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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1907)
AMERICAN LOVEMAKING HAS STIRRED UP THINGS IN CUBA Q*d Folks Are Firmly of Opinion That the Methods Are ^hocking, Bat the Younger People Seem to Think Tt*/ Are an Improve* me"! Over the Customs of the P.ict \ --- Havana, -Cuba.—Think of taking your fiancee to the opera without a chaperon! Cab you imagine anything worse? To invite her to have an ice cream soda—could anything be more im proper? Can you conceive of any self-respect ing man inviting the girl who has promised to be his wife to go for a car ride with him without asking mother to go, too? Can the human imagination compre hend anything so daring as an auto mobile ride without a chaperon? Could anything be more shocking i hau a boat ride in the moonlight, atone with the woman you love? Doesn't it make your blood run cold when you picture your daughter sit ting bn a bench in the park with her band nestling In the hand of the man she has promised to marry? Wouldn’t you kill your future son ; .' iw if you caught him kissing your dan Jhter before the church had made fits his wife? And what would you do if he bad i he audacity to smile at her as he passed her on the street, if good man ners were so totally lacking in his makeup that he stopped to chat with her on the public corner, if he were so badly bred that he knew no better 'ban to meet her anywhere without bubogrnphlag for the chaperon to make a double-quick march to her rosCue? Ancient Spanish Etiquette. You will laugh at the thought of ideas so absurd and prudish, but down in Cuba the thought of a mother’s daughter going to the opera unchap • wotted, sitting over a glass of ice cream soda with her lover, going fer .1 car ride with her affianced husband, automobiling with him. boating with him in the moonlight, daring to let Mat hold her band, bold enough to permit him to steal a kiss, and so destitute of good manners as to tip hie hat to her on a public plaza, is i quer the Amo: loan wooer. They have told them they must continue to make love from behind the bars of their queer windows with a duenna within earshot They have forbidden them to smile as they pas3 their suit ors on the plains, they have ordered them to cling to the old Cuban cus toms that are so distasteful to them And the girls of Cuba are on the point of rising in rebellion against their parents. They say they don’t care if they are disinherited, that they’ll marry men who are able to support them. They say they are bound to be courted in the American way, to be recognized as human beings worthy of trust, as women of judgment and common sense. They object to bolng hidden away and kept centuries be hind the times. Bold American Sets New Style. An audacious Yankee, college bred, tali, broad-shouldered, determined. In white flannels from head to foot—a dashing figure—lifted his hat to a dark eyed Cuban girl as he passed her on the plaza in Havana. She smiled back at him. He stood still and out stretched his hand. She came up to him and took it. A motor ride and an engagement followed—and now all Cuba is discussing the scandal, not be cause it wasn’t a good match, but because the Cuban girl violated the most sacred and ancient customs of her country by flirting with a stranger on the public street, by motoring with him without a chaperon, and because the Yankee, instead of doing as Cuban lovers do, openly disregarded the tra ditions and scored the marriage cus toms of the island. But for his hurried departure with his dark skinned bride on a honey moon trip to Now York the Yankee lover would have paid the penalty for his folly and his audacity. It’s the paternal bullet that makes Cupid toe the mark in Cuba and protects the sacred institutions of the little repub lie—the home and marriage. 4 earner M£ZZJT cP 7DDjr enougn to mane a uuDan ratner s nair : tarn white. AH these questions of propriety have been settled In America, and the chaperon has lost her job. Down In Cuba they have been settled, too, for centuries, but now that the Americans hate brought American customs to the island the pretty Cuban maids are clamoring for another kind of a set tlement They want to abolish the duenna and the barred window—they want to make love In the American way. And the fathers and mothers of Cuba, still clinging to the old tra ditions and the time-worn customs, have risen up to oppose them. Family Controversy. It is a controversy, between parents shocked by the advanced American methods of making love and the daughters of Cuba who have tried the American way and like it The par hots have delivered their ultimatum. Tliey have told their blushing daugh