Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1883 — WHAT MRS. NEWMAN SAW IN A HAREM. [ARTICLE]

WHAT MRS. NEWMAN SAW IN A HAREM.

“The gates of the ‘Abode of Bliss,’” said Mrs. Newman, “closed instantly after I entered the building. A long corridor opened into the main apartment of the harem. It was furnished with gorgebus tapestry hangings and sumptuous satin furniture of curious design. The curtained windows looked down upon blooming gardens. Ranged about the chamber in various attitudes were a * score of women. Some were seated on divans and some were kneeling. Thirteen of them were the wives of the Pasha. A cloud of negro servants attended to their wants. I could speak but a few words of Arabic, but we were at home on the subject of dress, which has a universal language of its own among women. All the women had large, long-lashed and lustrous eyes, and dark, finely-chiseled features. Their costumes were magnificent, and strangely fashioned of rich satins and loaded with ornaments of gold and jewels and garlands of pearl. Their head dresses were of silken gauze, held by bands of gold and surmounted by graceful ostrich feaihers. They wore silk trousers and silver slippers, and their finger-nails were tinged with yellow. To an elderly lady, very queenly in her movements, implicit obedience was yielded by the others. The air of the apartment was heavy with the perfume of sandal wood. A crowd of colored servants brought in cigarettes and sweet-meats and coffee, and of the delicacies I was pressed to parlake.

The eating of these dainties and gossiping with each other is the sole occupation of these women of the harem. They live in luxurious bondage, in blissful ignorance of the outside world. I longed to reveal its beauties and possibilities to them, but could converse only by gestures. Before I left a baby Pasha was shown to me. Its mother looked like a veritable 'Sleeping Beau ty.’ The interest shown in the baby and the mother by the other women of the harem was to me a beautiful evidence of the universal sisterhood of women.”— Fron a Letter on the Eastern World.