The New York Times from New York, New York • Page 69

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND MAGAZINE. MAY j. 1921 A Woman Don Quixote in the Harems of Spain JJy )ONA T1VS PUA YKE I sympathy with you. Mar quesa Hut- how ran I help you openly? Queen YlrtprJgLjBugenla of Spain ml knitting on a palace bonc-h In her lonely, homely way, and now looked up Hi the Impulsive Frenchwoman (married to, a Piahlsh dlplo-mat) who stood befoie her, bubbling over with enormou sense of mla-1 alon. Your Majesty can secure us the Teatro Real for a vast public meet ing.

Your Majesty can cnnsi in our tauae the lamaH rte Ouardla at Court rnt ladiea like the Duqueaas de 8 Carlos and Medlnaceli the. Con-ri'eaa de Torre-Aires, the Vicondeaa de Eza and the rest. A word from -the QueenhelriSpT'rtwl1Krante nanceand lo. my new Crutad de Mujcres EspaftolaHTvrTIt sweep sacred flame from Corufla clear down to Cadiz! "'-Your through Spaln'a Imprisoned women. We Are enslaved.

Here in Spain the woman 1 only Who la Housed 'I She's forever a minor In the eyca of the law trampled on by bulla Church decretal from St, Paul a Day to our own We're Just l'copl of the patio, and no more. We" ro caged birds, with no culture at all, hemmed in and hampered In a thousand ways. Our men may Kin as they please; but when are'eaught In flagrante, th law ayrwccan Uledj)UiMt Si llody and aoul, we women are only slave. The man led actress can't even algn a contract without her huaband'a consent. widow cant take a nut without the aid of a male relative.

And In the family council wo aro entirely ignored. We can't even open a bank account, nor touch an inheritance, or choose the teacher of our own children. t)ur dowries pass to our husbands the moment w4nuirry. million a year df my own, but aa a wife I must needs go to my hua-lnd foe every dollar I want. Is thia Just or fair in 1U21T Jt waa a very bold Marquosa.

She w4MiaA4iuljyuiuoU.ng:JMyont(iinPtu'' oua Valcnclan proverb: Meat la Krasa, and grass ia water. Man la of woman made, but Woman herself la-Nothing!" Queen Victoria laughed outright at w.r Only this morning," her Majesty aald. waa discussing thla very ubject with the Conde do Hugallal, our Minister of Oraco and Justice. My mother waa there, too: and In IVlncesa ltcatrice you have a sUnch fminlst friend. Marquena.

Hut the Conde thought political Tr- wTTmeTI-WUuld till Uft mmUo en tan tlnleblas 'a leap in the dark. The patriarchal tradition la mi verv atron here In Siwln. t)ur I 1a wre-wn-igkl -andxhanxe JJer rlbly hanl to effect. The Minister would have women taught their rights, first of all. and then let ua hear their voice and aims.

After all." the Queen pursued. Spain dot appreciate her women. IWdn't the Cadia XTortea of long ago appoint St. Teresa of AviU as Commander In Chief of the armies, even over the head of the Iuke of Wellington, and that In the gravest crisis, when our national Independence waa at atake? So don't be lm-Ituoua. Marquesa.

Tomorrow la Knot her day, as we say And. again, li-evit saying and doiiiff a man on murry off his daughter! Wi'H lead your atalwarta In good but, aa Oraclan says. pairtn de necios, la prima Will your Majesty get ua tho Opera House for the The Queen said she would. Hut the prelates of the Church vetoed this del Ter was baffled for the time. She at once organized 'meetings in all the cities of Spain and aet her generals to work on a nation-wide campaign.