ters that they will be disowned and .disinherited if they stoop to con . By tne time tne audacious Yankee and bis bride reached New York the father had relented, but ever since that day all Cuba has been discussing the American invasion of their cus toms. Say Americanization Goes Too Far. It has become a national problem In Cuba and it soon may become ■ a national issue, to be inscribed in the platforms of the two leading political parties, to be settled at the polls on election day. The Cubans of all classes are crying out that the Americaniza tion of the island has gone too far. .The retiring, modest senorita who from time Immemorial has been court ed as she pressed her face against the iron gratings of her barred win dow, with the face of the watchful duenna beside hers, must not be wooed and won on the streets or in the plaza. The doors to her house must be kept shut against the suitor until the day of her marriage. She must not permit even the tips of her Angers to be soiled by the touch ot -11 Wind H F'*" 1—«« her Romeo’s hand until the gold ring bos been given and taken, and all the vow# have been murmured. These are the cries that are being raised by the mothers and fathers of Cuba, and the pretty senerltaa are muttering eomplainlngly, for already they have grown to like the American way. It’s less’ trouble and the Love story moves more rapidly to the "finis.’’ There are not the long, agon izing hours behind the barred win dows with the face of the watchful, critical duenna there, too. There is real romance in the American way. the girlish hearts cry out, romance suc.h .as the warm hearts of the senoritas never knew before. Pupils in Girls’ School Rebel. In the girls' schools in Cuba glee clubs have been organized and banjo and mandolin and guitar clubs, and the parents are up in arms. “Our senoritas have no business to be seen in public,” they moan. "Their place is In the home. They are getting too independent. They are getting too much like the ‘new woman.’ ” And to this outcry the Cuban maidens are beginning to laugh scornfully. "We’ve been behind the times,” they protest to their indignant moth ers and Irate fathers. “Every girl In the world Is allowed some liberty— except the girls of Turkey, perhaps, and you wouldn’t want as to be like the Turkish maidens, would you—as ignorant, aa unsophisticated, as ab surd?” The rebellion of the girls against their parents began when the Yankee was ferbidden to woo them In the Yankee way; It grew into a revolution when the good mothers and fathers of Cuba attempted to put an end to the girls' glee clubs. Just what it is now is indescribable—since basketball was introduced in one of the Americanized schools, since the athletic American girl made her appearance on the island and tantalized the senoritas by winning soft glances from the senors; since American candy stores and ice cream soda parlors began to dot the Havana streets and plazas. The senoritas say they like the American way. They have pleaded; they have protested: they have threatened, but to all their pleadings, protestations, and threats their fathers have made a determined answer—“No!” Senoritas Like the American Way. But in spite of the resolute “No,” a few glee clubs have survived, and in certain liberal schools new ones are being organized. Basketball has spread from the one Americanized school to others, and so have the oth er “fads” of the American schooL Girls are being taught the same sub y v jsemv^otT *7* _ sbb jmicaar jaar jects in many of the schools that the boys are taught. Motor cars, drivea by Yankees, still spin along the ave nues. Yankees still make love to the Cuban senoritas whenever they get a good chance, and the senoritas shyly return their glances if they are sere that papa or mamma or the duenna isn't looking. And of course they still s't behind their barred windows and listen to the poetry and Bong and the protestations of love of the Cuban suitors, and the duennas sit behind the same bars and listen with them. But it is no longer their way—the 3enoritas like the other way—and many a handsome senor has lost the hand of his loved one because he was not bold enough or brave enough to run the risk of a parental bullet to satisfy his senorita’s whim for Ameri can made love. Where it will end—the triangular struggle between the parents, the senoritas, and the American ways—no one is ready to predict, but it is a safe bet that the struggle has only just begun, for already there are signs in Cuba, in the progressive schools built by American enterprise and capital, of the approaching introduction of co education. And that, as everybody in Cuba known, will be the last straw. It will become