"Hitherto public opinion in Mexico has almost absolutely prohibited any respectable female from engaging in any professional or personal occupations, and "any occupation or profession which would draw a woman from the seclusion of her domestic circle would entail upon her loss of caste and the general reprobation of her sex. An educated lady may devote herself to teaching the poor from motives of religious zeal, or exhibit her musical talents in public at a charity concert, but professionally never. Pressed by poverty, a Mexican lady will work in lace, embroidery, or other artistic labor, and sell her productions privately, or even give private lessons in music, etc.; but all the female professional teachers, artists, boarding-house keepers, etc., are foreigners, or nearly all; for of late years, foreign travel, foreign education, and contact with foreigners at home, combined with the liberalizing tendency of reform laws, have somewhat modified the strictness of Mexican society in this regard. Among the Indians and lower classes of Mexico, however, the women take part promiscuously in all the labors, occupations, interests, and amusements incident to their condition in life, and are neither secluded nor oppressed."—Report by United States Consul Strother, 1885.
No country affords such striking illustrations as Mexico of the fallacy and absurdity of the so--
