TTTE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, FEBRUARY 5, 1923
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In hr first artdcJa Oa frvn-kn a
American trt and a tratoad )nvti4nUT
of ancial condition, who tpnt mim
vnontha Id I'onataattnopto and Turkey
Mttdylmr vnatltMni there, reveal 1 th re
vival of harem li'a in the oHt CHtomB
rnpirs riu to renewed activity tn etmva
jttI traffv. She told of th mantle of
:en"e Turk Lh off tr tMom trtea t- throw
vr the rwm. and the dentaiai with whteh
wry Inquiry fa met. Mtu Svniona d -aw-ribed
the manner tn which aha fanaHy
aralne-d an entree to a harecn, and her
frnTvfwti ion with the fair irnnat frm
whom ti Ifarni that barema ara still
Trr nwrneroti.
In th prent article ehe frlvea th
reason f r thia new prowth of hamn ltfa
and show how siris r obtained for
Turk i;nft ai taatex a.
J WW?
ll'iili ft
j! J
ft
infirm
if
II
War Built Up Empire
of Harems and Is To
day Chief Cause of
Great Revival of the
Traffic in Girls Among
the Turks.
Is
.ae-sssfM. .
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x r ; J
OoPTrtfht, 112.
. trvica. All
by Thompimn Favtnra
Riff hts Reserved.
fcv -Ss5
AIIT1CLK NO. 2.
WilAT built up the Kmplr of
liireraa?
The answer is Brim. Wa.r.
"All Christiana and non-Moslems
falling into Moslem hands during
war are slaves." This was the Otto
man law. This built up the harems
of the past.
The war In Asia Minor carried on
by the Turks, today, repeats the
story of slavery that all Turkish
wars have told before.
Asia Minor is the twentieth cen
tury slave market.
Its battlefields are th auction
blocks to which women are brought
for bartering amonit the victorious
soldiery. Its devastated towns along
the shores or the Black sea and down
Into the provinces of Angora have
been used by slave-dealers to carry
on their trade.
The current war between the Greeks
and Turks Is furnishing tin up-to-date
market in women for harem- COCXTRY HAREMITES WORKING IN THB f'lELDS,
keeper of today.
No one unfamiliar with the change
II
O , ... JrZ to
3 -4Yff
TWO GYPSV TYPES URODCHT IXTO TllRKEV BY. THB SOLDIERY TO
BE SOLD FOR 'HAREMS,
these: w O m e n ARE bought ajid sold like
DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
for the "b.tur a- 1 regard, women in into the country, for the most part, red as wine. And .kin ilk. milk. You to take passage on a boat for Athens.
Trk .f lu. ?rJu up" ch t. for deliberate selling. The Turkish should have seen her! There sho met an American man who
has been. It has revived harems. Zari Bey had done so with her par- to the old convent where th. officers love with her and she married him
The war and its market of girls from consent, knowng she wa, to be guarding them said they were to be as her first marriage had been a
-a-ar-districts have obviated the dif- third wife. The rest had not been put in school. For days th poor hoax
ficulty of finding girls who were consulted. girls believed this He. Then they "She sailed with him to Boston
willing to go into a harem or parents I found one girl, a Greek, who was noticed they were being brought where he lived and they are very
willing to allow their daughters to being divorced by her husband be- down in groups from their sleeping happy
uffer the indignity of being third or cause she wa. childless. She was be- Quarter, where they were kept But alas for the other g iri. n th.
fourth wives. 'ng returned to her people in Albania, guarded all day. to stand before of- 'bride school. What American man
The war furnishe. girls too ter- her husband cheerfully paying her fleers and merchants, rich farmers could find them and take them
rified to protest against harem life expenses. He had two other wives, and wealthy pashas. Then one. per- away?"
who can be bought from the soldiery ! ald. botl Circassians. The Cir- haps two, of the girls would be taken The province of Anatolia nas long
who offer them for as low as two casslans had been bartered to their from th. convent the next morning, been the stronghold for the fanatical
and three Turkish pounds. (Pound is present owner by the glrl"s parents. To be put in another school. the old-fashioned Turk. Removed from
worth about 73 cents.) The man who she further informed me. Turkish sergeant said, grinning. contact with Europe, the old Turk,
couldn't afford to buy a harem ten of these harem women were of "Then my cousin Nivartia sus- as he is called, has carried on his old
. rtA k. neasant or slave stock, with the ex- nected the truth. After the going national and religious habits, free
'now. ceptlon of the Armenians who came away of Rakka, her dearest friend.
