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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 1907)
8 THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, JUXE .23, 1907. Frank G. Carpenter Writes of the Strange Apparel of Girls in North Africa. -arr : BT FRANK G. CARPENTER. ACCORDING to the Koran, the Mo hammedan has the right to four wives upon earth, and, when he goes to heaven, he will receive In addi tion seventy-two black-eyed houris, ever beautiful and ever young. When there, he will have children or not, according to his wish, and the offspring will grow In an hour to the stature of their parents, Mohammed himself Is said to have had about twenty wives while on earth, and, when he died, he left nine, each of whom had her own house not far . from the mosque at Medina. Mohammed started out by marrying a widow. Her name was Cadijah, and it was her money which gave him his first boost Into prominence. He was about twenty-five years old at the time, and was one of the finest looking young beaux of Arabia. Cadijah was forty, and. it Is alleged, that it was she who popped the question. He lived with her for twenty-five years, and. during that time, took no other wife. A month after she died, however, he became be trothed to a girl of seven, and he mar ried her two or three years later. This eecond wife was the beautiful Ayesha, who he preferred, above all others, to the day of his death. Mohammedan Women. These facts form the basis of the Mo hammedan's idea of marriage. He be lieves that the prophet had the right to more wives than his followers, because he was, favored of God: and there was a chance that he might generate a race of prophets to succeed him. This chance failed; but nevertheless he still sticks to the limit of only four wives; and the Arab judges of Tunisia and Algeria will not recognize as legal any more than that number. Indeed, in Algeria, the French are now trying to cut down the size of the harem; and they will not allow such of the Arabs as become naturalized to have more than one legal helpmate. I heard of a young man In Oran, the son of a sheik, who thought that it would be fine to be a French citizen. He took out his papers, and shortly thereafter wanted to marry. Ho had already one wife, and the license was therefore refused. Upon this, he was disgusted, and said he wanted to be a pure Arab once more. Down in Figulg; on the edge of Morocco, I was told that It is the custom for the Moor of that region to marry at eighteen or twenty years of age, taking a wife of thirteen or fourteen. About ten years later he adds another young maiden of the same aere to his household. When he gets to be forty he takes a third, and at fifty a fourth: so that he has alwavs one young wife to wait upon him through out his earthly career. As the new wives come on. the older ones step back to the rear and act as their servants. Plural Marriage Dying Out. At tile present 'time, owing to the ad vancement of modern civilization, these plural marriages are steadily decreasing in number. This is the rule In all Mo hammedan cities. Here in Tunis most of the natives now have but one wife; and such is the case In all the cities of Al geria. The coBt of living Is steadily in creasing, and the women demand more and more. They are patterning after the French ladies in their tastes, and It is only the rich who can keep up more than one household. Moreover, where several wives are herd ed together under the same roof and in the same quarters, there is sure to be dis cord, and It means both peace and econ omy to have only one. The Arab women of the better classes are a dead load on their husbands, for they are seldom more than children in character. They have no education to speak of. and they must have servants or slaves to wait upon them. The husband is expected to fur nish a dower for each wife, and if he is rich, he must -give from $2000 to 110.000 to get her. This money goes to the girl's family, and a quartet of wives, so paid for. requires a large sum. With people less rich, the dowries are less; but every husband must pay something for his wife even down to the porter, although the latter may get a bride for 5 or $10. In the Women's Quarters. As a. rule, the Mohammedan husband makes his matrimonial investments after the old fashion of buying- a pig in a poke. He seldom sees his bride before he is engaged to her, and, if he is young, the parents make all the contracts. There is no place upon earth where the women are so much excluded; and there are now millions here who are never seen by any other men than their husbands. In the City of Tunis, the ladles never go out on the streets except in closed carriages. They know nothing about shopping, and never visit the bazaars or stores. The carriages are brought into the courtyard of their homes, and. after they have been put