The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-11

power and a more soothing balm to self-esteem than all these others It fs for distinction as a man, rather than as mere winner and ruler of goods and chattels. that he yearns.'
 Less self-Conscious.
 Another grievance that MT. Hartt has against his fellow-countrymen is that they are too self-conscious. Per contra, the French are not. They do not stand in undue awe of their fellows, and the result Is that they can enjoy a holiday without embarrassment; they can sip their 'bock'' and chat in their open-a air cafes with total disre- gard of the onloolxer Then the wait CTS who serve them in these cafes are courteous. The very house servants of the French know their places and pride themselves on the work they do. and these almost incredible facts MT. Hartt repeats in order not to be mistaken in them. Of the French waiter he says:
 He glories in serving you exquisite ly, and the more sweetly you receive his attentions the more graciously he bestows them, for it never enters his head that service degrades. How. pray. should one member of a democratic community think his office tarnished by performing kindly offices for am other member of that community and gaining just recompense. We talk about democracy over here," he goes on explosively. but there is more of real democracy in a square mile of France than in a thousand square miles of the United States.
 Our very methods of living he critf- ctses. We stay indoors too much. Our Gallic cousin. appreciating fully the benefits that exist in the fresh air, stays outdoors as much as he can. He makes living room of his back yard. he eats there, he sits there as much as he can while at work, and the very
 windows of his horse he has arranged like doors. so that when he opens them the entire space between the traces is free to admit the gentle zephyrs from without. How poor is the American method in comparison!
 Then there are our cabs. Anchored in front of hotels and railroad stations,
 we have to fight with the man on the box ere we can get him to condescept | to price within reason. Is 1t so with l the French? Perish the thought The 1 Frenchman has "the cab that goes"- Mir. Hartt calls 1t "a splendid institu- | tion," and italicises his definition of 1t. Instead of standing still. these cabs are running constantly. You hail one, | get in and drop your money in the slot l of a correctly constructed piece of me- | chanism inside. This machine regis
 
 as you go along. and the best of 1t is | this machine, which the French call I the staximeter," can not cheat.
 These lessons enumerated by MT. | Hartt are only few of those to be l learned from the methods of our cous- | ins across the water, if we will but | stop, look and listen. It is not the l France that appears on the surface nor l the France that we read mostly about | that we must consider, but the real I France, the educating France. the | France behind which lies that "series | of virtues all too real in America | consistency. constancy, self-restraint l seriousness, and especially the readi- | ness to conceive of man life as a l whole. to plan out that whole, and to | live up to that plan with heroic deter l mination." This is the France that | Mir. Hartt would havetus look to and learn with all the earnestness of our understandings.