The demoralization of the Armenian rom a11 classes. The Turk has 1- who had been really bought by a
girls in the last few year through ways married .laves, or held them as silk merchant from Aleppo, she told
the looting of the villages by the odalisks. From hi. daughter, he ha. the other girls what she feared was
Turkish soldiery, ha. been tragic. withheld education, in most oases, in true.
order that no husband might object Girl. Try To Be Ugly.
Ar.U. Rf.it to her belns intelligent And intelli- .ow tney wept! Ther wept in
Girl, who would never hav, gone g.nc. is a. contrary to harem life a. TOldIer
Into harems had the family been held beauty is necessary to it. . .
Intact, have drifted Into them from I heard of an English governess snoring against their door. Then
the ruined districts around the Black who had married the helr-pretender they began rubbing garlic Juice on
ea. from Samzoun. Batum and Tre- to the Arabian throne. He had an- their faces. They stole the garlic
bisond. Their lives were ruined, other wife, a French woman, and from the kitchen. It blistered the
He has
villages.
from progress and change,
carried on his harems in
farms and large towns.
His harems have expanded with the
price of women dropping as it has
in the last year of war. Within the
past year 100,000 women from the
war district, have flowed into coun
try harems, for there is always work
for women to do on a farm, and farms
near Slwas, Ergutand Edserum are
now worked by haremites.
Sometimes their entry into the
ll
I
- .' i
-i - -
TURKISH BRIDE FROM ANATOLIA. IN MESCHLEK OR HOUSEROBE.
THIS GIRL CAME FROM THE BRIDE SCHOOL AT SAJMZOUN.
husband's honor and at tne same time, province for them, tray them, settle
their resistance broken. Turks llv- numerous fair serving maids. They skin and made the eyes red. destroy- harem is accompanied by the old- seema to 0 mQst of his work, in dis- with their parents, and ship them to
comfort.
Conditions Pitiable.
their new husband. Parents who
didn't want their girls sold would pay
The conditions among the rural 6"J , . , . , , A
loyely girls, on caravans," an old man
in Konia admitted. He was an Inn
keeper. "But camels have given way
to trains nowadays. When I was
Ing In lower Anatolia have filled were at his villa In Biarritz at the ing tor the time the lovely skin that fashioned details of a Turkish wed-
their harems to overflowing with moment. She bad never regretted made these girls so desired. They ding. The bride is dressed in fine
these young women whom they were her marriage to him which was the starved themselves to grow ugly, clothes and brought to her new home
handful of coina. Th. war ha, en- This story was affirmed by tho head Just th. same. the threshold, .he is showered with haremites i round most puiaDie. xney & daugnter to get ria of would pay
abled the country Turk to .tart th. of the American missionaries In Con- "Then my cousin wa. chosen by a Turkish candies and then handed a are slaves to work and to tneir nus- backsheesn t0 lose her, and the friend
habit of haremlik. all over again, stantlnople. He had known the gov- Turkish doctor who made her an new broom with which she must band's whims. in Constantinople would pay back
Just at a time when decreasing af- erness when .he was teaching the honorable proposal. He said he would sweep the floor. This is her sign of j found one girl, educated in sheesh when the girl came to his
f luenca and publlo opinion were mltl- children of the prince by his first marry her, and only her. and . that her submission to her new lord. Athens, in a farm harem near Eski- house. It was a graft in glrl that
gating it. wife. she was better off with him than After the bridal feast, her husband BChehir. She was a Georgian and had cut three ways.
