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are imparted to them by the Priests who find it greatly to
their advantage to keep them in ignorance & the Matters
taken in a Mass. /exceptions to be sure / are as great a sett of
Ignoramuses as one country ever brought forth. Mathematics
then know nothing of & when they can play on the piano, dance,
sing, & play Billiards & also raise a pair of Whiskers, they are
educated. The Ladies are the same. doing nothing but looking
out of their windows showing their pretty black eyes & hair
to every person who passes by. & perhaps give the wink when
she sees a person with whom she is well acquainted or with
whom she would wish to be a little better: I can tell you what, the Maltese Ladies
are beautiful little creatures on their exterior. but when you engage
in conversation with them. you pretty soon see that
they are not american, who with a modest & beautiful countenance
draws admirers & there by her fascinating conversation
entangles him in her net. The Maltese Ladies
are the wives of a year & the American per la vita, the
Ladies are of age & marriggeable at 13d 14 & so on untill 25 or 30
& then they are as ugly as the Old Ladies of America at
65 & 70. There is a marraigae shortly going to take place here
of a young man, a Baron, of the age of 17" to a "young" lady
of 29" you can immagine what talk there is here of this.