Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-20
MAX O'RELL'S LETTER.
Jacques Bonhomme - His Character and Peeultar1ties Jacques Bons homme,s Wife-Her Industry, Econ- omy and Patriotism.


 Especial Correspondence of the JOURNAL AND CoUR- TER. All Rights Reserved!
 LONDON, March 5. ! To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Jacques Bcnhomme is small landowner, l fond of his country, his cottage, his fields, 1 his COW and his gros sous. His great aim is l to be independent of the world, and to this end he takes great care of his pence, and has no need of French John Bright to tell him 1 that if he does so the pounds will take care of themselves. It is a sentiment inborE in I him. If you wish to make him happy when | he brings you load of wood or a cask of cider pay him in silver five franc pieces, his coin of predilection. He will take gold without repugnance, but will look askance at benk-note. If you were to tender him a cheque the odds are ten to one that he would immediately go for policeman. He does not seek to initiate the dweller in cities
 either in his habits, speech or dress. All he
 has on his back is not worth more than four or five francs, but his blouse is new when he
 buys it, and it belongs to him as my black coat belongs to me. His food costs him
 about four pence or five pence day at the
 outside but it is wholesome and abundant.
 He keeps early hours and saves his candles.
 He lives a healthy life and saves doctors
 bills. When hs lies down to die it is in his own bed and his parish has not to pay for his funeral. Every French village has it's
 poor but paupe1ism is unknown, for Jac-
 uues Bonhomme is charitable and always
 finds means to send 8 basin of soup to a neighbor whom he knows to be in want of one It is only for the loafer that he has no
 pity. When he has called fellow creature
 faignant (faineant} he has used the strongest invective in his vocabulary. In politics he
 takes little if any interest. All governments are satisfactory to him except the one that
 happens to be in power when he gets bad
 weather for his crops. There is, however,
 one form of government of which he would
 dread the return; the government of the
 cures. He has not forgotten the tithe and the corvee, nor the days when the monks
 used to come and pay little visits to his wife
 aud his cupboard, to bless his children and
 relieve him of his superfuous butter and
 eggs. He is no great church-g -goer; yet when
 he meets his parish priest he touches his
 cap, but almost as he would touch it to
 equal. He is beginning to know how to
 hold pen, but he rarely uses one except for
 the purpose of adding up his little accounts
 As to letter writing he sees no fun ill that frivolous pastime that would cost him three
 cents. He has been placed by nature on
 fertile soil that yields him all he needs, and
 if you were to talk to him about emigration
 he wonld stare and ask you what crime he
 had committed to deserve transportation.
 There is no more home-abiding creature upon the face of the earth. On the walls of the village school room he has seen the map Of
 the world, but although he is willing to be-
 lieve that it fairly represents the earth we live on, he would fain have seen the name of
 his dear village on it. He doubts not that
 the earth is round, since his cure and his
 schoolmaster says so; but the only proof he has of it is the sight of the line of hori- zon that greets his eyes when he climbs the hilltop know two or three of these honest
 French workers who were induced to go to
 Paris, in 1878, to see the Universal Exhibi-
 tion Such was their suspicion of the gay capital that, before setting out, they had sewn their golden louis in the lining of their coats and had their wills made by the tary It is when he is making a purchase at the fair or at the market that Jacques is in his clement. Look at him he takes preliminary turn or two around the rickety little stall He hesitates long while before
 making up his mind; he knows that if he seems to have fancy for any particular ar
 ticle, he will probably be asked good price for it. So it is only cautiously, and with
 look of indifference on his face that he at
 length approaches. Next taking up the
 coveted object with the limpest of fingers, ne
 gives sundry little grunts of disapprobation.
 He turns it over and over and over, looks at
 it well on all sides, shakes his head and in-
 variably finishes by dropping it back in its
 place again. Then. he turns and makes as
 though he would go away. But, after hay
 ing taken few steps, he brings up, comes
 back, scratches his head, and, indicating the
 object of his manoeuvres with 8 contemptu-
 ous finger, says to the vendor: "What do
 you want for this2" Watch him a little later.
 as he goes off carrying his purchase in triumph, and you will plainly see that he has made bargain. If Solomon had known Jacques Bonhomme, we might be inclined to think that it was he whom the Hebrew King had in mind as he wrote: ''It is nsught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." Not that the subjects of Solomon could have been bad at bargain, if one may judge of them by their descendants. Jacques manner is no less remarkable when 1t comes to the quart | d'heure de Rabelais. He seldom carries his money in his trousers or waistcoat pocket He eonfides it to the depths of long purse | from which it is onlyto be extracted with I difficulty, and this purse is hidden inside
 his blouse and carefully attached to it by a
 string. When the operation of paying has
 to be performed, Jacques gently lifts his l blouse, and, making rather wry face,
 draws forth his purse from it's hiding place. 1 He rarely faces the enemy on these occa-