Brazilian ladies who eighty years ago were kept in an almost
Moorish rei'lusion, systematically avoiding strangers and paying their
only calls, outside of the family circle, to gorgeously decorated
temples, taken there in sumptuous palankeens carried by negroes
in livery, rank now amongst the best customers of Parisian dress-
makers and milliners, and are as fond of dancing and having an
*'awful good time" as any American girl of Chicagci or San Francisco*
Some have taken life more seriously and are doctors, or teachers,
or even lawyers. Yet our women have neither despised or neglected
their home duties. Japanese mothers are kind and affectionate, not
more so than Brazilian mothers. Our wives, as a rule, are no
longer as obedient as you, but they are quite as considerate and
gentle. Conjugal docility, on the side of women, is almost as
common in our Southern continent as in your northern islands.
