The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-16
UNPARALLELED
ATROCITIES MARK
tho REIGN Of H,e ORIENTAL
DESPOT

In feminine congress of beauty and
elegance. In fact, the toilets of the
odalisques tend more and more to follow
the tyrannical fashions of Paris. This
evolution, moreover, is almost general in
modern harems, and the time is fast ap-
preaching when the old and picturesque
costume of the Turkish hanoums will ex-
list only as a memory. At Yildiz the
odalisques wear cotton#or cloth dresses,
according to the time of year, and the
princesses and favorites wear mousseline
or silk. 4sz
Dancing in all the forms that it as
sumes in the Orient Is very popular in
the harem and is the principal mode of
musement-Turkish dances to the ac-
compartment Of timbrels, tamborines or
chorus OF languorouSs voices; and Cir
cassian, Egyptian and Arabian dances.
The favorites often find amusement in
the dancing of their slaves. Otherwise
they spend their time in childish pur-
suits, playing with mechanical dolls, or
they amuse themselves by initiating the
cries Of animals or else they will smear
the faces of the negress attendants with
hour and put them up to all kinds of
tricks or excite them to quarrel among
themselves.
They all love sweetmeats, tobacco.
flowers, perfumes, especially musk and
violet, of which the sultan Is particular
ly fond. They adore Angora cats, par
rots. doves, coffee, cards and suggestive
stories. They crave two things, being
women, because they are prohibited
wine and raEd, an oriental brandy made
from the grape, which the kidness of
eunuch sometimes procures for them.
sometimes Abdul Hamid discovers for
himself what he desires to know. For
instance, having noticed one day a young
slave who was washing the handker-
cnlets OF her mistress, a kadine, he took
sudden fancy to her and had her
brought TO his presence. He promised her
the rank of princess on condition that
sne would reveal to him what the ladies
or the harem thought of him. Thus en-
couraged, the new favorite did not de-
lay In satisfying her masters curiosity,
and told him that the kadine, her mis-
tress, thought him old and foolish. Edi-
hed' Abdul Hamid placed the young slave
over her mistress, now disgraced say
ing: r.
Thus will I act toward all those who.
have not in their hearts what they have
on their lips"
The seraglio Of the Sultan Mejid was
formerly the theater Of indescribable
orgies the women being badly looked
after and having no hand to restrain
them. His successor, Abdul Aziz Jealous
as tiger, introduced reform. but the
imperial harem has, never been conducted
so strictly, so exclusively, or so respecta-
bly,, so to speak, as under the present
sultan. An intrigue in the Yildiz at the
present time Is an impossibility I'M
prisoned within double row Of high and
thick walls the women Of the seraglio
live in an extraordinary world of their
own. to which no man, except the grand
Turk, has ever access.
Abdil Hamid is a confirmed adept In
magic and the black arts. He Is said to
have had made by a soothsayer toward
the end of Mourad's reign wax doll
representing his young brother. the sui
tan. He had this image placed in the
cellar OF one OF his buildings at Siam
boul, where In the dark the black
magician, seated on the Koran. made
funeral incantations and invoked the evil
spirits by striking Mourads efigy with
a branch Of thorny tree in order to