Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1886 — Mexican Home Life. Girls Spoiled by Chivalry of Men. [ARTICLE]

Mexican Home Life.

Girls Spoiled by Chivalry of Men.

We have in America the remarkable chivalry of our men, a character unknown and unrecognized in Europe, which, as always extended from the stronger to the weaker, of course includes a profound respect for women. This is the beginning of the best etiquette. Women all over America are protected, respected, supported, and petted. There is no Buch papadise for women. In Paris, the headquarters of elegance, the rottenness of an old civilization has undermined this loyalty to the ideal woman. In London there is a brutality and coarseness descending heavily on women of a lower grade, and which by atmospheric pressure has reached the higher classes, and now affects women of every Btatue in society, so* that it is unpleasant for a woman to walk London streets alone, and impossible for her to do so at night, even with a gentleman escort, after the theaters are closed. , _ There is absolutely no propriety or safety in Rome for girls who walk alone even at mid-day. Every Italian feels privileged to speak to her. It is so universally the custom of the country that a well-behaved young lady should have a chaperon that an American unmarried woman of even 40 years takes a friend with her when she walks out in Rome. „ 4 It is to be feared that American women have, as a class, disregarded this etiquette in Europe too much, and that at home (as we are now a nation of foreigners)they still disregard appearances. There is also no doubt that the American girl is a spoiled child. She forgets to be polite, to be deferential; she disregards such well-meant attentions in railway cars and society, while on the other hand she is apt to be, for appearance’s sake, too much absorbed in the man of her choice. Certain women think that they establish independence by abolishing good manners, and by ignoring refinement, gentleness and elegance. - But this is a great mistake. It is woman who preserves the order and decency of society; without her, men would soon in the savage estate, and the comfort and grace of home are exchanged for the rude discomfort of the mining camp.— Sarper’s Bazar.