St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-18

A POCKET TELEPHONE.
allowed moment alone with the girl.
If the adUred one be invited to the
play box must be taken and the whole
family ''trotted out" If the noviOs
walk together in the Alameda of Sun
day morning Ito hear the lily-white
bandsmen play" it is mamma who leans
on the arm of StrephOn and mOnOpOliZes
his conversation, while Chloe minces
along in front. 1t really would appear
that the major enjoyment in a girls WOO
ing falls to her relations. If the parents
of a girl are averSe to encouraging her
all communication between the pair,
making the girl in reality a prisoner
while n0minally she is completely at
liberty. While there is no law, written
or unwritten, on the subject, it is not
customary for young girls to 60 in the
street unaccompanied, and this usage
probably is largely prudential measure
to guard against wOOers diStastful to
the family. But, as before stated, in
event of attachment to an ineligible, a
girl can be subjected to every necessary
restraint without undue severity,
simply by the accustomed system of
eternal, unceaSing surveillance. There
is an old law in Mexico which is not in
frequently invoked in behalf of lovers
oppressed by cruel and unjust parents.
Under this law the lover, having the
consent of the lady, makes for
NAL complaint of the oppres-
sion and coercion exercised by the
parents, and the magistrate to whom he
appeals issues sort of habeaS corpus,
by virtue of which the maiden is re-
moved from the custody of her parents
to the care of some responsible family.
The case is then investigated, and if it
is found that the opposition of the par
ents is unreasonable, the girl is author
lied and protected by the arm of the law
in marrying the men of her choice. But
the high contracting parties are never
left alone together, even between the
two wedding ceremonies; for two are
performed, the civil service being the
only one recognized by the state as le-
CALLING marriage, while the offices of
the church are invoked, if only as
a point of good form. The explanation
assigned for so much suspicion is
that this vigilance is maintained in
order to refute any remarks that men
may make about their former betrothed,
in event of quarrelS or enlargement,
and many Mexican women declare that
their compatriots are utterly without
honor so for as concerns women. Now
there must be something, not only radi-
cally wrong, but mistaken as well, in
such ideas. MeXicans are not brutes or
ghouls, but subject to the same condi-
tons, much the same as other men the
world over. In their dealings with
American women they certainly observe
the incest respect, notwithstanding that
they are all unused to the display by
women of the free and independent
manners characteristic of our compatri-
OTIS. The writer could recite many bits
of unwritten history in Mexico,
illustrating acts of pure and self
abnegating chivalry as grand, as noble,
as stainlessly true and unselfish as ever
deed of knights of old. Abuses exist,
no doubt, but dishonor finds its way
the world over, and the very system in
vogue here is a challenge to the innate
perversity of human nature, prone to
seek the forbidden and guarded. All
humanity is very apt to live up or down
to the standard set for it, and men in
particular are largely what women
make them. Let the women of Mexico
demonstrate that they are capable of
maintaining their own dignity and pro-
tecting their own honor, and the men of
Mexico will surely cooperate for the
establishing of society on plane not
only higher, but pleasanter, for life here
under present conditions is certainly
dreary enough, and falls far below its
possibilities. Y. I'll. Adds.