in by their serv ants and the door tightly closed, the grooms come out and hitch up the horses. If they are calling- upon a lady friend, the carriage is taken into the courtyard restricted to the women of the household, and there the horses are unharnessed so that the men take them away before the ladies step out. Kvery fine Mohammedan house has Its women's apartments. The rooms are built around courts, and there is usually one court for the men and another for the women. In the latter only the master of the house Is per mitted to enter and In the less preten tious homes a male visitor will always make himself heard before he comes in, in order that the women may flee. The women have their own private staircases to the roof, and the roofs are their special quarters. They are usually flat and form the loafing and gossiping places for the females of the household. They are surrounded by walls, and one cannot see the girls at all from the street. Millions of Veiled Women. Vlere in Tunis the women of. the middle classes go out so wrapped up in veils that not a bit of their faces Is to be seen. Over their heads they have long scarfs, which fall to their knees. These scarfs are black, embroidered with red and white stripes, and are so thick that it is impossible' to see through them. The women hold them tip with their hands as they walk looking out for a step at a time. They sometimes wear shawls over the veils. Such women seldom visit the stores, and. If on the street, they are probably on their way to the mosque or to the cemeteries or to visit their friends. The women of the common classes look stranger still. They dress In white garments of cotton or wool, which cover the whole of their per sons, excepting their faces. The latter are wrapped around with a thick black crape, in which two holes are cut out for the eyes. In the distance thev looic like the blackest of negroes, with features wrinkled like a washboard. As they come closer their veils are masks and their black eyes may be seen shining out of the darkness. The woman of Algiers wears a wide Traits band across her face to conceal I 2ht M!ik V . rfiJ : . A -f b . ' j : i fill V $sty$0s:-' M - m ''?Mi. -i - I It; sometimes a veil of white is fast ened tightly over the bridge of the nose, the upper part of the face being hidden by the haick or blapket-like shawl which is common all over that country.- In Morocco and in Western Algeria the woman holds her haick tight over her face, leaving a little three-cornered hole, not much bigger than a finger-ring, -out of which one eye peeps as she goes waddling along. Where the Women Wear Breeches. It is Impossible to see how the fair sex is dressed In Morocco. -When they go out Into the streets they bundle themselves up in blankets so that they look like bags walking on slippers. In Algeria and Tunisia nearly every female wears trousers of one kind of other, and their overgarments are so arranged that these can be easily seen. It takes 14 yards of stuff to make a pair of breeches for an Algerian lady. They are worm enormously full, and are so tied In at the Instep that they hang down like bags. The haick or head shawl does not fall far below the waist, and these enormous trousers are one of the features of the afternoon parade In the Rue Bab Azoun. The breeches of the women here in Tunisia are somewhat more hidden, but those of the Jewesses are always in evidence. It is only when upon the streets that the Arab woman wears these very full trousers. They are removed as soon as she comes home and other pantaloons take their places. The latter are made of silk or China crepe; they are loose at the bottom and reach only to the knee. In addition she now wears a chemise which is tucked into her trousers, -and above these a jacket of brocaded silk. She wears a silk sash wrapped about her waist, and may have several vests of gay colors fastened with bright buttons. Her headdress consists of a small velvet cap, which comes to a point over the crown, and on her feet are slippers embroidered with gold. They Like Jewels. All African women are fond of jewelry, and the well-to-do Moham medan girls have necklaces of pearls, earrrlngs of precious stones and brace lets and anklets of gold. The poorer wear silver. and those who have nothing will load themselves down with brass and white metal. Indeed, I am surprised at the num ber of ornaments which even the com mon Arab girls wear. Little tots of 6 and 7 have heavy silver rings on their anklets, and gold rings as big around as an after-dinner coffee cup saucer, not only in the lobes of their ears, but also in the rims all along to the top. This Is especially so of the Bedouin girl, who often carries the wealth of her whole family on her person. The Kabyle woman covers her breast with Jewelry, and wears enormous earrings and anklets and pins, which will