The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-20
WOMEN OF MEXICO.
Their Home Life and Pastimes-HOr-
ribIe Bull Fights.
From the New York Tribune.

/
From the New York Tribune.
AS a cure for the American disease
! of nervousness there is nothing like
visit to Mexico, according to Mrs.
Bert Seaboldt, formerly editor and pro-
prietor of The Stock and Mining Jour-
nal of Salt Lake City, who has just re-
turned from that picturesque country.
NO one in Mexico does anything
more than he can help" says Mrs.
Seaboldt, and the upper classes have
learned how to avoid almost every
thing that requires exertion. The men
spend their time riding and drinking
champagne, and the women lie around
and look pretty. 1t may become mo-
notonous after a time, but for few
months, after the strenuous atmosphere
of the United States, the eternal ma
mana, manana tomorrow, tomorrow
of the MeXicans is like the balm of
Gilead.
And the Mexicans are the most hos
pitable OF people to the stranger with
in their gates They take You right
into their life, and if they like you
your room will be a bower of blossoms
during the whole of your stay, and
there will be continuous serenade I'M
der your windows. They are very
which we are accustomed to associate
only with poetry, is a matter of every
day life with them. Perhaps that is
because they have real latticed win
dows under which to sing their sere-
nades.
Another idyllic feature of Mexican
life is their habit of eating out of
doors. 1t is quite the custom among
the upper classes in the City of Mex
ri RI l.
ace for breakfast. The grounds and
part of the palace are open to the pub
lie, and a restaurant which is a fash
ionable place of resort has been erected
there. By the time you get back from
breakfast it is time for luncheon, and
you go somewhere else for that. In
the Afternoon you sleep or drive, and at
night you go to one of the hotels for
dinner, or perhaps to the floating gar
dens, which look like huge lily pads
on the surface of the water.
For the afternoon drive you will
probably go to the Alameda, or matri-
monial market. Marriage is the only
occupation open to the women of Mex
leo, and they make regular business
of it. Mothers take their marriage
able daughters, dressed to kill, to the
Alameda, and drive slowly up and
down, to and fro. The manageable
men do the same thing, and when a
young man sees a girl who takes his
fancy he follows her carriage and finds
a way of obtaining an introduction.
This has to be done through her par
ents, for no young girl is ever allowed
| to see a man alone
The bull fights afford another OPP
portunity for the matchmakers. They
occupy the same place in the social
| life of Mexico as the theater does with
| us. The women go in their best feath-
ers, not only to see, but to be SEEN
1t seems a strange place for the cult
walton of the tender passions, and ii
| is hard to understand how the Next
cans, who are in some ways so low
! able, should take such a delight in
blood. 1t is the Indian strain in them
1 suppose. The bull fights are simply
| horrible. 1 have seen horses with their
| legs ripped from top to bottom, or with
! blood gushing from a wound in the
side, like water from a hydrant. And
yet they would be forced before the
bull again and compelled to endure
fresh tortures. The fights take place
on Sunday afternoons, and people at
| tend them as regularly and quite as
much as a matter of course as they go
| to church"
In this land of Incidence there is no
! such thing as careers for the women.