New-York tribune., 1871-07-03
FRENCH MEN md WOMEN


popular loan is good omen. There must be
abundant patriotism and national self-reiIance'
a well "a abundant material resources. among
this people who at the end of such terrible
war, while the dead are scarcely buried, the
smoking ruins hardly cold, and the trampled
fields not yet restored to cultivation, drag
forth their savings, boarded i'll old stockings
or hidden in out of the way corners, and ofier
them in such immense sums 20 government
which is not yet fairly established. Evidently
they have faith in the future of France, ana
are ready to make any sacrifice for her glory,
and this confident disposition Is the best
ground we have seen for expecting speedy re-
generation of the country. 1t shows that the
spirit of the people is not broken, and great
leader, if one ever arise, will find in France
some of the most important elements of great
nation. But there is another side Of the pic
ture. The war has developed in the men of
France shocking combination of ignorance
brutality, and moral degradation. The cOnceit
which made every Frcnchman believe HIM
self a hero and forbade him to acknowledge
either his own weakness or his adyersary's
strength, which suspected treachery whenever
he was beaten, and shouted "TrcasOn" " when
the ropes broke in the hands that were trying
to pull down the Vend0me column; which
plunged into a gigantic war without the most
ordinary military precautions, and marched
towards Berlin without knowing the road. was
in "A less offensive form national failing, but
twenty years of the imperial humbuS had
increased it to dangerous national vice. The
ferocty which perhaps is the natural result
of Gulf Of fhn mil
the selfshness which makes the average French
man, In spite of a little superficial polish, one
of the rudest of men, united under the pressure
of an embittercd war and an unparalleled dis
aster, to produce type Of savagery of which
no other civilized nation had ever given an
example Add to this the moral corruption
which has permeatcd all ranks of French
society, and we can understand the deep degra-
dation of that once proud people; we can see
that the abyss into which they have fallen Is
one from which patriotism and money are not
enough TO raise thcm.
The worst of all is that the one softenlng
and humanizing agency which might have
partially supplied the lack of education and
even of religion, seems to have been utterly
DESTROYED There is no doubt that our own
civil war was happily modified and spared
many of its natural effects by the influence OF
American women To them came the grlet
and suffering of war, but never its brutal
passions. The dreadful struggle was for them
an opportunity of mercy. They made it their
part to bind up wounds, to nurse the sick, to
comfort the prisoner, to feed the orphan. 1t
was some compensation for the miseries of
those four years that they should have wit
Il. ,,t,f Of e 10
gentlcncss, kindness, and charity. Good deeds
such as our wives and daughters did all
through the war are blessings in more than
one way. and we value them less for their re-
lief of physical suffering than for their mol
lifying effect upon the national character.
They cannot but have done wonders in cOun-
teracting the mischief of war, and saving us
from the loss of culture and of moral sensi-
bility which almost always follows a
long civil conflict. But how different is the
picture in France Doubtless French women
have done noble service in the ambulances
but we hear more of their fighting than their
nursing more Of their fierce anger than their
charity During the last days of the Com
mune, it was the women whose fury was most
devilish. 1t was the pftrOleuse who stole out
Dy nlSHl anu uCNotCu piiNdtO hOuStS w tho
flames. 1t was the viragO of the barricades
who assassinated when she could, no longer
fight Worse than this, when women by the
score were dragged by the victOrs to some
dead wall. and shot like wild animals, it was
women who applauded the shocking scene,
urged on the massacres and insulted the VIC
Tins in their dying moments. There is no
sadder page in history than that which records
the part taken by the women of France in
the last tragedy of the war. The nation must
be deep in barbansm when its women are
more savage than its men; and its regenera-
ton will at best be slow when manly dignity,
truth, magnanimity, and culture, and womanly
gentleness and mercy are destroyed together,
and hardly any national virtue is left except
the love of country.
EJEMENT1J pnITTJCN