Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1882 — How a Turk Lost His Wives. [ARTICLE]

How a Turk Lost His Wives.

A Constantinople letter says: since the days of the reforming Selim this country has seen many an awkward change, but the following incident will best illustrate the d*-pth to which the reforming spirit has penetrated into the masses of the quaint people. About three years ago .. certain Maurad Eftendi. who was in a tolerably good position at Angora, in Asia Minor, left his native country and came to Constantinople with a view of bettering his worldly prospects. On arriving here he obtained a position in the kadabet (foreign office), where Said sent him on a special mission to the Turkish Embassy in Lond n. In this enterprise whether the object of the present sketch was successful or not is a matter of no concern. What is of more inteiestis the event wh'ch brings him out in relief in Constantinople society as a bold man. About two months ago Mourad Effendi returnid here, and sent word to the household of his harem at Angora to come and join him’ as he meant to take up a fixed residence in the capital. The full complement of his wives, lost no time in complying with the behest of t ieir lord and master. Our gay Lothario was proud of his indigenous stock, and, in the desi e to raise and keep them upon the pedestal of hiA new greatness ere he would consent to present them to his friends, he took them for a drive to one of the many modiste’s establishments, and then and there bedecked them with the finery of which his in England had made him an expert. But .as soon as he relumed home his difficulties commenced, fcjr he was overwhelmed with a chorus of reprobation oy his wives. No. I Said to tie unfortunate Mourad: “My ever dearest master,

I wedded thee,trusting 'that thy faith in the true, prophet would be .as last--1 ing as my love for thee was ardent: but, that you wish to deck me Out th garments that have been denied by the touch of the ‘unbeliever,’ I must fain abandon thee. I would not decline retaining them as curiosities, which I thought was your objeCt, but I will never wear them.* 1 No. 2 lady accused her lord of not having said his prayers the previous day, and reminded him that it was incubent upon a “true to say his prayers five times a day, Ind he had been non-observant of the prophfr et’s mandate. She, too, must leave him., No. 3 lady told her husbanc that contamination had reached her soul and body. The Frenghis were a peculiar people, and if, in their eccentricities, they had managed to get hold of him as one of them, she “would none of” him. Husband she could abandon, but’ the faith never! Lady No. 4 was the special favorite, and she cursed those who had caused her husband’s departure from the faith of his ancestors. He had formerly been used to look upou the yashmak (veil) as the garment of purity; the shalver (baggy trousers) as the emblem of innocence, and he had been used to say that the ship-ships (yellow slippers) were after the pattern of those worn by Eve, their primogenitor. Now, alas, he spoke of all these things with disdain. She

could do nothing in trespass of the law, and therefore she also must divorce the reforming Mourad, but her prayers would be constant that the holy prophet would rescue him frem the path of perdition, and that he might see the intense perfidy of the low-bodied dresses, the Gainsborough hats, and the high heeled boots of the Frenghi ladies, who, unlike the Moslem fair ones, required all the aid of the dressmaker’s art to make them attractive. This example was followed by the whole of Mourad’s Effendi’s wives, and he consequently unexpectedly finds himself a bachelor once again. He can easily find consolation in the slave market if he so desire, for he can there purchase for a few thousand piastres a Georgian or Circassian nymph to console him for the loss.