The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-13

ious mopent-especially so for the
neophyte.
The bound from tutelage to the very
license Of liberty, moral and intellec-
tual, is a marked characteristic of the
French system. Marriage makes the
trembling ninny OF a girl finished
woman of the world. A INST shave con-
verts the gawlxy schOolboy into the ape
of a boulevardier, vices and AL. The
transformation Is as sudden as any
thing in eastern magic. He was boy
after his time under the tutelage sys-
TEN. He becomes q, man before his
time at Saumur, and he generally goes
through a stage Of puppyiSm which is
trial for his friends. This is the peri
Cd of his first duel, a thing done on
the sly, and revealed to his Mortified
mother only after the scratch has
healed. By and by there may be other
escapades of a more serious nature.
But the mother is still there to find
out all about them almoss before they
happen, and the watchful father is at
hand to see that they entail a mini
mum of scandal.
At this stage his people begin TO
think Of marrying him, and here again
all is provided for by the ever-watch-
ful system. 1t is the mothers business
to learn the whereabouts of ingenues
doubly lowered with virtue and with
millions. The marriage is arranged
the term has a more than usually deep
significance in F'rance-and the pair
have chance Of living happily ever
after, if they know how to make the
best Of il. It is no bad chance Though
the French marriage is not, in the first
instance, based on love, it is supposed
never to take place until liking, 'at
least, is assured The rest is expected
to come as a matter of growth The
theory is that any two persons of about
equal age, circumstances and breeding,
if only they start fair in friendship,
will learn to love each other by the
mere accident of companionsllip and
the identity of interests. The odd thing
is that they very often do.
The wife has been still more careful
ly brought up, in her way Nothing
can exceed the more than Hindu sane
tity of know nothingism in which the
mind Of the young French girl is
shrOuded from birth. At the convent
she has had the wall between her and
a wicked world. Her whole art of pO-
lite conversation with a man is little
more than "OUi, monsieur Non.
monsieur" After a dance she must be
safely and swiftly deposited sort of
returned enpty-by her mothers SIDE,
and during that brief futter of free
dom it is not good form to take advan-
tage Of the absence of the parent bird
A few observations on the weather
and the picture galleries are consid-
cred to mark the limit of taste. "Gyp"
has assured US in many a cynic page
that the ingenue is not half such a
SimpletOn as she looks. But it must
not be forgotten that "Gyp" has large
ly invented a type Of her own business
uses. The real article, while it is not
exactly q lamb in innocence, is still
happily unaware Of most Of the evil
going on in the world. Here, as mil
itary life was the great change for
the boy, marriage is the greater change
for the girl. She passes at once into a
sphere in which she is considered fair
game for any alIusion to anything
within the bounds of good breeding.
She rises to her opportunity, or to the
stern duties of her station, whichever
way you choose to put it, and in
surprisingly short time comes out as
the finished woman of the world. This
is the English way. neither blame it
nor defend it; I do not even try to ac-
count for it. I simply say what it is.