Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1919 — LAND INNOCENT OF BATHTUBS [ARTICLE]

LAND INNOCENT OF BATHTUBS

In Turkey the Stationary Tub, So Familiar In Western Lande, la Absolutely Unknown, The Turk In spite of his constant bathing (bathing being enjoined by the Mohammedan religion) has no stationary tubs nor wash bowls —indeed, Turkish houses are quite innocent of plumbing, says Edith Gllfallln, In an article on the colorful ancient capital of th* Ottoman empire. But as the Turk never bathes save in running water the br|ck floors contain drains that carry the water to the garden outside. Always before eating, a servant pours, from a pitcher, water over an oriental's hands; which seems a wise provision, for they do not use knives nor forks; spoons only are used to eat soup or sherbets. They do not sit around a table as we do, but sit on cushions round foothigh table trays. All over the near east they' have but two meals. Breakfast Is a sort of movable feast up to eleven o’clock. It consists of coffee, fruit and various hot breads. Th* Turk is enabled to sustain life until his dinner at sunset by drinking innumerable cupfule of thick, hot, heavily-sweetened coffee. Dinner, which is consumed in the evening, is the only meal the Turk takes in the bosom of his family. It often is an elaborate affair of twelve courses: Tomatoes and squash and eggplant and other vegetables stuffed with rice or minced meat or cheese, fish swimming in oil, mutton stews, goat fricassees, roasted chickens, rich pastries and candles, preserves of plum and quince and fig and peach, and always coffee and the narghile—waterpipe. At some of these dihners they drink a sort of brandy called rakl; but alcoholic drinks are anathema to the orthodox Turk. >