Evening star., 1899-11-04
C0JRTING IN MENICo.
conditions Which Make the TeIe-
phone "a Most Useful tuxiIinrx

Ihe custom Of carrying on a courtsbi,, nm
| der the window Of your mistress as of,sn
| as not. too, without the knowledge Of hor
parents. is entirely the correct thing In
| any other country this would he filtration
carried to an extreme. but not so I'm Nex-
ico. Where custom sanctions. there is notb-
ing moro to be said; and after all It seems
! TO be In the very air.
Young women in Mexico are no- perrnit-
ted anything like the freedom their mora
| fortunate sisters in England and America
| enjoy. Here again there is a good resso,,
ANr hlls. In former days the country as
| very one KNOWS, was I'm a most terribly
uhS'tlled state. Go only short distance
ouI OF Mexico and YOU Will ytfll see tt,a
| most evident proofs of this i'm Tho ba,,,iiv
punt surrounding walls Of MANY Of fbs
,idClthuaS. These walls are i'm soma cases
,U'l'lioie" ,,,n 1or musketry Some OF these pic
| iSaPue oid piles are veritable fortresses
ana are perfectly self-cuntained with tbetr
'I.t' ,''ef' or watch tower. perched upon an
| angie OF the wall. and the quaint little
| uplu9 OF the capilla showing through ,ho
Trees. Those We're feudaI davs and ,ba
| great landowners had their retainars about
mem on their estates. This was necessary,
| Tor the people were ever ON ,ba 49,,
against armed invasion The roaJs ur.ra
UNSAFE and brieands swarmed over The
land from end 10 end.
Is II surprising then that under these CIR
tGnstaHces the MeNcans should h9ye
learnt to guard their women safely witbi,,
1ne walls OF their hacendas? Resides
apart from the danger Of bandits and rob-
! berS. which have always ex sted the his
tory OF this country has been one long sue
ceSslon of mercilcSs revolutions p4rty
aga nst party, foreign interveutions and 80
| ior'h- War and revolution do not certainly
| bring with them much security for women
Moreover 1t must be remembrred that rhes.
customs have an even older orig H. The
people are Spanish, and. therefore to a
great extent Moorish. 1t is undoubtedly a
laGt lhat several the oldest mill IN
Mexico today have a strong Moorish strain.
handed down I'm all probability by Andalu1-
ian ancestry. Andalusia, as most pcop o
are aware, retains In a most marked man
ner many OF the old Moorish customs and
traditions. The Moors have left their de-
scendants in that part Of the country. and
many a dark aimond-eyed Andalusian
senorita, languidly watching the crowd be-
low, in some old street Of Granada through
the heavily barred Moorish window is as
thoroughly an oriental type as any YOU Will
see in the east. One Moorish custom which
remains in this country is that Of clappIng
the hands to call servant. This is GER
tainly not Spanish or Mexican, but entirely
eastern.
The manner in which a love AFFAIR COM
nenccs is quite interesting, and in this. as
in every other matter in Mexico. there is a
right and wrong way of setting about Il.
In the first instance the meeting between
the man and the girl is quite accidental.
Possibly he is passing in the street ana
sees her at the window. Mutual Interest is
mencement Of as pretty a courtship as you
could wish for, and one that = thoroughly
Me Xican.
Now. the usual way for the 20 ing man,
one would think, would oe to get IN intro
duction." We English almost look upon an
Introduction as sacred. This, however. is
not at all necessary. and in most cases II -
possible the man knows something about
the girl beforehand. Having decided that
he would like to carry affair with
her his first move is N some ~ amer or
ar f1,r tn h.lf A 1.4H ffV
a declaration of his admiration. If he has
been very much fascinated a poem Is per-
haps addressed to the fair one. must not
forget to mention ihat II is a We usual
thing for the gentleman 30 ask the lady
for some token by which he may know that
she desires to countenluce his SUIT. Per
haps he requests her to wear a rel rose in
her hair, or perhaps it may be that he
earnestly begs the senOrita to throw nm
some particular flower from her window
when he comes to learn h s fate.
There are many and numerous o-her ways
of starting a love affair, and the ingenuity
sometimes displayed is very amusing.
There Is one factor in particular which IS
favorable to lovers in tn s country, ana
that is the cleverness of the servants.
There Is no man who understands the fine
points of an intrigue bet er than your real,
genuine Mexican moZo. and he will throw
himself In a perfectly whole-hearted man
ner into your plots and help you out or
the most unexpected difficulties. Al pra %
TO the mozo! He never intrudes; but ut the
watches developments
I cannot refrain from referring 10 one
particular episode Of which have no doubt
a select few have some knowledge Ihere
is a certain street in this ancient and his
toric Ciudad de Mexico which is the night
ly scene of a most comical and certainly
very original courtship. Creep softly out
at the witching hour, not midnight. but the
proper time, and peradYenture tproVlded
you look in the right place. you may come
across a youth leaning in a studiously care
cit a
some considerable height is small stone
balcony, and the occupant OF this is
pretty soung lady closely veiled In black
tapalo. The first thing to strike the OBJ
server as somewhat curious is the fact that
the man does not seem to be interested IN
the balcony at all. Neither does the girl
appear to be leaning over the balustrade on
the lookout for any one. But pause a mo-
ment and presently you VIII discern q
faint black line wandering up the expanse
of white stucco wall. and then the whole
puzzle is solved! These two charming low
srs are communicating with each other by
means OF hand tie ephone. They eacn
have one end of the instrument. and III
you pass by sufficiently near you might
possibly catch an indistinct murmur OF
voices. He is certainly very constant. had
occasion to pass that way one miserable
evening during the rains; Mexico was then
simply inundated with water. and the rain
on that particular evening was simply COM
ing down in sheets. That, however, did
not daunt the knight of the telephone.
serviceable-looking waterproof. The rain
water Oft the street had come up over the
pavement, and he stood patiently, but no
doubt quite cheerful y. in a formidable pud-
die. Such herosm surely deserved equal
sacrifices the part of the balcony, too,
but not a bit of ii. The young lady was
invisible though it was noticeable that
the tell-tale speaking cord passed up over
the rail of the balcony and in between the
half-closed windows of the room. l pic
tured the senorita to myself sitting COM
Portable ensconced in an armchair in a
nice dry place, and have no doubt l was
pretty the truth.
What infatuation! He, poor man, was
sublimely happy down below in his puddle
OF water and wet macintosh. One would
think that IL must be a sufficiently hard
task to whisper sweet moth .ngs'' over a
telephone without the additional disadvan-
tages of a pouring wet night. However 1
dare say they managed to keep the inter-
est up.
Imagine yourself all this going on in a
public thoroughbred But then we are in
Mexico, and there's the difference. One
must not forget to add that q gendarme
stands in the middle of the road little
ftE,r rh.a,- 4, l.. ,g-n.