New-York tribune., 1901-04-08
THROUGH FRENCH GLASSES
A sHEAF OF AMERICAN NOTES BY NJ.
GAsTON DEsCHAMPs.
HIS VIEWS ON BOSTON AMERICAN WOMEN ANr
INTERNATIONAL MsUNDERsTANDINGs

INTERNATIONAL Observation-Disclosures.
NJ. CASTOR Deschamps Is the lecturer this year
for the Hyde course French literature at
Harvard University. He is a we'll known lit
erary critic a member of the staff of the
Temps" of Paris. of the ablest and most
dignihed of French daily newspapers There
has recently appeared in that journal long
letter from him, written in Cambridge last
February. giving his impressions of that univer-
sity town, OF Boston and of the people there,
especially as to their interest in French ltera-
ture and culture.
He wrote Just after he had delivered his first
lecture on The Contemporary Stage In San
ders Theatre before audience OF fifteen hun
dred people-a figure which is significant, he
says. of the interest that cultivated Ameri-
cans feel in his country. of their love for French
writer's and of their belief in the eminent dignity
OF French letters. He mentions, not without
touch of pride, that Ambassador Cambon
thought it worth while to come especially from
Washington to be present and made speech
which was calculated TO discourage the lect-
urer account of its delicate art and skill. and
to confuse him. while at the same time il re-
joced him to have so eloquent and discerning
an interpreter of his motives and purposes In
coming TO America AS 70 his audience. he says:
Boston society. brilliantly represented in the
y
no difficulty in understanding and enjoying the
words of the lecturer. The French language is
at home in this elegant city Of letters the intel
lectual capital OF the United States Boston has
been called the Athens OF America; and, in truth.
in this centre of good company the atmosphere
has a rare perfume Of Attic urbanity.
NJ. Deschamps sees much 10 admire in the
electric cars on which he rode daily between
Cambridge and Boston. and would be highly
grateful. he says, did he not record this pleas
tUft thSta udi 70 huSip
activity. is by no means exclusively given
to industry and trade. Most of the business
men and merchants OF the city. he finds. are
trained in European culture and visit Paris at
least once year. The women especially are
admirers of French literature and French art.
and talk about the French writer's and artists
with charming grace and full knowledge.
French portrait painters intrusted with
the agreeable task of revealing through the
verismtude OF their works the beauty of the
American women. Says NJ Deschamps:
This beauty. under the tawny splendor of
golden locks or under the diamonds that sparkle
in jet black hair, sometimes blossoms like lilies
and roses, sometimes possesses the superb and
gloomy magnitcenCe Of the South-a beauty
row blond, now dark. northern southern in
its characteristics, and always offering the spec
tator a new surprise in its charming mingling
OF native hardihood and intentional reserve.
These strong and beautiful American girls have
inherited from their colonial observation-disclosures
and conqueTors-their dominating audacity,
their enterprisng courage, their imperious vigOr.
They have since taken some counsel OF old
Europe, especially of France, who. in her
pacity of progenitress and nurse of civilized
nations. has moderated the exuberant energy
of their youthfuness. They have acquired that
which might have seemed lacking in the gen
erous gifts which nature had bestowed upon
them. through fTcquenting our theatres through
reading our books, and also through their ac-
quaintance and matrimonial alliances with our
Faubourg St German. To-day they offer our
dressmakers and miners choice of models.
aIit how.
range draperies OF velvet, color harmonies of
satin. folds of silk muslin. the vaporous
simmer Of spangled tulle.
What a JOY II must he for our painters to
put upon canvas these costumes. these faces
the delicious art with which they are har-
monized, the blue Of these eyes, the luminous joy
OF these smiles,
So NJ. Deschamps did not feel in strange
land in this place. so far from France and holds
to the belief. like that of Biddy expressed to
Blanche in the last scene OF Abel Hernant's
"TransatantiqUes," that only a narrow river
separates America and France. And there were
moments the platform of Sanders Theatre
when he thought he speaking to a Partisan
audience. He tells of sitting next to a charming
young girl at table in Boston.~who excused her
| self with excess Of scrupIe, for speaking to
him in French. When ne praised the excellence
of her diction. he could, without nattery
| On" said she, with just a trife of accent 81
am n little rusty now
One thing NJ. Deschamps regrets, and that is
| the tendency of Americans, even of Bostonians
| like all foreigners who disconnected by the
| ''imprudences' of French literature to take the
| boulevard for Paris, and even for France and
| to believe that the French people, from morning
| till night and from night till morning have no
| other purpose in life than to enjoy themselves
madly. He has heard it said in his travels in
| Europe, Africa and Asia that in France there
| are no true husbands and no good wives; and
| he fears that the New World shares some of
| the widespread prejudices this point Why
not? he asks. The French family life is closely
guarded. very jealous of its privacy and access
20 1T is never given to the passing traveller.
| This traveller does not know that there are
| under French roofs inherited virtues nor does
he know how many honorable traditions and
| sound principles united in the cornerstone of
the household. The serious Fart OF French life
the strong and the excellent part that
| which contains assurance for the future. is
| just the part that the stranger never sees
| On the other hand. the bookshops the theatres,
| are wide open TO the tourist and his money.
| with which he wants to enjoy himself To these
says NJ. Deschamps. come the foreigners. friends