Washington sentinel., 1900-10-13
IT., 49,, SENTINEL
The Ingenuity OF Cuban women
1hlHsey's Magazine.


with only the coarSest materials at
hand, many OF them have made
their own shoes. Few
families could be found in the in
terror of the island whose women
had bought shoes for three years.
They had made their own, and in
many cases had also made them
for their husbands, fathers, sons,
and sweethearts. When thread
gave out they used the fibre Of the
"maiagua" leaf instead, and when
the shoe was finished they made
strings out of the same "majagua"
for lacing. They had no stock
ings, with the exception OF the one
white cotton pair the Cuban
woman invariably has for state oc
casions, but they did not have to
20 barefoot. Woman's ingenuity
had triumphed over the fortunes
OF war
With regard to their substitutes
for hairpins one cannot say so
much, although it was not their
fault that nature tailed to provide
an efficient substitute. With the
inherent denravitY Of hairpins, the
stock on hand soon failed, and
early in the war the Cuban woman
was reduced to letting her hair
hang down her back. Most Of
them have that peculiar beauty OF
the Latin races, fine head OF hair,
and with their inborn love OF the
refnements OF the toilet they cast
about for means to avert this. A
means was soon found. A barbed
wire fence has never up to the
present time been suspected OF
being a friend to a woman's ward
robe, and even its most ardent ad-
vocates have not claimed that
it was susceptible Of adoption to
toilet purposes; but war changes
all conditions, and the barbed wire
fence must 60 down in history as
having divided its uses in Cuba be-
tween the Spanish trochas and the
natives dressing table. One day
a woman cut of a piece OF wire
from a fence, made it the proper
length, bent it, patiently ground
the ends between two stones on
the highway, and the hairpin OF
the Cuban revolution was accom-
pliShed. These hairpins are used
throughout the interior OF Cuba,
and there is not one using them
but longs with all her soul for
box OF American hairpins. The
effect Of these blunt, coarse wires
on the hair can readily be imag-
ined. They send little cold chills
down the spine of one not accus-
toned to them, nor have the
women themselves ever become
used to them. They wear them
simply because even a woman who
is used to being hungry, who may
have but one dress 10 her name,
and who would be barefoot il she
did not make her own shoes, may
have lover, and when that lover
comes 4 courting, the object OF his
attentions likes to have her dark
tTesses properly done up, 1t may
seem like a little thing, perhaps It
may not seem apropos to mention
it with such matters as starvation,
nakedness, and death. yet the lack
OF these triAes-pins, hairpins, but
tons, the thousand and one things
that any woman considers indis.
pensable to her tolle.-has added
a real bitterness to the suferings
OF the women Of Cuba.
No amount OF privation can rob
the Cuban woman OF her desire tor
every adj unct that could possibly
add to her attractiveness. She is
more or less Of a coquette by ma
iure, and three years OF war have
not exterminated her feminine in
stincts. She is addicted to the
powder box even more than her
Anglo-American sister, and she
does not always exhibit as much
artistic discretion in distributing
the powder on her face as she
should. 1t was but natural
that in the course Of the events Of
the past three years face powder
should disappear from the interior
oil the island. Now, the Cuban
woman may 60 hungry uncom-
plaininglY, but to 60 without face
powder was not to be thought Of.
Hence a substitute. This time the
modest and unpTetentious hen
came nobly to the rescue. The
Cuban woman took some egg
shells, pounded them, carefully
removed the inner lining OF the
shell, and laid them out in the sun
to dry. The next day they were
pounded again, ground up as fine
as possible between two stones,
and once more laid out in the sun.
The third daY they were again
carefully ground. this time with
the addition OF little water, max
ing into thin paste, as by this
time the powder was quite fine.
When this was once more dried in
the sun it was ready to use. This
surprising expedient was not an
entire failure. 1 can testify that in
the absence OF the regulation Paris
product powdered eggshells will
produce certain results, albeit said
results are better adapted for use
behind the iootlights than in the
broad daylight.