Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1874-02-26
Brazilian Women.

A Rio Janeiro correspondent OF the
Providence Journal declares that hand
some women are rare in Brazil, and
adds: The face is generally very plain.
and often ugly, and I really believe
that because the lack of comeliness is
30 frequent it is not truly apprehended.
The complexion is generally sallow,
never clear end fresh, and by no means
improved by the abundant use made OF
cosmetics. If any single feature de.
serves notice it is the eyes, and yet
these do not possess that quality which
makes even the plainest eyes brilliant /;
there is no soul looking atyou or speak
ing to you through them. Childhood
seems to cover the whole period Of
physical beauty, and some OF the chill
dren are most interesting; yet even
then the habits and tastes Of Ignorant
and commonly negro nurses are fixed,
in place of the impressions OF moth.
er's careful training, and the example OF
q mothers devoted life. The excessive
vanity of girlhood, which seems to be
encouraged by the parents rather than
restrained; the qualification of the
palate with all manner OF sweets and
condiments /; the entire absence of any
physical exercise /; and, what is more,
nothing but weakness inherited, cannot
assure any perfect womanlineSs. For
eign ladies who teach in the schools
(private and select schoolS have told
me that schoolgirl life in Brazil is in a
most lamentable moral condition. A
knowledge of French, music and dan
cling is all that is considered worth OBJ
tanning, and then until marriage
which doesn't come at all to many OF
them, or If itdoes come is Encouragement
of the parents, and simply changes the
place OF idleness-they wait, doing moth
ing, week, month, and year, nothing
they neither study, nor read, nor sew,
they do nothing. In the forenoon, in
state of slothful desha6ille, they
dawdle and lounge around the house
in the afternoon they look out of the
windows; and this is national custom,
most striking to a stranger to see them,
white and black, high and low, edu.
Gated and illiterate, hanging out Of the
windows through the afternoon in.
deed, the window seats are filed with
cushions that the arms may not become
bruised by the continual leaning upon
them. In the evening, dressed-and
I really believe the taste displayed
would give Madame Demorest, .convul'
sions, if not paralyss-they sit and sit
and do nothing else again. Sometimes
they speak, and it's wonderful what
commonplaces can be uttered, and how
little can be sud when the Brazilian
mouth does open. 30 far as female
employment is concerned, = Brazilian
girl labor for her support? No, indeed
She would rather have but one dress
and turn it on holidays. Her father
would sell his shirt first, and then but
ton up his seedy coat. Her mother
would die of modification. And 81
they live, poor and vain, aping an aris
tocracy by mock attempt at show, tht
cheap and tawdry emptiness of what ii
ridiculous. The wealthier, and no
less vain, are surrounded with al
atmosphere Of frigid hauteur, through
which only members of the clique have
the courage to attempt to penetrate
The Brazilian woman develops and ma
lures young, and becomes old while
still young. Her moral sensibilitie'
become obscured by the life which ex
lists about her, and into which she ma,
possibly at times get a glance through
the customs Of her father or he