One heard that Spanish
women do not smoke, unless they are _cigarreras_ and work in the large
tobacco factory, where the "Carmen" tradition has given place to the
mother-of-a-family type, with her baby on the floor beside her. Even
these may prefer not to set the baby a bad example and have her grow up
and smoke like those English and American women. The strength of the
Church is, of course, in the women's faith, and its strength is
unquestionable, if not quite unquestioned. In Seville, as I have said,
there are two Spanish Protestant churches, and their worship, is not
molested. Society does not receive their members; but we heard that with
most Spanish people Protestantism is a puzzle rather than offense. They
know we are not Jews, but Christians; yet we are not Catholics; and
what, then, are we? With the Protestants, as with the Catholics, there
is always religious marriage. There is civil marriage for all, but
without the religious rite the pair are not well seen by either sect.
It is said that the editor of the ablest paper in Madrid, which
publishes a local edition at Seville, is a Protestant. The queen mother
is extremely clerical, though one of the wisest and best women who ever
ruled; the king and queen consort are as liberal as possible, and the
king is notoriously a democrat, with a dash of Haroun al Rashid.
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