Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-02

stranger. Here the rules are more lax. but
any man who touches a woman outside of
those of his own family is liable to fine.
and If he assaults her 1t generally means
death. 1 thought. however. that we could
withdraw II any III feeling was evident, and
with this resolution We again took our dug
out and were rowed across the bay to the
village.
His majesty met US as We landed. and the
harem. consisting of perhaps dozen wo-
men. came out Of The huts and stood and
gazed at us with wonder. / doubt If some
of them had ever been so close to a white
nan before. At the same time the officers
Of the sultan'S staff and slaves stood about
us with the krfses and barongs at their
waists. Most Of the women were practi-
cally naked. with the exception of one strip
Of cloth which each had tied about her
chest under the arTnpit and which fell to
the knees, or the ankles. This strip was in
the form of a bag open at both ends, and
when on was fastened..hy g. twist at the
breast. Some of the women merely held up
the cloth with their hands. Now and then
one would give her clothing twitch and L
several times feared it would slip to the
ground.
The chief wife was a fat old dame who
weighed about 300 pounds. She was
broad as she was long, and she wadiled as
she walked. Her neck, face and bust were
as yellow as saffron, her fiat face was as
round as the full moon, apd under her
thick nose was a pair Of blood-stained blue
protruding lips. She had black eyes and
black hair the latter combed straight back
and tied 10 in knot at the crown.
Beside this woman stood younger wife.
n fifteen year-old girl. with a wealth of
black hair and a face which would have
been pretty. had it not been for the betel
Juice at the corner of the lips and the
black teeth. This girl wore a dress of red
and gold stripe and the upper part of her
body was clad IN a Jacket of blue silk.
Then there were otner wives. more or less
dressed in sheets of different colors, and
there were slave girls who stood about
them ready to obey their slightest COM
mand. Behind the old dame. who may be
called the sultana, a slave holding a
betel spittoon of solid silver, and 1 noticed
that her majesty now and then stopped
looking in order to expectorate. The wo-
men all had their lower lips painted a
bright carmine and the nails of their hands
were colored red.
Santa Claus and the Sultan.
tried my poor Spanish on the sultan,
pointing to the camera and then to his
boat across the way at the wharves; then
made a motion to the harem and himself.
and went through the imitation Of rowing
to give him the idea that we wanted him
to go there and be photographed on board.
He caught the idea at once and seemed
pleased. although the Moros about him
were scowling. He finally consented, but l
asked him to wait until, 1 could make a
photograph Of the harem as 1t stood, which
he did, making the MoEoslady look pleas
ant.
During this time Colonel Hayes devoted
himself to making the ladies "look pleas
ant" We had brought a ten-cent maya
zine with in order to illustrate the work
of the camera In the back of this there
were number of advertising pictures and
among others Misunderstanding cartoon
of Mark Twain. Colonel Hayes showed
the harem this picture and then pointed at
your correspondent, saying it was I. I
don't know they saw the resemblance,
but they laughed, showing their horrible
1n1Iy f1NN tI1,, al
ed out gorgeously colored picture of San
ia Claus, which must have looked very
grand to the sultan, and. bowling low, gave
him to understand that that magnificent
parsonage looked like him. The harem
and the sultan laughed again.
He next, with that fnodesty for which
the army officer is noted. picked out a
picture Of wounded soldier lying a
enemy. AS he showed this he went through
the operation of firing saying boom, boom!
and pointing to his side, where he was
shot In Cuba. He gave them to under
stand that he was that brave soldier. who,
though wounded, was still keeping up the
fight, and. putting his finger on the enc
my, said the word "Espanol,'' as much as
to say that he was shooting at Spaniard
expected to see the harem weep at this
situation. but they did not The ladies'
and the sultan merely laughed again. and
as they did SO I snapped the button.
After this we stepped into our dupout
canoes, which had been dragged up on the
shore, and were rowed to the wharf where
the royal yacht lay. Here the ladies were
again posed, his majesty being placed in a
prominent position for another photo, which
1 took. Upon leaving. Colonel Hayes pre-
scented the sultan with new four-bladed
knife which had a corkscrew attachment
and his majesty. not to be outdone, ordered
that one of the cannon on the boat should
be given to Colonel Hayes. It weighed
about fifty pounds. but the colonel accept
ed 1t with thanks. and it will soon be a
part of the Spiegel Grove Museum at FIRE.
mont. Ohio. which has been left by Pres
ident Hayes family to the state.
FRANK G. CARPENTER