LOVE-MAKING IN MEXICO—THIS YOUNG MAN HAS PATIENTLY WAITED UNDER THE WINDOW OF HIS INAMORATA UNTIL SHE CHOSE TO COME TO THE GRATING AND SPEAK TO HIM.
From a Photograph.
In Spanish-speaking countries young women are allowed but little of the liberty that they enjoy in lands where English is the native tongue. They rarely meet young men at social entertainments, and are never permitted to converse with them except in the presence of older people. They do, of course, contrive to carry on flirtations, but chiefly with the eyes. In every town in a Spanish-speaking country there is a plaza, where a band plays on one or two evenings of the week. The young men and women congregate there, the former walking round and round in one direction and the latter in the opposite direction. Thus they are constantly meeting and making eyes at each other, but they do not pair off or sit down on the benches together. When a young man wants to pay his attentions to a girl, he must get notes smuggled to her or “play the bear”—that is, stand under the window of her room and try to attract her attention, either by serenading her with some musical instrument, or, if he has no gift that way, by simply waiting patiently until she chances to look out and cast him an encouraging glance. In spite, however, of all difficulties and obstacles, Cupid contrives to find a way, and young people fall in love and marry just as in lands where etiquette is less strict and opportunities for tête-à-tête conversations more frequent.
A PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS ON THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER OF INDIA—THEY COVERED THE HILLS FOR MILES, STRIPPED ALL THE LEAVES OFF THE TREES, AND IN SOME CASES EVEN ATE THE BARK!
From a Photograph.
The striking little photograph above was sent by Colonel the Hon. H. E. Maxwell, D.S.O., from the remote post of Cherat, on the North-West frontier of India. “It was taken during a flight of locusts,” he writes. “They covered the hills for miles in every direction, and during their two or three days’ stay caused enormous damage to the few trees and shrubs with which we are blessed, stripping them entirely of their leaves, and in some cases even eating away the bark!”