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Show life in a hare:: INMATES AT THE MERCY OF CHS-POTIC CHS-POTIC WOMAN. " Mother of the Sultan -Ha Absolute Power of Life and De'ath Within Its Confines Crusl Punish-' Punish-' ment Frequent.' At the present moment, when so much attention is being paid to the question of equal rights for men and women, a passing glimpse Into the harem 'of his serene majesty, Abdul-Hamld, Abdul-Hamld, exposes a condition ot things hard to believe' and still harder to accept. Curiously enough, however, it Is not tho sultan who is the most powerful pow-erful nnd most dreaded autocrat in his own harem, but the sultan's mother, moth-er, known "by tho name of "Vnllde." It ia the sultan's mother' who not only regulates ovcry Incident ot the harem, but possesses thcrlght ot life and death over the women In it, and thcro aro almost no known instances In which a sultan has dared to sayo a fa-voi fa-voi I to from a punishment ordered by "tho crown of veiled heads," as tho Valldo is called In tho harem. And next to tho sultan's mother comes, not tho sultan's favorite wife, as might be Imagined, but tho Has-nadar-osta, or grand mistress ot finance. Tho sultan's chief wife, or more correctly speaking, mlstresB, ranks Only third In tho order of tho harem, and seems to possess, moreover, more-over, no real power whatsoever. I use the word mistress, because tho sultan, which will probably come as a surprise to the majority of English readers, is not allowed to marry. This extraordinary prohibition dates from the time when a sultan, going upon somo holy war, and taking hU legitimate legiti-mate wife with him, found her suddenly sud-denly seized by the enemy, and led into captivity. Now, the sultan, being be-ing considered the Almighty's de-scendent de-scendent and representative on. earth, his wife was, of course, sacred, and could not become the property of any lesser creature. Her seizure, therefore, created something like a panic in roynl circles. A council was called, and it was decided that henceforward, hence-forward, to avoid repetitions of a similar sim-ilar abomination, no sultan should over marry. Tho members of tho harem are still young Blaves bought in Circassio, Georgia, Armenia and other places, and practically educated In the harem .Itself on tho chance that the sultan mny one day notice them, it appears also that civilization has not made great strides In tho management of the royal harem, and that corporal punishments nre still frequent, eu-nochs, eu-nochs, called "beating eunochs," still being kept for refractory persons. Poisoned Poi-soned coffee Is also not entirely out of fashion, while, grimmer stlllv the terrible ter-rible sack flung Into the Dosphorus even now does Its sinister work. It is piteous to lenrn that, notwithstanding notwithstand-ing all this, many parents willingly soil their children to Bupply tho endr-mous endr-mous colony which constitutes tho harem. I3ut llfo for a Turkish potentate is nt best a troubled circumstance. Tho fear of assassination is so great thst tho sultan, It seems, lia3 not for years slept two nights running In tho samo chamber. Tho only person aware each night of tho room selected Is his m6ther, who secretly gets It ready. Two female slaves also He, llko faithful faith-ful (lfgs, extended across tho doorway, door-way, ready to spring up nt the slightest slight-est nolso or the faintest call from the Bovorolgn. Hut for fear of troachory even theso nro chained every night, and never until tho last moment know to what part of the palnco they aro to bo sent. The ordinary amusements of the harem are trivial enough, but it is pleaBan't to learn that some of tho women have the .deeper Joy of motherhood, nnd that thero are children chil-dren to take caro of and watch over. So many pet animals are kept,' also, that tho royal harem has been called a veritable menagerie. ., $ |