The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-02-15

Grdy6u as Inc rSuCu luoIe ue IdLllllo.
She regards her maternal duties as
onerous. declines to either nurse or tend
her children and packs them oft TO
school as soon as ever they are beyond
mere infancy.
Ii she does not reside at hotel she has
a house, where her husband and herself
occasionally receive their friends, but
which serves for but little else. The hus-
band. as rule, prefers his club, where
he finds solitude if he desires it, card
games if he is fond of gambling, gossip
if he likes conversation, and In many
cases Injuries which he cannot afford to
have at his own home. Frequently he
dimes at his club. Being thus the entire
day on change or at his business and
spending the evening at his club, what
becomes of the wife? She, during this
time, says M. Simon, forms acquaint-
ances and social relations of her own.
She is left entirely free to her own de-
vices, unhampered by any of the senti-
mental scruples of the Old World con-
corning her husband and children, and
well, she "hovers on the border line Of
divorce"
Concerning the American practice of
living at hotels-and it is clear that M.
Simon believes that at least 70 per
cent. of the well to do population Of
the United States has adopted that
means Of existence-he declares that
these caravansaries render even super
fuous the hypocrisy of pretending to
have home and family. Monsieur
and Madame have each their separately
numbered room and their duly num-
bered seat at the table d hote, nor is it
usual, he adds, for either the rooms of
the husband and wife, nor yet their
places at table, to be contiguous.
AS to the American children M. Simon
asserts that the only tie which binds
them to their parents is the sentiment
that they are dependent upon the latter
for maintenance and support. As soon
as from one reason or another they be-
come self supporting the tie in question
disappears, they shake themselves free
from the obligation of obedience, which,
according to M. Simon, they look upon
as a'tyoke" instead of as a loving duty,
and they become comparative strangers
to their fathers and mothers.
This is the conception which M. Jules
Simon has formed of the typical Ameri-
can family, and inasmuch as he is
esteemed in Europe to be the greatest
living authority and writer on all prob
lens connected with the social system,
it stands to reason that he will be be-
ieved, not alone by the vast majority Of
his countrymen, who are incredibly
ignorant of everything beyond their
frontiers, but also by the greater portion
of the people of the Old World.
1t is scarcely necessary for me to men
ton the fact that M. Simon has never
visited the United States, and that the
sole opportunities which he has enjoyed
of studying the intricacies of the very
complex American character have been
on the Paris boulevards or at the sum-
mer hotels. Possibly his convictions on
the subject have been confirmed by the
and altogether valueless
opinions of those of his countrymen
who, having spent a few days in New
York drifting about between the Hof-
man House and the Hotel Martin, fond
ly imagine that they know America.
Unfortunately neither they nor yet M.
Simon appear to understand that there
are other kinds of Americans than those
whom they happen to have encountered
in hotels, and that there is just as much
regard for family and domestic ties of
affection in the United States as in
either France or anywhere else in Eu-
rope. The love of home-and of those
dear ones who brighten with their pres
ence, be the relation what it MAYS just
as strongly developed in the American
heart as in the French character.
l, too, like M. Simon, am foreigner,
and while l can lay no claim to his rep
nor to his knowledge, nor to the
universal respect which he enjoys
abroad, yet there is one thing in which
| am his superior in expert
ence of the American life and Of the
American character. And let me assure
him and those whom he has misled that
it is just as preposterous to judge the
American family and the American
character from what is seen thereof in
hotels, either in Europe or i'll New York,
rs it is for Americans to gauge the
of French morality by vile
of vile French novels. In
the cities, towns and villages of the
United States-aye, and right here in
New York as well-there are home
life, a domestic happiness and a family
of which the ordinary for
eign globe trotter has no knowledge, but
which are every whit as perfect in all
their features as those of France or any
other country of the Old World.