weigh a pound or more each. During my trip down into the west ern desert I had to spend a night In a first-class car with a rich Arab chief and his wife and their two little girls. When the woman came in she was so bundled up that one could tell nothing as to her clothes. As the night went on, however, her overgarments were thrown back and I observed that she was dressed like the Queen of Sheba in her glory. She had a half dozen bracelets on each of her arms. Her fingers sparkled with diamonds, and she wore great gold rings In the sides and lobes of her ears. She had a little cornucopia cap on her head. This was of red velvet embroidered with gold, and she wore a spangled shirtwaist over a white chemise of fine wool. She was tattooed on chin, forehead and cheeks. Her lips were painted with rouge, her fingers stained red with henna, and her eyelids blackened with kohl. The Pretty Kabyles. I had a good chance to see something of the Kabyle women when I made my journey through their country in the Atlas Mountains of Eastern Algeria. They are much fairer than either the Moores or Bedouins. They belong to the same race as we do. and have blue eyes, rosy cheeks and red hair. Tliey are Mohammedans, but they do not veil their faces, and as a rule the Kabyle husband has but one wife. The women are allowed to go about as they please. They sometimes work in the fields, and I saw many of them walking along the roads with their children. and sometimes carrying water from the wells into the villages. These Kabyles are clad " very plainly, with the exception of the Jewelry with which they are loaded. The ordinary dress Is a gown which reaches from the neck to the feet, and Is fastened at U shoulder with a great pin of silver or white metal. Or. ceremonial occasions they wear gowns of red and yellow stripes, strapped in at the loins with a belt of bright-colored leather. They sometimes wear a headdress of black silk. Their feet are usually bare. Among these people wives are bought, and from $60 to $100 is a high price for a good-looking girl. The men usually stick to their wives, and, as they are very jealous, it is by no means safe to pay them any attention. Beauty by the Pound. How would you like to figure on your sweetheart by weight, and value your bride by the pound? That Is the custom among the Hebrews of Tunis. The men think a woman beatiful ac cording to her much flesh, and a likely Jew girl of 300 pounds weight or so has no trouble In getting a husband. As a maiden approaches the marriagable age she is stuffed, much after the manner of a Strasburg pate-de-foi-gras goose. TheseJewesses have their own way of eating to Increase their fat, and their own foods for putting on flesh. One of the Agricultural Department explorers tells me that they use a certain grain which surpasses any that we have in its fattening qualities, and also that Secre tary Wilson expects to introduce this grain Into the United States. If so. It will indeed be a boon to our thin, scrawny girls, who worry because they cannot rise in avoirdupois. I have be fore me a photograph of the two big gest Jewesses of Tunis. They are mountains of flesh, and one of them weighs over 400 pounds. They Wear Golden Trousers. These Jewesses have the homeliest costumes I have ever seen upon women. They wear breeches, both on the street and at home, and over them short, loose sacque3 which fall to the waist. Some of them have their trousers loose about the hips and tight at the calves and others wear them about even all the way down, loading them with embroid ery of silver and gold. Some pairs of breeches are made entirely of gold thread, and I hear of money-lenders' daughters who have panties which cost $200 a pair. Such garments are re served for home use. and they are not to be seen on the streets. Other girls have pantaloons of velvet, loaded with bands of gold and silver, a girl thus carrying a whole fortune on her trous ers. They all wear Jewelry, and on public occasions they come out in pearls ind diamonds and gmld galore. Tne Jewish men here dress like the Arabs, but the women do not veil their faces and it is possible to see just how they look. The most of the women have what we would call brunette com plexions, although there is no sign of the mulatto about them. They have black hair, beautiful eyes and not infre quently prominent Hebrew noses.. Some of them are pretty, but more are not; and with their outlandish costumes the homely ones are about the ugliest of their sex. Some of these women when they go cut on the street wrap themselves up in cloths, but the cloths never reach so low as to hide their breeches. They have on high gold caps and the cloths are often fastened to these. Marriage Among the Jews. The Jewesses marry young. A good fat girl Is often wedded at 12. and she becomes a mother at 14 or IS. Mar riages are usually preceded by a con tract, and there Is often a forfeit, put up as against divorce. If the man does not carry out his contract he has to' pay damages, and In the case of di vorce he usually gives back half the property which his wife brought him. A divorced wife always gets an allow ance. If his wife has no children the Tunis Ian Jew has the right to add a second wife to his family, and a dead man's brother is expected to marry his sister-in-law, even if he is married already. 