Waterbury Democrat., 1902-03-14
THE QUAINT CANADIANS.


 break up those voluntary ghettos formed by the strange tongue, the strange customs, and a people. willing to forget neither-this is to-day a seri- ous problem. But one phase, at least, of the problem is delightful study, the young French Canadian girl.
 If stranger, on some holiday or 1 Saturday evening, were to walk through the principal street of one of the manufacturing cities along the Merrimac, he might fancy that, the ! whole sober New England town was given over to this charming young creature. She catches quickly the American idea of feminine indepen- dence and adds to it her own native love of gayety and open air life; and, as the older women keep much in the background, the visitor sees only a bevy of girls, possessing all that is at I tractive in the national character. The public street is turned into plaisance, where they promenade before the ad- hiring eyes of the young men on the corners, conscious of their fine gowns and big hats, and of their taste and
 
 mans, Swedes and Irish.
 One is likely to decide offhand that l their peculiar characteristics are love of dress and reckless extrayagance in lndulging it, and perhaps this is not so far wrong. Many a mill girl earning 1 S6 week, will invest her savings in a S20 hat, adorned with pinks and pur- pies that suit her dark complexion bet ter than they do the occasions on which she displays them. But. after all, sue cess in some measure justifies her. She is to the manner born, and it is won- derful how we'll she initiates in coarse fabrics the modes of the fashionable world. Her trim. slight figure and a native air of fashion make the other women look dowdy and uncouth in their ill5chosen finery, as if they were country visitors ill the metropolis into which her art transforms the unpre- tentious street on holiday occasions. I None can deny that it is q pretty spectacle or help feeling kindly toward the poor young things that make it, though when one thinks of the slender income and scanty leisure, and looks into the thin face under the cotton ] roses, one may bewail the extraya, gance.
 l She is not often pretty. From time to time one sees T fresh face, but as rule the girls have thin figures and sal low skins, and their hair and eyes are lusterless. They are overworked. The French Canadian women bear more than their share of the burdens of life. Almost all of them work outside their homes. and they begin it very young. even in families of comfortable for f11upC IVY o7iin T their daughters to the high school and give them bit of pleasure before they settled down. The French girls go to l the mill or the shop as soon as the law l permits. and the hard work at loom or needle is eked out with housework in which they help their mothers after hours, while themen and boys idle about the house or street. Naturally this regi- men soon takes the color from their cheeks and flesh from their bodies.
 leaving them dependent for charm upon their coquettish manners and their taste in dress. Who can blame them if they make the most of both
 Work in the mill is the natural out look for French girls in manufacture ing towns, and in the textile factories they do the same work as the men and l make the same pay, spinning, card ing and weaving for from $5 to $10 q week, according to their skill and | quickness. Few reach the ten-dollar limit. but the overseers testify that as q rule they are more dextrous than most women.
 There are other employments also in which they sometimes attain con-
 siderable success. They rarely be- come teachers and as they do not seem to inherit the French taste for cooking and laundry work they seldom enter domestic service, but they make attractive and obliging saleswomen, They wait on table at restaurants. and they are remarkably successful in mill Hnery and dressmalzing wherein their natural taste and obliging manners are or use to them. Some have so much aptitude and love for the trade that the raise it almost to an art. My own young dressmakers pretty head is al- ways filled with thoughts of ribbons. faces and rufies. and as she perks q bow or pins gather she gives it dain- ty, loving touches. such as an artist might give his draperies. The manlD- ulations of the fashions wholly ab- sorbs her, and she often dreams out the plan of q gown while she sleeps. | - 5sliC SUtS u 4NtNItUIt UT Bar Harbor to see the new frocks. and when she returns she talks about them with large. serious eyes. for dress seems to her in good earnest the most Important business of q young wo, mans life.
 1 such devotion and enthusiasm nat. uraliy produce results, and these French dressmakers whose patronage was for q long time confined to French women have now extended their trade beyond race limits. There are ninety one of them not including seamstress- es In comparatively small city. and It seems possible that in time they will nave something like monopoly of thls lucrative business.
 The independence of French women does not 1ndispose them to marriage. Ihe girls are taught that there are put two proper careers for them. marriage or the convent-an looking upon the unmarried and uncloistered woman as ridiculous or unfortunate creature, they adopt one career or the other as matter of course Mar. rage, however does not absolve them from the necessity of working out side their homes. In the patriarchaI n fn vx-1,;