Arizona republican., 1899-06-10
BEAUTY AND FAT
The Turk Has Small Use for LifEe.
 Slender Actresses.

In Turkey the most beautiful and desirable woman is the one who weighs the most A thin and willowy creature would have no social stand ing in Turkey and would be total failure or the stage in COnstantinop.e. Unless g woman is fat she cannot se- cure an engagement in a music hall, and the fatter she is the more enthusi- asm she arouses and the larger is her salary.
 On the Monday evening after my ar rival in Constantin0ple I went to the Concordia music hall with my Ameri- can acquaintances. and there I saw more feminine breadth. depth. thick ness, heft and circumference than I had ever before seen under one roof. Practically the entire show was given by women-wcGnen with moon faces, rolling jowls judiciously dusted with powder. eIephantine ferns that defied the confning hold of any corset. Fat wCmenI Women who were built straight out from the chin and then retreated toward an indefinite waist line; women whose dimpled arms were the shape of bClsterS and whose burst ing slippers squeaked beneath the weight put on them.
 
 the bill and the applause bestowed on the various mastcd0n soubrettes, 1 would say that in COnstantinople a woman weighing 225 pounds and pos sessed of a fair singing voice could get an engagement at a music hall, but she would be compelled to accept low salary and appear early in the bill.
 A woman weighing 250 could get 2 slightly larger salary and a better place in the bill.
 The salary would thus increase as the weight increased. In Constanti- nople they hire their sCTbFettes by the pound. One who can weigh ia each evening at $50 or more is sure ts get her name in black type and draw the star salary, no matter whether she can sing or not.
 In the bill at the Concordia were French and German women, one lone American (estimated weight 275), and several from Turkish Europe The first woman who sung was fat; the second was latter: the third waS-no. not the fattest. although she was was much heavier than No. ?. She was merely the promise of what was yet to come.
 They were holding back the really big artists for the finale. At last these two came on. They were sisters and they made a large family by them selves. We called them the Behemoth sisters. They were in white and they waddlei out on the stage
 Great Scotti' exclaimed the man from Lafayette. Why didn't they roll them on the stage? How much do you suppose they weigh? ?''
 "A ton apiece?' ventured the New Yorker
 'sToo low, too low
 The h0ase arose fr joy as the two vast, egg-shaped objects appeared or the stage The Turks, who had been sitting stclidly in the boxes looking with dull UncIncern at the fcail vocal ists who weighed less than 300, now straighteaed Up and clapped their hands. \ Turk in front of Us Che had checker board trousers and low white VesD shouted "Bravo."
 The ttro sisters were the hit of the st-w. They had to sing until Their glo5uIar faces were pink with exer- ti0n ard their bailO-n-lika costumes rose and fell with the heavings of their CIcrtions.
 We wondered f they ever had comic op2Ta in Turkey, and if il would be safe to put an entire chorus on one staGe.-ChicaGo Record.