Morning journal and courier., 1888-06-16
IN OTRKR.LAND

The Women of Cuba-Kare Types or
 Female LovelIness Beautiful I'm
 Forra, in Movement and in Face-A
 Close Surveillance of MaIdens W Whfch
 Giddy Suftors Find 1t Difficult to Out
 wit-Queer Phases of Courtslip as
 Seen in the Beautiful Isle.
 HAVANA, Cuba, June Il.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 After all that which interests anybody most about any foreign country is it's wo- men. Upon their ugliness or beauty, their ways and character, and the relation of all this to their lovers and husbands, all else in sociology and most marked national traits surely depend. Altogether believe the Cu- ban woman-and that should also include the women of Spanish birth in Cuba-to be one of the most lovely types of the sex. She may not have so much ''soul' as some American women. Ihavs never heard of one with "mission." They do not engage in public Reclamation about flights" They hold no conventions. They do not haunt and harrow newspaper offices. Briefly they are not bowling dervishes in the home, in society, in literature or religion, because their sex might permit them to be so.
 THE CUBAN WOMEN.
 But of the Cuban womans loveliness there can be no question. She is beautiful in form, in movement, in face From the nina or little girl to old age she is still beautiful. She Is winsoms as child, lovely as @ maid- en, entrancing as a sweetheart, adorable as wife, dear and swees as a mother, and again charming and winsome when the days have come wherein she is child again. Some how that sort of thing, all the way along, would seem to comprise conditions out of which good women could secure tho truest worship, the happiest lives. And in spite of what may seem to be their objectless idle ness, believe they do here.
 In the physical beauty of Cuban women the commanding features are the foot, whose daintiness and symmetry are marvellous; the supple, willowy grace of movement of per- son; the exquisitely modelled form; and the eyes which never lose their luster and glow. Cuban women wear shoes no larger than the Mo- size for women in the States. Nor IS this diminutive size the result of any pinch ing process. She is born that way. That is her foot. You could hold two of them in your one hand. And whatever the woman's weight or size the foot is universally this dainty and beautiful thing. It's arch is won- dsrful. But one thing about it offends the foreigners eye. That is the high, narrow heel, two or three inches long and scarcely a third of an inch at it's narrowest part. One feels afraid of accidents and contretemps from it. But this pretty-footed woman is sure-footed one. She is the most graceful woman on her feet, in her walk and carriage, in the promenade or in the dance, you ever saw. So this sinewy, 1.-the grace must also be inbred, part of the grain, fiber, blood and the very spirit back of them. Of her form it is perfection. Nine women out of ten you meet are models of symmetry. I should say they were rather under the size of our average American women. There is 8 greater delicacy in line and proportion They do not so torture their persons or them selves. They do not endeavor to abolish the action of every vital organ, and those organs themselves, in an effort to rival the hour glass in form. They are themselves. Many American women ruin themselves and sicken the public endeavoring to be something be- sides women all around. These women are pretty nearly as God made them. All wo- men are physically beautiful when they let God alone in these matters. Ail women who dc otherwise make themselves hideous to | even men who pretend gallant admiration. The Cuban woman's face may be said to be wholly interesting and lovely rather than wholly beautiful. It's beauty is in it's expres- sion rather than in repose. Some faces of women are grand and classic in rspose. I have seen many English, German and Amer 1 ican women of that type. But when they | spoke or awakened to mental and social ac- tivity the spell was gone. There is type of
 beauty or loveliness which glows in activity. It ssenseto warm and color and beam with g \ certain goodness of nature, of heart, of soul, | behind it. You can hardly tell where it is or what it is, but you see 1t truly. It is something of this subtle sort men expect and want in the face of women. And it is some l thing like this that is very engaging in the l Cuban woman's face. This face is of the 1 Latin mold, oval and with delicate protru- 1 ding of 6 pretty and shapely chin. HeI eomplexion is waxen, creamy, with no carna- tion in her cheeks. But her mouth, large mobile, tremulous, with just suggestion oi pathos in the slight drawing down at the cor l ners, has lips 90 red and ripe that her ever perfect teeth dazzle in brilliant contrast Her hair is of that lead black darKness which suggests weird, soft mist upon tht night and is indeed glory ever. But hel
 eyes are her priceless, crowning loveliness her never-ending power and charm. The, cannot be described. When you say tha behind their long, dark, half-hiding lashe
 they are large, dark, dreamy, yet glowing
 flashing with fire, liquid with langnor, yo' have only hinted their inexpressible exprea
 siyeneas. They are the same eyes at nine, a II nineteen, at ninety. And 80 it is that thi
 woman, her features in active play, her grace
 her good nature, her good breeding, whic : rightly means good -heartedness, seems to 70 !. \ ..s4nn aS1