Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-07-27
TIE TYPICAL FRENCH WOMAN.
Max o'Rell Writes Rsciiy Concerning
Her Home Life-Peasantry.

Max O'Rell Writes Rscily Concerning
Her Home Life-Peasantry.
The French woman has q genius for
cookery, and is thoroughly awake to the
fact that it is good policy in married life
TO see that her husband dimes well. The
politics of matrimony is 4 science inborn
in our women. Let a French woman he
rich or pOor-the mistress Of q mansion
in the Champs Elysees or Of a poor fifth
floor little Hat at Montmartre or Batig.
nolles-she has always the charm If
feminality. She is always smart, always
alert, and has n little luttering, busting
way with her that il bound 10 keep
awake your interest in all she does. She
may lie sometimes a little affected. but
she is never vulgar. On Sundays and
holidays she dresses still a little more ele-
santly than usual, but she never appears
TO be in Sunday clothes. The middle
class French woman is ladylike, not only
in her dress. but in her speech. You viii
never SEE her loaded with cheap jcwelry,
this great stamp of ~vulgarity, and when
she speaks TO you you cannot guess
whether she is the wife of a gentleman or
of a small tradesman.
l have often heard French women
called frivolous. But this is the height of
absurdty. II f~rivolity consists in trying
to remain young and attractive rs long rs
| possible then the French bourgeois is
frivolous. If, again, frivolty consists in
making a home cheerful and gay and
preventing a husband from being alb
| sQrbed by the cares Of business, then she
is frivolous. II this woman were frivo-
louS how could you explain the alteration
for the mother which. even to the lowest
of the low, you find in French children?
How could this he unless she were the
| example of all domestic virtues? II q
Frenchman of 40 would hesitate to take
an important step in life without first
consulting his mother, surely il must he
that he recognizes in her Il wise guide.
II would be no mere naivete on my part
TO dwell longer on the absurd charge Of
frivolity. Take now the shopkeeping
classes. There you will see the wife the
active partner of her husband. Behold
them both as the commercial Traveller
displays his goods on the counter. She il
not a mere housekeeper, with or without
wages: She is a partner, not merely a
sleeping partner. This not only enables
her. if she happens to become a widow,
TO carry on n business without her hus-
band. but to be independent and bring up
her children. She has not. to obtain her
living on her husbands death, to become
a working housekeeper OF II nurse: she Is
The mistress of her own house as before,
and now the lead of the firm.
You canno obtain a perfect notion Of
French industry unless you pay a visit to
our peasantry. must say that now the
woman ceases to he attractive. She does
not even attempt to look so. Sunburnt,
hale and hearty, behold her, dear English
| tourist, that is the fortune Of France. She
does not wear fringes on her forehead. l
will admit: she does not wear flounces
On a second hand skirt, or a hat with
flowers and feathers, and she totally ig-
nores one franc diamonds. She has a
coarse serge gown on and simple snowy
cap. She is clean and tidy and the per-
soni,ication Of industry. / do not doubt,
however, that, thanks TO the blessings Of
gratuitous and compulsory education, TN,
time will soon come when she will want
10 initiate the ladies Of the town in her
habits and dress, and HAT her sons will
| despise the dear land where they were
born and will all want 10 I've clerks and
swagger in town with high stand up col
lars, tight trousers and sticks. Thank
goodness. this spectacle is not yet To 6e
seen in France.
This good. hard working. thrifty wom-
an is the backbone of the country. Tho
amount If work she can get through is
simply predictions. You will always sec
her busy, either working in her field.
selling the products Of her little farm in
the markotplace Of the nearest town or
engaged about her little household. She
is not attractive. but she is the picture of
health and cnntentmcnt. Shares or bonds
may 20 up or down without disturbing
her peace; she holds none. She trusts
her savings To- nobody. Bankers, She
thinks. company directors ami stock
brokers may bc very respectable persons,
but when the Old stocking is swollen with
five franc pieces she rounds oil her little
family domain and buys another field,
something she is quite sure to lind IN its
place when she wakes up in the morn
ing.
Let me give you an example Of her
frugality. and allow me 10 take il FROM a
personal recollection. Ny mother has a
housemaid who Las been with her twenty
five years. Not longago, while in France,
| took aside this old servant. II know
bow devoted you have been 10 my
mother" / said 10 her. You are not
strong, and | dare say you will not wish
10 90 into service again, but make your,
self easy about this. If anything should
happen t. my mother, | shall see that
you are comfortable for the rest Of your
life. But," ! said, inquiringly, II have
no doubt You have something Of your
own by this timer Imagine my sur.
prise when J heard her tell me she had
saved yer 10. 900 francs about s.. OO0),
all well invested, including one share in