The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-09-05

OCCURRED anywhere except IN france, this
explanation would be at once dismissed
as too fantastic and far-fetched to
deserve serious attention, but, unfortu-
nately, the morality Of Frenchmen in
high stations Is so VIGOROUSLY perverse
and debased, especially where women are
concerned, that nothing in the way of sac
rifcing honor, Justice and reputation to
satisfy the demands of q dissolute woman,
Is too monstrous to be credible.
That the mass Of Frenchmen and French
women are as pure in their sexual relations
as the people OF any other country, the con-
tinued existence Of the social fabric among
them compels us to believe. Wherever the
conjugal tie is ~disregarded tho family is
impossible, and when the family Is dissolved,
society relapses into barbarism. Unless tho
great majority Of French wives and mothers
respected their obligations to their hus-
bands, marriages would cease, children
would not BIO reared, and the country would
become comparatively depopulated. What
ever sexual immortality exists In France
must, therefore, OF necessity, DO confined to
a special class, and does not pervade tho
entire community.
That this special and exceptional class
comprises, however, q large number Of the
political and social leaders OF France Is the
testimony Of too many well-informed OBJ
servers to be denied. Not to go back 30 far
as LOUIS XIV, and to the examples Of licen-
~tiousness which that monarch furnished
In such abundance, and which his court
only too willingly initiated, the we'll
authenticated anecdotes Of NAPOLEON
III md NJ hto orno,,ro thn pnfn-
rious profligacy Of prominent ladies Of
his court, the fact that GAMBETTA died
from a wound inflicted by his mistress, that
VICTOR HUGO openly lived with a woman
not his wife, and that even lola has W.
families, one legitimate and the other ille-
gitimate, besides many other illustrations
OF the same character which It Is needless
to recapltulate, prove that the upper stra-
FUN Of French society is poisoned by a dis
regard Of moral restraints, which makes
any crime charged against it probable.
Conflrmatory of this conclusion Is the I'M
intended testimony OF the French novel
writer's. Among the thousands Of French
romances which have appeared since the
days Of BALZAc and which are still poured
out at the rate Of hundreds in a year, scarce
ly n fails to introduce, as an essential
element Of its plot, the adultery of
a respectable married woman. Read
ing these productions leads to the
apparent conclusion that there is no
married m in France who is not
ready, upon the slightest in~ducement. to
betray her husband. The incidents de-
scribed in many Of these books and the
sentiments expressed In them are such as
would mako them, IL they were published
in this country, liable to confiscation as
obscene literature, but in France they pass
unchallenged, and even in this country are
read by respectable people. OF course,
the writers Of them depict only the
women they have known, who are mostly
actresses, dancers and professional prosti-
tutes, and in ascribing the characteristics
Of that depraved class to the whole sex,
they libel their countrywomen. Neverthe-
less, the stories they narrate may, with the
necessary reservation, be accepted as
founded in fact, and among them are many
just such perversions Of justice and so vile
Vaccinations, cloaked under the forms of
law, as have been suggested as explaining
the persecution Of DREYFUs.