The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-07-27
THE WOMEN OF SPAIN.
Statistics of Their Social and INTEL
1ectual Standing,

great deal has been written about
Spanish men, but l think one may find
truer key to Spanish character by
taking glimpse of the misery of the
Spanish women. l doubt if the Span
ish woman is any better off than the
Turkish woman, and while American
women are not clamoring for a con-
f1ict, the fact remains that the taking
of Spain from the European geography
might prove great step in advance
for the women of that land.
1t appears from an official document
which came my way the other day that
but 2.636,615 Spanish women can read
or write. This fraction is almost as big
as the male army that knows it's own
language. 1t is a pitiful showing, but
it is only the beginning Of the table Of
female wretchedness. The municipali-
ties list 81, 946 professional beggars who
wear petticoats. Then there are S2S,-
o31 women who earn their living by
working in the farm fields. There are
319,o96 women rated as day servants,
who get but little more than board and
shelter for their work, and in all the
dying dynasty there are but $4,000
girls in the schools Of any kind, public
or private. There are twice as many
female mendicants as male. The CEN
sus shows that ., 164, 4O6 women have
neither professions nor trades, and are
altogether dependent upon charity, the
possibility of getting married or hard
labor at starvation wages.
The same lamentable condition of the
Spanish women is shown by glance at
another side of her life. The kingdom
has but seventy-four women classed as
literary writer's. There are but seventy
eight women physicians in the mother
country and all the provinces. The wo-
men school teachers number only A.
AGO. as compared with 24,612 men, but
this does not include the nuns, who are
classed by themselves, and number 2S,-
$40
Spanish women who are fortunate
live in the most magnificent homes and
seem never to bother their heads about
the poorer sisters at their doors The
favorite resort for the grande senoras
Is San Sebastian, and the lives the
careless Spanish women Of fashion lead
there during the summer is said to be a
scandal over all Europe There Is
scarcely pretense at propriety or even
ordinary conventionality. AS in France,
majority of the young girls Of the
best families are educated in the con-
vents. Their greatest accomplishment
is embroidery, and they sit and sit and
sit at their knitting until some man
from an ancient and bankrupt house or
bull raising plantation comes along
and marries them. Club life is I'M
known. Marriages are celebrated very
early in life, and but few people who
get weary Of these early alliances ever
go to the trouble and tormality of get
ting a divorce. The unhappy couples
simply divide up the household things
and live the balance Of their lives the
best way they can.
Spanish women, so I have found,
have very little outdoor amusement.
The bicycle is just beginning to be ad-
mitted, but under protest. The young
women love their Queen next to pretty
frocks and glittering fans and bright
ribbons. They flock to the cruel shows
in the bull rings and laugh and cheer
at the horrible spectacles. They show
no more pity than an American girl
bestows upon the dashing hardships
which the average tennis player or the
golfer undergoes when he performs in a
broiling sun to amuse her.-Chicago
Times Herald