Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/222

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216
FACE TO FACE WITH THE MEXICANS.

But if a long illness ensue, or death appear inevitable, the priest and the holy sacrament are at once ordered. So I have come to the conclusion that they consider the expression of irreligious sentiments when in health indicative of liberal ideas, and showing a sympathy with the "advanced" thought of the age. While they adopt the theory that "the first requisite of man is to be a good animal," in the hour of trial they fall back on the time-honored consolations.

But, despite their lack of creed or religious faith, there is one respect in which husbands of other nations might learn from them a profitable lesson. They generously believe that their wives are fully entitled to an equal share of their business profits and to the expending of their income. The wife is not subjected to the humiliation of begging a pittance, but the whole matter is left to her own good judgment.

EXTERIOR OF CHAPEL ON THE HACIENDA OF SEÑORA
GUADALUPE BROS.

It is only justice to say that courtesy and kindness are almost invariably with them the rule in the family.

It is a knightly spirit which impels the men to the belief that their women are not capable of sustaining the burdens of life. And when a man marries, if his wife have a widowed mother and sisters without means of support, it never occurs to him that it is not his duty to keep and maintain them. These offices they cheerfully accept as