1 am told that marriages sometimes occur between uncles and nieces, and that, as far as possible, families com bine to keep the fortunes In their own clan. These Jewish marriages are usually made by the rabbis, and at the house of the bride. Here the rabbi covers the young couple with a veil and directs the groom how to put the ring upon the bride's finger. About a week before the wedding the public festivities begin, and from that time on the girl has to go through a lot of ceremonies without power of hindrance. The older women of the f&miLv take bold af her. They first nut mmmmmmam iliiiliiip lil!liwllw!l llpsilili: ilplpllli ' i? - - x Miilllilt - - V f' I .... - ' 'U .- !' 1 f . her in a bath, where her body. is cov tred with an ointment which, when dry, Is pulled off. leaving the skin perfectly clean and as soft as when she was born. Her hair is then anointed with Jet black pomatum, which gives it a gloss, her eyelids are blackened and her eyebrows are marked out and Joined by a thick line of red paint. At the same time her finger nails are covered wltn henna, and even her toenails are made red. to a large extent the servant of her husband. If she Is poor she cooks the meals, and no matter how well off her husband is, she Is expected to make his bed and wait upon him. She always eats at a second table, for in the or dinary Jewish household of Tunis there are always two meals, the first of which is for the men. The Jews are very particular as to their religious observances. Their shops are . shut upon Saturday and their wives do not cook or sweep on that day. They are affectionate with one another, and a Jewish funeral with its accompanying mourning is a sight to be seen. The Jewish cemeteries are nothing like ours. They have no tall monuments. The vaults are dug out so that their tops rest even wfth the surface of the earth, and they are cov ered with marble slabs of the same size and height so that the whole cemetery appears' to be one great mar ble floor. Upon each slab are carved Hebrew characters giving the names and ages of those who lie below; and. when the women go out to mourn they sit down on the slabs over their dead and bob up and down as they wail out their grief. I visited one of the largest of these cemeteries this afternoon. Its marble floor seemed to be SDOtted with THS GfZZ. StS OVl whlte tents, and as I got closer I could see that each of these tents was a Jewish woman shrouded In white, mourning her dead. There was a chapel at one endsof ALL CLASSES ARE TRYING TO BE CAPITALISTS The Industrial Workers of the World Have It In Their Power to Work Out Their Salvation BY GEORGE B. HARGREAVES. THE effusion of J. L. Jones in last Sunday's Oregonian on what he calls the Industrial Workers of the World, and how they are skinned, should not go without comment. As an I. W. W. I have not much spare time for cor respondence, but feel compelled to make a few criticisms. Where is our boasted prosperity, espe cially on this West Coast, if one-half of what Mr. Jones writes is true? The I. W. W. are ground down by a sys tem which he calls the machine. The laborer earns $2500 per year, but is robbed of It all except $300, and when he spends that he is robbed in the exchange of three-quarters more of it. The I. W. "VV. cannot help himself, for If he strikes he will lose the other S300. That Is, un less all workers strike together, which Is supposed to smash the machine. Let us see what these statements bring us to: I was raised where the co-operative system of exchange obtained their stock through wholesale houses, getting as near as possible to the producers, at original cost, plus fair charges for hand ling and freight, the railroads being strictly limited to 10 per cent per annum earnings, which they seldom made, and no watered stock. Our average savings. 