Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-19
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Letter in Chicago Record: In Turkey
the most beautiful and desirable wclnan
is the one who weighs the most. A thin
and willowy creature would have no
standing in Turkey and would be a total
failure on the stage in Constantinople.
Unless a woman is fat she cannot secure
an engagement in a music hall, and the
fatter she is the more enthusiasm she
arouses and the larger is her salary.
On the Monday evenig after my ar
rival in ~Constantinople L went to the Con-
cordia music hall with my American ac-
q~uaintances, and there I saw more femi-
nine breadth, depth, thickness. heft and
circumference than I had ever before
seen under one roof. Practically the en-
tire show was given to women-woinen
with moon faces, rolling jowls iudiciously
busted with powder, and elephantine
forms that defied the confiding hold of
any corset. Fat women! Women who
We're built straight out from the chin
and then retreated toward an indefinite
waist line; women whose Gimpled arms
We're the shape of Holsters and whose
bursting slippers squeaked beneath the
weight put on them.
Judging from the arrangement of the
bill and the applause bestowed on the
various mastodon soubrettes, l would
say that in C~onstantinop!e a woman
"StSiiAo E-o pOulluS anu pOSScSSSu VI d
fair singing voice could set an engage
ment at a music hall, but she would be
compelled to accept a low salary and APP
pear early in the bill.
A woman weighing SO could get a
slightly larger salary and a better place
on the bill.
The salary would thus increase as the
weight increased. In ~COnstantinople
they hire their soubrettes by the pound.
One who can weigh in each evening at
$50 or more is sure to 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 We're 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 fatter; the third was-no,
not latest, although she was much
heavier than No. 2. 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 We're 'sisters,' n they
made a large family by themselves. We
called them the Behemoth sisters. They
were in white and they waddled out on
the stage.
"Great Scott" 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.
TOO low, too low"
The house rose in joy as the two vast,
egg-shaped objects appeared on the
stage. The Turks, who had been sitting
stolidly in the Boxes looking with duh
%unconcern at the frail vocalists who
weighed less than 800, now Strengthened
up and clapped their hands.
A Turk in front of us (he had checker
board trousers and a low white vest)
! shouted "Bravo!"
The two sisters were the hit of the
show. They had to sing until their globu-
lar faces We're pink with exertion and
their balloon-like ccs.hmes rose and fell
with the ~heavings Of their exertion.
We wondered if they ever had comic
opera in Turkey, and if it would be safe
i to put an entire chorus on one stage.