Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-03

suited in q separation Of men and women,
and the abolition of one of the greatest en-
| joyments of life-the intellectual inter
course of men and women gifted with
| brains -
The Morals of the Mixed Class.
As to the morals of this mixed class, he
| maintains that respectability possesses al
ways the upper hand, but there is toler-
ance that is alarming. Nobody reads Zola,
or at least admits it, but a neat case at law
displayed in charming style, and with all
the graces of society, is read with delight
by all. Although ME. Simon's remarks
upon the women of the aristocracy of wealth
bear thus hard upon the American colony
IN Paris, he will not admit that society IN
France is more corrupt than elsewhere, but
he confesses thai in common with other
| countries he is beginning to see that society
has gone little too far in flirting with vice.
eve have only reached the stage of i'm
prudence, but this is not tar from deca-
dence."
In treating of the woman of the middle
class he is very diffuse. In reckoning up
her characteristics he says: ''She is relig-
ious, with atendency to be superstitious. She
is strictly moral, devoted to worldly gains,
good manager. faithful mother, though
ruled by blind tradition rather than her
own reason. She is ignorant of political
matters, though fanatically in her bias for
individuals. She is scrupuously honest In
her dealings, an earnest patriot-in word
superior to her husband. She has larger
heart, more intense devotion to her duties
and more impregnable common sense. In
| the last siege of Paris she set an example of
patient suffering and encouraged men to
work and to fight and saved them all from
despair
Vanity OF the Middle Class
The fault of the middle class women Of
France is-according TO their countryman,
who describes them-vanity. This vanity
is the strongest influences in French society.
In short, saws Simon, "the middle class is
absolutely rotten with vanity" The women
are positively possessed with the idea
that it is disgraceful to work, and
splendid to be idle. They will not admit OF
any superiority. They want their sons to
be educated in colleges and their daughters
to make good matches. They Will go
through unheard-of sacrifices to accomplish
these ends A father may be satisfied to
limit his ambition for his son to his capa-
city, but not so his mother. Trade or busi-
ness for her son she cannot tolerate. He
must have higher position in the social
scale. Her daughter must never work.
Simon stops to wall over the fact that the
middle class women care nothing for sing
ing, but they must have piano because
that presumes they have drawing room
If their girls must do ANYTHING teaching is
the occupation most consistent with their
ideas OF ladyhood, although no more exact
ing or tiresome occupation can he found. In
Consequence of this ri liculou~ yInity there
are more than 2j.OOO girls every year certi-
fed as able to teach who can secure no po-
sitions. They cannot come down to any
thing else, and think sit is better to die
heroically of hunger"
The Slave Chain, of Vanity.
These middle-class women with all their
dread of work for their daughters. work like
galley slaves themselves. o In the books
they amuse themselves and firt But in
reality, they do nothing but work. Not for
money, that would degrade them to the posi-
tion Of working women, which their pride
and vanity could never endure for mo-
ment. Where means are small, such women
do all the housework. They cook, wash and
mend. They are up first in the morning
and the last to go to bed. Ill or well, they
work, work, work. They are skinhints in
enconomizing, they dispute the bill OF
every tradesman, they pick up every pin.
They have no amusements, no reading, no
conversation, and no visiting.
The husband goes to his club or the cafes.
He strolls around and gets all the fun he
can, but she is a fixture in the house. Only
church, where she will assume to be fine
lady. Some of the poorer women of the
middle class become shopkeepers or book
keepers. This relieves them OF the menial
drudgery, btft they keep up their vanity of
not being working women, as such
class is known in France. They toll and
moil and slave themselves to build up their
children's dowries, so that they can make
the ad, d,antageous marriages they desire for
them. Happiness does not seem to them to
be word with any meaning. Position and
money are the motives Of their lives.
Finance and Matrimony.
Marriages are made for money in France
as q rule Among the peasant class wife
is usually selected for ability to work.
Women have no idle dreams or brilliant
faneies They see the hard side of life
from the highest to the lowest. Their COM
fort and consolation are obtained from their
religion and the hope of the life to come.
Whatever of faith there is in France is due
to the women who ''do the piety" for the
family They have great influence over
their husbands, it is asserted, but they can
not induce them to go to confession, though
in the country districts, says Simon, they
do compel them to go to church.
In his essay, this author trys to make il
clear that nobody can understand French
women but French men, and II is even very
hard for the men TO 90 IL, DuL IrOm MS
labored article, it would appear that French
women are a good deal like other woman;
that apart from their prejudices, their
ignorance, their farlts of education, the
hold upon them of slavish superstition, the
bulk of them are plain everyday women
doing their duty according to their light.
From the middle classes he goes to the
working women and presents rather
unattractive picture, not alone as to the
women, but the men as we'll Judging by
this, there will be no hesitation on this side
of the water in saying that the working-men
and women of this country are far above and
beyond the French in the matter of moral
itv, although he maintains the contrary.
One of the most surprising of his state
ments is that the Americans in larger part
have about broken up the French salon, and
DESTROYED the comfort and pleasure of the
literary men by imposing the formality Of
American manners. upon the society Of
France. The English too, have had hand
in this, but he pronounces the Americans
as the ''larger half" BESSIE BRAMBLE