Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-05-25
MistellaltepMs.
HOME LIFE IN FRANCE.

Foreigners are apt to take their impress
sions solely from Paris, which attracts them
by its brilliancy. Floating on the surface
they see great deal OF gayety and folly
French morality and French life. But
Paris is not France, nor do they see but
very small part of Paris. They have no
access TO French society of the better class.
One must disengage himself from this first
impression if he would Judge justly of the
real character Of the French people.
Leaving aside these irivollties OF the gay
capital and seeking the French in those
interiors which are generally closed to for
eigners, We find there very strong feel
ing of home in both senses of that word.
First, Il love OF place. of fixed habita-
tion what phrenologists call the organ of
locality-is largely developed in the
French nature. They love their country.
and never leave it but with reluctance.
Hence they make poor colonists. While
the English and German emigrate, the
French can hardly be torn from their ma
tive soil. And not only the country, but
the province, the city, or the little village.
which gave them birth, is always dear TO
them. Go into the country and you find
families that have always lived in the same
place. Generation after generation has
come and gone; and still they cling on
the old spot. Children, and childen's
children, are born and die on the same
farm, in the same moss-grown cottage,
beneath the same matched roof, where
their fathers lived and died. This single
fact-the love of fixed abode-speaks
much for the home feeling of the French,
especially to Americans, since it appears
in such strange contrast to the migratory
habits of their countrymen.
With this love of the birthplace, the de-
sire to have q little spot, however humble,
where one may become rooted to the soil.
is one ofthe strongest passions of a French
man. 1t exists among the poorest peas
antry. Even the common laborers, who
go to Paris to find employment, always
have it at heart to return to their native
village. The popular songs which the
have reference to their country-to the
spot they have left. and to which they
hope some day to return. This is their
safeguard amid the temptations OF great
city. Out of their little savings they send
back something to keep alive the old peo
pie, or to help their younger brothers,
And the height of their ambition is, by
many years of hard labor, to save enough
to return and buy plot OF ground and
build a little cottage, where they may pass
the rest of their days.
Every family which is little easy in its
circumstances, though 1t may spend half
the year in Paris, has somewhere in the
country, buried among the trees. retreat
which often has been in the family for gen.
erations, and which is cherished with as
much love and pride as any baronial cas-
tie. Only extreme necessity can induce
them to part with it, 1t is the first spot
which the children learn to love. and
which remains equally dear in manhood
and old age True, the same families.
when they come up to Paris to spend the
winter live in apartments, and this has
been thought untlvorabe to domestic life.
But is il halt so much so as that life of
boarding houses and hotels Ga thing un-
known in France, but so common in Amer
ica), in which there can be no such thing
as domestic privacy?
AS to the house in its more elevated
meaning, not confined to the place. but
including the feeling which unites a fami
ly in affection and in Il common interest,
one circumstance contributes greatly to
preserve and strengthen this among the
French. 1t is the social equality of men,
bers of the same family. TO this no con-
trast can be greater than that of families
in America A farmer in New England
has half dozen sons; one remains on the
old homestead; one goes to u city and be-
comes rich merchant; another to college
and enters profession. Thus in few
wears the relative position of different
members Of the family is changed; some
are rich, others poor; one may become
distinguished, while others are wholly un-
known.
But in France such changes are very
rare. Families remain not only in the
same place, but in the same station in
life. The farmers son tills the ground;
the mechanics son pursues the same trade.
All the avenues of life are so shut in, the
ranks are so closed up, that it is next to
impossible for one to get out of his place.
The children remain like their fathers,
neither richer nor poorer. No one is so
much above the rest that he looks down on
them with pride or contempt, nor that
they look up to him with envy. The same
equality exists, to great extent, in the
better classes. In commerce and in the
liberal professions the son takes the
fathers place, and all keep along on
about the same level. The paternal roof
is the rallying point for all and when the
children group themselves about the aged
| parents, not divided by any great dispari-
, lv of condition. they are bound together
by common interest rs well as mutual af-
By Mrs. Henry ". FteW.