Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-05-05
WOMEN OF SPAIN.
Interesting Statistics Concerning Their So
ciaI and Intellectual Condition.

a great deal has been written about
Spanish men, but think one may find
a truer key to Spanish character by
taking a glimpse of the misery of the
Spanish women. | doubt if the Span
ish woman is any better off than the
Turkish woman, and while American
women are not clamoring for conflict,
the fact remains that the taking OF
Spain from the European geography
might prove a great step in advance
for the women of that land.
1t appears from an official document
which came my way the other day that
bat 2636 6I3 Spanish women can read
or write This fraction is almost as big
as the male army that knows its own
language. 1t is a pitiful showing, hut
ii is only the beginning of the table Of
female Wretchedness. The municipali-
ties list il $40 professional beggars who
wear petticoats. Then there are S2S.3@l
women who earn their living by work
ing in the farm fields. There are BIB
$50 women rated as day servants, who
get hut little more than board and shell
ter for their work. and in all the dying
DYNASTY there are but 10000 girls in
the schools OF any kind public or pri-
waite. There are twice as many female
mendicants as male. The census shows
that 6. 164 4o6 women have neither pro-
LESSONS 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 woman is shown by glance
at another side of her life. The king
dom has but "A women clasSed as liter
airy writer's. There are but IS women
physicians in the mother country and
all the provinces. The women school
teachers number only 14.i90, as com
pared with 2t.6l2 men. but this does not
include the nuns, who are classed by
themselves and number 2S,549.
Spanish women who are fortunate
live in the most magnificent homes ana
seem never to bother their heads about
the poorer sisters at their doors. The
favorite resort for the grande sonora
is san Sehastian.and the lives the care
less Spanish women of fashion lead
there during the summer is said to he
a scandal over all Europe. There is
scarcely d pretence at propriety or even
ordinary conyentionality. AS in France
a 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 at
their knitting until some man from an
ancient and bankrupt house or bull
raising plantation comes along and
marries them. Club life is unknown,
Marriages are celebrated very early in
life and but few people who get weary
of these early alliances ever go to the
trouble and formalty of getting q di-
vorce The unhappy couples simply
divide up the household things and live
the balance of their lives the best way
| they can
Spanish women, so | have found, have
very little outdoor amusement. The
| bicycle is just beginning to be admit
ted, hut under protest. The young Wo-
men love their Queen next to pretty
frocks and slittering 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
| hestoWs upon the dashing hardships
which the average tennis player or the
| golfer undergoes when he performs in
! broiling sun to amuse her.-Chicago
| Times Herald