Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-06
MEXIC0'S SOCIAL LIFE.
THE RAILROAD DOING AWAY WITH
MANY OLD CUSTOMS.


The Modifying Influences in EIfernals.
Absurd Old Moorish Traditions-The
senorita in RebelIion-The Male Escort.
Objection to Greater Social Freedom.
Naturally the railways, in changing Gus
toms and ways OF life, first show their modi-
flying influences in externals, as in dress and
house Furnishings, but change is bound to be
made in social customs Mexico derived its
habits of life from Spain at time when Spain
was still overlain BY Moorish traditions and
customs Colonial Mexico faithfully copied
the pattern of Mother Spain, and stuck to
the example long after many Spanish cities
began to be Europeanized. But the influence
of the dead and gone Moor is still strong in
both Spain and her former colonies. The
Moorish house holds its own here, with its
quiet exterior and lavish adornment within; |
with its barred windows and heavy gates |
rather than doors, and its grouping of all |
the living rooms around courtyard, thus |
making q house as open as day inside, and |
destroying that privacy we gain In the north |
from the system Of placing chambers up |
communicating by glazed doors, and each
room opening by another door upon corri-
| dor, is almost semi-public Its air of privacy
| consists solely in the big outer door and the
barred windows Inside these houses, many
of them as beautiful as a dream, filled with
birds and flowers, and gently noisy by the
| FLASHING of fountains, live the women, whose
outer life is hedged about with absurd old
! l..s. 81 . 10 VA
| Mexican spirit Of liberty and TO the tenden-
cies of the age Mexican women are the
severest critics of the ancient customs. They
1 rebel against them and sigh for a greater
measure of social freedom Ask almost any
| senorita and she will tell you that life is
stupid and dull, that there is no social
gayety, and that she is tired to death of it,
and wants to go to New York or Paris"
II you wish to keep a young girl contented
with the old order Of things, restrict her
reading TO her prayer book; don't let her see
novel or a newspaper, and keep her Gagged
up in the house. Then, perhaps, she will i'm
agine that this is the lot of women the round
world over But women are keen, and it
doesn't take long for them to discover that
men have made the rules by which one-half
the human race are expected to live in meek
the soul of a mouse who would submit to the
rules governing women even in the freest
countries When girl of IS goes out on the
street she does not wish to be protected" by
6-year-old boy cub in knickerbockers. She
thinks, and rightly, that she ought to be able
to go by herself If she so wishes, and that if
men will speak to her and annoy her, the
police ought to lock them up And she is ex-
| arfi, r,s;,r A oil
be as free from molestation in the public
streets as a man. and if she is not, then the
lamp posts are lacking their fittest orna-
mentS ,H...
IN THE CITY OF MEXICO.
In this big City of Mexico. with rich
houses great churches electric lights, street
cars, luxurious shops and all the appliances
of civilization, there is not single, solitary
cafe where lady can go without male es-
cort to take an ice or light lunch This is a
humbug, and no wonder Mexican women are
beginning, as they learn of foreign ways, to
enter q protest against this selfish system,
which turns boy of IA loose into world OF
temptations, and forbids modest girl the
most innocent freedom. | have heard a
lovely lady, the mother of large family,
say that she would feel uncomfortable to go
with her daughters into the principal restau-
rant here to order ices. But let her take a
hobbledehoy boy along and the proceeding
, would be proper enough. Great is the magic
of trousers The best thing for the Mexican
ladies to do is to get up social revolution,
and inform "Pepe" and 'Pancho" that they
will no longer be governed by the ghosts OF
dead and vanished Moors, whose sole living
representatives are found in the most de
graded corner of Africa. II nearly 1,90t
, years of Christianity have not advanced civ
, ilization in great Christian city so that tn,
mothers OF families and the charming daugh
tiers of those mothers can 60 about in public
a enjoying all Innocent liberties, why then W,
must confess our civilization a veneered bar
, barisn, and that the brute mob is still to-
, strong to permit women their just rights,
I The objection frequently made to givint
{ greater social freedom to the women is tina
the men, being of southern blood, are to,
: passionate in their addresses, and would, i
, permitted to mingle more freely with tn
I women, begin TO pay court to them AM
r make love in earnest. But l don't believ
there is any less chivalry among Mexical
men than exists in northern nations. TIL
overstress laid on love in Latin nation
comes from the Moorish seclusion in whic
!
= icaI, and talk of love when they should b
!. playing polo or hunting and the myster
A surrounding the life of the women stint
= lates their fancies. 1t is an unhealthy sy,
, tenn when young men begin writing croft
verses at an age when outdoor sports shout
engage their attention. The boy in Lati
countries sees, of course, his mother and h
% sisters, but, like all lads, he has a decide
taste for somebody else's sisters. He can
~ call on them famiharly, owing to this fiji
~ old Moorish etiquette, and so he must confir
"a himself to watching balconies and contri'
v ing means to smuggle notes to the adore
NJ one by some bride taking servant. II
10 had been like an American lad, sent to
\. mixed school where he found out that cir
A. were very much like boys, and that son
n are cross and disagreeable some too spoor
Nd and others too acid, he would not make
az much of mystery of the female sex. Blu
N not having passed through that period
Nh establishment, he begins to make love VIII,
H. hardly out of short trousers.-Cor. Bostl
~ Herald rr- -..
ey Animals Premonitions of Death.
Mr.. l.. H. Craig writes, affirming that al
~ mais often have premonitions of death.
proof of this assertion he offers certain a
ecdotes ~Here is,one of them: Years age
he says, "lwas staying at farm house whe
it was the custom every evening to drive
- small herd of cows from the pasture to
near the barn 1t WIS decided one day
kill one Of the number, yearling, who
US mother also belonged to the herd. The CT
y. was accordingly left in the lot, while the N
'a' were driven as usual to the pasture.
W sponer had the butcher slain his victim tn
his e. ,o,Ia h. 5is+;r.o-l,- taora So, e., =