Morning journal and courier., 1888-06-16

iusn can tolerate, the fidelity that itself hold
 all loyalty to it, and the lady and woman | queenship which owns the home-holding q the most priceless and noblest realm of wo
 man. This is the real Cuban woman hon Eestly told.
 HOW THE GIRLS ARE LOOKED AFTER.
 Probably no people are so rigorous in tho
 care and surveillance of girls as the Spanish.
 The idea extends to women in many wise re-
 spects. The American 'tgadding" is un.
 known.- In school, at play, in the social
 hsms gatherings. the boy and the girl are I rigidly kept apart, or if permitted each oth-
 CTS society, it is under the strictest espion. | age. A little girl cannot step outside her
 home without a protector. A maiden or 1 young lady is never seen upon the street alone. Any woman thus seen is instantly 1 Known as g doubtful person or worse. If my nina goes to school 6 father, brother or always taken ina carriage. In it must be . esponsible memb CT of the family. No young, unmarried woman may visit friend, attend the theater oSA be seen at reception or ball unless her Nerents are with her. She is not out of the Eight of loving and | guiding eyez from the cradle to the marriage 1 bed. If she have lever he must come to
 the house and pay his respects to her like g I gentleman. His attentions are nof\ secret, surreptitious, dangerous. His choice ia known to his friends, to hers. It must bs,a clean business all around. Her proper privi- leges and his, under this regime, am in clined to think are greater. not less. She 1 goes as much, but the whole family, some- thing as with the sensible German people go l along also. If the lover desire an engage ment to the ball or opera with his senorita he must first propose at headquarters. Then 1 her pleasure is sought. If she accord there | are no misunderstanding in that family. It 1 is accommodated all around. If it be a ride | on the Calle Aneha del Norte, or the Calzada de Ia Reina, they are all again there If it be promenade on the Prado the whole fam ! fly promenades, frequently both families. The lover himself in short in all these under taklngg, while treated with real dignity is l much less an affair to be considered than other things. And perhaps that is we'll. In our country we turn our daughters, at about fourteen, over to the caprice of every roue l that comes along in the guise of lover, or even of company" i" and troe off to "prayer ] meeting" Ged is very good to America that matters are no worse than they are under such circumstances. There is doubtless a golden mean between utter license. as. with ! us, and utter prohibition, as here, where mothers with religion in their hearts and ! common sense in their heads may make such wise and true companions of daughters that propriety and self-poise go hand in hand | with courtship. Bat as between the one ex- l treme and the other, one would hardly have the temerity to condemn the Cuban system with daughters.
 AFTER MARRIAGE.
 A curious observation comes, however, when almost 8 reversal of conditions is found ! in both countries after marriage. With us, whatever the freedom in society and with short-term lovers the American girl has been given, to whatever extent she may have firt- ed to her own delight and the scandal of her l family, with however many lovers her rela- l tions have been infinitely more loving than, l and all but as comprehensive as, the wife's l subsequent relation to her husband, the mo- l ment she is welded custom binds her to re- serve, a silence, a pretended seelusion and servitude, that are as absurd they are pre- tentious; and that makes of too many homes 8 smileless, Hghtless, songless, hated place; while with these people the girl who has led almost the life of nun blossoms into fairer beauty, more delightful compan- ion, Q new and gladdening gaiety and the full, ripe, loving, neyer-ceasing activity of loves perennial joyousness.
 SICK YOUNG MEN.
 The surveillance of parents over daugh- ! ters renders the matter of courtship a seris | ous affair in Cuba. Many young men &C., | tually become dslorous catarrhal objects l from persistent ssrenading before so much
 as civil recognition by the family is grant, I ed. But there is undoubtedly high quail ! ity of patience exhibited on the part of the l family as we'll as by doughty lover. Time after time, st all hours of the night, on returning to my hotel from divers wander I ings in the Cuban capital, have I passed | these love-stricken youths, stationed oppo- | site the homes of their inamoratas in all l manner of agonized attitudes, strumming dew-muff1ed notes upon ancient guitars, sRd lifting their voices in passionate though doleful petitions to the night, the moon,
 the stars and all the saints, to aid them in l. kh~s~ adas. The favorite, indeed almost the uni versal, ballad sung by these love-lorn Cu- ban youths is s'La Luna," of which recall one stanza:
 Mis- Ienas mis fatigas,
 "a no Se peudon contas,
 Sc aicanzan unas a otras
 Como las olas del mar.
 Luna bella protectors,
 No me niegues tu fulgar; Voy en busca de un tosoro-
 Voy en busca de mi amor!
 Hermosa Roche, todo es poesia, Todo es aroma, todo amor, Viento suave lleva un suspizo Lleva un suspira lleva mi amor. My sorrows and languers,
 Unmeasurable portion,
 They follow each other
 AS waves of the ocean.
 Sweet Luna. protectreSs,
 Deny not effulgence;
 For a treasure I'm searching My dear loves indulgence! Calm night, all poeac,
 Let thy breath wait the planting And sighS of my love.
 All this may seem ridiculous to us, but it | is far from that to those who thus pour out | their souls upon the night. Nobody pays any attention to it. The parents. who are | used to it, simply turn in their beds with l thanks to the saints that their doors are mas | sive and the windows are of iron bars. Be- 1 lated male passers cast sympathetic glances at the lone troubadours. remembering their | own dismal efforts in the past. Even the | neighbors keep silence; and not rock or | handy household implement is shot, as from some shadowy catapult, on disturbing mis- | sien through the bosky midnight air. For hours of this lugubrious sort of vigil no re- | ward is sought or expected. But if the dut- l ter of dainty hand, or the shimmer of del l icate faces, is for an instant caught at the | balcony of the fair ones alcoba, then is the | minstrel lover in ecstacy of delight. On 1 one occasion came upon two of these amor ous Romeos singing and playing in a sort oi desperate rivalry beneath ore balcony. It
 was truly dilemma both for the adoradf
 and her lovers. The latter were both sing ing 'sLa Luna," one ln a frenzied falsetto l the other in Q baritone, hoarse from jealous
 passion polite guardia civil finally re- I lieved the dramatic tension to the situation
 by carrying away one at time to near bo-
 dega, thus preventing a tragedy, securing hii l own fill Of wine, and in 8 kind of relay giv
 ing each smitten troubadonr a fair and equi
 table chance at the moon.
 1 PLAYING THE BEAR.
 Another performance of the Cuban love1 with which to win his fair one's approval
 for all of these things minister unto hel
 pride as the customs of the country go-ii ] ssplaying the bear" For this exhibition in
 front of your daughters window you would
 promptly call policeman in the States. But
 not so here. Playing the bear" is strictly
 oanonical in the orthodoxy of Cuban lovers
 The stricken male of any age (and have
 seen the performance brilliantly executed by
 men of sixty), dressed in his best. takes {
 position in broad daylight opposite the resi-
 dence of the fair one who has smittsn him.
 and there paees back and forth like eaged
 bear in his cupid's chains, always keeping
 his face, again like the bear, to the light All manner of wriggling, twisting, shrug
 ging and sober grimaces, again like the bear, are indulged in, and the grim humor of tn, situation is positively pathetic. He aims t
 be soldierly and chivalrous in his bearing and every movement He is not only thu paying his devoirs, but is in certain sens , asshowing of, ,n and the praneing, cavortinl and genufexions are frequently maryels o ' affork and aurflriae Az all Gnhan uindnu,