The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-25
FAIR GIRLS OF MEXICO.
Not so Fair as Generally Supposed Except the Young Maidens of
 the peouA

Much has Abeen written of the beauty of the senoritas of Mexico. Many a tour ist goes to the southern republic with exalted ideas of the charms of the high caste young women with raven hair. soft olive compilations and bewitching eyes Evidently the charms of its matchlessly balmy climate and the wonderful pic- turesqueness of scenes everywhere have blurred the critical vision of many of the writers when they came to dwell up- on the beauty of the senorftas in general large part of the Mexican young wo- men have prominent, heavy noses. This characteristic is more noticeable among the people in the rural pueblos in the valleys.
 From fourteen to twenty most senor- itas are in their prime so far as facial beauty is concerned. From twenty to thirty the dark pigment in their com plexion develops rapidly and nine out of ten of them ruin the softnesS of their complexions by inordinate use of the cos- metics and face washes. which comprise surprisingly large proportion of the national imports from Europe and the United States.
 There Is no denying that the eyes of | the average Mexican girl, except in the lowest classes, have a peculiar mildness.
 The long. heavy eyelashes over the dark | eyes give an expression of seriousness
 and pathos that one never forgets The
 hair of the senorita Is seldom fine and
 hossy. All the women in the peon class dock their coarse hair squarely across the forehead, while the young women
 of the upper class deck their foreheads
 with an infinite lot of frixzes and intri-
 cate mazes of finely spun curls. | A curious fact Is that some of the old 1 families in Mexico have followed Q fash ion in hair arrangement characteristic | e.. erations. For instance, there is the rich and powerful Yorba family of Chihuahua.
 Every woman in the family for more than 100 years has frizzed, curled and plaS- tered her hair after the style Grandma Yorba Ca famous belle in her day and an acquaintance of old Queen Mercedes) l adopted in the last days of Spanish do- minion over Mexico.
 The exquisite black lace mantilla shad- ing the eyes. the high comb and the coral and pearl jewelry become a senorita more than they would any other woman in the world. Perhaps 1t Is the oddness of these graceful charms that has won the general praise of so many visitors to old Mexico. The senorita at the opera with her CO., quettish fan, her berosed hat and her gorgeously colored snKen gowns looks very attractive, but at close range only a few of the women have the freshness, the vigor and the clear-cut. refined ex- ! pressions of American young women of like station.
 The real beauty of the Mexican people ie found in the young women among the more intelligent peons. They have in- herited the fine teeth, the 1.-the forms, the shapely necks and, above all the easy carriage of their Aztec ancestors. Their hair is not tortured by the hot curling irons. their gait has not been made arti- flcial by Parisian shoes. Their waists have never been pinched by corsets and they have found grace and vigorous health out in the glorious sunshine of Mexico. Here and there a barefoot. rag ged peon girl may be seen whose beauty would be remarked upon in almost any American assemblage.
 Unfortunately they blossom early At twenty the apricot pink o9 their checks l becomes dull brown. theiF 1.-the figures
 become fat and pudgy and at thirty are
 bent and lined.
 The peon families are always inordin-
 ately large. Seldom does a peon girl pass
 her fifteenth year without her marriage. | and there are many instances of thir- teen-year-old mothers in the land. A host of Mexican women are grandmothers
 at thirty-two and eat-grandmothers at
 fifty. The high class senoritas marry
 from seventeen to twenty-two.