The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-03
HOMAN'S POSITION IN SPAIN
LITTLE BETTER THAN I DO-
 MESTIC SLAVE
But She Is sstisAed with Her Lot
 Any UnusuaI Development of ImteI- feet in a Woman is Considered Uu

\
 Any Unusuai Development of ImfeI-
 feet in a Woman is Considered Uu
 q feminine.
 Woman in Spain has had no part in the emancipation of the sex that has 1 taken place in most European countries
 in the last century. says writer i'll the FortHtghtiy Review: As factor in s0- cial life she stands entirely in the back ground; man has the predominant in- fiuence and the position of woman is an entirely subordinate one. To the for eigner the first sign of this is visible l ill the sbsence of that easy and homeiy spirit of hospitality prevalent in other countries, and which owes So much Of its character to female influence. In | this matter the ideas of the Spanfard retain flavor of orientalism which the progress of time and the general aG- vance of civilization around him have been unable to dlssipate. He possesses what we should call most limited views as to the sphere in which woman shoGii move. He thinks that a good wife should have no interests which may dis tract her from the duties of her house. hold, and hence these dutieS-the chief among them being the care and bring ing up of children-fOrm the chief oc" cupation of the Spanish lady.
 ! Any unusual development of intellect
 in a woman is held by public opinion to i be unfeminine, and the proportion of intellectual women in Spain is remark ably small. The majority of Spanish
 girls are quite uncultivated, in our modern sense of the word, except as re- gards hand embroidery. music and dancing, for which the race has consid- erable aptitude. Half century ago, the Orthography of q large percentage of well-born Spanish ladies would rot have come up to the standard of one of our elementary board schools. The education of Spanish women has indeed improved during the last 30 years owing chiefly to greater facilities for travel and certain Altering through of for eign habits of life. But this has only taken place within the recognized lines of communication over the country. Physical training plays as small a part in the education of Spanish women as does intellectual culture. In this, too,
 there is a wide distance separating the Anglo Saxon woman from her southern
 neighbor. One of the most noticeable haracteristics of the former is the love of exercise which she has recently ac- quired, and in which she can now with impunity indulge. In Spain, on the other hand, not only do women take lit-
 tie or no exercise, but they have strong aversion to taking 1t. Spanish
 girls are never, in their childhood,
 taught to appreciate open-air life, and
 they have no opportunity of acquiring
 the taste later on. An endeavor was
 made short time ago to introduce bi-
 cycling into Madrid as a feminine
 amusement, but the attempt was fail
 ure, owing to the obstructive attitude of both sexes. The new idea was only
 taken up by a few votaries of foreign
 fashion"
 One result of the position of the Span ish woman is the easy solution it offers of "conjugal problems" The explana-
 tion of this fact is to be found in corollary to the following general
 proposition offered by the author: ."One of the most essential conditions of con-
 jugal happiness is that the views of
 the contracting parties as to their re- spective spheres of action should be in
 perfect harmony. Tn Spain, there is
 never any question of what a woman can or cannot do or think. She is a do- mestic slave, but she is a perfectly con- tented one, and no more devoted wives
 and mothers are to be found than in that country.
 Tn this connection two points are
 worthy of note. The first is the close
 ness and strength of the family tie
 throughout the peninsula. No other
 country in Europe can offer such strikink example of the solidarity of re-
 lationsh!D and in nCne other is love of hearth and home so marked. The devo-
 ton in all classes between father and son, husband and wife. brother and sis
 ter, is one os the finest traits of the
 popular character, and recalls time
 when, prior to the disntegrating pro-
 cess of civilization, blood was, in the
 best sense of the word, thicker than water. The second condition of Spanish
 life which tends to raise the moral
 standard of the women above that
 reached by the men is one which can
 only be lightly touched upon here:
 refer to the national religion. It is over
 the female mind in Spain that the most
 powerful influences of Roman Cathnl-
 icism are eXerted. In that country the
 women are far better Catholics than
 the men, in the sense of following the
 spirit as well as the letter of their faith.
 Religious practices are held to be far
 more important for q woman than for
 a man, and devotional exercises form a
 considerable ingredient in female edu-
 cation. Hence the clergy find they can
 best tighten and retain their influence
 over the female mind by strict exaction
 of obedience to the forms and precepts
 of religion, but are too disposed to keep
 in touch with the male element by taclt
 aequlescence in, or at least disregard of
 it's vices"
  LONDON'S FIRE TRAPS.