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    40 WOMEN IN ITALY.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    - A And Very That Striking Of Land Diffe...

    hobbling gait of the Chinese woman is not the fault of nature , but the fault of that society which insists that her feet shall be crushed into

    a peg-like form . Even so , nature is not chargeable with the manifold faults and infirmities of the Italian female character of the

    present day—weakness , vanity , frivolity , and the many baneful consequences flowing from themowing evidently their oriin to

    , g sources , for which an erring code of custom and opinion is responsible .

    Marriage considerably extends the liberty of the female sex in every class of the community in Italy . A young unmarried lad

    be seen looke alone d upon three as yards having from brou her ght home the , in deepest any town disgrace of Ital on y , herself would y

    and family . The extraordinary boldness and culpability of the action she had committed of appearing alone , ~ even at the threshold

    of her father ' s house , -would meet with universal reprobation . A girl belonging to the upper ranks of life is practically a prisoner till she

    marries . Unless accompanied by father , brother , or mother , she may not be seen outside the house , according to the rules of propriety .

    Even under such circumstances , the same stern tyrant enjoins that she should shew her features but rarely to the public . From societ

    too she is quite excluded ; neither in the morning fSte nor the evening y dance is she permitted to display her charms and graces . A perpetual

    watch is kept upon her actions , and every line she writes and every line she receives is subjected to rigid scrutiny .

    The girl belonging to the humbler classes of society shares also , in a great degree , in the same restrictions on her libert . The daughter

    of a keeper of a lodging-house in Florence , whom y I offered to take to see the ceremony of the Lavanda at the Grand Ducal palace , could

    not avail herself of my offer , solely because she was not able to get any one to accompany her through the best portion of the townon

    a ten minutes walk to my residence . A work girl going to , her employers house , is provided with an escort of some kind or other ;

    a little child sometimes , in emergencies , doing duty as duenna for is the ever occasion to be . met In alone the country . ; and the many same a time rule is prevails convenience , no peasant sacrificed girl

    in this respect for the exigencies of outward decorum . Though marriage in some respects enlarges the sj > here of

    independent action of women in Italy , the liberty it gives is of a very limited character . An Italian lady whom I knew , and whose mind

    had been enlarged through the medium of a few years residence in a foreign country , whilst lamenting to me the evil influences which

    resulted from the present social code of Italy , gave an instance of how it had once personally affected her in a very unpleasant manner .

    I matters leave should 6 i So Luc me of t c ake ye business a co s nv ago l i nientl ttl to , " e be b she y o transacted , with s aid , m " e at time and Genoa hu do there sband what , proposed was not was some being to me trifling able , th a to t my y

    be done at Genoa in his stead . I at , once agreed to his necessary suggestion ,

    40 Women In Italy.

    40 WOMEN IN _ITALY .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1858, page 40, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091858/page/40/