The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-02-06

used the furniture their fathers anc
grandfathers had used before them, anC
nobody thought of critieising them
Now the old French simplicity is silent
ly giving way to a sort of English finish
and luxury. In word, the French are
becoming cossns. This word comes
from cOsse, a pod and q man who is
GOSSIP is n comfortable, well-protected
man. IT is n good thing to be this, when
you can easily afford IT. but bad thing
TO be forced into it when you cannotafford
1t by the universal custom Of your neigh
bors. Still, even yet, the Frenchman
does not dream of having any such re-
tlnue OF servants as the well-to-do Eng
lishman considers necessary. The ten.
dcncy In that respect Is rather toward
the American way of living the French.
man s dreams are not of some perfectly.
appointed English house, with It's
trained domestic for each separate duty,
but rather of some ingenious machine
at home, and a restaurant next door.
which will relieve him from the costli-
ness of bo1,nes.
Mr.. Hamerton apologies for the de-
votion of the Frenchman TO his club by
showing us how impossible 1t ia to talk
nationally with the average French
woman Of the provinces. The men are
nearly all skeptical at heart the women
divide their time between church and
cuisine, so that to talk with them Of
general matters is attended with insu-
Perable obstacles in the narrowness and
prejudice of their own minds. But the
purity and the conjugal faithfulness of
these women are beyond reproach. Ac-
cording TO Hamerton, French novels are
the grossest libels on all French women.
except perhaps u small per centage in
It,,tsr. l. ,.,1~ H..
novels are written is the impossibility of
making love stories out Of the perfectly
commonplace and unromantic mar
riages of French people. Love stories
must be had somehow, and as love plays
no part in the life or the marriage of u
French maiden, the story, to be love
story ut all, must turn on some passion
for q married woman
To the French marriage system % very
interesting chapter is devoted French
men are exonerated from the suspicion
OF being fortune-hunters. On this head
all that can be fairly and truly said is
that the Frenchman does not want to
take the whole burden Of marriage and
its expenses on his own unassisted
shoulders. But, on the other hand, he
seldom seeks to make q profit out of It,
or to throw the burden Of their children
upon his wife. He is contented If her
portion is large enough for her own
maintenance, and does not always, by
any means, insist even upon that. OF
course, Hamerton dislikes and disap-
proves this French system, which leaves
love or personal attraction quite out Of
the reckoning; yet he is forced to con-
fess that Round my House" it worked
very well, and that the wives seemed
not only discreet and faithful, but con
tented and happy.
/ find no chapters In the book more
interesting than those devoted to the
peasantry. They are q race quite as
distinct from the bOuTgeOisie as from
the nOblesse; their world IL u world by
itself. tFew of them can read well
enough, Ii they can read ut all, to have
either the book or the newspaper exer
else the slightest influence on their
lives. They do not despise culture, like
the English philistine or the French
bOTgeoisie,; they simply are not aware
Of rs existence. There Is certain gran
deuS of simplicity about them. The
PEASANTS, "Round my House." at least.
seems to have great openness Of mind,
and are much less narrow than the
bourgeoisie. They are ut one and the
same time full of intelligence and in
ignorant. Their manners
are excellent, and they have delicate
but they have absolutely
no knowledge. Their customs are fru-
gal in the extreme, their food such rs
one would think could scarcely sustain
nature. The one thing in which they
are rich is superstition. One farm
er's wife always let her butter
get rancid before using it, be-
cause 1t went further and Mrs. Ham
erton saw salt, instead of sugar, put
into sick mans coffee, because it was
cheaper The peasant treats a bad cold
by putting a tallow candle in n quart Of
red wine, and boiling it till the tallow
melts; then the unhappy patient has to
swallow the mixture. For intermittent
fever he beats up eggs with SCOT from
the chimney. To cure the measles, he
gives hot wine, with pepper and honey.
They don't believe in doctors, these
they will send miles for some ignorant
old woman, ''qti sat une priere," for
they think there is a special prayer
which can ward off, like q charm, each
kind of evil; and those who are sup
posed to know these prayers are in
great request. One man insisted that
his wife should swallow some Of those
plasters which come ready pre-
pared; for didn't he know the use Of
mustard, and wasn't it made to be
eaten =? The peasant Is republican
and through. With republican
ism have come in better days for him
than he has ever known before and he
would not willingly surrender his gains
in the way of privilege.
Mr.. Hamerton's hope for France is
that system OF regularly working re-
government may be the
final result Of the long and eventful
revolution, and that this form Of govern
ment may give the country certain
measures which it very greatly needs.
A thorough system OF national educa-
ton is one Of them, q real religious
equality is another. These would never
be conceded by u French monarchy Of
any type with which past experience has
made the country familiar. The French
university, despite English sneers, is
doing a great work. l wish / had time
to speak at length of the chapters which
treat of the present aspects of govern
ment and Of religion in France. No
book I have read has given me half SO
and so complete an idea of
the France Of to-day, especially the
France of the Provinces. Republican
ideas are gathering force, superstition is
declining-culture is becoming more
general luxury, and perhaps this is a
pity, is increasing, and life, despite all
the tempestuous upheaval Of the last
few years, is bright and debonnair, still
seasoned with wit, tempered by courtesy,
and touched and glorified by the spirit
IF humanity