The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-05

gauze yelling that covers everything
or the face except the eyes.
Thus clad, the ladies went about
freely In the streets Of STEAMBOAT, driv-
ing sharp bargains at the bazars with
men of their own race, or, crossing the
GalaIta bridge, made their way to Pera,
the European quarter and went shop
ping on the European plan at the Bon
Marche. Sometimes they went on foot,
sometimes in carria ges, and were near
ly always accompanied by a discreet
female slave, for already the old days
OF Jealous guardianship by ferociOus
eunuchs with scirnitars were in the
past.
1t is to be presumed that this greater
freedom accorded to Turkish ladies
came to them as a sweet privilege and
stirred in their breasts that desire for
admiration which is strong in all
daughters of Eve. Now that European
influences have permitted them to step
from behind the heavy walls and lat
ticed windows that used to guard them,
why should they not get that thrill of
pleasure which comes from the homage
OF men, even strangers. Why should
they not, those Of them who were fair,
let the world see as they passed by,
not only the dangerous glow Of their
dark eyes, but the red of their lips and
their perfect teeth? Plainly, there was
only the yasmak with it's white folds
to prevent such q revelation and this
obstacle might be done away with by
making the gauze thin enough, so thin
as to be almost transparent. And the
new fashion spread from one harem to
another until It came TO pass, a few
years ago, that the real beauties OF
Constantinople were offering their faces
to the practically unobstructed gaze OF
whoever cared to look, the only woman
who chung to the thicker yasmak of old
being those who had no beauty to re-
veal.
THE SULTAN'S DISCOVERY.
And all went merrily in the Turkish
capital, with many smiles through the
f1imsy folds and many looks that SEEM
ed to say to some dashing Turkish Of
f1cer or elegant European: 81 am glad
you think me beautiful" but one day
the sultan, strolling about in his rose
garden, passed near some Turkish
women who had come to visit the la
dies Of his palace. And one of the
visitors who was exceedingly fair and
knew it, instead of withdrawing mod
estly and casting down her eyes as
usage commanded, stood before Abdul
Hamid unblushingly uncovered, or at
least yelled with so fine gauze that
1t might as we'll have been nothing.
And the sultan, on investigating the
matter and learning how the new
fashion was threatening Turkish no.
tions of modesty issued a proclamation
that the ladies Of Constantinople, when
they went abroad, should wear the vas
max no longer, but another garment,
called a charchaff, a great shawl en-
veloping the body from head to foot
with a piece at the front falling down
over the face like q mask.
AS the charchaff Is made of satin or
silk, there was no longer any possibil-
ity Of the ladies gratifying their van
ity; indeed, when you see g. Turkish
woman thus attired you see nothing at
all, no more than If black bag was
moving by with a rather ungraceful
swaying or waddling. Sometimes the
black bag carries in Its arms a baby
or a parasol.
On several occasions I amused my
self by swapping pictures of these wom-
en- wearing the charchaff and one OF
them is herewith reproduced 1t shows
q number Of Turkish ladies of the bet
ter class disembarking from a Bos-
phorus ferryboat; each one looks eX-
actly like the other, and each one Is
as we'll disguised as If she were at a
masquerade ball.
A VIRTUE OF NECESSITY.
And 1t was exactly here that the sui
tan overreached himself. True, he made
the ladies put away the alluring yas-
max and hide their faces, but he could
not make them Qndeed what SOVEREIGN
COULD abandon the ways Of coquetry.
The lessons from the West had been
taken all too well to heart, and the
fascination of conjugating the verb ito
fiirt" had become too generally under
stood So, with Oriental flnesse. the
Constantinople ladies proceed to make
virtue of necessity and put to use the
very weapon that had been used
against them--that is, made the char
chaff further their little affairs Of the
heart far better than the yasmak had
ever done. For now nothing was cas-
Ter than to elude the vigilance of any
prying eye. thanks to an outer garment
which made Fatima different In no re-
spect from Negdar or Zahra, or Sophia