The age-herald., 1900-07-15
MIDSUMMER SEASON IN TOWN Al Fresco Teas At the Country Club the Most Popular Feature of
 the Summer-Some
 Society Gossip.
BY ANNIE KENDgIcK WALKER.

charming Birmingham girl numbers among her friends young Cuban woman whom she knew before the war" and who is now handsome Sonora, having but re- gently returned with her husband to the Land Of the Antilles. It was during the courtship of this young Cuban woman that she and this American girl became friends, and while the latter was allowed to receive her men friends without the presence of the members of her family the Cuban girl was of course denied all social freedom At time when, above all others, she would have preferred to have a confidential talk with the handsome young fellow to whom she was so soon to be married she was not permitted to see him alone for one moment. Her parents, a brother or two and sister were always present while the grandmother continued a ceaseIess vigil from pair of very bright, dark eyes, that mad lost none of their beauty, and were able to detect the slightest look of coquetry that the beautiful granddaughter might bring to her own dark and flashing eyes And while the latter looked with amaze ment upon the social freedom of her Amer 1can friend, she did not resent at the time the restraint that governed her own life restraint to which the Cuban woman of today is said to have awakened and from which she intends to free herself
 The young Cuban woman. who has been to this country and seen for herself the liberty the American woman enjoys re- turns to Cuba in a most discontented frame of mind; and In the Cuban house. holds. where the mother is Q woman of the old school the daughters are in open re- bellion against the old traditions, and are determined to break down these barriers to liberty. The knowledge that the Amer ican woman has enjoyed for many years the privilege of shopping without the ever watchful eyes of her mother, grandmother or maiden aunt, and that she is not afraid or social ostracism if she receives her friends alone in her drawing-room or on her veranda. is said to have caused the Gu ban woman to admire the American type enthusiastically. and to hold her as an ex- ample of all that is womanly and worthy of emulation, since by her perfect free dom she maintains her dignity and com mends the highest admiration and respect But even the untrammeled American girl can fully appreciate the present condition in many Cuban homes where the senoritaS are for the first time brave enough to criticise the Cuban traditions and denounce them as unjust to the women who have borne the yoke through generations The Cuban mother. on the other side, is equally emphatic in the inherited ideas and goes to the other extreme: so, while there may be peace in government affairs, the war being waged between the aristocratic Cu- ban girl and her grande dame of a mother is one that the American flag floating from the palace of General Wood but serves to increase the pent-up resentment of the Gu ban girl as she contrasts the Cuban so- cial regime to that enjoyed by the Amer ican woman.
 But the Cuban girl is not alone in her heart burnings, for while the American girl to all appearances is a free and un- trammeled person, 1t does not follow that she does not occasionally clash with her mother and complain that she is denied the liberty enjoyed by other girls.
 The Cuban senorita while tearing her hair over the restrictions imposed upon her, may find comfort in the thought that numbers of American girls regard their Imprisonment in the same light, and that American mothers are even more exclusive and strict in their ideas of proprety than the naughty Cuban mother who looks askance at the social customs of this coun- try.
 If the Pearl of the Antilles" numbers few unconservative leaders among the arstooratic class. 1t Is reasonable to as- sume that their opinions and actions will Americanize the social regime to a great extent, and in the case of the Cuban fam flies who visit this country, the result will be similar to that evident in the south since the southern woman has of recent years adapted some customs that charac- terize the women of the north. Where years