a question of obedience or of open rebellion against parental authority, and will the senoritas win or will the palm of victory fail to the solicitous mothers and— fathers of Cuba who are clinging so technically to the old traditions and customs? It will take an election to settle the question, say the wisest of the Cu bans. Imagine an election, a national election, to decide how girls shall make love! Magic of the Maoris. ■j — Remarkable Feat That Seemed to Defy Explanation. Tohoto was the last of the old "to hungas,” or native magicians of New Zealand. A writer says: “The num ber of his years could ha-dly be guess ed; he was almost a Methuselah of the Maori. I visited him several times is the 70s; but so extremely sacred mm his person held that It was only after repeated delays that I was al lowed to see him; indeed, he con sidered that white people were not fit to associate with, as they had no system of' tapu (consecrated and sacred), nor did they regard things which- were tapu to the Maori with any reverence. From the first he had resisted all efforts of the mission aries to induce him to abandon his ancient faith for Christianity. As he sttil had a large following who for hlB refused to recognize Christianity, his conversion was greatly desired. “New Zealand's greatest bishop laid Msgs to the old heathen at Mafcota that tree-clad isle in Lake Rotorua to the beautiful Hinemoa swam. For hours the b'shop endeavored earn estly to win the rriest over. But his powers of persuasion for once failed utterly. Tohoto sat unmoved, in moody sMence. At length he lifted his head. ‘Hearken unto my words.’ he sa d. ‘If you can do this I will accept your God.’ Then picking up the dead leaf of a cabbage tree which had flut tered to the ground, he held it out loosely between his Angers at arm’s length.. “His withered body was naked to the hips; the sun was high in the heavers; no deception was possible. After repeating an tncanta lon he in vited his visitor to lock. Lo, the leaf had become greed! The strong-mind ed, highly educated Englishman had no belief in either Tohoto or his pow ers, yet by some mental influence the decrepit Polynesian was able to mako the vii tie white naan believe that what he saw was a fresh, green leaf; yet it was in reality still a dry, brown one.” Quite a number of women in Geo many ore devoting themselves to the art of conducting bands and orches tra*. Kind to Hit Horses. A certain American boys’ Institu tion boasts a brass band made up of the boys of the school. The band had been engaged to play at a village some distance from the school, and a wagonette had been hired to take the boys there. On the way the young leader of the band suggested that they should “have a tune,” but the driver of the wagonette at once objected. . “No toons while I drive,” he de clared. “But why?" persisted the musi cians. “Surely the horses wouldn’t run away?” “No,” said the driver, “they wouldn’t!” “Then why object?" “Simply becoB the poor beggars couldn’t run away if they tried.” was the grim retort. “Their runnin’away days is over, an* as long as I drives you ain’t agoin’ to take no mean ad vantage of *eml That’s why I ses no toonsi” The boys subsided, and there were “ao toons” on that Journay, Mandates of Mshion THE EVER-POPULAR BLQLkSE It Is In coloring, rather than in con tour, that the changes which Fashion has ordained for the coming season are to be noted, and while the general outline and scheme of our garments are those with which we have become pleasantly familiar during the past few months, everything will be trans formed In effect by striking and mani fold contrasts of color. No longer is 11 to be our aim to show the one chosen shade in practically every detail ol our costume from hat to shoes—on the contrary, the iflbre colors are clev erly combined on gown and headgear the more cleverly will the up-to-date ness of the wearer and the skill of the maker be proclaimed, and, in deed, much skill is Invariably demand ed if the result is to be altogether sue ce^sful, while discretion will ocoasion ally be the better part of—fashion— when a choice has to be made. Peacock blue is one of the colorings which will be very much to the fore, and it certainly looks wonderfully well In the chi Eton velvet (or vel veteen) which is to be a much fa vored fabrio, while the deepest and richest shades of purple, and plum and wine red, promise to bring a welcome brightness into dull days and months and there are also available for choice many charmingly soft tones of leaf green and brown, the beautiful (though not always beoaosiag) olnna An Autumn Gown. moa shadings also making appeal to many. Stripes seem to pattern every fabric