3 shillings and 4 pence in the pound, or about $1 in $8. over ordinary retail dealers, and not $3 out of $4, which Mr. Jones claims we lose.. Again, the bulk of the great cotton mills were on a co-operative basis, and the shares largely owned by the workers. BRIDES OF Continued plishment in England, from the fact that there is so much red tape attached to it. Most of our customs have come from England, though born of earlier time. The "best man" dates back to the days of marriage by capture, as he helped the bridegroom to catch his bride. Nor is this the only relic of the most ancient of human institutions; for what was the Honeymoon? It was not merely a pleasure trip as now, but a rapid and hurried flight of bride and bridegroom, rendered necessary by the anger of an outraged father. Presents to the bridesmaids form another inter esting link with primeval days. They were originally a form of toll which the couple were glad to pay In order to be alone. By the act of uniformity, only one method of marriage can be used, but the state allows certain in dulgences to the wealthy, who may be married privately by a special li 'cense; or by a license, given upon the oath of the man that he knows no legal obstruction to his union; or by the publication of banns, used among the poorer classes. As In other countries, so In England, there is much Joyous feasting on the occasion of a wedding. This Is clearly shown by the very word "bridal," which is simply another form of "bride-ale." or "bride-feast." Original ly It meant only the carousal, or drink ing in honor of the bride. But to tell all the customs of all the tribes of the universe In regard to weddings, betrothals and married life would fill a big book; indeed. It has been written about extensively enough to fill two volumes. The thing that Is of most interest to American women, naturally enough. Is the American proposal and the American marriage. How many of our love-songs have been written around this enduring topic? How many of our very greatest love-poems have breathed this sentiment? Under a moonlit sky, by the oceanside, on the the graveyard, from which came a great noise. I entered and found that a funeral was being celebrated. In one room was a coffin standing upright against the wall. and. beside It. on the stone noor, covered oy a iik sneet of bright red, lay the corpse of a man. About him was a number of Jewish men in Arab clothing, weeping softly; while In the next room were the hired mourners, who are brought In for such occasions at so much per wall. These mourners were Jewish women, rang ing In age from a fat maid of 18 to a weighty old lady of 60 or more. They This led to an advance or drop in wages In proportion to the profits, preventing strikes, as the wage-earners got what was due them, but instead of clearing $2200 out of $2500. or 833 per cent, they would do extra well to average 10 per cent on their investment. Now as the I. W." W. have started a co operative exchange, on the Rochdale plan in Oregon City, according to Mr. Jones' statement they muet save 60 cents on an 80-cent roll of butter. 90 cents on a $1.20 sack of flour, 30 cents on 40 cents per dozen, eggs. etc. As we have very few tenant farmers in this country, only one step, and in many cases, none at all. be tween the producer and consumer, this brings us face to face with the farmer, as the bloated capitalist who, vampire like, is sucking the life blood of the I. W. W. This deep, poverty-aping schemer, whom Mr. Jones commiserates as living on potatoes and "blue John," the skim milk slop, on which the industrial work ers of the farm get sleek and fat, never getting to taste one of their yellow-legged chickens. The fact Is we are all trying our best to be capitalists. The law of self-preservation compels us all to obtain the means of subsistence and the means of enjoying life in tolerable comfort. The advice for I. W. W. to work for themselves was not needed, as we all do It. But while some are so short-sighted as to spend all they get on present indulgences, others lay up for a rainy day and are enjoying more or less of a competency. But this plutocrat farmer does not compel us to buy his but THE WORLD From Page 4. Western plains, on the Europe-bound steamers. In the silence of the parlor with the gas turned low (as in our picture) every conceivable place has marked the setting of a love affair and a proposal. "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady;" and the brave-hearted have not balked to propose even in a motor car going at the rate of SO miles an hour. Such ie America! Then, after the proposal, comes the solemnization of the new life before the two young people the wedding ceremony itself. More, and more In the United States is this function becom ing a "home affair," as Is shown in the picture. Then follows the period of congratulation the wedding sup per or breakfast, with smiling friends and happy faces around the festival table. And last of all, the sweet, si lent moment when the bride and the groom are clasped in each others' arms, the moment of highest consummation. Alone at last! Says Socialism Needs an Alias. American Magazine. What Socialism needs In America more than anything else Is an alias. A Phila delphia newspaper recently proclaimed a creed which was merely a practical ap plication of the golden rule In neighborly relations, but in subscribing to it the paper