The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-29

/ man-EatInS and Drinking-GaFIIc.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
and Courier.)
| Caracas. Venezuela, Oct p.
Nothing impresses the visitor to this
old capital so much as the air of me-
: diaeyal romance which clings to every
/ thing. In reality there is very little
difference between being in Venezuela
and being in Spain, the mother country.
The people look, talk, act like Span
iards and their manners and customs
are all of Spain. If you were to take
an experienced traveller who was ia
miliar with every part of Europe, but
had never been in South America,
blindfold him and start him off in a
balloon, say from London or Paris.
drop him finally in the Plaza de la
Constitution of Caracas and ask him
to tell where he found himself-a thou
sand to one he would answer confident
ly, either in Seville or Madrid.
The better-class dwellings of Venez-
uela. like those of Spanish cities on the
other side Of the Atlantic, are big, ram
bling structures. entered through an
imposing arched gateway of stone, Of
ten with a coat-of-arms carved upon it.
This gateway is furnished with high
doors of wrought iron, always careful
ly barred inside. which lead through
short passage, paved with small sharp
stones like the street outside, into the
great central patio or courtyard.
around which the house is built in a
hollow square. Though the exterior
has an exceedingly gloomy and prison
| like appearance-owing principally to
| the fact that the windows facing the
street have heavy iron bars in front of
them-a fashion borrowed by the Span
iards from their ancestors, the Moors,
and founded on the Oriental idea of
strict seclusion for women; the inner
court-yards, where the Women's lives
are mostly spent, are beautiful enough,
with their flowers and fountains,
| shaded corridors and singing birds, to
atone for deficiencies outside. Often in
passing along the street you see bright,
dark eyes looking out at you from be-
hind those bars. They stare at you
with wondering curiosity, not unmixed
with longing for the greater, though to
their minds questionable freedom of la
Americana. These charming damsels
are practically prisoners in their own
homes, being under the watchful care
| of fathers and mothers, who will tole-
rate no nonsense, until at the earliest
passible age, they are given over to
husbands, before whose jealousy that
of Othello must pale into Intellectual
! fire. Many of them have duennas be-
! sides, women of middle age and severe
aspect to whose watchful care wealthy
Spaniards confide the morals of their
too beautiful young wives and daugh-
tiers. Juliet had a duenna, you know,
very model of her kind; and yet her
Romeo climbed the balcony.
| Venezuelan women are indeed beau
tiful Their large, dark soulful eyes
light up the clear olive Of their COM
plexion their full red lips, parted in
smiles, reveal faultless teeth, while the
dark, rich blood of their mixed Span
| ish and Indian ancestors nantes their
rounded cheeks with crimson. Added
to these facial charms, they have forms
| of perfect symmetry, small hands and
! feet. and indescribable suppleness and
grace of movement which make up a
type of feminine loneliness impossible
| to surpass.
You should see this Posada de los
Emba jadores-"I of the Ambassa-
DORIS" as Caracas principal hotel is
called, because once several of the for
eign ministers to Venezuela resided
within it-where we temporarily put
up" 1t is a stately, two-story affair,
evidently built with an eye to earth
| quakes rather than to architectural eff
| fects. The usual paved portal leads
from the street to the patio, in the
center of which is beautiful little
garden, protected by an iron railing.
| Awning shaded balconies, into which
all the rooms open, surround this pa
ito and are decorated with baskets of
orchids and native creepers, trailing
over trellces. The huge, bare dining
| hall is on the ground floor, opposite the
main entrance; and male guests when
they have finished the solid viands of
midday breakfast and afternoon din
ner go up stairs to that portion of the
balcony Immediately above the dining
room, where an open space bulges out
over the patio, to take their cafe con
cogvnac y cigarritos, and to guardedly
discuss (minus the first syllable of that
word) the political situation amid
clouds Of smoke. Here, as elsewhere in
Spanish America, it is the rule for la
dies who happen to be temporarily
stopping in the hotel, even though ac
companed by their male protectors, to
take all their meals in the seclusion of
their private apartments. For ladies
unaccompanied by husband, father or
brother, it is imperative. The propri
etor of respectable hotel would hard
! ly give them seat in public dining
room, and if he did, their situation
would be rendered extremely unpleas-
ant. Indeed the position Of an unat-
tached woman is not an envia BILE one
anywhere in Venezuela. If she is I'M
der the protecting wing Of a male crea-
ture, her own husband or brother, or
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