Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-28
Some Record Courtships.

Spain might be termed the land of
elaboration. for nothng-especially in
the case of eourtship and marriage
is done in haste. Indeed, in the coun-
try towns of Andalusia, a sudden mar
riage creates great surprise, for, as a.
Spanish writer says, there is nothing
in which procrastination is carried SO
far in Andalusia as in the matter Of
engagements"
The Andalusian peasant considers
Well the step he is about to take, and
this consideration is a very pleasant
way of killing time. and time is of but
little value in the south of Spain. 1t
is quite common thing for a man to
be engaged 10 years. There is also q
monetary consideration to be taken
into account, the marriage fee in Spain
being a high one, 81 or IS.
Before coming into the house of his
fianeee man has to ask permission
OF the father to be his daughters
sweetheart. If he gives it party is
given to celebrate the engagement, at
which they drink aguardiente and eat
cakes Girls are never allowed to
walk out with their sweethearts No
kissing is permitted between them.
When a girl Is asked why, she says,
I'VE do not belong to our sweethearts;
if we quarreled he could not say that
my lips had ever been HIS
This comes partly from pride and
partly from a wish not to be depreciat-
ed in the matrimonial market, as low
ers in Spain often prove tickle. A girl
l knew mad been engaged five years
when her lover Tilted her. Six months
later she became engeged again. You
see, she had Only chatted with her for
mer lover so her matrimonial chances
were quite as good as before she was
engaged at all.
Courtsnip is so public in Spain that
there cannot be any difficulty In get
ting evidence for breach of promise.
A peasant who is sued for breach of
promise and who has resided in the
same province as his fiancee has to
pay her so much for every year he has
been engaged to her. Nearly all the
peasants are illiterate and have to get
friends to write their love letters for
them
Although they do not kiss each other
they put KS and o's in their letters,
tine latter signifying embraces. When
a girl first writes to her sweetheart
she only addresses him as my appre-
ciated John" she does not think it at
all correct to put My dear John" I'M
less they have been engaged a long
time.
In these days engaged couples be-
longing to the upper classes see "a good
deal OF each other. They meet at
mass in the morning, chat together
during the hour of siesta, see each 9TH
er in the afternoon during the prone
made. go to the same party in the eve
ming, and after supper see each other
and "chat together at the window;
and there are nights when they remain
once more chatting together, their
faces pressed 10 the bars, until the
rosy fingered dawn appears in the
East"
1t is related that lover getting
married after an engagement of eight
years soon afterward fell into low
spirits from not knowing what TO do
with his time!
In olden days, however, according
to fernando Cortez, Spanish girls were
kept almost as secluded and guarded
as carefully as the ladies in the harem
of Turk Therefore when young
man fell in love, instead of ringing
The doorbell and sending in his card
he often made a rope ladder and sur
veyed the residence of the young lady
with a view to aseertainiRg the best
mode of getting upon her balcony or
into her window Wide World Maya
zine