Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-05-25
NO. 1913.
MISCELLANEOUS BEADING.
PARAGUAY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.


From the pen of traveller who COM
municates to the New York Commercial, we
extract some very interesting notes on the
way they do things in Paraguay.
| NrDE TABLE Shortly after my
arrival at Ascuncion, | was invited by Senior
j. to dinner, and, having accepted the invita-
,ion, | went on the following day at the late
and fashionable hour of = o'clock. Several
friends were assembled for the occasion: but
at the table was placed between two OF the
Misses j., young, blooming, for most OF the
females Of Ascuncion are very far, and
without doubt, very pretty women. Guess,
then, nv confusion, to find that we were
waited on at the dinner table by half
dozen boys and girls, little slaves, all perfect
" nude Their liveries had cost nothing,
their shoes and stockings had cost nothing,
not one of them had dressed for dinner; they
were one and all in statu nature. AT hrst
iidgeted in my chair, and threw iurtiye
glances around; but seeing every one on either
side of me, including my fair companions. as
composed as if the most rigid decorum had
been studied, gradually recovered my seren-
itv. and learned thencetorward to know that
whatever has become the custom Of the coun-
try, is never supposed by the people to have
ANYTHING outrs in it. How are we in truth,
the creatures of habit. got so accustomed
to these unclothed attendants, during my
sojourn in Paraguay and Corientes, that on
my return to Buenos Ayres, thought there
was great affectation in dressing out the
same class of servants there from top to toe"
CoNyERsATIoN.-Ast the body is left loose
and unrestrained by dress in Paraguay, 50
the conversation of all classes is the most un-
sophisticated in its construction that can be
imagined There is no circumspectlon, no
subtilty, no mode of speech by which one
thing is made to stand for another. AT DIM
ner, or any other occasion, right before their
daughters, the parents sometimes give disser-
tations on domestic medicines, &c, which
make strangers blood run cold, but which
they discourse about with all the rOlubillty
of clever mothers, in their maturer years,
who have raised a large family by dint OF their
constant application to the system Of the doc
tor, and to which their daughters listen as
gravely through the detail as if they were
hearing counsels on the improvement OF the
mind.
NIGHT IIABITs-In the principal streets of
the city, long and continuous corridors are
built, which run along on one side The
principal shopkeepers ana merchahls' "ho
inhabit this part of this town, on very warm
nights of summer, convert these corridors into
common bed rooms The portable beds OF
these citizens are drawn out and ranged along
the covered way; and it was curious TO see
them, as you passed along toward ten o'clock
at night. preparing for bed, and some already
enjoying theirrepose. Some were to be seen
sitting on the side of their stretchers, yawn.
ing or smoking their cigars; others undress-
ing with the greatest sang .froid; here one
snoring, there one corversing with his next
neighbor-and every one unconscious Of the
oddity of the scene in the eyes of stranger.
The same custom prevailed more or less
through the city, beds and stretchers obstruct-
ing the way in every direction. Very little
police is exercised in Ascunsion, but such a
thing as robbery or theft committed during
the night is unheard Of, and, in fact, such
security was felt and enjoyed that people
rest without any nocturnal fears.