Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-11-20
The French Girl.
london TIE legraph.l


That the segregation OF unmarried girls from
general society in France has been concurrently
attended by very imperfect educational train
are naturally witty shrewd and self-possessed
people, a French girl OF the upper middle classes
might appear to an English or American young
"femininlty." She may have picked up a few
scraps CT English in her "pensionnat," but she
is never taught even the rudments OF Latin;
she would think it unpatrlotic to speak Ger
man; her knowledge OF the history and ltera-
tuIe OF her own country is limited, ard
that OF the history and literature OF
other countries usually mil" A little linear
auaintance with mathematics, and she may
be deemed fortunate il she had managed to
gather slight smatterlng OF physical science,
ana that not or very accurate kind, from the
writings OF nj. Jules Verne. Nor are these edu-
catiOnal deficiencies TO be wondered at. She
may have had as good schooling as an ordinary
.Pensionnat de Demoiselles" could impart to
her, or she may have been brought up in
convent; but what Lord John Manners would
call the kind pressure OF the social chain"
potlsm Of "La Famille" has not ceased to
gall her throughout the whole of her school
days. Whenever she has tried to read the
grim pages of an "Index Expurgatoriousn
have met her view. Ii she has been edu-
Gated in a convent, the good nuns have prob
ably taught her that three-fourths Of the
things which she will enjoy with such eager
zest when she is married and free are es-
sentially wicked, and 1t is not at all improbable
that If she has been brought up In nunnery In
the pl ovtnces her clerical instructors have in
stlled into her such Ideas on politics as to make
her regard the existing government of her
country with horror and aversion. An English
school girl happily knows much more about
hardbake and almond rock than she does about
conservatism Or Liberalism; and from the age
OF sixteen 10 twenty she is too much occupied
with matters OF dress and amusement and
affairs OF the heart to trouble herself about
which political party Is In Office or which is in
opposition. II she has any politics at all they
are "papas;" unhappily, as French society Is at
present constituted, the politics OF French
young lady are Ia most cases directly the re-
verse OF those Of her papa They are mammals;
and mammals politics are those of M. lie
Cure"
The only wonder is that, educationally ham
pered and restricted at every turn, necessarily
watched by the argus eyes Of parents and
priests, the young Frenchwoman. when she
has passed through the probationary stages of
should bear herself with the confident
"aplomb," and hold her own I'm the brilliantly
sel1-assured manner customary with her after
marriage The formalites at the marie and
the ceremonial OF the nuptual benediction at
the church seem tnstantaneously to have trans
formed her into another parsonage. and she
takes her place, be it In society or behind the
compton" OF her husbands shop or cafe with
perfectly easy, self-rel1ant and satisfied air.
Yesterday she was all t1midity and taciturntty
To-day she would confront NJ. 1t Prefet without
hesitation, end is loquacious even to gurrulity,
She is free: and that may have something to do
with the rapidlty and the completeness OF the
metamorphOSiS.