San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-01

THE WOMEN OF COSTA RIGA.
Ignorant and Not Beautiful, but They Make
Good Wives and Mothers.


Good Wives and Mothers.
The costumes of the ladies were conspic-
uous They looked as if they had gotten
themselves up to represent rainbows at
fancy dress ball The most gorgeous tints of
all colors were combined in a confusion that
was bewildering, and with their lavish dis
play of arms and neck, their barbaric taste
for gold and silver gewgaws, and their great,
black sensuous eyes made a picture which
might be taken to resemble the court of a
savage king.
They are educated to distrust everybody;
they learn nothing but embroidery and wick
edness, and spend their lives in rocking chairs
telling each other what they have heard from
their husbands Of this, that and the other
Don Juan. They go to mass every morning
and usually take a promenade in the plaza
after dark to hear the band play With
these two entertainments the daily routine Of
their lives begins and ends; and they COM
pose the most diverting incidents of their ex-
istence.
They are not beautiful, these tropical
women, as the poets would have us believe
They have wondrous eyes and white tseth
and Sylphlike forms when they are young,
but the lack of physical exercise makes them
awkward and obese, and their compilations
are destroyed by the use of plaster of paris
enamel with which they cover their faces,
Their husbands control their bodies and the
priests their souls To be dutiful wife and
to go to mass every morning, to see that
Dolores does not firt with men through the
window grating, and to know the latest scan
dial about her next door neighbor is the duty
and diversion Of the tropical matron. At
first to the inexperienced traveller the tropi-
cal belle appears very attractive
When her plaster of paris complexion is
not too thick to be repulSive, and permits the
transparent purity of her olive skin to be
seen, she is certain of leaving a pleasant inn
preston upon the mind of a susceptible man.
Her eyes are wondrously effective, and to
use them is a matter of education. A tropical
girl can throw more meaning into single
glance than her Yankee sister can convey in
an hours conversation; and her gestures and
motions are captiving in their intelligence
and grace. She may not be able to write
sentence correctly-for the education of
women has not been considered essential to
their happiness-and have as vague a con-
ception of where an American comes from as
she has of the composition of the stars.
defects and exhibit her attractions with more
than an abundance of those coquettish
graces with which budding womanhood has
been endowed in all ages and ATTITUDES. She
is amiable, gentle and generous, she never
loses her self possession, and is never at a loss
for the proper word or movement. She does
not know how to be rude and is gifted with
rare natural powers Of sympathy and diplo-
macy. Her perceptions. are keen and I'M
erring.
She does not need a diagram to find the
point of a witticism, and reads ones thoughts
with clairvoyant power. But she never
reasons; it is not necessary for her to do so.
She follows instinct, and the faculty is
strongly developed In your conversation
she is always interested, and brightens it
with flashes of wit and sympathetic inter-
polation. You feel that she is entertained,
and are gratiied at her attention and APP
probation, but when you attempt to search
her mind for knowledge the illusion vanishes,
and you see only the plaything that she is
Costa Rica Cor. Philadelphia Inquirer