The great OalleKa novelist, the Condesa de l'artlo Hazan, now took to the platform, and asked the women of Spain why any illiterate boor of Andaluela should be allowed a voice fn the country's fate while she an artist of Kuropean repute TK Marqurta del Tei should lo pushed aside as of less consequence than a burro or a mule? Spain, therefore, la at thla hour upheaved with woman's revolutionary claims. The newspapers are In ao camps; and all shades of political parties unite to defeat the Marquesa del Ter in her mighty effort to liberate eleven million women from a thrall. lorn as complete as that of the Hindu Purdah or the Moorish and Turkish harems, whose veiled" occupants arc watched more closely than those of any Jail. There is no ready access for the stranger to the Spanish home, how-ever Influential his letters of introduction may be. His' host will en-trrtattr-h1nr-t-4- one of the cluts.

An invitation to tea at the house comes aa a surprise. But the footman serves tea in the library to the lord of the house and his guests. In adjacent rooms music is heard and the voices of the women. Hut the visitor comes goes, unseeing and unseen. Surely this tradition is a relic of the Moorish invasion of Spain, which lasted eight hundred years! Now the ferment begins.

Women sec terrible abuses in the civil Government of Spain municipal, provincial and natinnaln Thirty thousand schools are lacking: for the children. "J.vr other day it was found that lur a-tics died like flies in the asylums, because the Ayuntamlentos, or local Councils, forgot Topa orf ood and drugs, and clothing! Hence this new crusade under the Fronch-born Marquesa del Ter. It Is always the foreigner in Spain. It waa an Italian, Giuseppe Fanelli, who first started labor'a agitation. It waa Coluinbua, the Genoese, who -made Spain rich and great.

There wer Irish Ministers of State in the spacious tlmesand today the Hritish firm of Vlckera build the battleships of Spain, aa well aa her docks and bridges. The Marquesa del Ter Is an eloquenta torrential speaker: and the American woman Is her model ond Ideal. In orations she shown the women of Spain aa the merest cipher in the body politic, from tho cradle to the grave, i There the girl child. Aa a novia, or sweet heart, she. has no more freedom than If she lived In 1'ersia.

Always the duefta on watch: ron wtlr Hee the lover standing in the street, and the girl on the balcony, or a window (the reja), with formidaMe Iron bats letwpen their vows and kisses. All la ceremonious and traditional, evun to the petlclon de mano," or solicitation for the lady's hand; this la always en trim ted to relatives. And after the marriage, what? The woman is legally and. o) it it-ally Condeta dc Morclla. dead! I a carrera de la mujer es casarse," the Spaniard maintains.

A woman's career is to get married-just that and nothing: more. Now in every city the Marquesu's Crusade gathers dark-eyed le-crults. Ixwk at our slaters in the United States." she calls to them in ringing tones. Over there a woman can be anything, from steeple-Jack to company promoter. It is the women who pTeainip thB an4 a i i itimr Dona Car men de Burgo.

The Deputy of Marqul del Ter. Chief Orator and Pnpagandist of the FenilniHt Ciiuat- In Sialn. plant trees, and open libraries and club-jnll the amenities and marks of a culture and the higher hlt-ll See what Amejjeaii women have to suppress tho liquor trade and we here In Madrid with sixty wioe JmiaaiUileLreetanalco holism an even greater curse than malaria or tuberculosis! There Is everything to be done," the n'minds the women of Spain. Spain Is forgotten by tho world iKnored and nc-Rlected by her alstor nations, dismissed by her own intellectuals as a mass of wreckage on tho coast of Africa And so "Hay que estar alerta! He up and doing! is the watchword theft thrills and rouses Spain's today. The politicians are alarmed.

Hoth Kitrht and lA-tt in the Cortea oppose the Atarquesa'a movement. IM the women vote," cry the Itadfcala, antl you'll aee ua all swept Into reaction!" If ftir wonipn win the suffrage," wail the fanatical Whites." then revolution 'is upon ua and the monarchy ia pone!" The census figures show the poai-tion vividly enough. In 'domestic aervlce we have, men, .2.11, and wo men, iRXTZtT. N0W--we-nlie-TrTnwt4uUady- Lion employed in public administration. Here we have, men, 201, and women, 0.01! Hut the Mnrquesa del Ter is a practical woman.

