Year: 1874

A Rio JanerIO correspondent OF
the Providence journal declares that
handsome women are rare in Brazil,
and adds: The face is generally
very plain, and often ugly, and [
really believe that because the lack
of comeliness is so frequent it is not
truly apprehended. The complexion
is generally sallow, never clear and
fresh, and by no means improved
by the abundant use made of cos
meties. If any single feature de-
serves notice it is the eyes, and yet
these do not possess that quality


which makes even the plainest eyes
brilliant; there is no soul looking
at you or speaking to you through
them. Childhood seems to cover
the whole period of physical beauty,
and some Of the children are most
interesting yet even then the hab-
its and tastes of ignorant and COM
monty negro nurses are fixed, in
place of the mothers careful train
ing and the example Of a mothers
devoted life. The excessive vanity
of girlhood, which seems to be en-
couraged by the parents rather than
restrained; the qualification of the
palate with all manner of sweets
and condiments the entire absence
of any physical exercise; and, what
is more, nothing but weakness in
herlted, cannot assume any perfect
womanliness. Foreign ladies who
teach in the schools priyate and
select schools) have told me that
school girl life in Brazil is in a most
lamentable moral condition. A
knowledge of French, music and
dancing is all that is considered
worth obtaining, and then until
which doesn't come at
all to many of them, or if it does
come is an arrangement Of the par
ents, and simply changes the place
of idleness-they wait, do nothing.
week, month and year, nothing;
they neither study, nor read, nor
sew; they do nothing In the fore
noon, in a state of slothful disha-
bile, they dwadle and lounge around
the house in the afternoon they
look out of the windows, and this
is a national custom, most striking
to a stranger, to see them, white and


black, high and low, educated and
illiterate, hanging out Of the win
doWs through the afternoon; indeed,
the window seats are filled with
cushions that the arms may not be-
come bruised by the continual lean
ing upon them. In the evening,
dressed-and I really believe the
taste displayed would give Madame
Demorest commissions if not paraly-
sis-they sit and sit, and do nothing
else again. Sometimes they speak,
and it's wonderful what commonpla-
ces can be uttered and how little can
be said when the Brazilian mouth
does open.. So far as female en-
ployment is concerned a Brizilian
girl labor for her support? No, in
deed She would rather have but
one dress and turn it on holidays.
Her father would sell his shirt first,
and then button up his seedy coat.
Her mother would die of mortifca-
ton. And so they live, poor and
vain, aping an aristocracy by mock
attempt and show, the cheap and
tawdry emptiness of what is ridicu-
Ious. The wealthier, and not less
vain, are surrounded with an atmOs-
phere of frigid hauteur, through
which only members of the clique
have the courage to attempt to pen-
citrate. The Brazilian woman de-
velops and natures young, and be-
comes old while still young. Her
moral sensibilities become obscured
by the life which exists about her,
and into which she may possibly ut
times get glance through the GUS
toms of her father or her brothers,