Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-12-21
nov gnp IS the criticism OF tine ,gnor-

nov gnp Is the criticism OF the ignor-
anti
To feel the whole meaning Of those
sweet words. chez sol, chez nous, one
must know the language they form part
Of. They call up In French hearts all
tine tender feelings evoked by the word
home In the Anglo-Saxon breast.
How many English or American peo-
pie have an inkling Of their value?
DO they care TO know that some hum
dred years back the French used to say
en- chez (from the Latin In casa, at home),
and that the word chez was nouEf
That later on they took to adding pro-
noun, saying, for example, en- chez nous;
and that the people, mistaking tho word
chez for proposition, because 1t was al
ways followed by noun or a pronoun,
suppressed the en-, so that now the French
language has lost noun for home, but
has kept a word, chez, which to this very
day has all its significancef What an
idea OF snugness, happiness, is conveyed
by the little sentence, restons chez nous,
on the lips Of young couple, though
their chez nous may but represent the
most modest Of abodcsi What n delight
full title chez nous would be for little
volume containing sketches Of the life Of
happy married coupled
Home life unknown In France! Why,
the mistake is one Of the most glaring
ever made. There is no more home low
ing, home abiding creature on earth than
the Frenchman.
The very narrowness OF the French Is
the result Of their contentment with
home; for they are narrow, II must be ad-
mittcd, provincial 10 the highest degree.
Yes, the French nre essentially homo
loving. And their morality, so often inn
pugned by ignorant critics, who find 1t
easiN to repeat idle nonsense than to
study for themselves. will bear favorable
comparison with that Of any nation, in
clnding the look k-how- -good-I-am Great
Britain. OF this ] am convinced from
the depths Of my SOUL
But we are happy, and care not jot
what impression we make. You will
naver hear Fronchman ask foreigner;
"Sow, what do you think Of us3"
Wo never trouble to show our best
side to the foreigner. This is what mis-
leads completely 30 many outsiders. In
France, the vice that there Is, is on the
surface for every one to see. 1t Is all
open to every locker on; thee Is very
little hidden. What there Is. that you
see. No slightest effort IL made TO hide
defects. In comes the Englishman or
the American, and forgetting the care
| fully hidden vice which exists, and with
a vengeance, in his own great towns,
| cries out upon the immortality of Paris.
| will go so far as to say that, in France,
there is not even SO much vice as there
appears to be.
Let me explain myself.
Far from attempting TO hide our faults,
we, as matter OF fact, often make show
Of those we have not The Frenchman
Is the braggart of vice. If you say to an
Englishman: ~ know you are virtuous
man." he will think you only give him
his due. II you were to pay the same
compliment TO Frenchman he would
resent it. Like the Anglomaniacs repre-
sented in that charming American com
edy by Mr.. Bronson Howard, 1.-The Hem
-ietta," teach fellow" in France, "wants
every other fellow to believe that he is a
devil of n fellow--but he isn't"
Reduced to literature for means af
knowing something of the real French
character read. then, those French writ
crs who portray the home life Of the
people Gor, after all, we have n few
who do), not those who build up ex-
travagant tales of passion, from the ma
terials every nation will afford to those
who go In for sensational novels. Would
you judge the English people by tAe
works Of "Ouida" or Miss Rhoda Brough-
ton. Take rather the writers who, with
only the uneventful lives of ordinary
French people rs material, have sue
ceeded in giving to the world the
most charming novels. For delightful
pictures of high life, 60 to Gustave Droz
and Octave Feuillet. Read Cherbuliez
and Edmond About. II you would know
what brave, honest folk our peasantry
are, turn to Erckmann- Chatrian. These
are the really popular authors in France,
My own conviction is that the objec.
tionable books published in France are
more patronzed by foreigners than by
the French themselves, for / seldom come
across, among my French friends, a mar
who has read them. NJ, Zola's books are
read, admit, but not for tho same rea
son as they are read in England. Here
they sell as Objectionable books;i in France
they sell as the works of a transcendanl
artist. We read Zola's too often repul
sive details for the sake Of the mastery
genius displayed in the handling. No
body, imagine, reads Shakespeare ol
the Bible for the sake of many filthy pas
sages. None the less every man of tast,
regrets the prostitution of such geniu
rs Zola's TO such an unworthy cause.
An undergraduate was complaining I,
me one day that no good French moderl
novel could be obtained qt Oxford. "Al
we can find in the French department o
our booksellers" he said, "are tho work
of NJ. Zola. There are piles of IL
Terre.'"
"Well, my dear sir" interrupted
"does it not strike yoa that bookseller
are tradcsmen, and that they of cours
keep the articles that are wanted? ]
there was no demand for la Terre
there would be no supply, and 20
would not see piles of the book"
The manager of a great book
selling firm in London told me once tina
his firm alone had received orders fo
more than ten thousand copies of 'L
Terre' in England.
don't wish TO get up a case agains
the English people, Judge for yourselves
| have stated facts.
assert that, to those who will look q
US without bias, we must appear in on
true light the happiest and most hom
loving people among modern nations
The Frenchman's wife and childre
are his alteration. The former is hi