WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 207, 29 February 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

j (Conducted bj "Eileen.") { WEDDING BELLS | On February 13, at St. Peter's Church, 1 Tataraimaka, by the Rev. Addenbrooke, William Henry Moore, youngest son of Mr. Thomas Moore, of Sprent, Tasmania, was married to Miss Leila Margaret Gyde, eldest daughter of Mr. Joseph Gyde, of Tataraimaka. The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a dress of figured silk voile, the customary veil and wreath, and carried a beautiful shower bouquet. The Misses Violet and Winnifred Gyde, sisters of the bride, who attended as bridesmaids, were dressed in pale blue crepe, and wore creme silk hats. Mr. Ernest Pearson acted as best man. After the ceremony all adjourned to the residence of the bride's parents, where the breakfast was partaken of. Afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Moore left by motor for New Plymouth, en route for Tasmania, their future home. The bride's travelling dress was a grev tailor-made costume, creme silk vest, and a large black hat. TURKISH WOMEN. THE COMING OF MODERNITY. "Behind Turkish attices," from the pen of Hester Donaldson Jenkins, is an ex- j tremely interesting book. It endeavors to estimate the effect upon Turkish wo- ] mankind and their future of the spirit ; of modernity which is gradually coming into being as ong of the lirst fruits of the recent revolution. The Young Turk party included many women, and there are those who look to the coming of female emancipation as one of the outcomes of their success, , 1$ APPEARANCE. Most Turkish women are fat, and indeed some amount of plumpness has hitherto been regarded as essential to true beauty. .But since the number of American and English women living in Turkey has increased slimjiess has been much more keenly prized. Turkish women generally have clearj cut, delicate features, with full lips, although one occasionally sees a featured, ugly young woman. The old women either become hags—hollow-eyed, pale, gaunt—or they settle into fat, placid, white-skinned old women with traces of early loveliness. The noses are sometimes aquiline, although more often straight; but it is in the mouth that the Oriental look lurks—the mouth, i that feature that most reveals what sort of people we are. The mouths are calm, not constantly twitching or moving like j the American mouth, even when not speaking, and are often slightly sensual,, very friendly, not very firm, sometimes 1 sweetly pretty and dimpled. Moles on the face are considered a great beauty. Poets suggest that love has kissed and left a spot, or that spirits whispering in the ear have, left their light touch on the cheek. No Turkish woman is considered perfectly beautiful without a mole or two. AMUSEMENTS. A revolution is being effected, too, with regard to amusements, pastimes, games and so forth. It is possible to attend an inferior sort of theatre nowadays, as there are I occasional little theatres exclusively for , j women. Also, there are a few theatres with a partition down the middle of the auditorium dividing the men from the women, and sometimes hiding the Btage. At these theatres the plays have generally been a poor sort of European play, put on by Turkish men and Armenian women, for of course no Moslem woman would appear before the footlights. But since the revolution a number of Turkish plays have been produced, imperfect : in structure, but full of patriotism in- ■ tensely pleasing to the Ottoman populaI called "Fatherland," and was playe'd by many groups of amateurs during the months after the July revolution. At j one gala performance in the great courtyard of the Ministry of War there was j a special section of seats reseryed for i -women, railed off from the rest.

But all this sort of tiling is as yet in it» infancy. The amusements of the Turkish woman are still chiefly homemade, with one exception: There is one other social .occasion in the Turkish woman's life, a visit to the bath. Any view of Constantinople from a height shows the small" yellow domes of these baths, which are scattered all over the city. ' They are built of stone in the shape of a dome, with no windows except in the roof, which gives sufficient light. There are four or five domed rooms joined together, the outermost being cool and the others in- [ creasing in warmth until the inmost is | extremely hot. Here the women of the neighborhood congregate, and after a good soak and rub, and probably a shampoo, they dress their hair elaborately, gird their loins with a striped red and blue towel, put wooden clogs jjn their feet, and sit down on the marble l edge ■of a pool, prepared to enjoy their friends. Here they drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, tell the gossip of the neighborhood, perhaps partake of a light lunch, and enjoy j themselves for hours. Sometimes they return to the hot chamber for successive baths before resuming their garments. It is, however, in a growing fondness and opportunities for outdoor physical exercise that the greatest changes are coming to the Turkish woman. THE MARRIAGE QUESTION.

It is impossible that women should ever be free, or play any really important part in national development, so long as polygamy is practised. And the first essential to the abolition of that is a sense of injury among the -women. As yet it is hardly born. Oftentimes a family of several wives and many children seem very happy together, the wives feeling towards each other like sisters, apparently. One girl, whoso father had three wives, told me she was very lonesome when she first left home, for it was so jolly and pleasant in their large family that a small family seemed dull to her.

A Turkish girl is brought up to believe that marriage is a. woman's only possible

carper. Ami she sees 110 evil in sharing her husband with other wives. She has never been taught to expect anything else. THE VEIL. A good deal of scandal was caused in the early days of the revolution by the abandonment by some of the more progressive women of the veil. They Boon resumed it. They found that even progressive Turks were not prepared to turn everythinng immediately upsidedown. The wearing of the veil is not enjoined by the Koran; women had more freedom in the Prophet's day than they have at present. The covering of a woman's fc*e, and more especially the hair, ii a tradition with the Turks, so strong, however, that it has all the force of a religious law. In the country a woman may wear a silk cloak without the cape over her head, but simply a light, white kerchief over head and-shoulders, but she would be deemed exceedingly immodest should she let a lock of her hair escape from her bashiorta or head-covering. One spring I visited a Turkish house which was well protected from the street, but whose verandah was overlooked by a neighboring house inhabited by Greeks. My hostess occasionally came to the ver-1 andali in her house dress, which greatly I distressed her good grandmother. "Nigi-

uar, Nigiuar," she would groan, "where do you expect to go when you die, if you let that Greek man see your hair?" Nigiuar would laugh and put on her bashiorta.

But the veil will disappear as polygamy will disappear. The women will, be educated. And, to quote the eloquent closing words of the author) "in that future day, when Turkey shall take her rightful place among the enlightened nations, by the side of the brave, loyal men. you will find intelligent, loving and highminded Turkish women.