Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1914-03-12

men work in France, but more WON
en-, also, than in the other great ma,
4 tons. In the United States IA per
cent. of the female population, at the
latest available report, was engaged in
some gainful principal occupation; in
Great Britain, "a per cent; in Ger
many, 80 per cent, and in France,
nearly S5 per cent
Peasant Woman Holds the Purse.
The French peasant woman, as
wife and mother, as village merchant
and farm manager, is a most impor-
tant parsonage. She holds the purse.
From her savings came the enormous
indemnity which Germany exacted
from France after Sedan. Often a
shop-keeper, she is always a SOU
| keeper. Laboriousness and thrift
characterize her daily life. Because of
| this toll and thrift France, in mate
rial resource, is nation almost or
| quite sufficient to itself.
The thrift has been aided by the
fact. explanatory of much In present
France, that the French peasant is a
land owner. His problems of legisla-
ton differ from those of his German
and British neighbors He has no land
| question. He is occupied with doing
things, rather than with undoing
things inherited.
Women Largely Self-supporting.
I The French woman shops with a
market basket and not with a tele-
| phone, that modern promoter of high
prices Essentially home-maker and
a homekeeper, she enjoys an eco.
nomic independence that her Anglo
Saxon sisters do not know. Many
French girls are self-supporting be.
| fore marriage, and remain so after,
wards. Even where they do not
earn their living, they have a dot or
dowry-for which the parents save
from the girls babyhood-and she
pays her personal expenses from it,
1T is rarely, indeed" said a
French woman, that one sees in
France the helpless, incompetent wom-
|
ing, having never learned to do one
single thing well. Adaptable and en-
ergetic, the French woman can do
most things in the most efficient man
ner possible-her knowledge is never
scrappy and what she knows she
knows consummately" The new wom-
an may be near at hand in France,
but when she arrives she will come
without strident voice or social reyo-
luton, and will scarcely have more
power than now.
The Peasant at Home.
In journeying in rural France the
French peasant is seen at home and
at his best. He Is not ON dress pa
rade as Paris is upon its boulevards.
He Is shrewd, almost cunning; digni-
fed, almost courtly; uneducated fire.
quently but never boorish; possessed
of all the homely virtues, frugal, seri-
ous-minded and devout. To the
stranger he is hospitality itself, and to
his own countrymen he has per
feet genius for friendship.
Hlgn Regard TOR woman.
With all their family quarrels, there
is continuous entente cordiale
among the French peasant folk. Three
appeals arouse their enthusiasm to its
highest point: Woman, as wife and
mother; the tri-color with its declara-
ton of liberty, equality, fraternity;
and the republic, which to them stands
for political, social, economic progress.
Characteristic of the French, in deli.
acy, woman-adoration and felicity OF
speech, was the manner in which the
sad news of the death of the distin.
guished French statesman, NJ. Theirs
was announced to his widow: Mad
anne, your illustrious husband once
lived" Again, presidential candi
date, peasants son, who married a
woman of doubtful reputation, was
sharply. attacked in the Paris and pro
vincial press for his political views
but never a word was published re
garding his wife. No womans name
is dragged into the public prints Of
France
The English have a scornful in
sular way
OF calling the French light. The lev
ity
r Is in the judgment only, which We
stands;
For say foolish thing but oft enough
: (And here's the secret of hundred
n creeds-
: Men get opinions as boys learn Il
| spell,
t BY reiteration, chiefly the same thinl
+ shall pass at last for absolutel!
/. wise
And not with fools exclusively. And 81
= We say the French are light, as if w
h said,
: The cat news or the mich COW give
/. US milk.
: is bullet light
J That dashes from the gunmouth, Will,
/ the eye
Winks, and the heart beats one; tt
, fatten itself
b To wafer on the white speck of
y wall
A hundred PAGES off? Even SO d.
rect,
u So strongly undivertible OF aim
i Is this French people