The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-07
FROM CHILD TO WOMAN.
Education and Training of the French
G:rl In Paris.
Especial correspondence

Girl In Paris.
Especial Correspondence
PARIS, Dec 27.-The sharp crack of
a cabman s whip or the shrin call of
the peasant woman who sells apricots
is perhaps the only sound which floats
over the high walled garden of the
''pension" to remind the little French
schoolgirl there is an outside life.
Within that garden she sedately
walks, clothed in black alpaca pima
fore, her arm around some companions
waist. her thoughts narrowed to the
confine of her school.
The moment she outgrows socks and
skirts two inches above her knees she
is placed in the pension" or in the con-
vent. If it is to the boarding school she
is to be sent, one must be chosen where
she will meet girls of her own ''caste. -
The outskirts of Paris-St. Cloud, Neu-
lily and Passy-are simply a colony of
boarding schools. Very rigid are the
rules. The daughter that comes from
the Faubourg st. German will not en-
ter the same pension with the girl
whose father has the mayoralty of some
village on the Seine. This little bour-
geois, scorned by the patrician, will
not in turn associate with the girl whose
father sells gloves on the Avenue de
l'Opera- Each class of society has its
school. Although many of these schools
claim to be secular, there is a strong
papal influence brought to bear upon
the pupils. What would our vigorous
independent American girl, who at the
age Of 16 begins to talk of the ''higher
education and goes in for golfng, Greek
plays, lectures and opera matinees, the
girl that studie~ graphic states, high
low German and political economy,
think of the French girl who hardly
| knows the meaning of such things? At
that age the little Partisan is spending
her time in making pri1n drawings in
red ink, filling her copy books with pre-
else dainty writings. studying her ma
tional history only or preparing her
| composition Oh 1.-The Wild Flowers. -
The American girl should not pity her
neighbor across the water, for she is
! taught what the American would wrong
fully scOrn. She can do the most ex-
! quisite embroidery, is taught department.
| and can repeat the lives of the saints.
| These ideals are often an exaltation and
| tend to the formation of noble char
acter.
AT IS years the Partisan schoolgirl
/ generally says 'goodby" to her mates.
As soon as the pension" doors have
closed on her for good the pinafore is
| changed for the simplest of gowns.
! Handsome costumes or jewels are out of
! the question until she becomes ma
dame" AS soon as she has finished"
the straight brushed hair shows tend
ency to curl on the forehead.
Even now she does not begin to see
life as American girls understand it
AS soon as she is prepared to enter So
ciety her doWry is given out, and a
suitable husband is generally chosen by
the parents. At last she is affianced
In many cases when her future hus
band is presented she may not have had
five minutes conversation with him. At
balls there is always raised divan
around the room, on which the chaper-
on sits with her charge beside her.
When a gentleman requests a dance, he
asks it of the chaperon, not the young
woman. While dancing he rarely speaks
to her. On its termination he immedi-
ately leads her back to the seat on the
divan. She is never allowed to be alone
with her fiance, or, in fact, with any
man, until she is married. Very different
is the life of the Flemish and Dutch
girls. for they are allowed almost as
much liberty as the Americans
AS usual thing, there is no former
love affair to haunt her, and if the
chosen husband is young and passably
good looking he satisfies her girlish
fancy. and she gives him her love. No
thoughts of congeniality or moral or
mental worth enter her little head.
She is not really the faithless, frivolous
creature the French novelist is SO fond
of portraying. On the contrary, she IS
fond of her husband and devoted to her
children. From the slight limbed, thin
featured schoolgirl marriage develops
her into a shapely, vivacious, excitable
woman, with lots of dash and wit.
MAUD JAMES CHIFFON.