Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-12-21
w-cRITIcs OF THE FRENCH.

lx-CRITlcs OF THE FRENCH.
why Foreigners Understand the French
So Little They Have Homes and Love
Them, Too, Even Though They Have No
Name for Home.
Looking at Paris, and calling it France,
is the great mistake which most of our
would be critics make.
This was perhaps never more forcibly
illustrated than on Sunday, the goth OF
January, 1888, from the pulpit in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle.
"Show me the dress ef n people, and
will tell you what their morals are" ex-
claimed the famous Rev. DIR. Talmage.
As it was evident, from what had gone
before, that tho reverend doctor was
going to sp.ak of France, vision of my
country people rose to my minds eye. ]
thought of the industrious, orderly, vir-
tuous, sober, thrifty millions--the men
In their always suitable clothing, never
aping that Of the class above; the wom-
en- in their simple costumes, which,
whether those Of the picturesque Bou-
logne or Granville fishwivcs, the peas.
ants Of Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy,
Picardy, Champagne, or the south, are
always models Of neatncss, simplicity
and suitability, from the crown of the
picturesque cap to the solo of the strong
sensible shoe. / then remembered the
trim little seamstress, milliner, dress
maker, or shopgirl, in her natty dress,
frightened up by pretty bonnet on
Sunday, but never decked with cheap
limitations of what her employers wear.
There was grand illustration OF the
point the reverend doctor wanted to
make.
Did he use it1 Not hcl
| Passing over the great country and
the people who should represent France,
he goes to Paris-a cosmopolitan town,
where the good or bad tastes of visitors,
aye, and even their vices, are catered to
and calling its inhabitants The French,
he proceeded to censure them, and la
mented that their eccentricities in dress
should bo followed by the women Of
other countries He passed over the
fact that, in the best Partisan society,
when lady's street dress calls forth the
highest admiration, that admiration is
invariably expressed by such words as:
"How exquisitely simple!"
Was not this fine opportunity tho
doctor neglected Of giving hint to his
countrywomen?
When, copied in vile stuff and unar-
tistic colors by clumsy fingers, the crea-
tions Of Partisan milliners reappear all
over the world, they are often eccentric
enough, ladmit-another form of French
as she is "traduced"-and it is no Won
der that reverend doctors are found TO
frown on them; they shock none lssere
than the French themselves.
After all, ! suppose 1t is little wonder
that outsiders should know 80 little of
the French. French life is SO, SO exclu-
siyc! The passing visitor to our shores
gets no opportunity to judge of his hosts
real character. As nation we are
not hospitable, am sorry to say. A
stranger will meet with politeness and
attention as he travels through our
country, everybody will help him, and
If he appears in Paris armed with letters
Of introduction, he will be made well
come at social gatherings; parties may
be given in his honor perhaps; but, go
where he may throughout the country,
he will not have chance of penetrating
into the inner family circle. The home
life Of the bulk of the people will remain
a closed letter for him.
On the other hand, modern literature
Is of little or no use in the case either,
for most of our novelists do not describe
every day life. They describe the excep-
ton. A picture of middle class life
that is to say, the existence by the largest
part OF the community-is too peaceful,
uneventful, humdrum II you will, TO at
tract the novel writer or to please the
novel reader Our manners debar him
from drawing scenes from the birth and
growth of the love that ends in matri-
mony-romance only begins after the
marriage ceremony is overland the
French novelist turns too often to the
portrayal of illicit love.
Because he does so is no reason for in.
ferring that this kind of love is more
common in France than elsewhere. A
Balzac may charm with pictures of com.
monplace people and their doing; but tc
the ordinary novel writing pen moving
tale of passion is n necessity. So, rare
examples Of unholy passion are seized
upon as groundwork for much French
fiction, and the foreigner reads and ex
claims
This is picture Of French life!"
But it is not
The foreigner runs ave- Y with the ides
that he knows us; nut he does not, anG
his criticisms on us, ,o' which he is SC
, lavish, are worthless
The best critics France has had hav,
been Frenchinen. 1t is To them that ",
must turn for true portraits of tn,
French.
But TO return TO our foreign critics,
was not greatly surprised, on coming
TO America, TO hear that home life hard
ly existed in France had heard tina
before. And the overpowering reasol
advanced 90 prove this statement wa
that time honored Anglo-Saxon "Chest
J nut" The French language has n
equivalent for the English word home.