The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-14
SHE NEVER GROWS UP.
The Young French Girl Is a Baby
In Long Dresses.


Her a Place in the world-Her Sys-
tenn of Education Outlined by One
who Has Studied It Privileges
which Americans Take for Granted
Denied Her.
From the Philadelphia Press.
/ once asked a Franco-Hungarian
comtesse who had just returned after
year spent in America the trait of the
American girl which had most strongly
impressed her.
t'It is, =" she said, "their absolute uncon-
seriousness Of their good fortune IN being
such. They take everything as matter
of course, and they don't know that they
ought to get down on their knees every
hour and thank their American men for
their liberty"
When the American girl goes to Rome
she never does quite as the Romans do,
ana in Paris. while compelled to admit
the wisdom of European social customs
nNEurope-she manages TO capture the
French woman's homage and yet retain
enough of her native born freedom and
independence TO make her frantically en-
Wed bB the young women of France. "Ah,
you NOulE EIElS. OuCC OK
claimed the Empress Eugenie to beau
tiful Washington belle at court ball.
"You are doing more to ruin our poor
France than all the republicans J"
But custom is strong, and while Par
isians have come to excuse the most dar-
ing violations OF the French social code
with a shrug which means but she, you
know. is an American yet after all the
French demoiselle Of fashion in the
gayest capital of the world is the same
as she was in the days of the empire.
The political enfrauchisement of the men
has not brought with it much more of
social liberty to tn young woman.
He who called Paris the paradise of
women told only half truth. it is the
paradise of the American girl and of the
married Parisienne. but not by any means
for the French demoiselle. Between her
and the American girl there is great
gulf fixed.
The young woman in France-and
"young woman means any woman un-
married and under the age of 24-is a
baby in long dresses.
Not that she lacks the capabilities; far
from it There is no brighter young wo-
man in the world than the French
demoiselle, if she be given half a chance.
The younger married women of Paris,
who have had a clash with real life, show
what the French demoiselle might be-
They are the life of the salon. Their
brilliancy their wit, their SAVIOR faire
make them admired the world over. No,
st is not the fault of the woman 1t is not
the fault Of the demoselle that she is
baby in long skirts, but the fault of her
mother. And here again, it is not the
fault of her mother, but of modern French
society
BROUGHT Up IN STRICT RETIREMENT.
Imagine, If you can, a girl brought up
from the nurses arms in the strict re-
tirement of a French family. This means
much more strictly than in America, or
even in England, for Frenchman's fam
lily life never opens to admit a stranger
guest.
When sh e is little girl perhaps she
goes to school This is only if her par
ents cannot afford TO have her taught at
home by private teachers. She is con-
Quoted TO school by a servant or by her
mother and when the school is out find
some one waiting at the door to bring her
home.
In school she sees only girls about her,
for the sexes are kept widely apart in the
public school system of France. There
Is no sitting side by side on the same
benches, as do the boys and girls of tender
age in Canada and the United States. To
the little girl the boy of her own age is a
strange, wild creature, not at all like
herself, constituting world of his own,
and, because utterly unknown, a subject
of her greatest curiosity.
When she grows a little older she is
either taken home and put under the tu-
telage of her mother or perhaps put into
a French convent, where, in the strictest
discipline and in utter seclusion save for
the severe Sisters" and weekly visits of
her family, she passes the golden youth
which nature intended to be spent In the
sunshine and among the flowers.
AFTER SCHOOL DAYS.
When her sch ooling is over, and this is
soon in France, for trenchmen, like Mar
tlal, prefer their wives mot overlearned.'
she comes under the sway of that impla,
cable guardian, the French maman. She
has no Will of her own. Her hats, gowns
even her shoes and gloves, are chosen for
her, and her department is exactly speci
fed in all things. She has no friends
among married woman, and few among
young women of her own age Such in,
timacies are, in every case, watched ovel
by the mother, and the daughter is rarely
without her, even in her own house.
1t must be remembered that the French
man expects the mother of the girl hi
marries to be able to account for every
hour Of the girls life up to the day of hel
marriage. In this he is most rigorous
and single appearance on the stree
without conventional accompaniment
might seriously prejudice any young girl:
prospect for marriage. And il is with
the sole idea of marriage that the French
demoiselle CONNIE il faut is brought up
When lady callers come to see madame
the daughter is rarely seen; when mel
callers are present, never.
To occupy her mind at home she ha.
her fancy work and such reading as ha.
been carefully selected by her mother.
When the French demoiselle goes walk
ing on the boulevard. mother and daughter
always appear together, like a tandem
bicycle, with madame on the front sea
with the stearing gear. The girl is al
afterthought, for which not even an ex
cuse is necessary.
The only men who exchange a WORD
with madame on her promenade are mar
rleu men upon whose wives madame calls
Madame is here the attraction, and tn,
girl beside her is not snubbed, but i,
simply ignored. She might as well no
be there, for she is not even looked at
Probably monsieur has not met madamoi
selle-- more likely he would like TO. bu
that does not matter in the least. He ha.
too much politeness to show it, and mad
anne is too conventional and altogether to,
much OF a French mother TO notice 1t. AS
for the young man CONNIE IL faut, he mus
never approach. Raising the hate
madame-must content him.
HER ENTRANCE INTO SOCIETY.
There is, strictly speaking, no regularly