Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1893 — Girlhood in Spain. [ARTICLE]

Girlhood in Spain.

Tho fact that the Spanish woman enjoys no social freedom until she marries or attains her majority has given rise to the supposition among those who know us only through the fantastic tales of unscrupulous travelers that in Spain women livo subjeot to the most absolute of tyrannies, and that wo aro tho victims of tho brutal selfishness of man. Nothing could be further from tho truth or more calumnious, Tho Spanish woman, yielding cheerfully and willingly the obedience of paternal authority enjoined by religion, receives, with tho nuptial benediction, tho liberty to go about alone and to guard unaided tho good name and respect with which in ohildhood and youth she had seen herself surroundod. But lot it not therefore bo imagined that tho Spanish girl loads the life of a recluse, subject to monastic rules. So far from this boing the case perhaps tlioro is no woman in the world who enjoys herself more whilo Hho is unmarried, who is a greator coquette, or who tyrannizes more completely over hor suitors; and when long drosses givo hor the right to present herself into society u poriod of amusement and diversions begin for hor which terminates without regret on the part of the good wifo as soon as tho duties of maternity como to fill hor life and to completely occupy both hor thoughts and nor timo.