The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-20


Nov, thee charge can't be brought
that the French, and particularly the
Partisan child, is not given plenty of
freedom and fresh air, for, as 1 have
said, they fairly grow up on the street
AS far as l can see, the streets of Paris
are utilized by the majority of fami-
lies as a substitute for the home and
nursery, to an extent in fact, that
makes an Anglo Saxon woman open
her eyes with doubt and dismay. There
are arguments in favor OF it, of course,
for the streets of Paris are exceptional,
but on the whole I am sure the French
mother is guilty of a great blunder.
From dawn to dark her infant toddler
and growing lads and lassieS know no
other life than that. of the great, gay
thOTOughfares.
why they are sent there is no nys-
terry, for few French women are ever
content to be Just humdrum mother
and hOusekeeper. If she is well to do,
she sacrifices everything to go into So
ciety; if she belongs to the commercial
class she participates actively in her
husbands business, and while she loves
her children with perfect maternal ten
derness, she won't have them hanging
about to impede her social or financial
progress. They will tell you that there
is true unselfshnesS =, this, because
the upper class mother devotes time
and energy to securing the best pos
sible match for her coming daughter,
and the middle and lower class mother
slaves and sacrifices herself pinches
and screws to lay by enough to give
her girls a marriage portion and her
boys an education and start in life.
What, then, can be better, they both
argue, than to put the babies out to
play on the street, where it is eafe,
sunshiny interesting and quite
healthy? She shrewdly dresses boys
and girls alike in a uniform of long
black calico aprons that stand long
wear without washing, and. hardly do
they struggle cut of their cradles,
when the virtues of economy are
drilled into their receptive little Gallo
minds. If she is even fairly we'll to
do, she finds it far pleasanter and more
economical to hire a nurse to look after
the youngsters than to give up that
same time to being with them herself,
never stopping to consider that a big,
open, bright, noisy street is the worst
possible garden for youthful nerves.
Nor does she appreciate that it af-
fOrds the young ears and eyes the
worst moral examples, and that there
is such a thing as giving young lungs
and bodies too much air and exercise
exercise is taken on the pavement. A
good hearted but uneducated peasant
woman is not the best guide and guar
dian for rapidly developing little hu
man entity. In CONSCIENCE of this sys-
tematized street life there seems no
need to create in the French family
such a home as any healthy minded
American is restless and miserable
without. These little Parisians know
nothing about a cosy family sitting
room. and the charms of dear old
battered nursery, while they simply
revel in all the noise and variety of
sights and sounds OF their big munich
pal playground.
Liberty Too stinted.
-s"Just so soon as the daughters of
the we'll TODD geE TO the schooling age
the fun Of childhood is done for them.
Packed oft 20 convent or shut up in
her home With a gOverness, the Par
isian miss leads a dull, disheartening
life. The restraints and surveillance
would be more than any healthy Amer
icaa girl could bear. She sees less and
less of her brothers, and more and
more of older women. who drill pre-
cepts into her buoyant young mind in
an effort TO render her unnaturally ser
ious and Dreternaturally ignorant of
the world around her A peculiarly
soured and stupid old maid is usually
selected as her governesss who escorts