TYRANNICAL ETIQUETTE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6667, 21 July 1928, Page 8 (Supplement)

TYRANNICAL ETIQUETTE

before. 8 o’clock every morning and attends Mass. After, that-tilm .returns to breakfast and spends, the „ rest' ol her day doing embroidery dr receiving her women friends. Often ; a friend will read some book, while several women work upon a piece of needled work. .\' ■ % .1...'':-;' • ' . In Seville the chief recreation of the day .for, womenand their, families. ia to drive in the Paseo de las Deliciaa In the cool of the, evening. It is then that the gorgeous liveries of the Dnkd of Alba, the Duke: of MCdinaceli, and; other ; of the Spanish'nobility may be seen, as their carriages’ pass down tti* avenue of palm trees 'festooned roses, for. the gardens of Maria'Luisa are among the most exotic and beautiful in the world. . . -v -r ;

The.rules applying to ; a 'Spanish woman becomeeven stricter.. When her husband dies. She.;, must hot leave the house for three mouths* and she must remain in mourning for some years. Often the front dodr ot the house is draped with black doth 'for a year or more. In Spain .the family is a great jink. A Spanish girl:* recently. left:; for America, and her family-; some’" -2V people in all; journeyed from BuSrgds,: la- Northern Spain; to . Seville to bid her good-bye, althpugh;tbey had, last seen her a fortnight before. And this ; incident is not ah, exception. . ;’ N ,. This family spirit,: itqwever, has its disadvantages. Some years ago there was’ a well-known dancer, called Dora.; la Cordobesita, Southern Spain by her dancing. { She was the, idol of Seville. Had ; sho| lived in any other country, she would, now have been a rich woman, but she was compelled by Spanish custom to; share out all her earnings, among her relatives. Every- night; when ?. the] performance was v . finished Vat ,' the theatre, some 10 'or 12: q£ her >ehh tions escorted her home. Of coursfl she washover allowed to speaK'tb,'ahjP man. t. ■i The Spanish women ,ot strict family are • thus allowed few recreations, be*: sides embroidery’ and: a "little discreet;; reading. Perhaps-that:is':why they ; give so much time and careful thought; to their dress. The ; upper-class woiftbn , of Madrid are perhaps: the . bestdressed women in.- the world, uplessi these be the women of Buenos A,ires. . Their taste is infallible and alwayg re--, strained. /' "V :

Dragon-Duennas of Spain Watch And Listen To

Lovers’ Greetings Si o-DAY, over 400 years after, the expulsion of I’ the Moors, Spain is still 1 an Oriental country. The | East 'lives in the blood and i ; traditions of the

• - people. Whoever-hears mass chanted in the Cathedral of Toledo : readily. fancies himself in the mosques of Cairo; for the choristers slng with the high-pitched nasal tones of the Arabs. The gipsy dancers who dance in the caves of the Albaicin, the ancient Moorish .quarter of Granada, move with the. same sinuous nip movements as the dgnpers of the Ouled Nail upon the outskirts of the Sahara. Music, architecture,: and place-names tell the same story;

But in no phase of life does the Oripersist more strongly than in the treatment of women. The Spanish woman is not, as popularly imagined, ' a beautiful Carmen, serenaded. Continuall- by the most dashing “toreros” of Andalusia, She lives the restricted life fit tire woman of the East.' Of course, this statement is not so widely true of the cosmopolitan women of Madrid.. The life of the great European capitals is everywhere much the same. -;; But of the rest of Spain, and especially of the south, it is essentially'true.

A young „• girl may not leave the house unaccompanied' by a duenna. She must hot speak to, or look at any man. When her family see a young man. whom they consider suitable he is allowed to go and call on the girl. Her parents or the duenna always sit in the same room as the couple. Even when the girl is engaged she is never allowed to be one moment alone with her fiance unless carefully guarded.

If you walk at night through the streets of a city .of Southern. Spain, such as Granada, Cordova, or Seville, you will see young men whispering through the heavy iron grilles of darkened windows to girls on the farther side. Even then, a duenna Is probably hatching and listening. ■

Once a girl is married she may go nowhere without her husband or ; uh* accompanied by a woman friend. An Englishwoman -was driving; the other day with a Spanish married; woman In 'the “Retiro,” they Hyde Park of Mad* rid. 'A. Spaniard'whom she had mot some days before" passed, in another carriage. “Look; there is Senor X . Don’t-you think lie is good-looking?” the Englishwoman said., “i must not look,” the other, replied; !‘it Is against etiquette;”' i . . How does the .-Spanish woman of good family spend her day? She rises