The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-23
LOVE AMONG AZTECS.
Courtship, Marriage and Home
Life i'm Mexico.
PRETTY GUADALAJARA GIRLS.

Little Chickens and Old Roosters-
Romeo and JuIiet I'm Is91-The Groom
Pays BiIIs-Kitehen and Bedroom.
GuADALAJARA, Mex-.s Aug. 1Z-[special
Correspondence - Guadalajara is the
Athens of Mexico. 1t is the art center of
the republic and. though it is little known
IN the United States. the city contains
10000 inhabitants and it has one of the
finest theaters on the American continent.
1t is one of the oldest cities Of Mexico and
up until year or two ago it was several
hundred miles away from a railroad. 1t
is city of wealth and culture. 1t has the
finest looking men and prettiest girls of
our sister republic and there is no better
place than here for the study of the senor-
ita in all her caprices and all her beauty.
The women of Eastern Mexico have round,
plump faces. Their noses are inclined to
thickness and their compilations are often
sallow. The girls here have features
of a Greek cast and even in
the markets and among the peddlers
about the plaza you find faces that might
have served as models for Praxiteles
Their hair is usually of raven blackness,
and it grows so iuxuriantly that the aver
age girl has locks which reach below her
waist. The Mexican woman is very par
ticular about her hair. She washes it
several times a week. and goes from the
public bath with it streaming down her
shoulders and over her back. You will see
women with their hair hanging in this
way in any Mexican city, and the custom
is as common among the rich as among
the poor. The eyes of the Guadalaiara
girls are large, dark, liquid and full of
soul. They are frank and honest. but by
no means bold, and the maidens have all
the modesty and coyness for which the
Mexican girls are noted.
THE MODEST sEsoRITA.
The Mexican girls have none of the free
dom of our American maidens. Until
within year or so the daughter of Next
can gentleman never thought of going ont
on the street alone, and you see few girls
riding or walking without their mothers,
their aunts or some ugly old woman in a
black shawl who acts as chaperone or
duenna The foreign residents of Mixico
City have taught more freedom,
but the girls still stick to their duen-
has, anu IfOIe Oi lHtill are duONtu 10 re-
ceive gentlemen callers. They are back
ward in the presence of men, and they
have neither unknown correspondents nor
boarding-school fiirtations. The girls are
brought up at home, and fayorite pet
name for them is chickens. Young girls
are called pollitas or little chickens, and
old girls are Familiarity called pollas or
grown chickens. 1t is needless to say that
he Ind Ia Oh
pollitas. The men have their nicknames
as well as the girls, and they are known as
gallos or gallinos, and this, strange to say,
is aMexican expression, meaning young
or old roosters. This, however, is not so
much different from our own custom. for
do We not CONTEMPORARY apply the name
'old rooster" To the man we think but lit
tie of, and is not one of our most endear-
ing terms for girls that of the duck?
MEXICAN coURTsHIP.
The senorita natures much earlier than
her American sister. She is as old at Is as
our girls are at Is, and the law provides
that she may be married at Ii. At % she
begins TO verge on old-maidenhood, and at
80 she is passee. Mexican women age very
rapidly; wives are old and fat at IS, and |
see but few women with gray hair. Mexi-
can marriages are often arranged by the
parents, and Mexican courtship is hol-
low mockery so far as the young man is
concerned. His love has TO be a case of
love at first sight, and when he sees the
girl whom he wishes to marry he lets her
know his love by putting on his best go-to-
meeting-Sunday leather breeches, with a
line of silver buttons down their legs, his
$50 dollar felt hat with a rim as big as
butter bowl, and his swell coat, and takes
his stand in front of the maiden's window.
Here for hours he looks and signs VARYING
his position by now and then strutting up
and down the sidewalk, never letting his
eyes turn away from the window. He
does this day after day and night after
night until the family take notice
of his devotion and inquire into
his bank account and his character.
If they approve of the match the maiden
shortly appears at the window, and as
love grows hot, she comes out and fans
herself on the second-story balcony This,
however is never before the Young man
has been tantalized by a week or so of
walking up and down before her window
and he has to continue this walking often
for months before he gets inside the house
This walking and posing and signing is
known here by the phrase, Playing the
Bear" and this bear act has to be done by
every beau. The worst of the matter is
the lost time that fellow has 10 spend
before he can know decidedly as 10
whether he is going TO make any impress
sion whatever. Once begun it has TO be
kept up day after day, whether II rains or
shines. and bean who would be scared
ont by thunder storm would be sure 10
lose his sweetheart. As the acquaintance
goes on the beau may bring his guitar; or,
If he is not a musician, he may hire
band. The girl, if she falls in love. may
drop him q rose or SO. or she may smile
upon him. or finally, when he has worn
his heels into his ankles, he may be in
yited to call. This indicates that the
family like him. They like him so
well that they stay in the room
during all his calls, and if he invites the
girl to go any place with him he has 10
take her sisters. her cousins and her
aunts with him If he still perseveres he
is given a chance TO see the girl alone for
en- hour or so, and he knows that this
means that il is time for him 10 propose.
II he does propose the girl tells HIM that
ne must ask mamma or papa, and upon
doing this he finds that their conditions
are decidedly practical ones. The ques-
ton of dollars and cents enter into II, and
the Young fellow has 10 pay all the bills.
He buvs her wedding outft and wardrobe,
Gives her dresses and jewels She does
the selecting and sends the bill 20 him. If
the Young man is very much IN love he
may leave his bride carte blanche, but II
ne IS at all practical man he VIII rix
limit beyond which the bills must not go.
The groom is expected TO furnish the
home. if the young couple go into an es-
Enlistment OF their own. and. II not. he
is expected 20 go into his wlfe's family
and live with them.