with impart'allty, and in the matter of trimmings, braidings and embroideries many-colored as Joseph's coat, are equally ubiquitous, the gar ment which they do not Jointly adorn being somewhat difficult of discovery Not that you are likely to display any anxiety for such a discovery, seeing that the effect of the said trimmings is most’ admirable and decorative— Indeed, you have every reason to be well pleased with the Fashion pro gram which has been arranged for the coming season, and whose authentic details you may study in these pages, for the most widely different tastes (and figures!) have been carefully provided for, and in spite of the extra elaboration of detail and rumors of in creased cbst for everything, you will find nothing to alarp you in the mat ter of prices. The kimono we still nave with us, and though its potent influence will probably wane with the season as re gards our gowns, it will be long, I should say, before we are willing to t disregard Its many special advantages when applied to theater coats and wraps generally, while, then, it Is to be noted that the sleeve of elbow length—or rather, shortness—can now be discarded by all those who may prefer the more protective and becom 'ng sleeve, whose career continues to the wrist, and whose claims to re newed favor are at last being recog nized. Blouses are of universal interest and women are constantly needing to add to their supply of these most con venient garments. In our large Illus tration above we display a variety of outturns, from which helpful sugges tions may be obtained for the making of these garments. The special features of fashion whioh vary from those of the fall and winter season of 19bt> are the skirts and the sleeves, both having become considerably smaller. The ordinary 'al lor-made man’s sleeve is prominent ’y adopted on the long coat, while the ) skirts invariably fit elosely round the I hips, and boast their little fulness in the center of the back. The short skirt and the long skirt are alike in evidence, and since each j -nay most successfully play a different ! . ->art, there Is uo reason that the charms of both should not be recog nized Impartially. Although there Is much talk of mak 'ng velvet dresses with the short skirts aad long coots, I would hold ‘hot, as a general rule, the long skirt locks for better In velvet. Velveteen, however, may have a success as a short skirt, and besides these checked and striped velveteens of which I have already spoken, I have met some with blurred spots upon their surface, and others with a pattern of some conven tional design In fine black. The models in hats all seem exactly alike, invariably of the bell-shaped style, the only alternative being the beaver toque, which has an upturned brim, and Is trimmed with a couple of skeleton feathers or a fanciful “mount” of plumes. The tunic swathed round the figure is the latest novelty for evening wear, though it la, of course, but a revival, like all good novelties. It Is made of good crepe de chine, and dragged round so that it fits quite tightly over 'ts lining, while It is bordered with a thick silk fringe, and It rests on a brocaded or embroidered petticoat. Numerous are the tweeds In stripes, and the most successful rival to the stripe is the costume which consists of a checked skirt and a plain coat, such checked skirt being constantly made of velveteen, while the coat is ;n variably of cloth. Then there are some checked tweeds strapped with cloth and you may a’so find the per oetually attractive plain-faced cloth trimmed with strappings of velvet, as well as with those silk braid bindings which are almost ubiquitous. Extreme in Advertie'ng. “A new method of advertising has been discovered,” says a Mannheim "arer. “by a Bavarian manufacturing concern- On cards deeply bordered vlth black it has sent the following notice to business houses in Ger many: ‘Honored Sir: The board of directors of our company has instruct* ed me to notify our esteemed patrons in Baden that we mourn with them on ‘he occasion of the passing away of their beloved prince, his royal high ness the Grand Duke Frederick. In complying with the wish of the direct ors, I must congratulate our father land on Paving been the cradle of bo noble a regent. Accept the assurance of our sincere regard. X. Y., Man ager.’” The latest circular ard price list of the concern were sent with the unique card, and the paper in which the advertising trick was no ticed says: "This may be clever, from the business man's standpoint, but, as we s-e it, it is b*uiaL” Fish From the Car Windows. Passengers' on the Southern Pacific overland trains are having rare spor trolling from the car windows