The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-01
THE FRENCH WOMEN.
Not the Creatures Pictured by
Their Own Novelists.
NOT PERFECT SAINTS. EITHER.



-social Ktiqustte and Gus
toms IN Paris.
vEloxA, Italy, Feb. 16.-fspecial Cor
respondence. III wrote the other day some
few thoughts about Spanish women. The
duke Of Fernan Nunez, once ambassador
to Paris. gives ball at Madrid, and the
elite Of Paris fashion docks to attend it,
just as group Of New Workers might
flock to an entertainment in Philadelphia;
while the Spanish women come or send to
Paris for their toilettes, desiring to have
them the most ingenious and perfect possi-
bic. The upper class il that which is most
alike the world over, and that among the
different branches Of which there is the
most connection. In France it Is still
very splendid. Although the contrast be-
tween what is done under the republic and
what took place under the empire IS great.
court forms and fine ceremonial remain
tradition. Gorgeous lackeys serve you,
and chamberlains, with chains Of Office
about their necks, usher you in. The uni
forms of stocky, square-built generals,
the plumed hakos and metal helmets that
ence, the plentiful orders and ribands of
civilians, give color that an American
drawing-room can hardly ever expect to
have. The dresses OF the women are often
very daring. Here comes one. of high
rank, upon the arm of a gallant cabinet
minister, who has lately distinguished
himself in duel. She is in gown all of
ruby velvet, very simple, very low, held
on only by little straps over the shoulders;
. trim waist unusually small, very white
teeth, full scarlet lips; long, black gloves
set off the whiteness Of her neck and arms;
. diamond necklace sparkles upon this
white neck, and thin, black lace ruff, in
the ancient mode, rises behind it. A ball,
or the opera boxes, with such women all
about, is near akin to q dream peopled
with Oriental hours.
lftraveled Americans see comparatively
little of the dukes, princes, bewildering
marquises and charming countesses that
make up their beau monde, they at least
see more of it than any other. They are
apt to see the best or none at all. The re-
proach is often heard that the Americans
come to Paris, ensconce themselves in
colony of their own, take no part in French
social life, and give themselves no oppor-
tunity to learn the real genius of the peo-
pie. ! am more than inclined to think,
after some observation, that the fault
is not wholly on their side. It would be
truer to say that many of these people of
culture, with the merit of being in search of
improvement, would be very glad of the
opportunities they are supposed to neglect,
and had decidedly meant, before setting
out from home, to embrace them. But
little is known of them or their country,
and that little is generally presented by
the journals in an unfayorabIe light. and
they are kept at arms length. Even in
the upper caste the principal rush is made
for those who have very rich daughters to
marry, and the advance Is often SO glar-
ingly, and in appearance, so solely for this
purpose that it Is far from complimentary.
It would be a real boon. in the interest of
general culture and better comprehension
Of each other by the two great republics, if
some easier way were open by which
Americans, not millionaires with daugh-
tiers to marry to impoverished titles, but
people of moderate fortune and en-
lightened aspiration could enter
into pleasant social. relations with a
corresponding class which must undoubt-
edly exist in France. As to the point of
departure, in the general absence of fam
lily connections and the great divergence
OF types and ideals, as to the method by
which it could be done-ah, there / leave
it, don't pretend to invent method.
just what there Is in the French middle
class is a great deal more of mystery
than what there in that above it; less is
known of it than any other. What but
accident is to precipitate one intimately
into that miilieu, Astounding with pre-
JUDGES, narrowed with limitations, some
what lacking in imagination, as middle
classes everywhere are, and yet possessing
the germs of all that is most favorable.
and constituting in itself the essence. the
bone and sinew of the Frenchna-
ture? What is probable is that
q considerable part of this middle
class, even those in such comfortable cir
cumstances as would put them on a far
different plane in the United States, live
hardly more than semi-peasant exis-
tence. They make their parlor an austere,
sacred apartment only to be entered on
certain state occasions, while they pass
their existence almost squalidly in stutfy
back rooms; they feel no need of friction
with other minds, and they retire to rest
not long after sundown-except that the
husband and father for his part is more
likely to go and spend his evening at the
cafe. In going about Paris in the
evening with a companion, it has
repeatedly happened to US to pass
whole blocks of most respectable
looking apartment houses with only a
single light or two to be seen in them high
or low. We need to wager, in jest, that
where the light was seen some American
family was lodged, and that they had
something to read, or even, daring suppo-
sitioni that they had friends to spend the
evening with them. There are undoubt-
edly thousands of families in Paris, which,
for all its movement, live in a complete
dizziness not to be exceeded in any part of
the provinces; and thus it is fair to say
there are thousands of families in the
provinces who live just as people do in
Paris.
There are two very strongly contrasted
opinions of French women. There is the
opinion of French women which is given
out by their own novelists. These writer's
are pretty web understood, however, to
disport themselves in realm of pure
fancy.
They deal with the dissolute married
women because the doings Of the honest
woman are not exciting enough. 1t is
kind Of convention in French novels that
the women should be bad, Just as it was a
convention that there should be an irasci-