Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-01-08
ABOUT FRENCH HOMES.
The Facts bv One Who Know.

| EuitOT NUS:-WM you allow FrenchwomaH
| (wife OF an American} to contradict passage
OF the French letter In Bradstreet you pub
lished Saturday. SO far as ''French economy"
is concerned, the article Is pretty correct with
| minor reservations. SO Is also the pasSas e
that declares the laboring class anxious 10
save. AS soon as couple are married, no sum
is considered too trifiing to be taken to the
| savings bank to be used later for their boy s
start In life, their daughters marriage portion
| and the comforts OF their old age. But when
| the writer asserts that "the f1reieS5 condition
| (of the French) is due In great measure TO the
| fact that the French people have no homes In
| Cur sense OF the ,5ord. Coffee and rolls IN bed
| In the morning. does away with a breakfast:
at de1euner or lunch, the head OF family goes
! 10 Gale down town, and TO dine out Is the
! rule. After dinner comes the theater; fire.
| quently the husband going to one aad the wife
10 another. and there are no children TO-
! dt 1nand family reunion when, say, the
writer stat S such things as existing, he shows
| be knows 0lhing Of Preach homes, families aud
family life OF the really respectable portion OK
| the Community he processes to speak about.
| His experience III he has ever had auy and
| does not write his French letter from his desk
| at hCme) cannot have gone beyond the ella Sses
that live In the Quarter Latin In third-rate
boarding houses for young bachelor Students.
| or something very near like 1t; certain Ii is it
was never acquired by living among members
OF the middle class or 'bourgeoioe" rich or
|
| quoted passage Is correct, and all its
assertions deserve an emphatic denial. Yes,
| the Jdn'ilg breakfast ts generally composed of
| coffee, bread and butter, with boiled eggs, cold
| BOILED ham or such like; as a rule. the Ffensn
| GO not feel an appetite for dish or two Of meat
on getting up, and therefore they prefer having
the solid meal Tor lunch rather than for break
fast. 1t Is matter OF taste. of hygiene, OF
| constitution, etc, and suits them. Here your
two principal meals are breakfast and dinner:
| there, lunch and dinner. Here any small thing
VK q II y,1n Of anFf
| aud butter is consids red sufficient for a break
| fast. 1t can be got ready In very short
time without any shopping; after breakfast
! the cook can go to market and get fresh
| things for lunch and dinner. Here II you want
| an early breakfast you must very often con-
| sent to have its marketing done the day before
| such marketing would make French COOKS
| bair stand On end; 1t would be impossible to
| persuade her the food was not stale or tainted;
| however, all this is a matter OF taste, aud as
| such. not TO be discussed. But when the writer
| comes to say the breakfast is ale in bed it Is
| enough to make a French cat laugh Itself TO
! death. The idea OF father. mother and chill.
! dren an eating In bed! and perhaps the cook
i 100! oh, forgot; further on he states there
are mo children" In French families Poor
France. In another TWENTY-FIVE years it will be
Minus its Inhabitants and thing OF the past!
Those two words ''1n bed" give the key OF the
Stahdlng-point OF the writer. In cheap board
Ing and lodging houses breakfast is often sent
up to the room on tray instead OF being served
ia the dining room for domestic considerations:
the same servant having to clean stairs, halls.
etc, ana walt at table. 1t Is found easier to dis
peDSe With the presence OF boarderS In the
morning: 1t saves q servant. AT hotels and
more expensive boarding houses tray sent 10
extra.
Let US proceed: 'sThe head OF a family lunches
down town. certainly; so does the London man
OF lunch In the city; so do all OF you nere
II lar from nome, drop into restaurant or a
saloon; "to dine out Is the rule" excuse me to
Gine out tor genuine French family Is the
exception. suppose it is the rule for foreign
efs, or young bachelors, be they the hard work
iDg 81 uden,h or the fast jet3teSse dOi'ee Dining
out is considered great treat IN q family, es-
pecially TO the children, Ior there are some,
now and then, In France. ACcidenis Will hap
pen, you Know, In the best regulated fanilies)
The second rate respectable restaurants give
dinners al nifty cents. shade better than you
get mere Tor twenty-five, tclaret, the national
nit two accidents In the family, the dinner
would cost two dollars; the mother can provide
as good one, II not so varied, for half the
price; that viii settle the question Of its being
" the rule Let US go on: After dinner comes
the theater," not so very often, good sir: thea
tiers cost good deal more there than here and
therefore are not on all ordinary income, OF
such daily occurrence. to French family.
There Is no such thing as lounging inUo thea
ter, except perhaps for bachelors, who do not
know what TO do with their evenings and look
Ter Is matter OF no small commotion in a
French household. The hour OF the per
torrance varies from Z TO O'Clock and
endS nearly always at midnight. The
distance from home is such as to require a CAB
and an allowance OF time to 60 Therefore the
dinner hour must be made earlier and the day
is chosen TO suit the fathers occupations Il Is
a thing discussed two or three DAYS ahead ami
looked up to by the junior members; Il always
forget there are money sometimes In a family the
lIeat OF the play Is combined with the treat Of
dining out. SO as to be ready earlier, especially
II the fathers business is In the same section OF
the City as the theater. 1t must be Iemembe rat
that In Paris city of more than two million
lnhanltants, distances are an item OF serious
CONSIDERATION. The last tGot the .eastl assertion
Is "that me husband goes to one theater ana
, the wife to another On reading this NV
breath was cut short and the doubt came across
! II Is the Paris l have known ali my life is not
the Paris this writer has moved in. Certainly
the husband does now and then 60 to
theater without his Wife; indeed You gen.
French husbands do; so also does the
wife without her husband but not alone
l can safely assert, 1t hardly ece'' happens, and
some other family of friends has got box and
offers one seat in it; sometimes because the
thlng TO be seen Is at place OF amusement
such cases the husband goes there openly, and
at breakfast chats about 1t to his wife. Hedoes
not go on the sly, and does not tell his wife he
e. stng up With sick
not go alone to theaters In the eve
hing; two can 60, II one is Old enough
10 chaperone the other; there are no cheap
matinee arrangements In the week for ladies'
and children, that allow gentlemen at the head
OF families to have such good excuses for going
alone IN the evening. The only mattneeS that
exist (and they have only been introduced these
last i've years. are on Sunday afternoons for
the very purpose that all the members of fami-
~ should be enabled to 60 together. 1t Is about
time that the superannuated notions of s.no
home" and mo family" should be banished In
regard to the French nation How many times
have been positively struck dumb on hearing
people not able to put Two words OF French to-
gether tell me to my face, with all the marks of
honest conviction, that the French lived In
cafes and had no homes, as there was not even
word In the language for such an
article What would WaSh1ngtonian think II
were to tell him all his community lived in
Abner's garden? To such, let me say once for
all, that their ckez-sO,, (the French word for
honey is as dear TO French family as to any
other family on earth, perhaps good deal
mere so, as they give 1t up with more reluc.
lance and emigraye less than other nations
There Is 10 living In boarding houses or fur
nished rooms for French people; such places are
reserved specially for foreigners, travellers or
provincial national 81 udentS. Poor or rich, the
first thing to be thought of, before q couple
marry, Is their chez-SOi; that is, the furniture
and apartment, the household goods that are to
form home for them. They will live in these
all their life probably; circumstances may make
them change lodgings, but they will cling to
their furniture, II they cannot cling to the
walls. There Is, owing to a less turbulent and
agitated life than In the United States, no re-
N~n 1-twn