The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-11-25

silver ePoohS REFER 10 girls oil quite SUI
perior quality and beauty, the "hogsheats
of flour" to somewhat inferior quality of
human merchandise, while the "sacks of
potatoes" are intended to mean mere orti-
nary peasant and servant girls.
Before being placed on exhibition they
are taken to some of the native houses nd
Joining the Casino and are there bnthcd.
powdered and rouged by professional
"maquilleurs." 1t is only then that the
true nature of the promises and prospects
held out to them becomes clear. Some of
them ut once resign themselves to their
fate, while those who are disposed to resist
are speedily tanned by confinement in dark
cells, hunger and ill treatment. The feel
ing of utter helplessness and friendlessness
i'll strange and uncivilized city, about
which as rule they have only heard in
fairy tales, goes fur to break all spirit OF
resistance.
Sometimes, rs in the case OF Miss Emily
Keene, referred to above as tho wife of
the Mohammedan shcreef Of Wazzan in
Morocco, the Christian and the western
born inmates of the harem have entered
the latter voluntarily and have of their
own free will abandoned civilization. The
shah OF Persia, for instance, has in his
harem ut least two Austrian women, both
of whom he induced when last Mt Vienna
TO accompany him back to Teheran, and
who have never since been heard of by
either relatives or friends ut home Ismail
Pasha, too, the eX-khcdive of Egypt, had
likewise several French, Italian and Eng
lish women in his scragio.
The English inmates were as a rule
members of the lowest grade of society and
distinguished only for their beauty of face
ana inquire, and were Il source of consider
able trouble to the khcdivc
Another voluntary inmate of an oriental
seraglio is the Belgian wife of the Turk
ish sultan. Her naric is Flora Collin. AS
p child she was employed i'll the coal mine
near Mons. Her health having been i'm
paired by the terrible atmosphere of the
mine, some charitable person took pity up-
on her and sent her to Paris, where she
was placed rs apprentice Gin one of the
great dressmaking establishments. Being
clever and intelligent girl, she gradually
became one of the most valued EMPLOYEES
of the house, and ut the same time devel-
oped into n remarkably beautiful woman
Among the numerous patrons of the
house was the mother of the present sui
TAM lady of much refinement for Il harem
born and bred woman, and who, like most
of the ladies of her rank and station, had
all her toilets made in Paris. On one occa-
sion Mile. Collin was sent to CONSTANT
nople with some marvellous laces, which
the dame in question had ordered, and
which she wished to have altered, if neces-
sary, by n Partisan artist before her eyes.
From that time forth Flora Collin never
returned to Paris, and in Il short letter
which she wrote to her employer few
weeks after her arrival ut Constantinoplc
she merely stated that having found some
profitable employment in the Turkish cap
ltal she had decided to remain there
1t was not until three years ago. when
the death of n wpulthv uupla in Eoi,.iur N,
caused her to be advertised for in the Eu-
ropean press as his principal legatce, that
she vouchsafed to notify the Belgian lega
ton at Brussels of the fact that she nad
been married for some sixteen or seven
teen years to the Sultan Abdul Hamid.
who had fallen in love at first sight with
the beautiful modiste who had come to fit
on his mothers dress. need hardly SAY
that she notified the Belgian legation tha.
she formally renounced all claim to her
uncle's inheritance in favor of her family
in Belgium.
Far less happy is the lot of these Euro
pean and American women who have mar
ried Japanese under the misapprehension
that they were persons of rank and SIN
portance in their own country. During
my stay in Japan l have come across quite
n number OF poor deluded white girls who
are living i'll material and mental misery
as the wives OF natives They belong 10
every class of society from the highly con
nccted German Baroness Won Rhaden, vino
welded the former Japanese minister at
Berlin, down to the daughter of the Lon
don lodg: ng house keeper, who considered
that she had made great matrimonial
catch when she became the wife of one o.
the attaches of the Japanese consulate i'll
the British capital.
In every case their fate has been equally
unhappy and disappointed. On reaching
the shores of their husbands country they
have found that they were regarded as
pariahs by all the foreign residents. Merci-
lessly boycotted by every American and
European woman in the place, they are
treated with open contempt rs creatures
that have lost heart and every claim to re-
spect. They are thus restricted altogether
to the society of the natives, whose feelings
of regard for them are certainly not i'll
creased by the treatment to which the I'M
fortunate women are subjected by their
/ own countrymen and country women.
Moreover, the native husband soon begins
to discover that he has sadded himself
with kind OF white elephant in marrying
an American or European wife, whose de-
mands for even the most elementary COM
fort of civilized life constitutes n drag upon
his shallow purse, and whose invariablc
/ ulscontenC with her surroundings quickly
banishes from his tickle heart ali tender
feelings toward her. The result is that he
soon begins to neglect his white wife for
/ some of his country women. In course Of
time she discovers that it is useless TO re-
sent either the neglect or the unfaithful-
ness of her husband, whose civilization is
! of the thinncst kind of veneer
1t was but the other day that the Eng
! lish newspapers contained the sad story of
/ young girl of Newcastle who had fool
ishly accepted an offer of marriage from
young Chinaman. All protests were
silenced by the fact that lie professed to be