The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-02-04
WHAT SHE MAY AND MAY NOT DO
TO AMUSED HERSELF.

Talking and Gazing at Her Ono
vio'-Traits of Personal Beauty
Refreshingly Frank Treatment Of
Love Affairs in the Land of the
Montezumns-Servan Girls in the
United States Probably Happier
Than the Senorita. 49,
This is only a woman's view Of it, but
there has been so much OF masculine
rapture over the soft-eyed Mexican Sc
norita and her destinations and her
beauty that anything in the way of facts
and novelty ought to be. welcome. Once
there was man who was honest. He
spent fortnight in the city Of Mexico.
and admitted. fearfully and il hushed
tones, as of one who burns that which
he has adored; then, more openly, and at
length boldly, With pride in his courage
GUS veracity. that in all that time the
one pretty girl he had seen turned out
to be ar American. This was too sweep
ing, says Guadalajara letter to the
New York Tribune. Even among the Sc.
noritas there are rather pretty girls.
Among the women Of the peon class. the
women whose heads and shoulders are
wrapped in the graceful rebozo, there is
beauty. But a senor1ta will not under
stand you If you say so. However, the
girl of the City Of Mexico IS not the
typical one Ct the country, though the
prevalent idea in the United States. of
course, Is that all beyond that town is
waste land and mud villages. =,
Away off to one side of the republic,
up 5000 feet among the western noun.
tains, there Is a city called Guadalaja ra
1t is a beautiful city and Aold. and it
boasts an orderly, well governed popula-
ton of 250.0O0 SOULS. Except in that it
Is exceedingly clean, this, by the Mexi-
cans. is accounted the typical city of
Mexico. For the capital is so American
lied that the very street vendors talk
English. But in Guadalajara there is
little to attract the capitalist and the
syndicate. and it is out of the route Of
ordinary travel
The senorita is uncontaminated bf the
bold freedom of the Gringa, and she har-
bors no disturbing aspirations for great
err liberty in her placid breast. When
she Is little she Is carried in the arms
of a black-shawled nurse, good natured
and not over clean. She wears wonderful
caps of lace and colored silks, and false
slip, long and flowing, of the same over
her simpler baby clothes. When she is
a little older she is laced into long, stiff
stays and sent to the convent, and at
night sidewalks In the plaza land begins
to think about noVio. The novto is
thencefOrth the one aim and interest of
her life She first knows that he is likely
to become such because he has stared her
out of countenance whenever she has
come upon him in the streets and has
turned squarely about on the sidewalk
and gazed after her, which is good man.
charms. Then he is always to be found
In the plaza when she Is there.
And the Plaza itself. since 1t is a nation
al institution, and the stage whereupon
are enacted many of the most thrilling
scenes Of her life's romance, merits.
word. It is a garden surrounded by
wide walk. Several times a week the
band plays there at night, and danlsels
v no would look their tolerant horror and
surprise when told that in the States a
girl may in the daytime walk in the pub
lie streets with man come in the dark
ness, two or more, unattended, from re-
mote parts of the town. They join the
line Of women who walk from west to
east. and watch the line Of men who walk
from east to west. Latterly the spirit of
the age is creeping in. and a man, upon
rare occasions, joins two girls and walks
For the most part the two streams do not
ningle. The black one. of the men pours
steadily along, the multi-colored one Of
the girls does the same. and no word of
greeting is exchanged, though a man may
bow-he has the option-and woman
may return the salute.
There are rows of chairs around the
flaZa upon both sides Of the promenade
They Ire full in the glare of the arc
lights, under the trees and IN one of these
the sanOrita when she wearies of walking
seats herself. Then the novio takes chair
opposite and proceeds to stare. If she
likes him she also stares. If not she talks
to the girl who is with her-for If two
Mexican girls were together for twenty
four hours they would talk every mo-
ment Of the time-and observes. her
friends filing past with the walk &C.
counted graceful. which is q hitching
motion that would seem to jar the very
brain. All are round-shouldered and push
cut their chfns; they themselves admit
the defect. with the calm satisfaction in
1t Of the provincial. They scorn the rsug-
gestion that a course of carrying loads
and water Jars upon their heads might
give the m the majestic port of the women
of the lower class, go, NJ. IL, e.s.-s.! -
There is a great deal Of transformations
ealth in Guadalajara, and the girls who
drive through the narrow white streets in
carriages that would do credit to Central
Adih Senu 10 FdTlS ana the ''clCy' 1Or
their gowns and hatS--goWnS and hats of
which. the belle of Puu.pkinyille would be
proud. Among the curiosities of Paris the
place from which they import those hats,
is not to be seen. The system OF fierce
lacing. whose aim is the prevention of the
all but inevitable superfluous weight,
which Is the bugbear of the senorita, has
produced no supple waists nor slender
grace The bodice of the senorita is hope
lessly square. And there are two girls in
the city who have had the first idea that
their me- gnificent hair should not be
burned and knked like wool, and twisted
in the back into tight Jumps One of
these mourns because her novio who has
seen and lived in the world will not per-
NIT the cutting and crinkling Of her gold
brown locks, and the other is not yet out
of school, '.-- ...-. ~. Es--..s. a
The senorita when she walks must not
lift her dress, and therefore, pale satin or
silk or chiffon though it may be, it sweeps
clean the plaza Nor must she cross her
knees or her feet as she sits in public.
which may perhaps be why her shoe re-
sembles in shape nothing so much as a
serviceable black flatiron. I 49,
E. After the plaza and at o'clock. begin
or the Mexican girl the amusements of
her day. If there is an opera she goes
with her family-the women folks in even
ing dress, and their men in. anything they
choose. and as often as not wearing their
hats-and sits in a box. Her novio gets the
most advantageous seat on the ground
floor, and while the curtain is UP looks at
her. She, of course, looks at him, both
with a steady, unwavering stare and
those who do not happen to be similarly
engaged derive therefrom considerable
amusement. When the curtain falls she
walks in the foyer and he joins her If
he and, her family are very advanced in
r 6ni hoe Sx,%o =, -.