El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-11

b eyed fair skinned girls OF Amer
- icai Drop for the moment your
hobble skirts and peach basket hats
and take a look at your sisters OF Da-
mascus in PARKWAY Syria. How would
YOU like to exchange your life for
theirs? How would you Ike TO spend
your days without showing your face
to the light Of the sun? How would
you like to go about in a great bag OF
black silk which is tied in at the waist
so that il covers your form from the
head to the feet, except for short
thick veil of black which enables You
to feel your way along the street? How
would you like to be penned up in the
back of your house, or to have your
front windows so latticed that you
could see out only through holes as big
around as a lead pencil? Aye, more,
how would you like to never talk to
any man but one of your own family,
and worse. never to have any other
man or boy talk to or see you?
This is the condition OF the girls OF
this fanaticaI city OF Damascus. It Il
the fate Of millions of other women in
Turkey and of the female Moham-
nedans throughout the whole world.
Among the Yelled Women.
Within the past so years I have Wis
tied every Moslem country on earth
and have worn out my eyes trying to
see through the wells which hide the
fair sex In Morocco their faces are
covered withscotton, and they peep out
through a crack as big as your finger,
made by pulling the cloth slightly
apart in front of the face. In Kairouan
the girls cover their faces with black
crepe so thick that you cannot tell
whether they are negroes or whites;
and in Tunis they are so shrouded that
they have to lift up their cloaks a few
feet in order 10 pick their way through
the streets. In Zanzibar the girls wear
bags which cover them to the feet
and their only view of the world is
through peepholeS as big as so cent
piece, which are hedged across with
lace netting, so that man cannot see
in. In Egypt the headdress comes down
to the eyebrows, and a veil extends
from there TO the knees, with the ex-
ception Of a crack for the eyes, the
crack being kept open by a gold or
brass spool which rests on the bridge
of the nose. In Constantinop1e the fash
ionable Turks are doing away with
the veil or using thin white gauze
through which the face can be plainly
seen It is thus that the harem Of the
sultan is dressed; and thus the wives
of all the rich men.
In Damascus.
Here in Damascus the women stick
to the wells Of flowered muslin or black
crepe. and they wrap themselves in
great balloon like cloaks of black silk
or calico. These bulge out above and
below where they are tied at the
waist, making each maiden look like
two huge Jumps of sausages as they
waddle along. I see hundreds of them
every time I go through the city They
throng the bazaars. where they bob
back and forth as they talk with the
merchants. They may be seen picking
their way through the side streets or
sitting on the floors Of the mosques
reading the Koran and watching the
men go through their prayers. Many of
the yelled figures are those of small
girls. They take the veil at IL or II,
and the wells are kept on after mar
rage until death.
And then the housesi All of the Mo-
hammedans have homes so latticed that
the women cannot be seen from the
streets. In some cases the windows are
built out over the sidewalks, hanging
out like boxes of wooden network.
This is so in the new apartment houses
which are now going up, and also in
the huts of the poor. although the lat
ter seldom have windows except at the
back The ordinary lattice is made of
canelike rushes or sticks, and preparing
them is a special trade followed by
many. The rushes are brought in to
Damascus already trimmed on the
backs of donkeys. which as they go
fill the streets with their loads.
Queer Divorce Laws.
It behooves the Mohammedan Wo-
man to be strict in her conduct. The
husband has most Of the rights, and he
can divorce his wife. or wives, when
ever he will He sometimes does so