, working eight o
twelve hours a day, either in her mis-
cradle garret or in huge manufactur
ing hive. Pinched with hunger an,
cold, worn out with labor, exposed t,
temptation and degradation, her JOY
less life stretches behind her and be
fore her, with no pleasures to lool
back upon, no hope to look forward to
The wages she earns, those wages
which proudly separates her from the
slave, are barely sufficient to keep
body and soul together. till at last the
body gives way or the soul revolts
Then comes the inevitable end, and a
verdict OF Death from starvation" or
Found drowned closes the scene.
The Soudani girl is taken from her
parental hut of sticks and mud and
sold TO respectable family or perhaps
a very rich one. In the first case, she
will probably be alone; in the second,
she will find others like herself. She
represents so much capital invested,
and is looked after with equivalent
care. She is a servant whose wages
have been paid twenty years in adj
vance. 1t is true they have not been
paid to her, but that is all the better
for the girl. She is we'll housed and
we'll fed, and wants for nothing. She
is Immediately provided with decent
clothes and set to housework. She
has charge of the family washing and
cleaning, and of the kitchen, and gen.
orally fuliills these duties much better
than a native paid servant would do.
She is under no special restraint, ac-
companies her mistress shopping or
does the marketing herself, and gossips
her fill with the neighbors as she
hangs out the linen on tie house top,
or sweeps the front door step.
Her work is by no means hard, and
after the fashion of Egypt, where
every man is brother and every
woman sister, she is looked upon by
the family quite as one OF themselves.
Speaking from personal observation,
we may affirm that the black women
are almost invariably treated with the
utmost kindness and indulgence, and
are often spoiled like children by the
too great good nature of their masters
or mistresses. They constitute very
merry, happy portion of the popula-
ton, and it is seldom ono can find a
black girl without an infectious broad
grin on her polished face. If she
chooses to marry, as she often does,
with her owners consent, she receives
a dover, and goes forth "free" wo-
man in the letter, though often, as
she Ands to her cost, a greater bond
slave in the spirit than in the days of
her servitude.
Now let us so step higher in the
social scale, and place the middle class
English girl, compelled to work for
her living, side by side with the Circas-
sian, and we shall find again that all
material advantages, of which alone
we speak, are not on the side of the
free. The Circassian is little fair
haired lass from far village in Turk
estan (pace DR.. Tanner). Her father
is robbar or a herdsman, and she
will perhaps be princess. The Prince
Charming, whom the governess is al
ways looking for, but who never comes,
is very strong potentiality in the
future OF the white slave girl
One day bearded and venerable old
Turk arrives from Stamboul, and picks
out our little girl. She is not carried
away by force, but gold is counted out,
and she is perched on a mule, and bids
good-by forever to barbarism. The
purchaser takes every imaginable pains
with her education and appearance.
She is taught to read and write, to
dance and sing, toembroider in silk and
play the guitar, and further initiated
into all the mysteries OF the toilet.
When she has grown into budding
womanhood, the dealer lets his best
customers know that he possesses a
treasure almost priceless, and all her
virtues and beauties are detailed with
the usual Oriental exaggeration. Fl
nally, some royal princess or rich
pasha's wife expresses wish to see
her, and extra care having been taken
with her bath and dress, she is pre-
sented for inspection. She gives
samples OF her accomplishments, mu-
sical, gymnastic and otherwise. Ac-
cepted, she is at once clothed with a
rich silk dress, and receives a present
OF a necklace or bracelet as an earnest
of favor before she joins her fellow
slaves. Beyond assisting her mistress
in the toilet, accompanying her in her
drives, and handing her coffee and Gig
arettes, she has little to do. She is an
ornamental appendage rather than a
servant. A household such as one OF
these Circassians would enter, would
contain a crowd of men servants and
black women to do the work, and per.
haps ten to twenty other girls like her
self, and a very gay time they have to.
gether. The great ladies are very fond
OF exchanging visits and giving music
al entertainments, at all of which some
of the slave girls attend. When she
goes out with her mistress in the nat
ty little brougham, almost the only
difference between the lady and the
maid lies in the former taking the
right-hand seat. The girl is dressed in
a way to do credit to the house she be
longs to, and often sparkles with jew
els, chatting freely with everybody a
the place she visits, and enjoying her
self as fully as any of the emancipated
! When the time comes for her to bt