They Are Regarded As Injurious, And
Cannot Be Trusted To The Daughters Until Mamma Has Read Them.
Mamma
never has time to read them, and so they are condemned by default.
Fernan Caballero, in one of
Her sleepy little romances, refers to this
illiterate character of the Spanish ladies, and says it is their chief
charm, - that a Christian woman, in good society, ought not to know
anything beyond her cookery-book and her missal. There is-an old proverb
which coarsely conveys this idea: A mule that whinnies and a woman that
talks Latin never come to any good.
There is a contented acquiescence in this moral servitude among the fair
Spaniards which would madden our agitatresses. (See what will become of
the language when male words are crowded out of the dictionary!)
It must be the innocence which springs from ignorance that induces an
occasional coarseness of expression which surprises you in the
conversation of those lovely young girls. They will speak with perfect
freedom of the etat-civil of a young unmarried mother. A maiden of
fifteen said to me: "I must go to a party this evening decolletee, and
I hate it. Benigno is getting old enough to marry, and he wants to see
all the girls in low neck before he makes up his mind." They all swear
like troopers, without a thought of profanity. Their mildest expression
of surprise is Jesus Maria! They change their oaths with the season. At
the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the favorite oath is Maria
Purissima.
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