for flsl in the Salton sea, and good catches nave been made. About midway or .lie sea an arroyo extends back intc the mountains. Tbe track crosses this on a trestle. The water la fifteen to twenty-five feet deep, and It has become a custom of the dining ea: porter to throw overboard the scraps from the table there. Thousands of su ot ail sizes lie in wait for the ain and can be easily seen. A few days ago an irrepressible^ sherman prepared his hook and line, id as the train slowly thundered ver the long trestle, swung it far out ver the water. This the fiBh mis ook for their customary meal, and a oracious carp, three feet long, seised he bait and was drawn aboard the ’ullman. With this beginning the port has grown to such a» extent hat the passenger trains are now sup plied with fish for the dining cars. At the National Capital Gossip of People and Events Gathered in Washington WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS GUARDED BY MAD BULLS i _ WASHINGTON'.—In the absence of President Roosevelt in the cane brake and with "Pete” the bull dog sequestered on Surgeon-General Rix ey’s farm, the white house grounds have not been left unguarded. A couple of bulls—not bull dogs, but real bovine bulls—have taken upon themselves the task, formerly so well discharged by “Pete” of seeing that the grounds are unprofaned by unde-, sirable citizens, mollycoddles or milk sops. Since the president and Pete went away newspaper men, mollycoddles and the criminal rich have roamed the white house grounds with Impunity. Undesirable citizens have shown a tendency to stand on the walks and bark at the white house, and neither “Slippers,” the six-toed cat, nor Quen tin Roosevelt's snakes have proved equal to the task of preserving the requisite calm. How the two patriotic bulls dis covered the state of things and decid ed that it was up to them to rectify it will never be known. It Is a fact, however, that early the other morn WOMEN have changed the faces of empires, and why should not a woman have a strong voice in saying whether, such and such a man should rule the republic of so-and-so? Capital gossips assert Theodore Roosevelt will keep his promise not to run again for the presidency, and in that retirement he will be fulfilling not merely his promise to the people but his pledge to his wife. Mrs. Roosevelt has informed exceed ingly clc-s friends that her husband and she long ago decided that, purely as a family affair, not a political one. they and theirs would leave the white house on March 4, 1909. It is said that Mrs. Roosevelt re luctantly consented to introduce her young daughter Ethel to Washington society, probably in Christmas week of 1908. Mrs. Roosevelt, says the confidants, ACT OF “DRYS” MAY EMBARRASS ROOSEVELT IF congress at the coming session prohibits the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors in the District of Columbia, as now seems probable, President Roosevelt will be in an em barrassing position—the prohibition ists say “between the devil and the deep sea.” For tactical reasons the prohibi tionists will tack their bill to an ap propriation measure so as to assure its passage. When such an appropria tion bill comes befor the president he will have to decide, first, whether he can a “ford to jeopardize the inter ests of the branch of the government for which the appropriation is pro posed, 1^ vetoing the whole bill in order to get rid of the “liquor devil” clause. If he decides he cannot afford to interpose a veto he will have to de cide Yhether he slja11 obey it and THE fascination of Washington as a place of residence especially to i those who have tasted the delights of official life, is once more illustrated by the announcement that Mrs. John E. Reyburn, wife of the recently elect ed mayor of Philadelphia, will con tinue her home at the national capital, notwithstanding her husband's posi tion as the municipal chief of the city of Brotherly Love. Quite another type of woman seek ing a residence in Washington as a re lief from a less satisfying city is Mrs. Thomas F. Ryan, wife of New York s great financier, who last season bought and furnished the former resi dence of the late Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston with a view to passing her winters in Washington. Right in the heart of the Smartest residence sec tion with Representative and Mrs. Longworth as her immediate neiih- : bors. Mrs. Ryan live} entirely apart from the social world, but thoroughly enjoying Washington, her Dew home and the societ-y of her husband aid children who come and go between New York and Virginia with happy unconcern for distance or expense. Everybody, or nearly everybody, socially speaking, called