The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25
YhD Jacques B0nhOIlInD' 9kefChDS
BY MAX O'RELL,
Jonathan "John Island
Bulls Daughters" ETC., Etc
Delightful Series of Articles by the Famous French Critic
the French People-their Characteristics
and Modes of Life and Thought

]
comatose state, and the home fare tells
sadly on the work he does on Mondays.
He gets fewer holidays than the more
fortunate British schoolboy; two months
| in the summer, two or three days at the
beginning of the year, and week or ten
days at Easter. Such is the happy life
that boys lead in French public schools.
Fortunately there is great deal of gay
philosophy in the French mind, and the
close friendship that springs up between
the schoolboys and their esprit de corps
help them to endure this secluded life of
hardship and privation.
Now let us consider the influence this
kind of life has on the French boys
character, what work he does at school,
and who are the men that look after him.
Shut in by the high walls of his prison,
the poor French schoolboy is only too
prone to compare himself to the different
classes of society which he considers per-
secuted-that is, the inferior classes; and
he shows his sympathy with them by
adopting the ideas of an ignorant de-
mocracy, and by often expressing them
LlCl WOuiu OC lcpuSDdIL
to his dignity if he were free. Poor little
fellows! When they can evade the por-
ter's vigilance, and run across the road to
buy a pennyworth of sweets, they feel
like perfect heroes of romance On their
return, their schoolfellows flock round
them to sniff little of the fresh and free
air that is brought inside the walls If
the young scamps are punished for their
escapade, they bear it like champions of
liberty who have fought for the good
cause, and are looked up to by their COM
rades as martyrs and heroes.
Under the circumstances, it is not sur
prising that they should now and then
show spirit of rebellion. Suppose, for
instance, that some privilege which the
pupils have long enjoyed and looked
upon as their right has been withdrawn
rightly or wrongly, no matter which. In
such a case as this English schoolbovs
would hold a meeting, probably presided
would draw up a petition, which they
would send to the head master But in
French schools meetings are prohibited.
What will the boys do then? As have
described elsewhere, they will probably
retire to a dormitory, there to sulk and
protest. They will erect barricades, lock
the doors, victual the intrenchments for
few hours and prepare for struggle.
Rebellion has wonderful charms for
them; they are insurgents, therefore
they are heroes. Don't ask them whether
their cause is good or bad, This matters
little; it will be sanctifed by the revolu-
ton; the main thing is to play at the
sovereign people," These hot headed
youths will stand siege as earnestly as
if they were defending their native soil
against the Prussians. Dictionaries, ink
stands, boots, bedroom furniture, such
are the missiles that are pressed into
service in the glorious battle of liberty.
before the pleadings of an empty stom-
ach; the struggle has to be abandoned,
the citadel forsaken, the arms laid down
The misguided ones are received back
into the fold, to be submitted to stricter
discipline than ever; the heroic instigat-
ors of the little fete are in the end re-
stored to the tender care of their MAN.
mas, or, in other words, expelled from
the school.
Corporal punishment is banished from
all schools in France. If master were to
strike boy, the odds are ten to one that
the boy would defend himself, and threat
en- the master with the first object-inkpnt
or book-he could lay his hand on. Boys
are punished by means of long and weary
impositions. If boarders, they are kept
in on Sundays, and thus prevented from
going home. This is terrible punish
ment. When they seem incorrigible
they are expelled. And for boy to be
expelled from French lycee is no light
matter; for the doors of all the others
are closed to him, and the faculties may
even refuse to allow him to stand as a
candidate for the university degrees.
His prospect in life may be ruined for
ever; for in France man who is neither
B. A. nor B. Sc. cannot study medicine
or the law; he cannot enter the military
schools, or be candidate for any of the
government posts at home or abroad.
Business is the only opening left to him.
From the time table that 1 have given
at the beginning, it will be easily in
ferred that, if the French schoolboy plays
less than the British one, he works much
more. But wNh what results? The
classes in French lycees contain from
eighty to a hundred boys. They are
generally composed of some ten pupils !
of extraordinary capacities or industry,
of about twenty who follow the lectures
with some profit, of twenty more who
follow them anyhow, and of thirty, for
ty, and even sometimes fifty poor boys,
neglected, forgotten, who do and learn |
nothing. and are mere wall flowers.
They are all promoted by seniority-that
premium still given in France to stupid
ity, as NJ. Leon Say once remarked in
the French senate. l remember school
fellows of eighteen and nineteen in the
highest form who did not know their de-
clensions. Boys may be attentive or
not, as they please-that is their bust
ness. Provided they do not disturb the
peace, nothing more is required of them
in the upper forms. They may even go
to sleep, and the master will seldom take
the trouble to wake them up. If the boy
is not likely to do honor to his teaching, |
he does not think it worth his while to |
concern himself about him.
With such large classes as I have de
scribed, boys cannot and do not receive
individual attention from the masters,
who deliver lectures to them, but GER
tainly do not give them lessons. With
the amount of work that clever and in
d11ctrio11a hnru cro thro,,nrh onnh clnca