The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-12
zhe Great War I'm which Paraguay
Lost So Many Men that Women Now
DO the work of the Country.
STRONG In BUSINESS ABILITY
SOMETHING ABOUT PARAGUAYAN
LACE AND HOW WOMEN SELL 1T.
Young Women Who Smoke, Chew To-
Carry Heavy Loads ON Their Heads.
[copyright 1899, by Frank g. carpenter.]

copyright, 1899, by Frank G. Carpenter]
ASUNCION, Dec. 2S.-Paraguay is the
paradise of South America It's climate is
delightful, it's semi-tropical vegetation as
luxuriant as that of the Garden of Eden,
and it has about three Ewes to every Adam.
1 have never been in a country where there
are so many women. They swarm. They trot
by the scores through the streets of the
cities They walk by you and with you on
the highways and byways and they are so
many that you find it hard to get out of
their sight.
The women of Paraguay are so much in
the majority that they do the work of the
country They arc the buyers and sellers
of every community, and outside the cities
the men are the drOnes. Any bachelor in
the United States can find wife in Para
quay if he wants one, for the men are now
so few that any two-legged animal without
feathers of the masculine gender will here
be greedily grabbed The sexes were once
about equally divided, but Paraguay had a
war which killed off the men. 1t was just
before the close Of our trouble between the
North and South. At that time Paraguay
was the leading country of this part of the
world. 1t was about the richest of all South
America, and it's wealth and influence
angered the Argentine, Uruguay and Brazil.
They combined against it and their joint
army attacked the Paraguayans The
struggle lasted five years, but it ended in
the wiping out, as it were, of the Para
guayan men. It is said that one hundred
thousand of them died in battle and that
thousands of women and children were
starved to DEATH
1t is hard to get accurate figures in any
South American country, but according to
the best estimates, the population of Para
quay was cut down by this war so that
there was only one man to six women, while
another statistcian gives it that three
fourths of all the people in Paraguay, num-
bering about 100000, were destroyed. When
the war ended there were only 100000 left, of
whom about 25000 were men and 106 coo were
women over fifteen years of age. The rest
were children. Paraguay thus became a land
of women, and nature seems to be keeping
it so- Since the waf I am told that more
girls have been born every year than boys.
In Asuncion the girl births exceed the boy
births by more than five to the hundred, and
outside the city the percentage of girl babies
is greater.
WOMEN OF THE HIGHER CLASS.
The most of the women of Paraguay are
poor. Many of them are hewers of wood
and drawers of water; but there are some
who are rich. There are class distinctions
here as everywhere, and the people of the
better classes dress and act much the same
as those of other parts on the continent.
Paraguayan high-class ladies wear clothes
not unlike those of our American girls.
They wear bonnets or hats when out on the
streets ard a few of them actually import
r%I-z-
ish when in society-at least when on dress
parade-and some are so well educated that
they are able to read both English and
French. Such women are usually interested
in politics and, through their husbands,
have much influence upon what is done by
the government. They are good housekeep-
ers, excellent wives and are. 1 may say the
equals of their sisters of any part of this
continent.
Many of the Paraguayan women are very
good looking. This is so of all classes, and
especially so of the young. A Paraguayan
maiden is trifle under middle height. She
is as straight as an arrow and as timber as
a willow tree branch, though inclined to be
voluptuous in form. Her complexion is of
the Jersey cream order and often of the red
dish brown of the Guarani Indians. She
has, as a rule, more or less Indian blood in
her veins. When the Spaniards came here
this countrys was inhabited by the gentle
and senni-civilized Guaranis. The two races
| intermarried. Their descendants took wives
from the same tribes, that to-day there
are comparatively few Paragraphs who
| have not large proportion of Guarani
blood. The Indian mixture has resulted in
! the adoption of many Indian customs, and
the language most spoken by the people to-
day is the Guarani. In the country districts
| little else is used and in the schools OF
| Asuncion there are notices on the walls
| that scholars must not speak Guarani during
| school hours. The Guarani is a soft Ian
! guage and the Paraguayan girls have sweet
| -'oices Indeed their tones fall softly on my
! ears after the parrot-like accent which has
/ sawed by typanum during my association
| with their Argentine sisters.
| PARAGUAYAN LACE.
| One of the chief industries of the Para
| guayan women is lace making. 1t is true
! that the lower classes do all kinds of work
| but all the women make beautiful lace They
! spin webs as delicately as though they were
| spiders and every house is full of beautiful
/ cobwebs made by its women. They make
lace handkerchiefs, hchus and embroideries
| and weave great hammocks of thread so fine
and so strong that they will outlast a gem
Grafton. They have patterns Of their own
which they have taken from nature One
of the most beautiful is called the eobweb
| pattern, the threads of which are as deli
| cately Joined as though made by one of the
/ big spiders which live here in the semi
/ tropics Some of these handkerchiefs are of
| silk. others of linen and some OF fiber
/ grown in the country. 1t takes long time
| to weave Them but there are so many at
work that they are wonderfully cheap, so
! that an article upon which a month or so
/ has been spent can be bought for s. and up
wards of our money. A good hammock will
cost you $40 and lace shawl perhaps twice
/ that amount
/ Paraguay is a land Of oranges 1t is per-
/ haps the only place in the world where the
! orange grows wild. There are oranges in
every thicket and in almost every forest
The villages are built in orange groves. and
there are so many oranges that they often
rot on the ground. The fruit is delicious
1t is the best, / believe, Of its kind in the
world 1t is eaten by everyone. and the
/ orange girls are among the picturesque
features of Paraguay. You meet women
reddling oranges at the stations. You ind