Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1885-03-26
THE SALON..

italy French.
There are some words that have
charm about them which never fades,
and an interest which never flags. To
those who care for France, her litera-
ture, her history, the little word salon
has an irresistible fascination. 1t con-
jures up everything that is clever,
charming, piquant, most characteristic
of the women of France. The salon
is essentially French institution. No
other nation ever produced it; no
other society contains the elements for
producing ii. We say ga pleasant
house" when we speak of social CEN
ter. In France they say "a pleasant
salon." The different terms both ex-
press and explain the different ideas
they represent. A house is a home
where material hospitality is exercised
where friends are entertained with more
substantial fare than the feast of reason
and the flow of soul. A pleasant house
Is suggestive OF snug, convivial dinners
and sociable, unceremoniOus lunches,
OF bread broken at various hours be-
tween the owners of the house and
their friends. Another nice distinction
is that it implies a master, as well as a
mistress. A salon calls up totally
different order of ideas. 1t supposes a
mistress, but by no means necessarily
a master; and it suggests no more SUBJ
stantial fare than talk, flow of words,
and liberal interchange of ideas. 1t is
simply center whore pleasant people
are to be met and good conversation is
to be had. 1t may have-indeed, it
generally has-its particular tone and
color; it may be literary, religious,
political, artistic, or philanthropic; but
it remains always place for talking
a place where intellectual nectar re-
places material beverages.
When we consider how much pleas
ure, amusement, even downright hap
piness, is to be got out of talk, the
wonder is that so little is done toward
cultivating it. Formerly, the French
understood this, and gave as much
time and care to the cultivation of talk
as to that of any other fine art. Their
salons were schools where the art of
conversation was taught, arenas where
its adopts and pupils exercised them
man, "Elle cause bein," was to pay her
far more delicate and tlattering trib-
ute than to praise her beauty, or even
her dress. Paris is the birthplace and
natural home of the salon. 1t is a
growth indigenous to the soil of the
lively city and an empire which has
been respected there ever since it was
first founded by Nine. de Ramboullet
for the publication and perfecting of
the French language. The throne has
been left vacant at various periods,
sometimes for long intervals; but there
it has stood, ready for any foretendante
who could take possession of it. The
right of conquest was the only right
recognized, or necessary. There was
no hereditary law which transmitted the
scepter from one queen to another.
There was no dynastic code to which
she was compelled to conform once
she had grasped it. Like Caesar, she
had only to come, to see her empire.
and to conquer it, Every woman who
held in her own individuality the power
to do this might, under the most elastic
restrictions, aspire to sovereignty at
once elective, absolute, and democratic.
These queens have sometimes been
women not born in the purple of $50
ciety," or even promoted to it by mar
riage. 1t is characteristic of the SUI
premc position conceded by the French
to mere personal charm and esprit in
women that even in the eighteenth CEN
fury, in those relatively feudal ages
before the revolution had leveled the
barriers between classes, a woman en-
dowed with these qualities might, with.
out being well or even decently born.
throw down the high barricades of
social prejudices, and reign triumph
antly as queen OF salon.-Atlaaatic
Monthly.