Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-10-31
Learn One New Thing Every Day
BULLETINS BY THE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY


The Turkish fez" is said to be
passing from the streets of Constan-
tinople. In discarding this charac-
t~eristic head dress some observers
profess to see a symptom of pro-
found change in the Ottoman view
point.
Such a conclusion may or may
not be justified" says a bulletin
from the Washington headquarters
of the National Geographic Society.
But in specializing upon the sub
ject it may be well to remember that
paradoxically, the Turkey with a ira
dition of national inertia, also is a
land of Kaleidoscope reform. Tur-
Key, however, may be said to react
to reforms Discriminatory
than n other country in or out
of C~hristendom. The Turks have
adopted some reforms bodily and
some partially, and have rejected
others fatty even when the prestige
of the Caliph and Allah's ministers
were behind them. .
Turkey Went Dry Six CentI1ies Ago
Turkey began its existehce on a
foundation of reforms. the empire
inheriting the comprehensive reshap-
ing of the religious and social world
instituted by Mohammed. 1t went
dry just $40 years before the United
States, for its eighteenth amend
ment' was not an amendment at all,
but a part, so to speak. of the or
ganic act when the empire came
into existence in 1899.
Even in the matter of polygamy,
looked at askance by the Western
world. Mohammed and the govern
ment which took up his mantle were
rnfann A~c 4hA IAo nan,
number of wives was placed at four
a striking bit of connubial abstem-
i~ousness In the face of the examples
set by Solomon and sundry other
Eastern potentates.
Turks Turned Down Coffee Prolibi-
ton
even the jokes of coffee and to-
bacco prohibition hat nave gone the
rounds of the American vaudeville
stage came neal being a stern real
ity in Turkey. Mohammedan schol-
airs illuminated against the steaming
cup; and n Sultan, beating Ameri-
can anti-cigarette legislation by a
good century, went so far as to pro-
hibit the Tuning weed, fearing that
it was taking too firm a hold on his
people. But the populace refused to
have the prophets covenant changed
either by multiplying amendments or
interpretive reservations, n the
ban was raised. These were some of
the reforms that died %aborning; and
today coffee drinking and smoking
are practically universal practices
among both the men and women
of Turkey.
Though the passing of the fez
is looked upon as a reform which to
western eyes would remove some-
thing as ~distinctively Turkish as the
star and crescent. the introduction
of the gaudy skull cap was itself a
reform effected less than a hundred
years ago; and staunch old Moslems
of that time wagged their heads in
warning as the reckless reformers
cast aside their dignified turbans for
the new bauble. To the Turkish
Tories of those days the fez Travelled
in company sufficiently disreputable
to damn it utterly. 1t was introduced
forcIb,Y into the army by the Sultan
MahmUud il in the early part of
the nineteenth century along with
tight european trousers and frock
coats. These and such other re
forms as the establishment of a
newspaper earned for Mahmoud the
title Of 'Infdel sultan
t"The new head-dress was adopted
next by public officials and soon was
used generally by the Sultan's sub
jects In European Turkey. AS lats
az 1918, however. IL was seen in Ash
attic Turkey only on the heads of
pashas and other public function
! aires.
The Fez an Essential to Prayer
The fez and turban types of head
I coverings have a definite a for
existence in Turkey, AMI it is to be
doubted that they will be discarded
1 entirely. especially for the brimmed
hats and ysored caps Of Europeans