The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1907-05-10
TURKISH WOMEN ARE
HAPPIEST IN WORLD
Wife of Noted Litterateur Who Lived Among Them
Tells of Their Lives and RELIGION.

The happiest woman in the world!
Where is she to be found? America
proudly lays claim to possessing the
most beautiful and intellectual OF
women, France points to the splendid
vivacity and daintiness of her gentle
sex, England boasts of the British
matron. and SO it goes; each nation
patriotically holds its head aloft in the
insistment that in all the world 'Our
women" lead all others in this partic-
ular characteristic, Or that particular
virtue. Every land that boasts a flag
extols the virtue of it's women folk.
But the haDpieSt of women Where
are they to be found? Demetra Naka
Brown, traveller, student, ~authoresS
and wife of the noted literateur and
editor, Kenneth Brown, says he hap
piest woman in all the world abide in
Turkey-the land of flowers and
dreams where love is all in all, the
land where the life of peace, the
thought of purity, and the apprecla-
ton of all that is beautiful in nature,
has found, perhaps. it's highest devel-
opment-the land of the "unspeakable
| Turk"
How silly" said Mrs. Brown, when
she heard the automatic characterize
ton. How shallow - how little is
known of Turkey and its customs
you suppose the women of the harem
r unhappy-they are the happiest
women in the world. l have talked
and lived with the wives Of Selim
Pasha, four in all, and discussed the
very problems that arise at once in
the American mind as soon al this
question of the Turkish harem is
mooted-they have told me thei
stories, their hopes, their fears-and
they are happy, very, very happy.
| have lived in other Turkish house
holds, and, everywhere l have found
that happiness is the rule, not the ex-
ception. In America | have lived ten
years, and l have seen two happy
women. They were happy because
| their husbands were ~passionately in
love with them. Woman's happiness
depends on love, you know, and on
love alone"
But, Mrs. Brown" | asked, would
you be happy with quarter of a hus-
band?'
Show me-" she replied, the woman
who has the whole of a husband"
She pursed her pretty mouth and
brought into play a small array OF
tiny wrinkles that furrowed up her
dainty forehead when | asked if she
thought the Turkish mode OF life
would bring happiness in the United
States. She seemed at a loss for an
answer. She shrugged her little
shoulders, and shook her head with
half a yes and half a no and
then she sighed rather than said:
perhaps not-no-nerhaps not-but
what ices that mean?-you don't UNI
derstand-it is the point OF view, the
mental process from which their hap
piness springs. Perhaps you must
understand the religion of the Turkish
woman to conceive why she is happy
even then 1t may be difficult. II
should be explained
Remember" she said, in warning,
81 do not indorse the harem: neither
do | condemn it. l do not give an
opinion. I simply tell you what | have
seen what l know-that the Turkish
women are equally as intelligent as
the American women, indeed many OF
them are more so, and that happiness,
great happiness, is the invariable rule.
In the articles l have written that are
appearing in Appleton's Magazine,
express no personal opinion. just
relate exact conversations. as they
took place, and set down happenings
of fact. From these pictures of harem
life, those who run may a
"You may judge for yourself wheth-
er it is BEST to have four wives or
one,' she added, with a charming
| touch Of humor.
A hundred questions arose in my
| mind. What of divorce-what of in
trigue-what of the future generation
what of this horrifying system OF
| selling women into slavery-what OF
| the vile pestilential storm Of immoral
| ity that must result from a system
| that permits a man having as many
| wives as he may choose to buy-what
| of the passions aroused in rivalry for
| the love of man, the hatred, the re-
yenge, the jealousy, the crime, and SO
on ad infinitum. But the first sentence
of this charming travellers story
| checked the flood of thought at once.
"You see,' she said, "the child Is
the most sacred thing in Turkey. The
birth of a child Immediately sanctities
marriage-it is the law. The bearer
Of the first child is the first WIFE.
There is no such thing In Turkey as
the illegitimacy of children. Woman,s
holy mission is to. become a mother
this is the will Of the law OF Allan.
Nothing is so sweet, SO clarifying to
the Turkish woman as the thought OF
motherhood. And only those women
are ignored who fail to reproduce
their kind. There is no race suicide
in Turkey. The holy thought OF moth
erhOOd is the perfect state there"
"Some one once said" l remarked,