The herald., 1896-01-12
A Man Who Thinks Women a Part of
the Social Menu.

Ycnders a horrd man, said a woman at
ball the other evening There are al
ways several of this kind at every party. He
| is the man who takes the women as part
| of the menu and smacks his lips over their
bare arms and shoulders. If you don't like
IL, he asks you what women wear low
| necked gowns for. He may as well ask
the lilies why they open their leaves if
| they don't want to have slime thrown on
them, but this is not his philosophy and
God has not given him the soul to COM
prehend yours. Don't think 1 am indecent
TO mention him; you all know him Just as
well as l do. If he has a wife he makes
| vulgar remarks TO her, and If not, he talks
as freely as he can to any woman who
will let him. Yes, he is very horrid man
who ought not TO come to balls at all. be-
cause the living pictures Of the vaude-
Vile would please him great deal better.
Mexican girls are educated in fancy work
from their earliest childhood, and there is
scarcely a Mexican cottage that has not
among its women one proficient in drawn
work. Children are put to drawing threads
until old enough TO handle the needle
skillfully.
1t is rather a curious fact that it has al
ways been the semi-civilized people who
have particularly excelled in needle work.
The lower class OF Persars, Hindostans,
Mexlcans and even Indians have shown Won
every other department OF needle work was
a sealed book to them.
The origin of Mexican work is rather
clouded in the filny traditions surrounding
the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards,
who had learned this work from the MooTs,
who in their tuin had learned 1t IN the lar
East 1t was somehow transferred to Mex
leo and the serfs of the conquerors, and the
descendants of these poor serfs have pre-
served and improved upon it. until now
many of the articles are as dainty as cop-
webs and as exquisite as the frost on WIN
dow panes
Center pieces, doiles and sets for dress
ing bureau and toilet table are perhaps the
articles most in vogue at present, though II
enters largely into all bed and table linen,
and has even been used to form the cross on
the surpice of an ecclesiastic.
Except for very meager livelihood,
through the natural products OF the SOIL.
with many Mexican families. the sale OF
this work furnishes their only means OF
subsistence; and it naturally follows that
their living must be of the most primitive
sort, A very usual house with them is the
one which they make out OF dry-goods
boxes, putting on a thatched roof ana NIL
ing up the holes with stray tin cans, and,
of course. an earth floor. Considering the
surroundings, it is a mystery how they
keep their beautiful work so clean. Doubt
less because they have learned that it is
very much more difficult to find sale for it
il it requires to be laundered
Kindly nature supplies the patterns for
these women. They reproduce in lace the
various delicate touches of nature about
them, such as the spider web, the birds
nest, leaves and fruits They are very am
bitions to originate new designs, and when
one is evolved, a great fete is given, and
the inventor is crowned with flowers and
honored in every manner within the range
Of their limited possibilities.