Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-04-10
French Opinion of A mericans.

DeIOrb tne mt4lchH campaign OF Ma
poleen, la libre Amerique was something
Arcadian; Laboulaye's hattering tribute
to America" Paris in America had
a vogue; the name Of Lafayette and
Washington were still coupled together;
according TO popular tradition, France
had put America on her legs, had pstro-
nized and befriended one of her most
gifted sous-Franklin; America was the
promised land, and Frenchmen gene
rally were friendly to all Americans.
This was the roso-water period. When
the American government, in accord
ance with the idea of the Monroe doc
trine, insisted on the withdrawal of the
French troops from Mexican soil, there
were some shakings of the head. During
the French Prussian war opinions snd
sympathies in the United States were
divided, which was a surprise to French
men, who had expected that America
entire would extend to them at least
hearty moral support. Here there
was some talk about ingratitude.
Rich Americans began to come
into Paris in great numbers, and
furnished type which was not accord
ing to that pattern of republican sim
ptcity and unselfishness which had
been held up as something particularly
American. Our countrymen--as they
had the right to do, since they paid for
them = secured the finest equipeges,
apartments and hotels; outbid the ma
tlves in pictures, laces and robes. Thus,
through their coming, according to
trenchmen, prices of living generally
advanced. They discovered that the
civilization Of these rich Americans
from their point of view-did not CORE
spond with French people of similar
circumstances. They looked at them
too specifically to discover that as a
nation of workers they had not the time
to cultivate the graces: that their civili-
zation was in the interior man, deep
rooted and growing, of vitality that
could be hardly impaired by any
event, good or bad, in the history of
their nation. French observers saw men
who could not play the piano, nor
sing, nor appreciate objects of art, and
hard lines athwart the cheek, jostled
people without asking pardon, lounged
in free and easy fashion over the furni-
ture OF neighbors, and sat on the cohn-
ters of shops. Politically they were not
republicans for others, but only for them
selves The American government had
no word of sympathy to offer to the
young and struggling republic of France.
They observed, too, that many American
families were not as faithful to their re-
publican principles as they had believed
at an earlier day. They saw American
fathers and mothers paying down so
much money to the owner OF title to
induce him to marry their daughter,
without submitting the mans moral
character to a proper examination.
They occasionally heard young girls ex
press a preference for a monarchy in
America, and saw them going out alone
with young men, and exhibiting in their
intercourse with them a behavior that
seemed reprehensible. Seeing these
things, the Frenchmen drew their
own conclusions, for it is difficult
to give them a true insight into
any foreign customs. A reaction took
place, and reached the other extreme,
which is always the case in France. The
American way of bringing up young
women was considered dangerous, and
French mothers did not wish to see their
daughters with their American sisters.
The custom of many American wives
living here, with husbands absent in the
States, struck them as singular and i'm
proper. The Americans were too free in
throwing open their doors to all comers,
some of whom we're people who might
not visit what is called a good French
house. These considerations, part of
which rest on little foundation, induced
the French to draw aloof from American
society. Hence it is. that the French
woman is rarely seen in the house of the
American the men may be found there
naturally, as they go everywhere, but
their presence has nothing to do with
fixing the social status of those they
visit.