The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1878-10-25
Correspondence
OUR PARIS LETTER
The School Exhibits of the Children of
France and Other Countries - The
Mothers Paradise-The HandiwOrk
Of the "Little 0nes' from One Pole to
the Other.
From our Regular Correspondent
HOTEL DU LOUVRE, |

HOTEL DU LOUVRE, I
PARIS, Oct. 8, 1878.
The visitor who, entering the Grand
Vestibule, turns down the first gallery to
the left of the Beaux Arts buildings sees
in all probability, little groups of men,
variously dressed in somewhat i'll fash
ioned clothes, with here and there a
clerical sOutare among them, their faces
in general, bearing the stamp of intelli-
gence and much serious interest Some
are occupied in taking notes in neatly
ruled books, others handle the volumes,
pamphlets, and copy books that lie scat
tered on the lower shelves, or examine
drawings and casts above. These men
are the provincial school teachers up for
a holiday which the government gives
in turn to feeble contingents of the
great body of their i'll paid, hardworked
servants, whose mission it is to teach
Jacques Bonhomme's sons and daugh-
ters little more than their fathers knew
before them.
To judge from those same copy books
and drawings, education is certainly
making great strides. 1 took up several
of the former, and noted the clear well
written pages, compositions, exercises,
and arithmetical problems, while on the
walls were many well drawn heads, de-
signs for wood carving; lace, and other
industrial arts, and correctly modelled
plaster medallions and ornamentations.
Of course it must be remembered that
these are all prize productions, but they
prove the standard to be by no means
low. While the male teachers examine
the books below, or utilize the artistic
efforts above, the eyes of the feminine
visitors naturally dwell on the inter
mediate cases that that contain the spec
linens of girls needlework. Of these
there are many thousands, each with the
name and age of the pupil attached.
Some are shown behind glass, others are
secured in huge albums which the pub
Lie are free to turn over at will. The
needlework taught IN the Ecoles Com
munales and other lay, and clerical
schools, is for the most part practical, the
fancy element only cropping up here
and there, and a preparation for the trade
to be subsequent v followed. There is,
of course, that time nonored institution,
the sampler, but French housewives pre-
fer the neat letters in red and blue cotton
to the half legible writing in dingy
marking ink, which has never come into
general use here, and the fashionable
Russian embroidery, now so much sold
at the shops is only an extended appli-
cation of the cross stitch. So many wo-
men gain their livelihood by making
crotchet, that it is well it should be
taught in the schools, and even the
domination of the machine has not caus-
ed wholesale depreciation of hand
knitted woolens. They will always be
the warmest and the strongest. As for
the art Of knitting stockings, it is one not
to be lost, it fills up otherwise idle winter
evenings and defes wear brayely. The
majority of the articles made by pupils
hands are diminutive in size, fit for dolls |
varying from twelve to fifteen inches in
height. Here are shirts with exquisitely
stitched fronts and wristbands, hem
stitched cambria handkerchief, white
frocks with embroidery, tiny habit shirts