New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-01
MADAME CARNOT.
A BRILLIANT AND POPULAR woMAN-HhR
INFLUENCE IN FRANCE.

| DoubtIess the wits will yet celebrate the lhct
| ,1,o. tle woman who has most successfully pre-
! sided over the affairs of France is dear " IL Is
not what you ladies say. il ~ what you near tat
ruips u.s. sneercd cynic il one OF the Doudolfs
= NJ Versailles Madame Carrot is deal Inc III
| trinity has been growing for some years IL is not
| absolute: il is not, the doctors say, remeulaplc
| Like so many similarly afflicted, her quickness Oh
| vision has supplied that keen and insInctvey
| correct observation which, through the eye, COM
rcnsatrs in great measure for tAr closing of the
| oar. So admirable is her compOsurc so acute hef
ncreeptions. that many accomplished conversers
find in her a del: ghtful vis-a-vis, never missing
directness or aptitude in her replies nor percelv-
| nr by her manner that she had not heard every
word clearly and completely Perhaps Madame
| Carnot herself finds an unPecogniZed blessing In
her painless defect George Eliot has reminded us
that if we had as sharp sensbHty in the ears
| as we think we have for human life, we should
| hear the grass grow and the squirrels heart beat
! and we should die of that that lies on the
other side of silence If it, be fortunate TO be deal
| in any country at any post, surely the woman
who must slffer comparison with the procession
of great such the political and social his
| tory of France readily recalls may not be deemed
/ unfavOrcd of the gods.
| Madame Carnot is a splendid type OF the French
| woman Of the transition. TIE transition now pro-
ceeding in France is the confirming of the Repub-
lc democratic, practical, plain, on the site oil the
| monarehies, which, whoever occupied the throne,
stood TO he world for glitter, caste, social glory,
| vice scarcely screened I'm palaces and poverty
ground 10 the bone that sin might be mia gniiicent
There is no quarrelllng with national any more
| than with individual peculiarities The French
cannot be reduced TO molten fire and recast in new
and puritanic moulds. They possess inex;inguish-
able principles which, although only aesthetic, arc
10 them rel giouS and philosophical. They are
unalterably people of style. 1t was the style of
the monarchies that made the people tolerate even
their brutalties Had the Napoleons possessed
STYLE the Emperor need not have fed after Sedan.
No woman who has occupied the Presidents Palace
since the Republic rose on the ruins Of the Empire
| possessed this indispensable qualification for sue
cess until Madame CarnOt entered il. During the
! administration Of more than one predecessor the
American visitor in Paris who received card for
/ luncheon or dinner Mt the Executive Mansion
which they will never call the Presidents home
| in Francc-was generally warned with infinite
| delicacy by friend against accepting it, If
! lady, or, if gentleman, received an assurance In
| advance that he would find more wine than wit
at the table. The intimation was not intended as
a reflection upon the morals or manners of any
| President or his household. The meaning was
simple and perfectly clear There was no style
! Democracy was enthrOned democracy was vll-
gar; vulgarity in France, is stupid and stupidity
| i'm Paris is the first and last of the seven deadly
| sins.
Madame Carnot has changed all this. Tho
transition finds in her "a sagacious, self-contained
graceful, distinguished and successful interpreter
There was "a period in the gaudy squalor of de-
| III. .bn Dali
mated the court. A jealous Frenchwoman at
tributed their supremacy to their unique com
mingling Of Oriental imagination with French sup
pleneSs. Madame CarnOt is remarkably suited to
the refinement of the transition from the hollow
| gayeties of despotsm into the sober elevation of
the social democratic life of France, because she
blends in her own individuality the substantive
| traits that make Il Frenchwoman the most en-
gazing of her sex with the more logical and matter
| of-fact intellectual tendencies that have made
women great Queens: I'm England. There is neither
! romance nor grOteSqueness in Madame CarnotS
met hod of being wife of the President and First
| Lady of the Republic. She neither invites
! intrigue on the one hand, nor supplies the
alert caricaturistS Of the bouleyards with
themes on the other With no disposition
! 10 rule anybody hut herself, she has come to be
recognized rs her husbands safest, because most
dsintcrested and most loyal, adviser in every mat
! Ter not an affair of state; and without the slight
est suhmissiveness 10 that" half-word7 which has
always scnsibly influenced the highest circles in
France, and in which so m;ny Of its most powerful
! feminine intellects have been unhappily found
| Madame CarnOt is acknowledged even by that in
| tolerant but accomplished court of lowest morals
and highest jurisdiction in matters of taste, TO be
a perfectly we-dressed woman and TO be a model
! of style
This need not be smiled at in the calmer and I'M
aesthetic Republic of the United States. Dress is
necessity for even the haf-civilzed; il Is Il
necessity, but also a luxury for the civilized and
they who can make OF il means of promoting
industry and gratifying a love of the beautiful
are benefactors OF the human race, Queen Victoria
would certainly be more admired bysthc British
women if She had been at any time in her life
becomingly costumed-not with the fantastic
babcrdashery with which the stern Elizabeth de-
LIGHTED TO cucumber her frame, but with the robes
and ornaments which become Queens who are also
| women of taste; and it is undeniably an element
IN the popularity OF the Princess of Wales that
her dresses grade or two above the Queens
and her bonnets not English. The Frenchman
who pronounced the style the man might far more
truly have declared style an Indispensable of
woman; and because Madame CarnOt possesses it
she lifts democracy out OF the vulgar and dign-
fes il into aestheticism.
or course ingenuity, versatility. distinction
in mere fabric, and drapery do not constitute
style in Paris. There must he that palpable
vet immateIial something which means more
than any one word in tongue represents. Ii
is intelligence tact, address. aptitude, diplomacy.
IL means style in everythng-in department. in
attitude toward things and people it is ART in the
true sense, applied 10 society and life. 1t was
STYLE. as the French understand it, that, some
times bizarre, sometimes tainted, sometimes &C.
centric, often corrupt, and in men more than in
women but not rarely in both thoroughly profit
! | mic 1hat rnlnd Emnce nnder the monarchies ID