The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-11-02
The REAL FRENCH HUSBAND
RETAINS DURING MARRIAGE THE
ATTITUDE OF A LOVER.

VII ~ - ~ .h@
Graceful, Gallant and Gay-Not by
Any Means Perfect, But He Gen.
orally Manages to Make Himself
Agreeable, Contrasted With the An
qIo-Saxon.
AS a lover the Frenchman is jeal-
Gus, exacting, unreasonable to the
last degree, but he is corresponding
ly passionate and devoted, writes Al
van F. Sanborn in The Independent.
He displays that dash of recklessness
in love which is so fattering and SO
precious to its object. Hawthorne
has said somewhere that the great
est obstacle to a mans being sublime
is his fear of appearing ridiculous.
In love, at any rate, the F'renchman
does not know this fear, and the re-
suit is that in love he is often sub
ime-at least in the eyes of his ina
morata, and this is all that really
matters. His instinct for form is so
unerring that he is inimitable in the
expression of sentiment.
AS a husband the Frenchman Is
disposed to be overbearing, but he
responds to tactful conciliatory treat
ment as readily as the bud responds
to the appeal of the sun. When his
affections are deeply engaged he re-
tains, after marriage, the attitude OF
the lover, and in his good moments
(his "bons moment)," which are by no
means rare-no matter how much he
may be harassed by the petty cares
and annoyances incident to married
life-he employs the gestures and the
phrases of the lover as zestfully as II
he were at the very beginning OF MS
romance.
He praises his wife eloquently to
her face, saying boldly in her pres
ence the complimentary things which
the more reticent Anglo-Saxon hus-
band alters only to his friends, if he
permits himself the indiscretion of ut
tering them at all.
In the lower and middle classes, as
well as in the upper classes, the
French husband has a faculty that
amounts almost to genius for bestow-
ing the delicate attentions which cost
little except the exercise of a modl-
cum of tact and thoughtfulness, but
which carry joy to every true Wo-
mans heart. He not only thinks to
take home to her often Tin the abb
sence of the means to make
a larger offering) a ten cent bunch
Of violets, pinlzs or roses
from the flower market or
the itinerant flower vendors barrow
on his route, but he presents them
calamity with the compliment and
the caress the occasion calls for; and
this makes them confer a pleasure
out of all proportion to their intrinsic
worth. He remembers her birthday
or fete day with potted plant,
bit of game, box of bonbons,
cake from the pastry cooks, or
bottle of good wine. He DIS marvel
ously fertile in expedients for making
the time pass quickly and agreeably
for her. He has a thousand anus
ing and successful devices for help
ing her to renew her youth. He pro-
jects unique and joyous Sunday and
holiday excursions. He improvlses
dainty little banquets. He is a past
master especially in the art of con-
juring up amiable mysteries and pre-
pairing charming little surprises. And
in all these trivial enterprises he
vindicates the old French theory that
true courtesy consists in taking
certain amount of pains to so order
our words and our manners that 9th
ers "be content with us and with
themselves"
The American husband is particI-
larly solicitous to do the proper
thing; the French husband to do the
agreeable thing.
There is no better "provider" than
the American husband, no man more
ready to give his wife everything
she asks for. whether he can afford
it or not; but his memory is lament
ably poor where her habits and pref
erences are concerned, and he lacks
intuition. The American husband is
second to none in doing his duty con-
scientiously by his companion but he
Is less expert than the French hals-
band in showing appreciation OF her
beauty, vivacity and wit, and in dis
playing that ideal difference 6hich
makes her feel that he esteeHs it
great honor as well as great privilege
to be permitted to share her existence,
and that his life would be but a dis
NAL, barren waste without her.
The difference is fundamental, since
it is the difference between the Pur1-
tan and the Cavalier between austen
ity and gallantry, between repression
and expression, between the concep-
ton of life as a dreary round of
duties and the conception of life as
an inspiriting succession of oppor-
tunities.
The French husband possesses an
other faculty that goes far toward
making the rough places smooth in
matrimonial existence, namely mar
velous fund of gayety that is made up