St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-04-25
VIEWS OF THE REVIEWS.

The North Madame Adam.
who recently brushed of some OF the
misconceptions which Americans had
formed from French novels NJ the
morality OF French women, contributes
in this issue very interesting article
on the revolution which the quarter
century has witnessed la the position OF
French girls in the home aud in society.
Herself a grandmother. bred in the old
school of Sec!usiOn. aud training her
daughters in the same, she writes with
tender sorrow o. The system which pre-
served TO the daughters that innocence
which comes from ignorance. which the
ruthless current of modern life has
swept away. while she Is philOs-
OpheT enough to SCI that the
change is not without its benefits.
Ii may be true that the cause IS due to
that closer contact with her English
and American sisters, and To the latter,
probably. more than to the former, IN
which the French girl has been brought
in these later years. when the rapid
acc umuiation of wealth here has made
possible the residence in Paris, that city
where Holmes saws all good Americans
go when they die, of such numbers OF
our restless rich. But il is more proba-
Bile that the deeper cause is that the
French girl has felt a Little later than
her sisters across the channel and the
ocean the impact OF one OF those great
waves coming from no one knows
where, which seem 70 have no relation
To what IS or has been, which sweep
away old customs, tear down ejudiceS,
revolutiOnZe thought and lift humanity
10 an upper plane.
Nine. Adam describes Interestingly
hfa IN in M
prepared their daughters for the dudes
OF life before the daughters took the
matter in hand and prepared themselves
after the fashion of their cis-Atlantic
cousins. Their minds were shielded
by their parents. Everything was done
to keep the thoughts of Young girls on
poetic. gay and Juvenile subjects"
They had respect FOR their own innO-
cenee which made them reject all
knowledge, ali comprehension OF any
| thing that might disturb their purity or
make them lose In the least what they
| guarded with 50 much jealousy. Facts
about nature and science were only re
yealed 10 them when they had 20 be in
/ itlated INTO certain mysteries OF life.
| They lived ia complete and ethereal
| ignorance. The only papers they read
were the fashion papers; their text
| books were eNpurgated; too good health
or too good an appetite was plebean.
Aud we brought up this child SO pure
! 10 be welded 10 frehch husband. who
| WAS already beginning to bite at all
| kinds OF sports. 10 think only of anus
| Ing himself, respecting very few things
| in life, loving pleasure above all, good
| living and an outdoor life" No wonder
| that, thus prepared for the inevitable in
| life, Mortified when they encountered
| IL, so many OF these "toO innocent
wives" regarded marriage As "a sort OF
! an ambush into which they had been
| thrown without warning" and little
| cause is there for wonder that French
! n0yellsts found in real life the wives
with whom they have made American
readers only too familiar Action and
reaction is law not confined 10 me-
| chanics or physics; ii is law OF human
nature as well. The rebound IS almost
certain 10 equal the compression.
But the philosopher prevails over the
| grief OF the mother ana grandmother
whose throne has been overturned In
| this revolution, and Nine. Adam finds
| that "all that IS torn from the bleeding
heart is added TO the individual. The
| young woman is making herself she
will under ,tand in little while the re
| sponsiblities OF liberty. Already among
| our girls who are free from their FAINT
| lies, who have broken from world too
| narrow for them, we can see rising
superior wOmanhood, aud we must ac-
| knowledge it a strong one. They have
lost the poetry and sentiment, but have
gained much III return. Oar grand
mothers and mothers can think OF one
fact that will always be great consOla-
ton to them-that is, that If our daugh-
ters belong less 10 us. they belong more
to themselves. and if we have much
more unhappy lives, perhaps they are
becoming far happier" p j. $.