The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-04
A MEXICAN MODESTO.
Complications in Having a Dress
Made by Her.
From the st. Louis Republic.


this epistle has quite a Mexican, not to
say Castilian flavor. Whether the gen.
ders thereof agree or not, cannot yet
positively determine, being new, as it
were, to Spanish vocabularieS; but, at
any rate, it looks well, and one has
neither TO be philosopher nor yet a sage
to perceive that looks count for great
deal on this mundane sphere. | have
given our residence the sobriquet blouse
of the Doves" because my brother and
his wife of eighteen months are so per-
fectly satisfied TO live together in that
bliSsful harmony ascribed 10 their bird
prototypes. and it is well they are, for !
can imagine that an inharmonious life in
Mexico would be a thousand times more
wearing and exasperating than the same
unhappy condition in the states.
For you see, you are literally impris-
oued together down here, and unless one
or the other were accommodating enough
to commit suicide, there would be no re-
lief
feel as if it were part and parcel of
the old feudal system, for we live within
high stone Enclosure and nobody comes
"anigh" US without knocking loudly for
admittance at one of the gates. Our
whole life and interests center within
these walls, but it is far better than liv-
ing up in the city, which is filthy beyond
description. In this walled Enclosure of
ours are included my brothers. office and
warehouse, the adobe dwelling whose
Spanish cognoInen l have explained, and
smaller adobe casa" where Jesus
otherwise Chucha) and Hermania live.
Chucha is our moZo, or head man, and
under him are the poems. or common
workmen, while Antonio is our cook and
jewel of girl. 1t is all very quaint and
picturesque, but the life of a mining en-
gineer and his household in the land of
the tamales is a mixture of luxury and
discomfort that is "trying'' at the least.
The isolation would be entirely satisfac-
tory to the most ambitious of hermits,
from st. Anthony down, and be entirely
void of even the elements Of temptation
to anything but felo de Sc.
But even a woman in Mexico has to
| make wild break once in awhile and get
outside of the high walls and try the dirty
byways of the town. We did this yester-
| day, when my new sister became devoured
with envy over my newly-made toggery
from the states, and declared that she, too,
would have some clothes that were not an
tediluvian. When "a woman will she will"
lifts dresses-so she did, and, taking
the man of the house along as interpreter,
we sailed forth accompanied, by an OBJ
liging American who had lived hero long
enough to discover-Oh, bliss IA native
| dressmaker with guaranteed French ideas
and genuine stamped French patterns.
Your humble servant, of course PLAYED
the role of model in the procession, wear
ing one of her newest and most peculiarly
acceptable st. Louis gowns. Our Journey
thither led us through winding ways in
comparison to which the winding COW
paths of Boston sink into insignifcance
| and, remembered through the haze of
| homesick memory, are byways as rec
tangular as the morals of their original
hn 10
down the hills of rocky little Pachuca we
climbed, past the Plaza de los Ladrones,
or Place of the Thieves, on beyond the
| picturesquely old fountain where the
equally picturesquely ragged poems stood
with their ollas, or water bowls awaiting
turns, till finally we came to a small door
in wall bearing the number we sought
Within, rocky ascent paved with
stones, over which muddy stream of
water was flowing, led US to the inner
doore of an adobe house where we were
to find the frivolities of French dress
| making transplauted to the stern and
| cactus breeding soil Of Mexican mining
town.
We were prepared for anything in the
way of dirt and squalor, even in the
quarters of the modiste; but mirabile
dictu, here we found cleanliness in a
large, poorly lighted room whose brick
floor was covered with petates, or palms
1t made US think of the early English
abodes, with their rush-strewn pave
ments. The walls of this dressmaking
parlor were whitened and ornamented
with the inevitable picture of the Virgin,
while the also inevitable shrine, or prize
dieu, occupied one corner A withered
old Mexican dame, with signs of intelli-
gence lighting her face despite the I'M
beaItifying pockmarks that literally
spainkled 1T. interviewed us at once, and
here the trials of the Man of the House,
our interpreter, began. Poor fellow He
wrestled with ruf1es, he perspired over
bases and cores, he waxed wrath over
breteles and waists, and aoundere1 hope
lessly for time in the quagmire of over
skirts and sleeves. But, by infinite
patience and painstaking on the part of
La vieja, and occasional reference to my
self as a dressmaker's dummy, the long
agony at last came TO an end and we were
permitted to go forth to shop in peace
1t shows what an ancient country Mex
leo is and how the mystical ages of the
Aztecs still shadow its industries. when |
tell you that the dashing young Mexicans
who waited upon us assured us that the
cloth we decided upon would last the
sonora "a hundred years"
AS if any healthy female in her right
mind would have dress that would wear
"a hundred yearsp But he gave US a
thousand impressive "gracios" at the end
and wound up with an English ''good-by,"
given in the most Spanish not to mention
"tliftatious" manner.
After second visit to the little adobe
house on the hill, where we were turned
over TO the hands of the real modiste, we
started to return to our walledin abode
in the suburbs.
But we were mistaken IN thinking that
all the preliminaries of getting dress
made had been gone through with. Not by
great deal. For we were compelled, I'M
der stress of being impolite, to linger and
tell the old dame all about the family re-
lationships existing between our party
and as much general familyhistory as lay
at our tongues ends. After this cere-
monial of gossip had been completed we
did summon up sufficient mental strength
TO refuse refreshments in the shape of
beans and tortilias, and finally, after
numerous adios all around we once
again started on our rocky road TO La
Casa de las Palomas
We are now in a state Of GREATNESS ex-
pectancy over that gown, awaiting with
tremulous fear and hope the result of
French dressmaking as evolved into being
at the hands of native-born Mexicana
BY the time this reaches you l shall
probably be in state Of mental aberra-
ton through suspense or narrowing
fright; if not you may take ii for granted
that the gown is bowling success.