Two of the Armenian girls I talked It Is true that upon the signing of some other Turks who might get takes her to her new rooms and lifts been a beauty. She was a fourth Tne Days of Caravans,
to told tragic stories. They were born the armistice, all prisoners of war her. Desperate. Nivartia accepted the veil on her face. wife, spoke three languages, French, "They used to be shipped, thosa
in ajuauuix. fcvw a uvicu ifl lis WCIW suyuscu iu wo uauuou vwer HIS BUlU J1D iuuk tier iv n V JiliV out. oui 1U1 iuo iuubi l, 10 tan . " v ' 1 t IV a.uu uiitiaii, ai.u rv n-"" n
beautiful women. They had fled be- th. allied governments. This should side of town and treated her like a to her new home like a new domestic goats for her fat husband who was
fore th Turkish army. Captured, have saved many girls from harem royal bride. Bnt she hated him. At animal bought at market. For she busy in the field nearby making the
they had been protected by a Mr- life. the end of a month he received a Is, like them, meant for work. other three wives work,
geant who appreciated the financial But the Turk, have found way. to letter from Constantinople which up- I remember having Been, outside of In the country harem there ia no
worth of their beauty. He sent them conceal their trafficking In girls, set him very much. He said he had Ergut, an old Turk walking by th. servant, but there is a wife for every young. I've seen caravans starting
la secret routes to Constantinople to Th. famous Bride school at Samzoun to go to that town at once on bust- Id of the road. In the road were task. The hnsband may be ignorant out with girls strapped to the rug
a "go-between." where both were Is a significant example of their ness. and while he was packing hi six women, struggling as they ear- and ugly, yet his wives wait on him saddles. Bought, they were, through
married to the same man. The .er- cleverness at concealment. bags she read the letter he had left, ried a long wooden pole, the alee of like elavea, tnough they may be Ar- the governor of the province here,
grant wa. well paid. Both seemed This "school" was housed in an old like a fool, in the pocket of the coat a fair-sized tree. It was the harem menian, Greek or Albanian girls of Eunuchs of the harem for which they
frankly relieved to have married and gray convent on the edge of the town he took off. of one All Hassan, I learned, carrying Intelligence and some schooling. were intended met them at the Bos
acaped th. horror, they knew had of Samzoun, on the Black sea. It had "It was from his wife in Constanti- home a new ridge pole for the barn. The country harem is a treadmill phorus and they were taken across
fallen to other member, of their been a home for beautiful nnns in the nople. She was rich and was send- Do not think harem is a synonym that never stops grinding. And the the straits in caiques, those little
family and close friends. I asked past. For the women of Samzoun are ing him money to return with fine for luxury, perfume, chiffon trousers force that drives it is women. boats, at night. For one must do
them how they could love a member all very beautiful. After the Turk, presents for her. She seemed to love and tom-toms. Harem as a word Turkish government officials, in careful with a pretty girl. She might
of a race which had dona their people took possession of the town. th. con- him. He left that night and Nivartia means "hidden.1 Any woman who the provinces, have long mixed bust- bo stolen." He smoked his water pipe,
as much barm and they started to vent was used for those lovely Geor- promised to wait at the villa for him helps winnow wheat in a hot field, ness with pleasure. Ill-paid by the "But most of that has stopped, now.
cry. Both had been forced to accept glaa and Armenian girl, whom the until he returned. At midnight she -whose face Is veiled is Just as much government, they have taken up the These days soldiers steal the girls
th. Mohammedan faith, and both officer, fancied were - worth more ran away and slept in the woods. The a haremlte a one of the beauties trafficking in high-class girls as a and ship them by train from town
were afraid to die In It. than the average captives. next morning she returned to the in the "Arabian Nights." The women side issue. In the old days this prac- to town, the girls too terrified to re
Most of the women In the harem. "They selected the girls for their bride school,' .aying she wanted to carrying the ridge pole were "harem." tice was more common than now, al- slst. And it's hard shipping girls by
I saw were young, for youth I. what beauty." said Sapa S., now a secre- talk to her companions. She found The women feeding mulberry leaves though graft is still what makes the these big Bteamers and trains. Poo
ls worth the buying. tary in an ofice in Constantinople. "I tht the doctor had arranged for .the to the silk worms at Brusa, a town Turkish government "go." pie are curious and ask questions.
The Armenians seemed to be in the had escaped from Samzoun before the purchase of two of her best friends famous for its regal s'lks, is "harem" An official would set out for his Myself, Til have nothing to do with
very early twenties. The two Slavs town fell, but I know the details. My who were to be sent to his villa that if her veil is down. Mohammed, the new office,in Angora, say, with it. I leave that to the younger men.
