New Britain herald., 1915-01-06
(Doris E. Fleischman in New York
 Tribune.)


 The insignia, Mile Eva Gauthier singer" tells one little of most un- usual personality who resolves her self, in real and retiring life, into the niece of Canada's former premier, Sir Wilfred Laurier, protegee of power full Lord Strathcona, and who has done what no other white woman before her dared do, lived for four years in the seraglio of the Sultan of Java. White women have lived in Turkish harems, but then they were burdened with the duties and privileges of wife. Mile. Gauthier lived in this Javanese seraglio with full liberty to do just as she chose. No restraints and no fearsome overlord bound her. What she chose to do was to study the music of the country, and she has returned with examples of melodies that have never before been taken out of Sultans' courts
 While travelling about on concert tour she found in Java an unknown store of tonal beauty awaiting her. Her interest was pidued and she tried to find 8 means of study.
 But it can't be done,' they told her. "They don't understand your notation, ana you dOn unueTStanu theirs.'
 Installed in Sultan's Harem.
 But 1 can surely try" was the quiet answer And, indeed, she was soon installed in the sultan's harem; among his three hundred wives, quite uncon- scious that she was doing in a mat r-of-fact way an amazing and unique thing The Dutch government won deringly but willingly assisted in mak- ing her plan feasible and she took her place in the potentate's palace. the walls of which were four miles in length.
 It reads like fairy story. With no trepidation,' but agog with pleased anticipation, she found herself greet ed by a throng of brown Mohame- tan women, with black teeth shining. They were far more amazed than she was.
 They just couldn't make me out. They could not understand why I was there. And they had never seen a white woman so close to them be- fore. It was long time before they trusted me enough to help"
 Miss Gauthier, a Canadian French woman, found life in this palace of fifty thousand languid inhabitants a far cry from the uplifting and eman- cipatory atmosphere of Europe and America. There the women of the seraglio dwell in absolute ignorance and blissful idleness. Gossiping in groups, they munch betel nuts or pol ish their teeth with big pieces of wood and eat sweets. They are taught to dance and sing. And some of them ,1r> 1,fy 1fyio fn 0S of dyeing the cotton material in very fine designs, through the aid of wax protection. Otherwise the wives, con- cubines and daughters of the rich do nothing. The lowest class women do all the heavy work. The men do the fine artistic work.
 'They are much better off that way" she said, when I asked her if she had tried to reform them and teach them the ways of women of the west. "They could not possibly un- derstand what I meant, anyway. They are much happier as they are than they could possibly be in any other state" The calm philosophy of the lands of Mahomet has affected Mile. Gauthier and has curiously intensified the force of her personality.
 The women were not to be pitied or deplored. They were as their life demanded, and one could almost hear the echo of Allah, il Allah!"
 "One woman, a high cast Javanese, went to Holland. I do not know just how or why. But she saw the tre- mendous difference, and returned inn bued with the desire to alter the con- dition of her sisters. She tried to teach them''- Miss Gauthier looked quietly out of the window. Placid would not express the alert look of that was so strong upon her small but arresting features. She spoke to a few men and women, and then she was poisoned. Probably the men did it. They were afraid.' Seraglio Life Differs from Turkish
 Life in a Javanese seraglio it utter 1y different from that of a Turkish harem. There are none of the fear some restraints. If a man is poor, some of the wives may work, but they may keep their own earnings. No eunuchs guard them, and they may come and go as they choose This, of course, eased the condition of Mile. Gauthier enormously. The imprison- ment of the Turkish harems would have been almost intolerable.
 She was there, however, to work Every day, after she had gained the l confidence of the players. the singers and the dancers, she took her lesson. l Gaining tn cir confidence WA e difficuIt