The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-07
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Ia "a OF the Aztec
The Spanish women on an average have
not one-haII the grace and beau that are
50 natural 10 their northern sisters. Amoug
the ADdalusians there are undoubtedly some
beautiful women, if to the popular mind a
pair OF bold, black eyes, cunningly
manipulated fan, a pretty mantiila, and a
| form whose every insinuating motion ap-
peais not to the noblest in man but to the
| grosser senses, constitutes beauty.
But when 1t is taken into consideration
that the early Spanish settlers who came to
| Mexico could not be classed as belonging to
| the blue blood of CASTLE, for more ad-
venturous set Of dare devils never crossed
the blue ocean than we're those who fol-
| lowed in the wake of fernando CorteZ, it
| can be readily understood that the unions
| contracted by these invaders with the resi-
| dent Aztec women could not be productive
| of that beauty which the Moors left in sunny
| Seville and on the banks OF the Guadal-
| culver.
| Were plymouth Rock located on the
beach at Vera Cruz, and had the bold Capt.
Stanish and his trusty friend Alden been
| the first white settlers to reach the shores
o. Mexico we would not have in this trop-
ical cline, the beauty for which the Amerl-
| can women are famous, and of which the
Mexican women are so envious. Yes, mean
it. know that in making this assertion |
am drawing down upon my head the wrath
of my Mexican friends, but ''honor where
honor is due" The Spauish-Amsrican
sister. To the eye, of Americans who visits
Mexico for the first time the Mexican
woman is beautiful
The Spanish type is so distinct and differ
emit from the Anglo-Saxon, and his mag
ination is infamed with the romantic
glamour that surrounds the woman of a
tropical cline. He never heard any one
say that Spanish woman was anything
but the acme of exquisite loneliness. His
friends who have been fortunate enough to
visit Spanish countries, although a trifie
disappointed themselves, to make their
friends more envious, have declared that
it is all true, and that the Spanish
senOrita is the queen of women. Well, l
am sorry to destroy all these bright dreams,
but the truth must be told. the Spanish
women in Mexico are not beautiful, and
many of them are not even pretty. They
paint in a manner that is ridiculous, they
have no style, they are either thin or pudgy,
| and they all have PRETTY little black mus
taches, which to them are mill-stones
around their necks, and which appear to
the young men, who are vainly trying to
| compete with them, like a case of mis-
| placed confidence in the superlatlve degree
That pretty article of headger, the man
| tilla, looks graceful to the American simply
| because he rarely sees it in his own country
| Anything that holds ones attention is un-
doubleday interesting, and this quality
| which is due to the wonderful magnetism
| of the Spanish eye, is wherein lies the power
| of the Spanish woman. While her eyes
reflect the fire of an ardent soul, her move
ments are slow and llstless, partly due to
| climatic effect and partly to a spirit of lazy
incidence natural to her. The chic and
| spirit of the American girl are entirely
lacking in the Spanish woman. She is not
| graceful and knows it. She, of course, is
not to blame for this, for her
| prisoner-like life is the cause of this, and in
| this respect her life is not an enviable one.
| Her every movement is watched with vigil
| liant eyes. From the time she dons long
dresses until she is married she is never left
alone with boy even for so short time as
| a minute. She never walks the street I'M
less accompanied by the inevitable nurse,
who is both a torture and a godsend to her.
| This old woman takes the place of detective,
| postoffice, and general go-between; without
her the life of a Spanish woman
would be a blank. When she does get
out in company with some girl friend she
| looks as self-conscious as does country
| girl on the occasion of her first visit to a
| town. The dudes in Mexico are called
legartijos, OF Lizards, because they are
always summing themselves; and when the
ladies pass along the street these Lizards
| paste themselves against some convenient
wall in an endless procession, and indulge
| their affections trip by. The Spanish
| woman never tires of hearing of the strange
customs and unheard-of liberty enjoyed BY
| American women, and they say that the
courtship of the north must be a prosy
affair as compared with their own romantic
| one.
At the open air soirees in the Alameda on
bright Sunday morning may be seen the
! best examples of the beauty of Mexico.
The national types are then out in full force
and one can see faces of all colors from
tawny rose or olive to white, and then de-
scendIng in the scale, from rose to q deep
nut brown The ladies of higher caste
that is to say, of pure Spanish blood, are
white, and removed from this white by one
degree you see tinted face, aud SO on unit
it reaches the dark brown of the pure
drop of Spanish blood-a fact to
which they point with a great deal
of pride. 1t may not be generally known,
but it is true that a Spaniard is held in
greater contempt by Mexican than is any
other foreigner. To call Mexican Spanish
is to insult him, and in spite of his accus-
toned courtesy he will tell you of it, To
call Spaniard Mexican is to commit an
objectionable breach of good manners.
While it is the desire and purpose of every
Mexican woman to be as white as possible
yet there is no color line drawn here as in
the southern portion of the United States
A woman may be as dark as bronzs and
yet enjoy the same society privileges that
are granted to her more favored Spanish
sister.
The eyes are the one redeeming feature
of the Spanish face 1t is impossible to de-
scribe these dark, luminous orbs-full of a
dreamy soulfulness that makes them most
disastrous things to encounter. Add to
this strong, arching eyebrow, long, curl
ing black lashes, a pervading fire OF
expression, and you have a pair of
glorious eyes that vainly endeavor to
convince one that high cheek bones
thick or very thin lips, artfully painted
a deep carmine, and a lazy, sensuous ex-
preston, combine to form beautiful face
The Spanish woman is romantic in the
broadest sense of the expression. From the
cradle to the grave her life is one OF
romantic intrigues. 1t must be so, OF she
is intensely miserable. She lives her inner
life in mad, passionate way, that would
utterly eclipse heroine of Mrs. Amelit
Rives-Cbauler. The Spanish language il
admirably adapted to the Spanish people
1t is language of music and sentiment
Any one who has ever heard Spanish
spoken as it should be, with grace
and elegance, cannot fail to havs
been charmed with the rich contralto SOUND