Women embark Bosporus

One has seen Turkish women embark on a Bosporus steamer

without tickets, and when challenged for doing so, take off a slipper, strike

the ticket-collector, and proceed on their way none the poorer. Like a famous

thistle, a Turkish woman cannot be touched with impunity.

Nor is it strange that a man’s female

relatives should influence him in Turkey, as much as they do in other countries

and in similar ways. After all, men and women are everywhere much the same, and

no artificial arrangements can altogether pre-vent the operation of natural

forces. Indeed, a man is, perhaps, more liable to be swayed by his female

relatives when they are the only women he meets. But be that as it may, women

related to the great officers of State exercise considerable political

influence.

The mother of the Sultan, known as the

Valid£ Sultana, is the first lady in the land, and, if a woman of capacity, is

a power behind the throne. It is reported that the famous British ambassador,

Sir Stratford Canning, had once occasion to suggest to the Sultan of his day

that in taking a certain course of action the sovereign of the Empire was

yielding to a mother’s counsels. “True,” replied the monarch, “but she is the

only friend I can perfectly trust as sincerely devoted to me.”

Payment of salaries

Several years ago, delay in the payment

of salaries, no infrequent occurrence in Constantinople, caused

great suffering among the humbler employees of the Government Other methods of

redress having failed, the aggrieved parties betook themselves to the weapon of

female force. Accordingly, a large body of women, mostly the wives of the poor

men, but including professional female agitators, invaded the offices of the

Minister of Finance. They filled every corridor, swarmed upon every stairway,

blocked every door they could find, and made the building resound with

lamentations and clamors for payment.

The Minister managed to escape by a back

entrance. But the women would not budge. It was vain to call in the police or

soldiers to intervene. The indecorum of a public application of force in

dealing with the women would have created too great a scandal, and so the

authorities bowed before “the might of weakness,” and made the best terms they

could induce the victors to accept A more recent experience of the power of

Turkish women to interfere, in spite of their seclusion, with the affairs of

the outer world, may be added. The owners of a piece of land adjoining a

Turkish village on the Bosporus decided to enclose their property with a

substantial wall of stone and mortar.