called it Socialism. And there were fireworks in the evening. Respectable and orthodox persons wrote angry .let ters to the editor, denouncing him for teaching Socialism; be was branded as an Infidel, a destroyer of the public peace, denounced as an anarchist and a dis turber of traffic and all because he had called his creed Socialism. And It was not Socialism at all, as Socialists recog nize their creed; it was individualism ap plied simply to the golden rule. The term damned it. If a man would state a prop osition in geometry and declare it to be Socialism, the world would set to work to prove the proposition false before It thought to disprove that it was Socialism. It is difticult to say Just why when numbered lf. and I venture they would pull down the scales at a ton and a half. Thev sat -on the marble floor with their feet under them, and swung back and forth, bobbing their head to tne grouna, as mey fairly howled out a chorus for which the fat old lady kept time. As the mourners saw me making a note, the wailing subsided for a moment; but as one of the be reaved family came in it burst out louder than ever. Such mourners are common to all Oriental countries, and they wail here for the Arabs as well as the Jews. ter. We are at liberty to buy someone's else, or buy a cow and make our own. And no employer can compel us to work for him. Circumstances may point out such a necessity. Let circumstances be blamed, then, and not the plutes. The smart man or schemer will be ahead In making and saving money. All we should expect is a fair show and no fa vors. The I. W. W. elect the law-makers In this country and it is our own fault, therefore. If the laws are not fair and equal. The fact Is. the I. W. W. have often been so greedy trying to overreach each other that they have neglected the big grafting of the plutocrats. Instead of sneering at piety and religion, we ought to be imbued with a spirit of civic righteousness, enough to make us treat each other aright In all our business and social relations, and to uphold the President and his big stick In his efforts to control capitalistic graft. There is no machine to smash, unless It be the $5,000,000 combination to thwart legislative control. Any chimera of a grand strike, by all united workers, if attempted, would create more misery In a month than all the fllchlngs of plutocracy In a generation. Such mischievous, incoherent and unsup ported vaporings are an hindrance to true socialism, which can only be brought about by the co-operation of the workers, first, for Just and equal legislation for all and special privileges for none; and sec ond, by Industrial combinations, in which the saved -up earnings of the workers are used to compete with capitalists' money for productive or manufacturing purposes. Clackamas. Or. a man begins to acquire a bank account and a buggy that cuts under in front, he becomes a violent paranoiac manlao on the subject of Socialism. He is open to Christian Science; he will discuss tele pathy, the dynamic origin of the living rnatter, new thought, clairvoyance, eso teric Buddhism, the oversoul, the rotation of the crops, the cycle of prices, the ef fect of the moon on warts, and the sun myths but Socialism, no!" Maker of Roman Candles. Technical World. The most solitary person In the world, during working hours, is the maker of roman candles. He occupies an isolated cell, somewhat like that of an old-time hermit, save that Its precincts are more contracted, and nobody comes near him while he is engaged in his patient toil. Tbe wages he gets are high, but not by reason of the loneliness to which he is condemned; he is paid for the risks he is obliged to take. The quarters occu pied by this eremite artisan are a tiny house, which might almost be called a hut, with a floor-space not more than six feet square. Standing by itself, at least 60 yards from any other structure, the little building Is of wood, of the simplest Imaginable architecture. If It were to be blown up. the financial loss would be almost nil a point of much importance inasmuch as its diurnal tenant Is obliged to use considerable quantities of explo sives in the. business which engages his attention. For a roman candle is a sort of magazine, or repeating gun. with a paper tube for a barrel and balls of fire for projectiles. The Weather Forecaet Exchange. "Tomorrow, Weather Bureau Man. Will the skies be blue and clear?" It didn't rain," raid he with pride "Upon that date last yar." "Now tell me. Weather Bureau Man, If we are through with now." "It snowed In June." he proudly said, "Just twenty years ago." "Oh. tell me. Weather Bureau Man, Will June be June or not?" "My rcord show," he firmly raid, "That former Junes were hot." "It's wonderful." I gaily said. "How you foretell the weather. The Weath.r Man. he winked at me And then we smiled tosether.