The Indianapolis journal., 1899-01-29

phone like childs 'twinegram," that she
dropped from her balcony to her lover in
the street below.
TREATMENT OF LOVE AFFAIRS.
Nothing can equal the frankness of the
treatment of love affairs by the Mexican
girl Her chief topic of conversation-and
as has been said, in four-and- twenty hours,
nay, four-and-twenty times twenty-four
hours, it is not worn QUITS of what her
novio said to her and she to him. If he is
faithless she pines openly. The mother Of
two really charming daughters said to me
not long ago, when the opinion was ex-
pressed that her Catalina was by far the
prettiest girl in town, though the native
taste exalts blond Of regular, meaning
less features as such, ''Yes, she has
pretty face, but it is the face of one who
suffers" 1t was true. Suffering showed in
her great, heaVy-lidded eyes, and in her
pathetic little smile, and in the droop of
her head. For her novio is faithless. They
have been engaged since she was seventeen
five years. In those five years she has been
miserable most of the time. Il know, she
says, IN her dear little voice, that Jorge
does not love me very much And l know
too, that he talks badly about me (Which,
If the American gentleman can believe it Of
a light of Mexican society, is quite true),
and know that he is unkind to me. But,
she turns out the palms of her little hands
Il cannot help loving him. 1t is stronger
than l." And so it is that she spends days
and nights in tears and fasting and pray
ers and makes herself and all who are
A few nights ago there were gay doings
at certain public garden because of the
feast of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe.
Catanna came, but only to say that she
could not come. She was all in black, and
was going home to sit alone in the dark;
for upon that night six years before Jorges
father had died. And Jorge? He was in
the cantinas-the barrooms that take the
place OF club for the gentlemen--amusing
himself as was his gay wont. And Cata-
lina's sister Virginia did not come, because
her novio was confined to his house with a
cold, and she therefore went to bed. And
thus it is that the senorita loves.
But in most cases she eXacts all that she
gives. "You are not to dance with that
girl, says the novia, and her novio obeys
be 1t ever so good a friend. If he does not,
she gives him calabasas which is the name
of kind of SQUASH and in this use means
the mitten; 1t is well for her to exercise
the power before the day arrives when she
accepts her trousseau from him and dons
the wedding gown he has sent, and becomes
his wife For, once married she. settles
down to care for her very many children,
to bemoan the indifference of her lord, and
to wearing the black shawl which covers a
multitude of uncombed hairs and buttonless
buttonholes.
Such are the pleasures and pains of the
senorita. AS for her occupations, they are
few. She rarely reads and when she does
it is only the frothiest of novels and love
poems. Her noVio does not like women
who read. Sometimes she plays on the
piano fairly WELL She can do church en-
broidery and cross-stitch things for her
nOvo She can keep her servants in order
and she goes regularly to mass. But for
the greater part she sits in groups and talks,
and talks and talks And her most ar
dent admirer cannot say of her that she is
dainty or even tidy as to her lingerie or her
appearance about the house.
A study of the life of the Mexican senorita
in various lights brings the unaterable
conclusion that one would rather work hard
for ones bread in the States than dream
away ones life in the perfumed beauty
sweet with the song of birds of the typical
Mexican patio.