, 1867-02-01
FRENCH WOMEN,
What They Marry For, and How They Act
When Married.


IParis Correspondence Phila. Home Weekly
What wretched wives French women make
They are certainly less fitted for matrimony than
any women the sun shines on. Fond of excte>
ment, devoted to pleasure, loving dress delight
ing in company, home and its duties are confine-
ment in Jail and irksome drudgery to them. The
best of them wear the breeches, haggle-as only
women can haggle-about centimes and sous,
reduce their husbands TO hardship, drive off
his friends, reduce his expenditures, diminish
his pleasures, place money over and above every
thing else, make their will, their whims, their
caprces, the law of the household, and think
they ought to be adored as angels because they
keep buttons and shirts from parting company.
These are the jewels of married life in France.
But even these think lightly of fidelity to married
VOWS. In this nation of social life, where socie-
ty is everything and all else nothing, nobody
thinks of refusing anything which may add to
the entertainment Of the company. As husbands
are zeros in the best houses, any complaint they
disregarded, or, if insisted upon, is answered
by suit for divorce. Those 'anmals" have no
rights except so far as the union of buttons and
shirts are concerned.
There women in the world more agree
able to strangers in a drawing room than French
women. Falsehood and truth are Indifferent to
them consequently such thing as principle new
er checks their desire to be agreeable. Their nat.
ural maliciousness and their natural sprightli-
ness, whose quickneSs and sharpness have been
increased by the continual attrtion of company,
make their conversation entertaining. Their
satisfaction in finding themselves ia what they
may not unjustly consider their proper sphere,
dimpes their cheeks with smiles, and kindles
light in their eyes. Their vanity, which contin,
ualy goads them to struggle for applause, slim
ulates them to exert all their powers of pleasing
They consequently are :he most agreeable draw
room companions in the world,
1t is almost impossible to avoid falling in love
with them. Fancy pursues them beyond the
draw ing room, and uses her warmest colors to
draw pictures of the happiness of the man who
constantly possesses such BRIGHT yivacious, am-
liable, and fascinating creatures. Fancy-that
wll>o' the >wisp of lite-deceives US here as is
her wont, and were to follow her giittering
airy fame, would certainly lead US into most
painful morass.
The rocket that lies in the arti6cers labrato-
ry, black sulen unattractive in It's vulgar paste-
board case, resting on an unadorned, unpublished,
rough stick, does not much differ from the fiery
bolts which makes mobs stare it seems to
scale the highest heavens, than the FreDch cyu-
osure of the drawing>room differs from the wife
in her husbands or her family company.
The restraints of domestic life Oppress them
to an incOnceivable degree. The ideal happi-
ness of all of them Is to enjoy motherless wild
ows freedom. They have no account to give of
their name or their purse, or of their body. To
have conscience save only to keep unknown
deeds reproved by public opinion. Too cold to
be lcentious, they are never immoral, except to
crafty an agreeable companion and were Jovc
to listen to their prayer, mems desires would be
of the same temperature all through life as they
are at three and ten.
1t is neither wonderful that men and women
marry, nor wonderful they seperate. Marriages
are contracted solely for money, for social po-
sition, or for both. Women marry for th ese ad-
yantapes and to be free
woman is a ward, an infant until she mar
ries. She must not be seen at plays, where the
dialogue is as thinly and sparsey draped as the
! actresses who keep its shuttle cock of converse
tion flying. She must not go on the street or
| into public gardens alone. She must not DIP
her nose into books which are only fit for the
shelves of married coventry. She has the worst
seat at the table, church, theatre, and in car
riage. She must be silent, modest, and respect
| ful.
All changes when she marIies She was girl
she is a woman. She may go where she pleases
when she pleases, and as she pleases The slave
is tyrant in turn; the husband $50 free while un-
msrried) wears the discarded manaces; the ball
and chain are for his ankle. She reads what
she pleasesi hears any play; sees any sight. Her
father may have had no matter what title, she
was nobody. The opera box, the carriage, the
town and country house are bers. She engages
and dismisses the servants. The table is laid to
suit her taste. She has all the keys. Therefore,
woman, marry. H
If matrimony does not suit them, despite husr
band, fathap aud mother, she sues divorce.
Her husband is obliged to give her an income
in keeping with her rank in society. She is free
| as air. aaia -.
| .- --~~-~->-~O~->,~ li ~
AFTER digging a certain depth into the bow.
els Of the earth the tempeia ature becomes warm
andit grows warmer you warm to your work
that at the depth Of thirty miles, (as we are in'
formed BY a gentleman who dug that distanes
one July morning. everything is like nolter ter