The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-06-11
you feel, while in the atmosphere of it. as
transported to the days of chivalry.

you feel, while in the atmosphere of II as
transported to the days of chivalry.
In ascending staircase il is de ,.eao,,,.
tor the lady to take the gentleman $
arm; but in descending, though it be but
a step or two, he goes ahead holding
her firmly by the hand to avoid anv nos
slble accident, with as much solicitude
as though she had a few broken homes
or were thing of brittle glass lust ready
to fall in pieces. And to the honor
OF Yucatan gentlemen be it recorded that
the same careful attention is offered to all
women-to the old and ugly as we'll as to
the beauties of society. Another biqblv
commemorate trait of Yucatan character
is that they will never say anything dis
agreeable to you, either on their own ac-
count or IN repeating the gossip of Others
For instance, in alluding to ones age the
greatest delicacy is always observed In
the United States a woman is often made
to feel almost as if she had committed a
crime in having been born a good many
$3.50 80 oi'houSh she nerSeu mad moth
ing to do with fixing the date of her birth ::
and II unmarried, the stigma of sold
maid" cannot be lived down by any
good deeds or holiness of purpose. Here
where women mature very early, girl
may remain unwedded to at least the age
OF 30 years, equivalent to 40 in the North, J
| before She a111,1ol Il
tera-a ''single' lady. Later on in life
nothing more offensive is said of her than
that she is nay .tdstjdi0sa-''v Every hard to
please;' ana they sometimes add, t'she is
dresser OF saints -meaning that since
she has no children of her own to sew for
she may devote her time to the holy work
of making vestments for the sacred
images. Bachelors are remarkably nu-
merous-owing as much to the scarcity of
money as to the difficulties that environ
would be lovers. They are called softer
ones in general terms. but the Young un-
married men also rejoice under the
sobriquet of gallinos, and older ones as
gallos-meaning young and old ROSTERS;
while the young gallants who are looking
! for wives, standing in the plazas and
church doors, watching the senoritas and
staring them out of countenance, are APP
propriately called lagartijos, Qizards, J
because they are always out in the sun.
The Spanish American dude is not more
ridiculous than his species elsewhere, but
is complete, eye glasses and all. Since
small and elegantly formed feet are a
source OF national pride, he squeezes his
pedal eXtremities into shoes at least two
sizes too small, with toes pointed like
toothpicks and remarkably high heels set
exactly in the centre of the foot. Sisters
have fancy for dressing precisely alike
even to the tying of bow, the turn of a
button, or the flower worn in the hair In
the tropics, you know, large families are
the fashion, and any day you may see
girls out in groups, of from three or four
to baker 5 dozen, who belong to the same
will show. Thus it is easy to distinguish
the members of a family anywhere, and
not infrequently the fair sisters are poeti,
caily called by their favorite flower, OF
color. For example, the five senoritas of
the Espanoza household are known as
'The Red Roses because each of them
invariably adorns herself with iaquem-
nots, while people speak of the Gonzalez
| girls as ''laS o-pjes" because they are al
ways dressed in blue. Speaking of dress.
the costume of about nine tenths of the
boys of lueatan under the age of ten or
twelve years is simplicity ITSELF consist
ing Of a straw generally crownless,
discarded by somebody else-a pair of
sandals made by his mother, and string
around his neck with charm attached,
which has been blessed by the local priest
Sometimes for State occasions he dons a
little calico shirt, but evidently feels des-
perately hampered and i'll at ease in such
shackles of conventionality. The attach
ment of all classes to their homes is a
striking feature of the national character.
heNeleAce loI parents goes Win them
through their welded lives, increasing
with the lapse of years. A man or woman
is never too old or dignifed to kiss the
hands of the aged father or mother and to
visit them every day, and the time never
comes in the lives of the parents when
"the children are not amenable to
them, though themselves the parents of
children. 1t is not unusual to see several
families residing in the same casa, be-
cause the grown-up sons with their wives,
and the daughters with their husbands,
could not be spared by their living par
ents to make separate homes.
FANNIE B. WARD.
The journal and The Tribune.