The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-14

the simple, natur al politeness which ought
to be the result of early training, and to be
much the same the world over, to the
esoterics of handkerchief or fan ninipula-
ton, coffee pouring, rising from a chair,
entering or leaving carriage, ETC., to which
so much time is devoted in the French board
ing school regime, the advantages of pro-
ficiency may be overbalanced easily by the
immense amount of brain energy
taken from other things to be
lavished on artificial politeness, which
is often far more Objectionable than
brusqueness, and which. it may be added,
sometimes fails French beau or elegante
in an emergency, as when well-dressed
| man whose wife was accidentally jostled
| on a crowded walk the other afternoon de-
liberately turned, seized the woman who
had offended by the shoulders and roughly
shook her as a terrier shakes a rag doll,
greatly to the edification of all pasSers, and
I making an exhibition of childish spite al
ways outgrown by mature Americans.
| While, when one comes to the ideals of life
indicated. it seems that the American girls
| infatuatlon after loveless foreign marriages
| must be in part, at least, the result of
| foreign education.
| Intelligent readers usually take "travel-
| ers' tales" with the proper sprinklng of
salt, knowing that it requires more than a
| passing visit or a brief residence to gain
that entrance into French family circles
which is necessary to any understanding of
| the position of men and women to each
other; but the little story which follows and
which illustrates nothing more than every
choolboy-perhaps if Macaulay were still
| living he would substitute every schoolgirl
knows was told me by young woman who,
though, she was born in the United States.
has lived all her life in Paris and has be-
come, except in her wholesome star span
L ok Nha,.
| American:
Jeanne-I am going to be married in
April.
Louise that is to say, my young Ameri-
can. pricking up her ears)-Indeed!
Jeanne-And want you to dance at my
contract ball.
Louise-I will go at once and order my
gown, but who is the happy man!
Jeanne-Oh, don't know.
Louise-You don't know!
Jeanne-There isn't any yet, but this is
only December.
Louise-But you said
! Jeanne-Oh, yes. Papa is looking out for
| all that. He says that my two sisters are
growing up so fast that he can't possibly
have as all around at the same time. so he
has decided that l am to be married in
| April, and now he is looking about for an
eligible part
|
some one, the parti was discovered, intro
auctions were made on the last day of
February, and on the 9th and 10th of April
| the civil and religious ceremonies were per-
| formed. Louise danced as in vited, and she
| says she had most excellent time.
These marriages, of course, often turn out
happily enough, but often also the intro
duction Of some third party breaks up the
menage. Marriage at the convent is rule
| SO universal Ia France that French women
| profess themselves wholly unable to under
stand the lives of the daughters of some OF
the American residents who pass 81, %, %,
and not meeting the husbands of their
choice live on happily unmarried. The strug
giles of French mothers, yes and of fathers. TO
lay by the dot. without which the daughter
cannot be married advantageously, and
with which, be she lame, blind or deformed,
she can still obtain a husband, are often
pathetic to the onlooker. | have heard of
cases in which delicate women left widows
have pinched themselves during the entire
space of child's minority to lavish the
sum massed on a daughters dot and mar
riage corbellle, stripping themselves bare
and beginning again past middle age to
struggle for living. There is no country
! where parents more consistently do what
they consider their duty by their children.
who. IN another way. though they are
hardly supposed to be individuals until
married. are even more selfish than Ameri-
can young people, holding that TO establish