The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-04
QUESTIONS Nj. III. LIE ROUx.
Pointed Remarks Addressed to Him
by an "UncuItured Americana
Chicago Evening Post.

chicago Evening FOSt.
An open letter to NJ. Hughes lie Roux:
Monsieur-The people of Rome are in the
habit Of informing visitors that there is
really no such thing as Roman fever. They
solemnly declare that foreigners catch
some disease in Naples and then come UP to
Rome and have il, just 70 give Rome a bad
name. Don't you think, monsieur, that you
resemble these patriotic Romans in your as
sertions that foreign women, especially
Americans, have furnished all the material
from which your distinguished novelists
have drawn their unconventional Partisan
heroineS?
classify and ~pigeonhole their facts and then
put a paddock on the pigeonhole so that
nothing can escape, there are 10 excep-
tons, no notifications, and from their gen.
civilizations there is no appeal. BY this pro-
cess of induction you appear TO lave ar
rived at the conclusion that all American
women who go TO Paris without their hus-
bands nave gallant adventures with French
men; all American men are immersed in
business, have no culture and are despised
by their wives; all Parisiennes are spotless,
all French young girls are as pure as an
gels and all Frenchmen are gifted with a
refinement of sensibility fatal 10 the luck
less American women TO come within the
radius of their attractions.
By the same process of reasoning all the
American young girls who so out 10 Paris
without chaperons are demi-vierges and
there is a conspiracy among all French
novelists from BalZac to lola, to blacken
the F~renehman's character, married and
single, and to misrepresent French social
life.
Come, come, NJ. lie Roux: isn't this draw
ing IL rather strong? We are an amiable
people and don't mind being criticised: we
are credulous and are willing to believe that
French society has been illuminated by
your great writer's; but we are a tolerant
people with a good-natured indulgence for
the frailtieS OF human nature and We have
that sense of humOr which is found on a
recognition of the whimsicality of life and
the impossibility Of living up to any hard
and fast rules of human conduct. We may
not have arrived at that high degree Of Gull
ture which marks your own polished ma
ton, but We have a fairly good grip on
of them is that human nature is pretty
much the same the world over. and allow
ing for some differences in ideals. customs
and conventions, the human product of
Gallo and Anglo-SaXon civilizations aver
age up about alike. Another good general
truth which We believe In Is that there are
exceptions TO all generaliZations.
We have a Hester Prynne in our ntera-
ture, and II has not occurred TO any Of our
aspiring young authors TO go over TO
France TO explain Hawthorne or TO apollo
glze for Hester and declare that she was a
foreign Importation. Yet nc one has ever
claimed that she was a representative
woman of the New England OF her times.
By the same token. isn't IL barely possible,
monsieur, that the Faust comedy has been
played once or twice in France, and may
maine" or of Bourget and Maupassant
have been drawn from life without i'm
pugning the virtue OF all the other French
women.
One more question, monsieur. In the
midst of the immaculate purity which You