Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-09-11

FRENCH, AMERICAN AND ENGLISH YOU'VE La
DIEs.-The London Athenaum, in review of
a recent French book, entitled Marriage in the
United States," takes occasion to make the fol-
lowing remarks:
No two nations do the same thing in the same
manner. We do not make coffee alike, we do
not dress alike, the 6iftek an naturel or even a
Gordon 6teu is not the best beef-steak of Lon
don chop-house; the Ohinaman's cup of tea is a
very different thing to that affected by Mrs.
Soapsuds; the Turks narghile has but little re-
semblance to the Irishman's cutty-pipe, and that
which seems the best way of loving and marry
ing TO one set of people, horribly otsnds the in
stincts and moralities OF another. In the civil
lied Christian world there cannot be a greater
discrepancy in this last particular than between
the French and Americans. From the first
look of love to the last word of marriage there
is not stage of the affair that is conducted in
the same way, not round of the great ladder
which is hewn out of the same block. The
French girl never leaves her mothers side, un-
less, indeed, she be brought up in convent
The American young lady neither claims nor
would submit to the most ordinary protection of
friend or parent. The French girl is married off
by her mother, without even the semblance of 8
consultation; suitability of fortune and condi-
ton being much more important matter than
any such moonshine as suitability of temper or
the elective affinities. An American does her
own husband-hunting singe-handed; and if she
does not take quite the initiative in the moment
of proposing, does not hesitate to make her
preference as undisguised as words would have
made it. An a
I The same national opposition holds good after
marriage. The French wife is free, emanci-
pated, almost Irresponsible leader of society,
q A 1<oo
self when she gains husband. She is hence
forth scarcely side ornament where she was
lately crown and sceptre both.
Young and handsome, she is no sooner mar
ried than she is drafted off to the elderly Sec
ton, with whom there is no longer question
OF Irritation; and the world which forgave her
even grave indiscretions while che was single,
will now severely punish the lightest infraction
OF appearances. 1t is a curious and an Instruct
i've inversion-the French granting to the wife
the liberty which the American grants to the
maiden; and both so terribly shocked, if, by
chance, their women change places and cross
hands over the CODE ed4
Between these two extremes, we English hold
our usual middle place. Not SO strict with our
girls as are the French, nor so lax as the Ameri-
cans not so liberal of social freedom to our
wives as the one, nor so niggardly as the other /;
we think, as patriotic matter of course, that
we have hit on the exact golden mean, and shot
our arrow into the very bulls eye of the ques-
ton. Wesay, we give our young ladies sufi
cient liberty to form their characters, and time
and opportunity to know their own minds. We
do not marry them off to the first eligible bidder
like SO many tender little doves sold, hoodwink-
ed, in the temple; neither do we suffer them to
roam unguided through the husbandless desert,
like wild creatures seeking their prey.
We make our bands and bonds elastic, aud
fling the shadow of the broad maternal wing
very far so that BIZ these wise measures, we
secure race of maidens as perfect in their fear
less innocence as our wives are hawless in their
crystal purity. Our friends across the channel,
on the contrary, prefer pretty dolls, in the one
case, and matrimonial freebooters in the other {;
and our cousins to the west hold the best prepa-
ration for the letters of marriage and maternity
to consist in lawless license, and think protec-
tion bondage and prudent counsel mental slave
ry. OF course each of the other two countries
is as justified to itself as we are for where was
ever the nation to be found which was not, in
its own esteem, the ultimate sum of morality q
The line to the right hand or to the LETT spois
all the symmetry the dash of blue or red des-
troys the whole scale of color. La recherche de
p0bsoJu is always successful in the aggregate
and there lives not a man who does not think
his national home the most perfectly organized,
and his countrywomen the most charming, the
most virtuous, the best brought up of their sex.
We can hardly conceive the vast amount of
wealth comprised in New York city. At q late
meeting of the Board of Supervisors of that city,
the Comptroller sent in communication, stating
that the amount of money required to be raised
by taxation for State, county and city purposes
was $9,728, ,O67.6O. The assessed valuation OF
the property of the city was estimated by the
Committee on Annual Taxes to be $577, ,93O, ,656.
An exchange has the following:
Men scorn to kiss among themselves,
And scarce will kiss brother;
Women often want to kiss so bad
They smack and kiss each other
A good man, who has seen much of the world,