She asked her lieutenant. Dofia Maria Espinosa who haa managed a great American typewriter concern for twenty years In Madrid to send out expert girls to the banks, insurance offices and Government departments. No. we have no men just now," Iofta Maria says, artlessly. But we can send you a abnorita for a week or two." The manager Is shocked and gives use his need is great.

The girl In the office ia a huge suc cess. In two or three weeks the nuileful Dofia Maria demands her new clerk hack. The manager no protests He" is converted, and in his great office is a new propagandist of thrt new woman movement in Spain! The Marquesa del Ter now puts forward the claims of her sex In sweeping style. Kntry to ail the callings is asked, from that of doctor and dentist to the police and weights and measures Inspector. She scathes tnMnt politial mnchtne '-Lin teuns which give an excellent notion of this dynamic lady's poei.

All culture." she tries, all sentiments of justice, fair play and moved from the system of puddle-lolitlcM which soils us toduy, and rouKh-w luvhwe steps with hejivy hearta but also with alwunding faith in our destiny!" Kvcn the Abbess, or Mother Superior of a convenl, is under the Hishop of the diocese. Will it be believed that no woman can open so much as a I'ost OtfU'e savings bank account sin lieencia de su niarl-do? Always subservient to the man, with the woman dismissed by thinkers as a lovely doll with a sawdust head!" Hut never again. Never again will the International Women's Congress dismiss Iberia, as she was dismissed at the Herlin gathering in. 1011: Nowt-h alwnyi, tluiwon.enof Spain are conspicuous by their ali- aerice!" The women of Spain now rally to the Marqueaa del Ter, whose energy has terrified her Queen. That au- in a poverty-stricken land twice the size of Great Hritain.

The King's amours are notorious. Victoria Ku-genla is a lonelwoman and it was rumored that the last time she went home to England she would never return to the Oriental country where fate made her the Sulrann," with a changed religion and a Hritish heart that never changed at all. Queen Victoria was so lesieged by the hierarchy of the Church in this matter of woman's liberation that she withdrew her support from the Marquesa del Ter's crusade. 1 lit) JMUrtiUVHll UIU llt'l lr urre era House. And after all ar rangements had been made tor an International Women's Congress in Madiid the project had to be abandoned.

Royalty, the Church and the Government, all oppose the liberation of Spain's women. Kor twelve years the Corta haS debated even the local or municipal vote for women. Yet even this was deflated by votes to 3T. Kor ail thsi, Spain hay great and noble women on her historic roll the heroic Maid of Zara-goxa, the Condesa de Ksjmjz Mina aphilaii thropist of world-fame, who put this searching question to her country: If our laws liok upon us women as the moral and intellectual Inferiors of men, why is it that the penalty of wrongdoing Is the same for bolk.aexta2LL- Now, at last, there are signs of radical change. Cniversity professors, like ltafael Altamira of Madrid and Manuel Torres Campos of Granada, come forward to champion the women with ehmuent ens and 1 tongues.

1IICIU HIV "WU -riutnru An.l architects now whom reactionary Government forbids to practice! Sefiorita Zoe l'ellrol hu just secured the first doctorate7 in pharmacy by a unanimous vote So that the last stronghold of masculine tyranny Is shaken. inl the te' Tfr is "cf roily urgei to give up a crusade which every day wins enthusiastic adherents, as the of Spain see I he vast ahead of them. Next year the Marquesa will visit New YOrk, with jL view to getting more light andleading on fre.sh phases and problems of her campaign, "And when I return," she says with a smile of stormy presage, we 1 1 WMTn mimU Kill U. make ou" Government aghast. Why, the Uterature of Disaster in 1SS will to frivolous stuff lieslde It.

Meanwhile, we continue to sap and mine and pile up explosivea for nn upheaval that will show Kuropc and America a new and entirely rejvn- erated Spain!" i.