Arizona republican., 1910-01-27
MARRIAGE IN PORTUGAL.
courtship Picturesque, But Life of
 Married Women Very Narrow.

| certainly the most important. event in that of the Portuguese woman, and.
 what is more. in the early days of
 courtship it is attended with some
 romance, for there is less of business
 and more of romance in the ways of the Portuguese lover. This is how
 the Portuguese cavalier conducts his
 affairs de occur: If he sees, pretty girl in the street with whom he would like to become acquainted. he follows her. He follows her in the face of all ifficulties-chaperons and duen- nas-right to her very door. and he
 notes the address. says a writer in the London Daily Mail.
 Next day he comes again. and If the young lady approves of him she will most certainly be on the lookout. but sometimes hard fate. an angry guardian. or a stern parent prevents her. and then the gallant youth is kept waiting.
 So. if during a ramble through Por- tugal you should notice young man lettering at the corner of the street or gazing intently at house, ycu most not imagine, that he is medi- tating burglary or anything so des perate. but you know that he is merely harmless and amorous youth gazing at the windows of his lady love.
 Be sure if there is a way she will not keep him waiting long. for the Portuguese girl is a past master in the art of intrigue.
 Soon she leans over the balcony and smiles at him. and the happy youth. thus encouraged, ties note. in which he declares his undying passion. to the cord which the fair lady has dropped from the balcony. The next day the young man. buoyed with hope. comes again. but this time he is bolder. for he rings at the door.
 If the inquiries which the lady's | parents will doubtless have made prove satisfactory. he Is admitted to make the acquaintance of the young lady and her family. and then should he please and the lady's father be prepared to give the necessary dot. | the wedding bells will end this little romance.
 once married. the death knell of romance and all else is often sounded for the Portuguese bride. Married of i ten when yet a child. she has the ] cares of wifehood and motherhood | thrust upon her.
 For unlike her sisters of France. | marriage does not spell her emanci- patton. her freedom from the chap | eron. The bride of today has no more 1 freedom than the maiden of yester- day Without husband or chaperon. al husband will often keep her as close ly guarded as though she had taken l the veil.
 The lives. therefore, of the Portu- | guese women are often as barren | and devoid of interest as those of the women in the far east. Certainly | among the rising generation there IS a growing unrest. a yearning for cul- ture. a vague idea that there is a | world somewhere beyond Portugal. | but the lives of many are often as heldged in as their own back gar dens.
 In fact. to many their house and | family. their kinlar. or orange grove. represent their whole world-the only | world they know. It is no unusual thing to find a Portuguese woman | who has been willingly incercerated | for several years. One lady of my | told me she had not | been beyond the garden for four years p And you are not bored?" l ex- | claimed. in astonishment. You do not want to go out?
 If I should go out she replied in her pretty broken English. 'I rest not till I am returned: for who knows what may happen in my absence? I "Go out" she continued with shrug of her plump shoulders. flor what for should I go out? Here l have my | children. my husband, my home; what more can I want?"
 What, indeed?
 To the onlooker the life of the average Portuguese women is dull. deadly dull She cannot throw her. self into housekeeping as German would. because the. Portuguese me- mage is such a very simple affair 1t could not possibly occupy much time or thought Moreover, it is not in her nature to become really good hsusfrau.
 Books are often sealed for her Less than an onlooker at life, the worlds happenings can hardly be