Waterbury Democrat., 1901-01-18
MEXICAN WOMAN AND HOME.

Frederick F. Guernsey, it's Mexican correspondent, ill q recent letter to the Boston Herald on the home life of the people of that Catholic country, gives the following happy description of the Mexican woman and her home: In the upper class Mexican home the | mistress of the house looks after many things; she is a good housekeeper, even if assisted by an old anna de llaves," or chief female servant, equiv alent to our "housekeeper.' The young ladies of the family have been brought up to take turns in keeping the house hold accounts and in ordering the meals, and so are initiated for the in eyitable housekeeping which comes to q Mexican girl on marriage.
 The MeXicans live not in boarding houses. They have homes. Domes ticity is the. dominant note in a MeXi- can woman's life. She is the queen of home and has no intellectual fads. Hence the comfort, peace and tram quiliity of a Mexican family of the well bred sort.
 The Mexican ladies like the pleas ures of the table. They make an in- credible number of dulees. or pre- serves; they sit down to as ample dinner when the husband is away as when he is at home. It Is no light lunch'' the Mexican woman wants, but dinner of many courses. Her mind is on her house: she has no distracting social duties. From morning till night she is minding her home and making it a place of comfort. Her beds are her delight and pride; they are ample and clean and daintily ornamented. In provincial towns, even in middle class homes. you will find this attention to the beds and the same careful house. keeping.
 The Mexican husband finds his wife al home; 1t is reproach to woman to be called muy paseadora, or a gad- der. It will seem to American women readers dull life; the Mexican woman finds it not at all so; she has her ideals, home, comfort, love. children and pleasant domestic duties. It is very comfortable for the men. Mad ame is not preparing to enlighten the neighborhood on contemporaneous pol itics, social science or child study. Lacking in ideas, one may say; but not a all lacking ill the chief ideas that underlie the real home.
 As for child study, the Mexican mother is q woman made for mother hood. She has no science about it; just clear common sense. Children are spanked, coddled. petted, rebuked. or htpl Ill lltlI pldCtS, uS ot- casion demands. Children are not made the objects of cold scientific scrutiny. but are regarded as imper- feet little humans with a right to af- lection as well as occasional punish ment. The Mexican woman avoids that look of haunting care incident to the feminine sex in pursuit of culture and diversion.
 Because the Mexican women are housewives first of all. the Germans often marry them and are happy. The German Mexican household is a sue cess. The man finds it so ''remindfuT' of his native fatherland
 Culture is Il good thing, but the price paid in nerve strain and worry and life frittered into little sbits is too high. The Mexican woman gives you a restful feeling; she is q woman first of all. and unto the end. Talk to her of feminine progress and womans new spheres and she will listen as to a discourse in Sanskrit. She has way of getting all the rights she wants. In her home she is person age and no cipher. Will all this change? Shall We see in the eventful twentieth century whosa near approach makes one shudder for the harm it will do to many sound old ideas, shall We Set tIse ellahe1 Pt''ioll VI 'iS A'~1 'iAi American woman? Will she read us papers and attend club conventions? Perhaps, and it is a pathetic sort of perhaps.
 When the true type of the Latin7 American home goes. one of the most charming phases of human evolution will have disappeared; with it will go the haven of tired men. the anchorage of the young before they start out on the long voyage of life, the household shrine, where the offerings are love and good will. A well wisher of hu- man kind will not ask for the substi- tuition of the family group devoted to science and sociology and problems of all sorts. The learned or too curious woman is not restful; she might as well be list of pressing engagements.