on Mr3. Ryan, of course, but few persons got beyond the white and yellow portal, which Is guarded by a sphinxlike but ler, who gently informs all comers h s ' mistress is "not at home.” Within a week each person leaving a card re ceives one In return, with the written message that Mrs Ryan regrets she is unable to receive or make visits. No reason Is assigned Tor the inabil ity, nor are the regrets qua.ified by any polite adjective, but as Mrs. Ryan drives, travels In her pedal car with out any apparent Inconvenience, it is assumed the fr-> " - no: physical; !ng they took up a position in front of the white house from -which they could command both walks. The first trespasser to appear was an Afro American named Charles Lancaster. It was still dark when he arrived, and the bull at the west corner let him get a little distance by before he made up his mind as to Lancaster's unde sirability. Then he discharged a bel low and advanced on the enemy, head down and tail up. Lancaster moved eastward with some haste, and the bull did likewise. At the east corner the west: bull’s col league came charging out with a few savage remarks. Lancaster emerged from the east gate about as conservatively as a shot departs from a gun, and the two bulls fortunately got jammed in the door way. The Afro-American never stop ped till he got to the house of deten tion, Meanwhile the two bulls, finding the mollycoddle crop & ■ little short, tired of the job and wan dered to Iowa Circle, where they were later arrested by a policeman and locked up. pledge' to wife keeps TEDDY FROM THIRD TERM is determined to shield Ethel from the publicity that came to Alice Roosevelt and she would prefer that the former girl wait until the family should be established in private life. Still she realizes what it is for a young girl to make her social bow in the white house, and for that reason she will grant to Ethel just three months as a social grown-up. Mrs. Roosevelt from the first hour of the president’s incumbency haai been solicitous about its effect on her children. Often she has pleaded with persons not to spoil the children and has exerted all her influence to keep all their doings out of print. It is likely Miss Roosevelt wlH spend the two years after she leave* Washington in traveling abroad and studying music and languages. She will not be 18 until the summer of 1909. > T - ■ - furnish no wine to guests at th* White House. There Is no power oa earth that can compel the president to observe any law. As all writs in the District of Columbia run in his name, it is ob vious that he'would not arrest him self for disregarding the law. That he bad disregarded it would be no tice to all peace officers that he de cided not to enforce it against him self. All presidents of the United State* have at times set wine before their guests. Until Theodore Roosevelt be came president the White House had a wine cellar and a dark room in the attic set aside as a storeroom for liquors. He did away with them both. The cellar is now used for machinery ana the dark room is a part of the quar ters for the servants. WINTER LIFE AT CAPITAL ATTRACTIVE TO WOMEN ^xtremely charitable and a devout Roman Catholic, Mrs. Ryan devotes time and means to the propagation of that faith, especially in Virginia, her husband’s native state. To the few who have been fortunate enough to make her acquaintance and win her friendship, Mrs. Ryan is a gra cious kindly woman of strong person ally, interested in the affairs of the world so far as an intelligent appreci ation of life goes, but far removed from its frivolities. Piano Acts as Burglar Alarm. Because a clumsy burglar stumbled and sprawled over the keyboard of a piano in the parlor of Dominick Smith, a rich contractor at Pelham, N. Y., the burglar and a “pal” were compelled to abandon booty valued at several thousand dollars which they had packed in bundles ready to carry away. , * Quite recently Smith bought the piano. He bought it solely for its harmony-producing qualities and had no idea it would serve as a burglar alarm. Several silver articles of brlc a brac were placed on t-'p of the piano and evidently In reaching for these one of the burglars fell, his hands striking the keys. A loud, discord ant rumble disturbed the quiet of the house and aroused the whole family. Smith seized his revolver and ran down stairs 1n time to see two men speeding down a path in the front yard. He fired several shots at them, but the bullets went wild. Near the p'ano afterward the contractor found the bundles of valuables the men bad Intended to carry away, but which they abandoned In their haste to es cape when tb» piano proclaimed their presence.