Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-05
THE WOMEN OF CUBA
Artistically and Plainly Pen Pictured
by Lillian Spencer.
NOT SUCH BEAUTIES, AFTER ALL.
Her Childhood and Girlhood Brief, Then
Marriage and Decay.
LITTLE ROMANCE IN HER LIFE

| pctlOC, AOuuuy COmpoCAy OuA4S WVAohS oHN
she goes about the house in fimsy, tawdry,
ill-made gowns and old, worn-out satin slip
pers run down at the heels. If the thick,
coarse, black mass which crowns her Shapely
head with disorder, rather than glory, is
brushed once week, it is receiving more at
tention than is usual with the lady of the
tropics, whose time is, for the most part
speht in rocking chair, and whose whole
mind is concentrated on the best means to
keep cool and get through the tedious hours
of the long, hot day with as little exertion
and ennui as possible.
The won en- of country are always OBJ
jects of great interest and curiosity TO
strangers. Those of Cuba have reputation
for being beautiful. 1t is even said that no
other civilized country produces so many
generally comely. In one way this is true,
in another it is not, for the average Cuban
beauty, outside of Cuba, would be con-
sidered anything but beautiful. As the
background is skillfully contrived to bring
out the picture, so the tropical cline seems
to have been especially designed to show to
the best possible advantage the tropical
beauty. She appears to have been created
to lay in q rockingham and WELD fan
lazily to and fro, with a graceful charm
positively bewitching. Her thin, gauzy
garments reveal to the best possible ad-
vantage her exquisitely moulded form, her
loose, tangled black hair, the oriental
splendor of her big, dark, almond-shaped
eyes, which blaze, and SPARKLE and glow,
and soften, and send forth wonderful lights
and never, never fade, until the very end.
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abundance of flesh; her mouth small, full,
red her teeth little and white and very
even.
AN AWFUL MAKEUP.
Her hands and feet are tiny and we'll
shaped, but in her zeal to whiten her skin
that it may afford proper contrast to the
negress or mulatto who attends her, she
daubs it over with quantity of rice pow
der, until the effect in many cases is posi-
lively CHASTITY. She has another weakness
which is very apparent and that is jewels OF
all kinds and descriptions. With these she
literally bedecks herself, winding long
chains about her neck and arms, sticking
brooches and pins and pearls in the meshes
of her long hair, and filling her slender
fingers with rings which weigh them down,
and her ears with big stones which almost
hide them from view. The graceful man
tilla of Spain is in universal use. It is
fastened also by jewels and held in place by
a comb placed high on the top of the head.
The Guiana, in her rocking chair and lI9se
flowing, fimsy gown, would be considered
nothing more or less than a shiftless sloven
in an American Northern home, where
thrift and energy and neatness prevail. But
i'll Cuba, beneath the silvery branches of
the spreading palm, where clustering orange
trees glisten in the sunlight, and where the
orioles fit like flashes of gold among the
olive trees, there she finds her natural sur
roundings, and makes perfect tropical
picture, which would be incomplete without
her.
There is this to be said of the Cuban lady,
however. While she unmistakably takes
her ease, she has in some instances a rather |
hard time of it. To begin with, when other |
children are playing with their dolls, and |
still living in the innocent belief that the
good fairy Morgana is the best and wisest
fairy in the world, the Guiana is fully de- |
veloped woman. Her short, feeting child
hood has almost faded from her memory,
and she is brought to the sad realization Of |
the fact that her girlhood will likewise pass
her by. She is only II or Is, but she al |
ready knows this to be true. Her mother |
talks very plainly to her on the subject. In
the end she is convinced that she must make
hay while the sun shines, and that
HER ONLY COURSE IS MARRIAGE.
She is told she will grow to be old and |
plain very soon, but if she is provided with
good husband, it won't make any differ
ence. As far as she is concerned at least.
So she lays aside her dolls. packs away her
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old chest of drawers which is slowed away
out of sight and remembrance. Perhaps
she might assert herself, ii she had more
education been different. But
girl in Cuba is only taught to en-
broider, to commit to memory her catechiSm,
and be as well behaved and polite as the
good sisters who have had her in charge.
Having been impressed with the necessity
of keeping silent when in the presence of
her elders, she would not dare speak much
less give expression to an opinion. The
same with her chances Of observation, where
is she to find them, when she is never under
any circumstances permitted to leave the
house, unless attended by several servants,
and then yelled as in carriage? Thus it
is, La Senorita is timid, shy and apprehen-
SlVe, WIN no IellduCc OT commence, elUner
in herself or in those by whom she is sur
rounded. To doubt oneself is to doubt
others too.
La Senorita doubts most people. Men.
the sisters have taught her to distrust and
avoid as she would the evil one but hus-
band seems to be the only way out of the
difficulty, and much as she breads him and
wishes he were anything but what he is,
she has come to believe that her mother is
right when she says he will be a safeguard
and protector. The poor child does long
for a protector. The world is such a wicked
place. She lives in a continual dread of
could be worse. She doesn't
mind being married very much, because
she hasn't the slightest idea what being
married means. Any suitor her far-seelng
papa and prudent mamma select satisfies
her. A ''dot' is not absolutely necessary
in Cuba, as in France, but very few parents
are found willing to give their children
away without it.
HER UNRoMANTIc coURTsH1P.
La Senorita once engaged, is never per-
mitted to be alone with her prospective hus-
band. He must come every day and say
sweet nothings after the most approved
fashion of lovers at large, but he must saw
them in the presence of one or more mem
bers of the family, who, once the ceremony
is over. look upon him as their lawful prev.
taking up their abode In his house if it is
large enough, and asking of him all, if not
more, than they would feel themselves
20 IIad unon to expect from a SON of thar /