New-York tribune., 1907-11-21
Professor WendeIFs Study of Mod
ern French Life.

THE FRANCE OF TO-DAY. BY Barrett we,d.,,
Svo, PIP. 379. Charles Scribners Sons " e'iueI4'
Professor Wendell was the first lecturer m
the Hyde Foundation at the Sorbonne and other
French universities In this capacitv be bad
the unusual opportunity of free access N the
family life of the collegiate and upper middle
classes. He has rendered both the subtects and
che readers Of his book a valuable service h1,
presenting in its true light that ancient butt
of artists. comedians and other foes of custom,
and complacency. the serious, loval Industrious
honest French bOHrgeOiSie. Foreigners whose
knowledge is derived from hasty tours. jn1pres-
sonistic sketches and the fables of the
realistic" French writer's will be surprised and
ought also TO be gratiied by the picture Professor
Wendell draws of the cultured classes. French
family life, Of all things French the least ac-
cessible to the inquisitive foreigner. is here
sketched in considerable detail and most pleas
ingly. The strength and reach of family ties
among the French must strike the Anglo-Saxon
at first indication of sentimentality CT
affectation. But the writer dispels this impress
sion
,5s Tew Ware aR9s 0eFa4 fBa to 9 rpghn into to
commonplace which would formally occur any
ing. When We are favored at home with polite
inquiry as 10 our near relatives or with pleasant
chance 10 have known. such amenities seem either
matters Of mere poteness or else dictated by some
what alert curiosity. In France YOU soon come to
feel this interest children whom your friends
based on an instructive assumption that these
children o T1SI , D6 oenstaIy' 4nxi9usy ioVingiy
20 care for you they show their regard by sincere
the head a member The fact Of friendship i'm
plies welcome. not only from man 10 man. but from
though unknown little while before.
Several anecdotes. amusing and pathetic. illus
trate this curious clan spirit and the etiquette
Of It Professor Wendell discusses parental
domination. marriage and the inevitable dot the
housewife and her ideals. and French conceptions
Of morality His conclusions tend strongly TO con-
firm the view that the middle class Frenchman's
conscience is, all in all finer and truer than that
OF his social counterparts II, other lands: and
that il IS so chiefly by reason of the great an
tiquity Of the social conditions under which he
lives and which have bred in him philosophic
temperament that frankly admits the necessary
evils Of human life and grappes with them in
the open. The chapter this temperament Is
full Of sympathetic insight, bringing out how
ever. in sharpest contour the fundamental in
consistency between the Gallo passion for the
truth at any cost" and the equally intense faith
that the truth can and must be reduced to
simple code of generalities. Concerning French
literature and its well known scents, the OBJ
server has much to say both by way of expla-
nation and Of apology. Books, we are told, are
written in France only for cultured adults who
fatigued by lives of conscientious regularity. find
diversion in contemplating something different
from the monotonies of their daily routine"
American yellow journalism. Professor Wendell
thinks, serves precisely this same function for
the respectable lower classes here. Throughout
the chapters on religion and republicanism the
TOO familiar partisanship and class feeling of
even the most intelligent Frenchmen obtrudes
unpleasantly The writer closes with the con-
session that
When good friends were apt TO speak Of their
myself still disposed in answer 10 speak not Of the
repuonc' but OF FTsnce ~ Mhat felt was only
not the whole nation but only the accident Of its
partisan.
A melancholy observation wherewith 10 end
book that reveals characters altogether ad-
mirable!
Under the title Of Commercial Precedents-
Newspaper Replies and Decisions (American
Publishing Company Mr.. Charles Putzel has
published work that is in some respects
unique We do not remember 10 have seen, at
Ell events anything quite like it, Lawyers and
even judges have been wont 10 sneer and make
merry over what they have termed newspaper
law having in mind the confident replies Of
editors TO inquiries regarding intricate doubt
fu points of law. about which even the courts
and the most eminent lawyers have disagreed.
But there is a class Of such replies and de-
oisions' that is not open to such criticism. The
New York Journal of Commerce and CONNER
cial Bulletin" which occupies place Of its
own and performs a service in the commercial
world quite distinct from any rendered by the
ordinary newspaper, has for more than a gen
Grafton given up, every day, an average Of more
than d column Of its space to the consideration
OF the questions Of commercial law which have
poured into its offices from all parts Of the
country. The replies 10 these queries have been
made by lawyers experienced in just such phases
Of the law involved in the commercial
transactions forming the basis Of the problems
Presented.
Mr Putzel, the compiler OF the present stout
volume. is not only one Of the Board of Tax
Commissioners of this city. but he has had wide
and varied experience as a New York lawyer,
peculiarly fitting him for the task With the
UY0TFBNT cTODc TATY mr. Tvyr0r