Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-28

English or American one. 1t is much more
frugal. They seldom give dinners, and
was told that in one ducal mansion, in Mad
rid, there is no dining room. Eating is
with them matter of very small import
ance compared with the placeit holds among
the Anglo-Saxons.
The Spanish women have not, at all, the
beautiful American hand, nor in the lower
classes is the same importance attached to
the manicure, to soap and water, as with us.
Cleanliness and coquetry stop with the hair
in all the classes below the highest.
To this love of beauty, of grace, of the
arts of coquetry, the Spanish women can
well be educated by their surroundings.
They have every hour of the day open to
them all the riches of the earth in their
cathedrals and picture galleries. The most
delicious gardens, and the vast assemblage
of Moorish palace, with its fountains,
courts, sculptures. arabesques, streams bor-
dered with palms, gates of ebony, and ivory
incrusted with diamonds, thousands of col
umns of most precious marbles, opening out
of orange groves, great garden terraces, rich
with statues, old lions, from whose mouths
dart periumed waters, these are open to the
beggar as we'll as to the duchess.
The veriest gypsy can play the guitar.
The climate entices to them all the fascinat-
ing languor and incidence, which is said to
grow old, handsomely.
BRIGHT AND AMIABLE.
But Spanish women who are brought up
on bull fights are nevertheless very amiable
and very charitable. The charities of Ma
drid are admirable, and many of them con-
Quoted by women. OF course, the Sisters of
head OF these. But the noble women Of the
court are their helpers. At the tobacco
factory of the capital / saw woman of the
lower class who was the matron of the es-
tablishment. L had long talk with her
about the 5000 women under her care, and
1 was impressed with her sense, her tai
ent, her undoubted goodness. Hers was a
wise benevolence, far-reaching and admira-
BILE.
Spanish women are very clever, naturally,
and whatever they wish to do or learn they
can do or learn. They do not affect "cul-
ture" as class, but they do admire a bull
fighter. Frascuelo, Lagartijo and Cuco are
great national heroes. More than the ap-
plause which follows a fine actor is the fem
mime alteration for bull fighter. 1 saw the
most respectable elderly females, at the head
of family OF daughters, throw a handker-
cEief or flower to the successful torero who
had KILLED mis- bull. 1t was not a challenge;
it was the sort of hero worship which we felt
for our young captains during our war. 1t
was a tribute to courage, to daring, to their
beauty, perhaps, for a torero must be very
handsome male animal. They are light,
graceful and superb of figure. Their nasty
and disgusting trade has, to the Spanish
woman, the redeeming quality OF being
National" +" and a tribute to the yellow and
red flag.
We must bear in mind in trying to un-
derstand Spain, that it is, after all, piece
of the East 1t is a souvenir of the Moors.
1t is a noctune of Araby the Blest. Not all
that has come since of Roman and Castilian
bravery, and hard work, has reached these
lovely women, The mantilla is hut another
form of the Oriental veil, which the nine
teenth century is beginning to pin back into
a likeness to the bonnet. But their homes
are still veiled, enclosures in which the Sc
cluded women dream perhaps of a world far
away, perhaps only of that paradise full Of
love, of delicaey, of peace, of which the
Arabian poetry is exquisitely eloquent.
AFFECTIoNATE MOTHERS.
As mothers that highest function of the
SEX they seem to be tender, affectionate and
careful. The lower classes especially struck
me as most agreeable mothers. They do not
cuff their children or drag them about, as
Irish mothers do, as many an irritable vira-
go in America can be seen doing. They
seem never to be irritable, and one of the
pleasures of contemplating a dirty, idle, and
altogether careless, unwashed group, in
Burgos, or in Seville, was the pleasant and
polite manner in which the ragged boys and
girls would wait for the maternal spoon to
be dipped in the common dish of beans
which served for the family dinner; the
smile OF the unwashed mother, who showed
her beautiful teeth, in recognition of this
humble courtesy; the kiss she gave to the
ragged Pedro, as he finished the remaining
bean, and the almost seraphic look which
she gave to the Murillo baby in her
arms, who, with his wealth of brown curls,
needed only the glory to have become the
highest type Of what we reverence-aI this
was delightful. Yes, thev are good, gentle,
tender mothers; perhaps not inculcating
what we of a sterner race would call the
useful virtues" but giving their children
all they possess-the gold of human heart,
in its best and most undefiled affection.
Poor creatures, what better could they do?
/ never have received anything but ex-
quisite courtesy from Spanish women. But
from Spanish men, the putting Of cigarette
in ones face in railway train, or at din
ner table in the hotel, seemed archaic rude
ness. Never does Spanish gentleman ask
If smoking In your face is disagreeable to
you. Perhaps it has never occurred to him
that smoking could be disagreeable. So I
think the Spanish women superior to the
Spanish menl NJ e. w. SHERWOOD.
California CIarct.
n M