Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1916-04-21
The FRENCH HOME
There the Servant Is Like a Men,
Der of the Family.
IMPORTANCE or THE NURSE.
She Is the Real and Rational Ruler of
the Turbulent Children Who, as
General Rule, Are Spoiled by Their
Too Indulgent Parents.

Too Indulgent Parents.
The French people have not. SO far,
produced a spiritually servile class.
The occupation most dangerous to the
soul-that of personal service-has not
resulted for the people of France in
funkyism on the one hand and SUI
perior airs on the other.
There is something in the poise and
motion of French working girls, in
their fearless eyes and vibrant voices,
that suggests fluid and mobile social
structure which deepens the impress
sion of rigidity in the life across the
channel and beyond the Rhine. French
people of the more favored classes are
never heard bemoaning the decay of a
proper" servant class. On the con-
trary, if you speak to them of the
striking contrast between the French
proletariat and that of other countries
theirs so natural and gay, the others
so humble or so sullen or both-they
instantly expand with pride. Exact
people! Just as good as monsieur, as
madame, but also no better!'
The status of the French domestic
derives in part at least from the weight
of responsibility under which she
serves. For her mistress is neither a
careless hOusekeeper nor an Indifferent
mother. 1t is precisely because the
FrenchWoman loves her children so ar
IDENTIFY, so Economically, one might say,
and because her quick, intelligent grasp
of material situations makes her an
excellent economist at home that she
requires and establishes in the house
hold not a common servant, not a
mothers helper" but a woman of in
telligence and character, a woman oft
en- young and untried, but with the
true ring, who is or soon becomes ca
pable of assuming direct responsibility
for the care of the children and the
house-a woman who deserves and re-
ceives the consideration due to the
head of an important department in
the management of the family life.
French children are VIGOROUSLY spoil
ed The little monarchs are kept on a
pedestal well into the age of moral re-
spOnsibility. Father, mother, all the
older relatives, vie with one another in
admiring and INDUCING them. With
this understanding of the term and
scope of the child's autocratic reign,
one can afford to laugh at turbulent
IN, rxy[,i ha RI
adult in the house except his bonnie.
At the mere sight of her the little des-
perado begins to quiet down. He is in
the presence of the only person who
has. so far, exercised any rational au-
thOrity over him, the person before
whom he feels the beginnings of shame
at doing wrong.
The bonnie is the most important per-
son in the family group, so far as its
material we'll being is concerned. And
morally, spiritually, she is true mem
Der of the family. 1t is not for nothing
that the word ''bonne" means good"
as we'll as nurse"
1t may be that the prevailing good
relation between masters and servants
in France has very simple eXpana-
tion-simple and yet profound. 1t may
be that it springs at bottom from the
warm affections of the people. They
cannot live without love and senti-
| ment. Better than any other people
| they know how to keep alive the rO-
nance of friendship, of love and even
of that inherently bad relation. master
| and slave.
The French servant who has no fam
| lily ties-and often the one who has
| throws her whole heart and soul into
the family life Of her master and mis-
| tresS.
| She must love-she must serve-she
| must be loved. And the French master
and mistress understand. Each one
idealizes the sentiments of the other.
| In a word, the romance of the situa-
ton grips them all. French literature
is crowded with examples of mistress
and servant whose intimacy shows no