The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-07-02

but turns upon the special calling of the latter.
This riddle he proceeds to solve according to the
popular notion, by proclaiming a young girls
vocation to be-to please; q woman's-to love:
q mother's-to rear her babe; and a grand.
mother's-to go to confession and to entertain
company. The first part of this programme is
carried out with minute delberation. The
maiden is carefully fitted out as privateer, and
duly provided with letters OF marque; but a cap
ture once effected she must dismantle as last as
possible. To employ her means OF captlvation
after she has secured a husband would be a pure
loss of time and power ii directed against her
captive, and perilous to herself if directed
against any other individual.
All writers on the state OF female society in
France at the present time agree in this, that
female education is either totally neglected, or
shameiully misconducted. the father seldom,
II ever, nterieres in the affairs of his house
hold, or with the bringing up of his children
c9rtaidly not of his daughters. The result is
that they are brought up In such hopeless ignO-
rance OF all which they ought to know, and
with such a pernicious familiarity with all
which they could dispense with knowing, that
no man with refined feelings and liberal ideas
can, for continuance, experience heartfelt
pleasure In their society, or make them his real
friends and companions. Marriage thus be-
comes mere union of bodies-a simple affair
Of eating and drinking in the same room, of
sleeping under the same roof, and of raising up
successor to the toint property. Such is the
mature Judgment passed upon the women of
France OF the present day by the most earnest
and thoughtful writers among their own fellow
countrymen.
In W at class of society in France. asks NJ
Pelletan, shall man look for wife with whom
he can freely interchange ideas and sentiments
Not among the agricultural laborers; for the
peasant girl is q mere machine, prematurely
used up by hard labor. Exposed to all weathers
inditferently fed, coarsely clad, she watches the
sheep thins the leaves OF the vne hoes the field,
looks after the broodlings, makes hay, helps in
harvest time, prepares the soup, bakes the
bread and attends to the Washing For her
there Is reDOgP relaxation tima tor
the mind to torm-nothing but work, work, work.
Above this substratum is seen the Norman
farmers wife, well.to-do in worldly goods, abun-
dantly fed, and comfortably attired; but She
too, is busy all day with her poutry-ysrd gar.
den, and dairy, and her mind remains embedded
in matter The condition of the mandatory
girl is still verse, from every point OF view. She
is only "hand,n only a part of the steam
engines, an inferior adjunct of the costly ma
chinery. She eats and drinks when she can,
and what she can, and sleeps in a miserable
9arret, with one who is not her husband; and If
a Child be born, and survive the first halfhour,
1t Is carried off to iOundling hospital, or to
Sale d'Asile. The position OF the welemplOyed
skilled artisan Is, indeed, superior to any of
these. His wages enable his wife to devote her
self to the promotion OF his material comforts,
to Keeping his house in order, and to cooking
his food to please his palate. The children are
brought up at home, and early trained TO habits
OF Industry until OF an age to be sent out into
the world to earn their own livelihood. But
even here nothing is thought of but work--the
body is everything, the mind a cypher. There
remains then, the class that styles itself wealthy
and independent, and in France there are very
few girls belonging to this section of society
siderable.
The education of young lady begins with
what concerns her toilette. She learns to sew,
to embroider, to tie a ribbon, to put in pin,
to mt q dress, go arrange flower in her hair.
In other words, she is taught that dress is the
first consideration. Her personal attractions,
however, can hardly be said to be of fsecondary
importance. She therefore acquires the art OF
walking, or rather, of gliding, with grace. She
Is hidden to hold herself upright without stiff
ness, and 10 assist nature, where needful, by
hiding little here, by showing a good deal
there. Then she must know when to smile,
and how much to bestow on this person and
how much on that. To droop the eyelds and
assume an air at once modest and provocative
is also an art that may one day stand her in
good stead. In addition to these outwsrd aud
visible attractions, a wellbred damsel is eX-
pected to possess the accomplishments that
are indispensable in good society. While vet
in her early youth she will dance with languor,
she will martyrize the piano, she will sing
falsely perhaps, but with abundant fire and
animation. Shot Id her voice fail her altogether
she must be content to handle the pencil and
the brush, and to improve upon nature. AS
for the development OF her intellectual faculties,
continues NJ. Pelletan, she Is sent for year or
two TO boarding-school, or q convent, where
she obtains vague notion of photography, and
begins to suspect that it is the earth which re-
wolves, and not the sun. After while she will
even affirm that two and two make four and
become almost capable Of checking the different
items in the cooks marketing account Here
and there an ambitious mother adds a smatter-
ing OF English or Italian, but such a polyglot
erudition is apt to be mistaken for pedantry,
and, after all, it is only the most superlatve
arstocrats who, aiming at eccentricity, care to
read the Vicar OF Wakefield" or the works of
Metastasio without the intermedum OF trans.
latioD.
In the matter of ideas a well-born maiden re-
mains to her wedding day a blank page.
OF the world, of life, of man, of herself she
knows no more than she does of her catechism,
which she once learned by rOte without attach
ing more Importance to it than to her first com
munion, ''a sacramental ceremony performed
in white muslin" She Is willing to believe that
there is Paradise-perhaps even, a place of
future punishment or common people-since
NJ. le Cure affirms such to be the case, and it
would be Ill manners to doubt his word. A GER
tain amount of religion is requisite FOR all who
have the privilege of moving In good society,
though usually considered preferable ii seasoned
with good dash of superstition. Every
young lady who has had the advantage of
fashionable education is expected to confess
herself once month, to go to Mass on Sunday,
and TO eat fish on Friday; but in all this she
need see no more than a respectable formalIty,
to be placed in the same category with the
etiquette relating to morning calls.
From time to time the manageable damsel
takes up book, but history wearies her. though,
as Mime. de Stael observes, in a country where
they cut off women's heads it is as well to know
something of politics. Serious books of any
kind are voted bore and conjure up the blue
devils, but with the aid OF a sentimental love
story even an autumn day in the country may
be injured. The theatre, no wever, is priced far
above any novel, for there romance is seen in
action. The impulsiye maiden feels as If she
herself were part Of the spectacle and one. Of