The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-16
TURKISH SLAVES
 ARE SENT HOME
Young Turks Quickly Abolish
 the Harem
NOW OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Writer Describes Affecting Scenes When Separated kinsfolk Meet. Women Lived Like Prlncesses
 But Unhapplly.
From the Washington Herald.

From the Washington Herald.
 When Abdul Hamid was deposed by the Young Turks, one result of the revolu- ton was the emancipation of the slave girls who formed the ex-Sultans harem.
 An account is given in Turquie, a French daily newspaper published in Con- stantinople of their restoration to their families and friends:
 "The government" it says, first sent telegrams to all parts of Anatolia, In which were to be found Circassian refu- gees or colonists likely to have daughters, sisters, or relatives in the harem of Ab- dul Hamid. They were summoned imme- diately to Constantinople in order to take back into their own country the ladies of the harem who belonged to them. For several days these Circassian villagers have been arriving in the city, wearing their picturesque costume, with dagger in girdle.
 Tears and caresses.
 The reunion of the long separated kns- folk is thus described: 'Tears, caresses, and cries of enthusiasm and excitement prevailed. The girls recognized fathers, brothers, uncles, or cousins; they kissed. they wept, they uttered exclamations of joy at the recovery of the dear rela- tives from whom they had been separated for so many years.
 "They asked for news of their mothers, their sisters, their brothers, and their friends Some there were who did not know their relatives, from whom they had been taken away in early childhood. The recognition was only made by reference to family names and names of the vilayets from which they had been exiled'
 Lived in Palace.
 The young women are described as l-I.. loktf al seclusion of the harem for the liberty of peasant life. 'These ladies, who lived like princesses of fairyland in a sumptu- ous palace who wore bewitching dresses and ate off plate, who foated in gilded shalops on enchanted lakes and still were unhappy, are suddenly snatched by social revolution from the shores of the Bosporus and sent back to the isolated villages of Asia Minor. Here their only dwelling will be a matched cottage, their only pastimes the cultivation of the soil, the milking of cows, the herding of cat tie.
 "Their evening meal will be a piece of maize bread with a bowl of skim milk, but they will have health. Death by consumption or the tuberculosis diseases of the harem will not be theirs. They will live happy lives, surrounded by love and affection.
 Open to Public. Yildiz, the home of Abdul Hamid for 35 years, has been thrown open to the public, visitors being admitted through turnsties at one shilling head, an over charge says an English correspondent who has inspected the place, for all that Is to be seen He asserts that the much vaunted pleasure grounds of the Sultan are without beauty or attraction of any sort There is nothing beyond what can l be seen in any private garden. The paths are narrow and the shrubs meager, and the park of Yildiz is as great a fraud as the place itself.
 The writer continues: There are lovely palaces at Constantinople-perfe archi- tectureal gems in polished marble and gold-but Yildiz looks more like mod ern barrack hospital in stucco and plas- ter There Is not one palace, but many two-stored buildings, lying scattered about the park and few of them have the slightest pretensions to any beauty of design or decoration.
 "The rooms themselves are mostly small, with very narrow doors-wide enough only for a man to squeeze through, and in every one, besides the parrots, used to lie a revolver. Any in the feathered brigade served like watch dogs.
 Much to See. "The harem is a long and ugly, low barrack-like construction with strongly barred windows. Through these the gap ing crowd can see a nondescript collec- ton of curiosties.
 '"There are vases of great beauty and extraordinary knickknacks of every de- scrIption. Over against the harem Is the artificial lake or rather canal, which runs for about half mile through the park It Is marked off by various land ing stages named after the villages in the Bosporus touched by the daily steam CTS. It was here that the fair prisoners, who could not enjoy the real thing, were wont, accompanied sometimes by the Sul- tan himself, to make imaginary trips to Therapia or Belicos on an ungainly and hideous water bicycle, made to hold about half dozen passengers
 "There were drawbridges here and there to heighten the illusion, but 1t Is almost inconceivable to western mind that any civilized being above the age of 10 could have found amusement in navigating this canal"