San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-10-01


men will speak to her and annoy her, the
police ought to lock them up. And she is ex-
actly right. A woman, young or old, should
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.
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 so without a 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 a protest against this selfish system,
which turns boy Of IA loose into a world of
temptations, and forbids a modest girl the
most innocent freedom. / have heard a
lovely lady, the mother Of a 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
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 a social revolution,
and inform "Pepe" and "Pancho" that they
dead and vanished Moors, whose sole living
representatives are found in the most de-
graded corner of Africa If nearly 1900
years of Christianity have not advanced civ
ilization in great Christian city so that the
mothers Of families and the charming daugh-
tiers of those mothers can go about in public
enjoying all innocent liberties, why then we
must confess our civilization a veneered bar
L 4 ~. H. l. t. N~N
strong to permit women their just rights.
The objection frequently made to giving
greater social freedom to the women is that
the men, being of southern blood, are too
passionate in their addresses, and would, if
permitted to mingle more freely with the
women, begin to pay court to them and
make love in earnest. But l don't believe
there is any less chivalry among Mexican
men than exists in northern nations. The
overstress laid on love in Latin nations
comes from the Moorish seclusion in which
the women live. The young men are poet
cal, and talk of love when they should be
playing polo or hunting, and the mystery
surrounding the life of the women stimu-
lates their fancies. 1t is an unhealthy sys-
TEN when young men begin writing erotic
verses at an age when outdoor sports should
engage their attention. The boy in Latin
countries sees, of course, his mother and his
sisters, but, like all lads, he has decided
taste for somebody else's sisters. He can't
call on them Familiarity, owing to thisine
old Moorish etiquette, and SO he must confine
himself to watching balconies and contriv-
ing means to smuGgle notes to the adored
one by some bride taking servant. If he
had been like al American lad sent to a
mixed school where he found out that girls
were very much like boys, and that some
are cross and disagreeable, soma too spoony
and others too acid, he would not make so
much of a mystery Of the female sex. But,
not having passed through that period OF
establishment, he begins to make love when
hardly out OF short trousers. Cor. Boston
Herald