were older, but being of northern cousin told me. She was la th night. He was starting a harem. prophet, said the veil was to be "a "commissions" to perform for friends "Two Circassian girls that be-
stoek, naturally aged less quickly 'sehooL' Her nam. 1. Nivartia, and He had given my cousin a pearl sign of her virtue and a gnard in Constantinople. The "commis- longed to a pasha here in town:
tsaa oriantaia. ah was as lovely as a rip fig, with ring which she wa, able to sell to a against the talk of the world." along" were always to find good look- Pasha Hairredln were shipped to
Tbea girla, Z say, war amuxSed black yes and hair and a mouth, as jeweler for very littl. but enough By veiling herself, she protects bar Ing girls. Ther would search the him In Constantinople where ho was
I A modern type of beauty for which
Turkey la famed.
staying at the time they were pro
cured for him by the governor of a
Black Sea town. He was returning
here in two weeks, but could not wait
to see the girls then, but had them
sent on to him at his villa on the
Bosphorus. Aie; ale! The trouble he
had! Those girls were fiends. Sis
ters. White and lovely a dawn.
They tied a stocking over the mouth
of the old woman who was taking
them by boat from Samzoun to Con
stantinople Just before they mad
the port of the sultan's city. Then
they flirted with a miserable boat
man these dogs who act like unbe
lievers and speak to a Turkish woman
on the street! They should send the
girls home when they see they are
acting in a manner unfitted to women
of the faith! and he was starting
to row them across to Scutari where
he promised he would hide them. But
Pasha Hairredin came along the river
In his steam launch and saw them.
Then there was a scene!
"But you know how it came out."
He lit a fresh pipe. "Those girls are
happy now and mothers. Fa.ha
Hairredin has married also two lovely
Turkish girls. But he is wealthy.
He can afford a harem. The poor
man cannot, unless he can get the
girls who have come from the dis
tricts of war."
- Women Thought Happy.
The Turkish men aiways think the
Turkish women are happy as . mem
bers of a man-ordained harem. To be
forced to obey a husband, prepare
his pilaff for his dinner, his tourshi
.(vegetables in vinegar) this makes
the Turkish women happy, the men
say. The women ao not say much
of anything. Often they are speech
less from weeping.
Unfortunately, Constantinople, the
regions in Anatolia and the coast of
war-stricken Asia Minor are not the
only districts where harems have
been flourishing in undue vigor of
late. The exchange of girls has
spread east as far as Bagdad..
Unlucky girl to be taken by the
Arabs! The. Arabs are Moslems,
fanatics, cruel, uncivilized. Their
women wear two veils, one covering
the forehead, the other coming up to
the eyes. This leaves a slit for the
eyea The mouth is tattooed, th
nails and the hair hennaed.
If they remain Christians, as some
Armenian and Greek girls try to do,
they are killed. If they turn Mos
lems, they are tortured by their con
science. Armenian Girls Story.
Two Armenian girls I knew had an
experience in Bagdad that stirred ma
"What would you do if you saw
girls who resisted the advance, of
men desiring to put them In harem,
killed outright on the street? When
some one asked you to enter his
harem and seemed willing to treat
you kindly, would you not accept
rather than be maltreated by many
soldiers?"
Gamila, sister of Refika, flashed
her black eyes at me a, she asked
the question. I was getting. In Con
stantinople, her story, which had be
gun near the gates of th city of
Aleppo.
"There was the war which came
on. And we,- Refika and I, were
driven from our homes on the farm
near Aleppo into the town. There
we saw our twp cousins sold to
Turkish merchants of the town who
had sold the girls the silk dresses
they had on. We saw other girla
killed who would not be sold. War
is terrible. We were sold against
our protests to two Turks living In
Bagdad. They were traveling in the
war district where they had com to
sell corn and dates to the army.
"One, who was my husband, was
the governor, Zade Bey. The other,
Alie Kemal Pasha, my sister's hus
band, was director of the mails a
fine position with much robbery of
the malls to fill his pockets, on the
side. Both lived In Bagdad. Both
kept harems. We were both favorite
wives.
"Our houses adjoined each other
and we used to wave at each other
from the windows over the pome
granate trees. Both of us were hon
ored by our husbands having dinner
with us every night; many Turks
who keep harems will not eat with
their women. They did not beat us.
On the contrary, they liked us. Beat
ing would have been more, pleasant.
"One day my sister tried to send
me a note by an old woman servant
but the note was lost. The old woman
saw my husband coming down the
street and in her fear dropped the
note in the gutter and when she
went back for it the rain had swept
it away. The note had said good-bye
to me.
"My sister ran away, I did not
know where. Her husband was wild
with rage. They tried to beat ma to
(Concluded ea P&e U