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SOCIETY. 



invoking a blessing, it is to be hoped, on the neophyte, though there was apparently very little 

 feeling or sincerity in the audible portion. The baby was a plump, round-faced specimen of 

 humanity, with a full head of black hair, and bore the glare of light in his eyes, spitting on, 

 salting, and greasing, without a whimper ; and if he did make very wry faces at the salt, it must 

 be recollected he had had scarcely six and thirty hours of experience in this outer world, and 

 wasn't used to it. By this time most of the boys, among whom it is customary to scatter small 

 coins on these occasions, had stolen in from the various offices of the edifice, and the padrinos 

 were beset on all sides a rabble following until the carriage protected us from their impor- 

 tunities, and we had got beyond the precincts of the cathedral. 



It is difficult to believe that this ritual of the church is always performed with the same indif- 

 ference indeed levity would be a more appropriate expression ; for there was not, as has been 

 said, the least approximation to reverence from the beginning to the end of it. That the act 

 they were performing would save an immortal soul from perdition that it was the primary 

 event of life to prepare for eternity, as every church inculcates seemed not for a moment to 

 dwell on their minds. It was but the execution of a mandate unquestioningly obeyed by those 

 immediately responsible, and for whose performance fees and presents reward the others. 

 Though both are increased in accordance with the opulence or generosity of the padrinos, the 

 minimum fee is an escudito ($2.15) Chile currency, and the presents are usually of wax-candles 

 or fine linen handkerchiefs. 



Were not mortality so great among children, the country would soon become densely popu- 

 lated ; but the habits of the nurses are vicious, and they have little attachment for the infants 

 committed to their charge ; so, what with neglect and bad treatment combined, whilst the num- 

 ber of births in the republic during the year 1848 amounted to 46,216, the deaths of those under 

 seven years of age who received religious burial were 11,962. The number of those whose parents 

 have not the fees for the priest, and whose bodies are unceremoniously tossed over the walls of the 

 cemeteries if near cities, or are put into holes if in the country, will be quite as many more, and 

 these never enter the statistical tables. 



Gotten rid of at the birth reared by a servant sent out of the house to school, or rather placed 

 at a boarding-school within the city, from which they can only visit their homes once during 

 the month it is not to be expected that as strong affection can grow up between the mother 

 and her child as if the latter had drawn its nourishment from her breast, and had subsequently 

 been the object of her daily attentions. If the daughter live at home, from the time she attains 

 ten years of age, the mother must daily accompany her to and from school, or she must be sent 

 with a well-tried servant in a close carriage. Even brothers are not always trusted with this 

 responsibility. Thus, there early arises a want of confidence between mother and daughter, 

 which the confessional probably widens just at the period when the latter most needs a counsellor. 

 There never has been intimate intercourse between them ; in distress the child has never sought 

 advice from the being who, of all others, should ever have shown her sympathy ; and when a 

 licentious priest at her first confession asks questions suggestive of thoughts no pure-minded 

 girl should entertain, instead of listening to the narrative of her life and administering counsel 

 only, what does she do under the mental conflict ? She flies for consolation to a companion or 

 relative. The mother, who should have been regarded as her only true and tender friend, has 

 never treated her familiarly, and she dare not appeal to her. This is the beginning of 

 estrangement, if not of actual distrust, and which, going on from day to day, is not observed 



only because of its too frequent occurrence. " Look at ," said a friend to me one day, 



when we were talking on this subject. " You know that she is quite a beata,* and has ac- 

 knowledged to you that she cares not to read the Bible, nor to inquire for herself respecting 

 the truth of divine revelation, preferring to follow precisely as directed by her confessor. You 

 know how amiable, how kind-hearted, and how very intelligent and indulgent is her mother; 



* Bigot is the nearest actual signification of the word. 



