The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-10-12
PITY BRAzIL'S GIRLS.
THEY CANNOT GO OUT WITHOUT
THEIR DUEGNAS.
Queer Fads in Writing Paper-A Cum
ming Collie-Cameroon Toilets-Wood
Carving as q Feminine Occupation.

Queer Fads in Writing Paper-A Gun
ming Collie-Camero0n Toilets-Wood
Carving as a Feminine Occupation.
Society in Brazil is divided in three
distinct classes-the aristocfats, the
middle and the lower classes. The
ladies of the upper class are undenia-
bly, beautiful. They have raven black
hair, white teeth and perfect forms;
and if it We're not for the enormous
amount of plaster of paris enamel with
which they cover their faces they
might have a lovely, creamy complex
ion. But their wondrous eyes are
abe chief and never-ending charm
large, dark, lustrous and full of ex-
preston, throwing more meaning into
O single glance than an hours con-
versation could possibly convey; for
though attractive and captivating in
their simplicity and grace, they may
not be able to write a single sentence
correctly-for the education of women
is not considered essential to their
happiness. They learn embroidery
and music ~indifferently and spend
their lives in rocking chairs and ham,
mocks, never reading a book of any
description.
The girls are very fond of their
dolls, taking them wherever they go,
even to church, and never give up
playing with them until they are mar
ried, which is generally between the
ages of twelve and sixteen years, thus
early assuming the important and
rAr-oDnf1IA 1rxtiae af Efn NnY1nu
mothers, little more than twenty, with
common sight.
Brazilian ladies never go out, even
in the daytime, without the family or
servant; they seldom go out at all.
They do not have gentlemen visitors,
and if a young man who has been as
ISOLATED with a girl in childhood, or
who by some accident is allowed to
visit the family, becomes a lover he is
Immediately excluded from the house
and the courtship proceeds from the
balcony to the street. If notes r ex-
changed it is done secretly,
through the mail. Often a gentleman
sees a lady for the first time on a bal
cony, at the opera or at church, and
falls in love with her. A courtship
like the above ensues; they become
engaged, frequently without knowing
more of each other than they can learn
from enquiry; know nothing of each
others minds, tastes, characters or
dispositions. | was told of a gentle
man who thus courted q girl for eight
long years and left her three months
after marriage.
If a Brazilian girl should walk with
a gentleman not her relative in the
daytime it would ruin her.
If the lover desires an engagement
to the ball or opera, OF a promenade
with his sonora, he must first propose
at headquarters, then seek ~herpleasure,
and if she accord the whole family
goes along.
Among the lower classes there are
plenty of women who go about the
streets with bare brown feet thrust in
small Turkish slippers whose heels
chatter along the dusty pavement in
the most slipshod style. These women
lead simple purposeless lives, going to
mass every morning, where they may
be seen kneeling throughout the en-
tire service, as no seats are provided
in their churches. In the evening
they are found sitting in groups on
the ground, their nude children
around them, smoking their long
stemmed pipes and gossiping with the
passers-by. Their dress generally
consists of n garment, a loose hang
ing skirt with stays over the shoulders
and reaching but little below the
knee. Their arms and neck are al
ways bare and it makes not the slight
est difference whether the strangers
are present or not. They seem per-
fectly happy and contented with their
lives and are always ready to chat
with anyone they happen to meet
Detroit Free Press.