The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-30
THE FRENCH WIDOWS
ARE THE MOST UNHAPPY PEOPLE
IN THE GAY LITTLE REPUBLIC.
Victims of Any Gallant Who Meets
ciaI Pleasure Until Remarked.

| French widows always called up yague rec
objections of the bereaved young person in
"A Trip to Chinatown" 1 humbly beg the
pardon of the real Paris widow. She is
| much more like the Oriental wives who die
on the funeral pyres of their husbands,
| and she is often almost as secluded as if
| she We're buried alive.
| Naturally this does not refer to the peo-
| pie, as the French call the working classes.
| When the small groceryman dies, his
| widow, who has sat at the desk and been
| cashier and bookkeeper during his life
| time, sits there still, and everything goes
| on as before, except that there is a we
| put before the name to show that Widow
{Veuve) Maurice" or whatever her name
may be, is at the head of the business.
| There is no attempt made, as there often
| is in America, to give the impression that
affairs in the hands of man. The
women too shrewd and experienced as
| shopkeepers to need any such pretense.
With the women of society it is different.
1t is not easy for a stranger to make OBJ
servations in this field, and, above all, in
the direction of widows. The easiest way
| to gain Information is to cultivate
widow who has seen better days and get
her to reveal the secrets of her sad estate.
This is not difficult. Widows with money
are the prey of designing relatives and UNI
ways plenty of them who have been
! duced to keeping boarders. which. after the
pawnshop, is their sole resource.
In France, If husband dies without a
will, leaving a widow but no children, ali
his property, even though it may have been
held in common during mis- lifetime, goes TO
his family His widow has nothing. LII he
dies without WILL leaving widow and
children, all the. property goes to the chill
dren.
1.-The widow may live on the income with
her children, provided she can arrange 1t
he can forbid her receiving a cent from
her children, and compel her to earn her
own living. 1t is terrible, isn't it?'
1t was a bright. attractive little French
woman of forty who told me this. She
been widow ten years, and although her
although she had her own dot of $4,000,
she is now keeping ,boarders for the prince
ROBBED BY HER KIN.
Her brother-in-law. in whose bank her
entire fortune was placed, failed at judi
cious interval after her husbands death,
and Nine. T. found herself with young
son to educate, without income and with
out resources, except a small country
house.
This she sold and put her fifteen-year-old
boy in college BY the advice of prominent
lawyers she set about trying to recover her
dot, which is supposed to be the inalienable
property of married woman. She failed,
and In the meantime had sold pawned
most of her jewelry and furniture.
Her scarcely out OF college be-
fore, like every other Frenchman, he was
obliged to go into the army. Most young
men are obliged to serve for three years.
with one year. This is not such a conces-
sion as 1t seems at first. for. the, young
man, at the end of his year. is taxed a cer-
tain amount annually until he attains the
age of sixty.
not pay this tax, his mother. the unfortu--
nate widow, becomes responsible for it. If
ee She ave is se1e
In effect therefore, it is she who is taxed
in lieu of the military service from which
she is supposedly exempt.
Her son. during his year of military serv-
ice. receives cent a day, With this he is
obliged to buy backing for his boots, to-
baeco and other things. He receives his
clothes and an insufficient amount of food
from the government. IT his mother did
not send him food he would fall i'll from
These are a few of the practical incon-
venences of being a French widow. In the
social line she is much worse off, especially
if she happens to be a daughterless or
'.Do / ever wish had a daughter?' said
Nine. T., when asked her the question.
oh, no. / can never be too thankful that
l have none. Without money she could not
hope to marry well and her life would be
ruined. With son it is different. His
career is entirely changed, but it does not
make such hopeless thing of his life. If
for aa daughter, because that would make S.s It
possible for me to go out occasionally and
mingle with the world.
But if you had money couldn't you do
that?"
DEPRIVED OF ALL PLEASURES
And then Nine. T. explained to me a
state of affairs which was appalling from
an American point of view. A French
widow becomes lost to sight and quickly
forgotten by society. She cannot go to re-
ceptions. or balls, dinners, or musicales,
or anything in which the heart of woman
delights.
This law of the conventionalties does not
apply to the period of mourning only; it
is perpetual lock and key on any spirit
of effervescence or natural desire to be
something beside a housekeeping hermit
If, however, she has been blessed with a
daughter and enough money to make
presentable. appearance. in society, she can
take her daughter out when that young
lady is old enough. A son is not sufficient
excuse for this entrance into society: there
fore, blessed be the daughters of widows
into society before she takes her daughter
NAV NAV dine with them, but it must be est Strict
ly en- famille. If these friends are of a
match making turn of mind they will occa-
same time, and in this way the widow has
an opportunity to speak to her fellow-men.
always to be relied on.
You see. said Nine Nine: +, hesiata ati
gallant to widows
"Oh!'
Yes 1t is the fdult or their
alphabetically. For instance, after my
husband died ] used to go often to the
house of some very close friends who lived
in one of the suburbs of Paris 1t was one
of my very few pleasures, and I often
spent Sunday with them. One Saturday I
had gone there. and in the evening Nj. -
proposed that we play billiards.
1.-THE billiard room was across the garden
and it was necessary to carry the balls and
cues with us. Nine. went on ahead
with the key. NJ - gave the others some
thing to carry, and finally gave me an arm
full of things. We were the last, and as
we were crossing the garden he put his
arms around me and kissed me repeat
edly''
Nine T. laughed in spite of herself.
.He had been. very clever, you see,' she
went on HE had filled my arms with
things so that I could not resist, and / did
not want to drop them because that would
attract every ones attention and it would
be SO hard for his wife,
REFUSED TO BE SQUEEZED.
We'll" after a pause, "of course that
ended my going to that house. Then / had
some other friends. The husband / had
known since we were children, when we
had played together in the same garden.
HE was quite determined that i should
marry again, and often asked me there to