Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-06-30
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
French People Patronlxe, Believing
Money 10 the One Thing Worth
While We Possess-Haven't
Even q Kind Word for
Our Plumbing
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE
NIE ALWAYS think - French pee

contacts with the men ard women Of France
to find that irritabiity and often irony
toward things un. French are also part OF
have never yet found French person In
this country. for instance. who was not
palpably scornfu Of the ways and the
make it n point Of loyalty to France to take
the American type with faint mental shrug.
What is not French Is to that degree In
ferior. That is the attitude Of the French
| teacher. of the French dressmaker, . the
French business man; It creeps into the con.
| vcrsation of the French traveller, and Is not
hid with any great care by the French diplo-
| matist. And 1t lasts for two or three genera
| tons in colonist Frenchmen. curious
critical aloofncss. certain eighteenth cen
tury hautcur, as though the fact that to the
real Partisan they were just provncials
made 1t necessary to their own self-respect
TO treat all the rest Of mankind as bar
barians.
! THAT attitude. with n certain thin skin
L ness about taking offense where no offense
is dreamed of. has made the assimilation Of
/ the French type in this country exceedingly
difficult. America needs the finish and the
PARTICULARLY and the intellectual independ-
ence Of the French virus, but Americans are
continually baffled by the French citizens who
have elected for business purposes to live In
America because of an alien attitude. Some
how they are given to understand that in
receiving French culture, from cookery to
science and art, American money is the sole
medium Of exchange that can compensate.
| Nothing else American is marketable.
That, at all events, is the impression made
| by the majority Of the French upon the ordi-
nary American, I find. and the experience Of
literate 1t. The feeling that what they
could pay was what was chiefly important to
their, French hosts-wlling or unwilling
bewldercd and at times infuriated the
| Americans of the less educated sort, while
| for the educated, imaginative ones, who felt
| debt to France for so much that makes life
worth while. there was, think. a sort Of
| wistfulness that apart from fighting units
and supplies and money-always money
! there was nothing that America had that
| France valued.
Ono officer groaned this out to me and
| much more last year and then he added with
| n reminiscent gin:
| why. il they had only admired our
| plumbing 1t would have been something.'
| Remembering that was amused the other
| day to have n French American who lives in
| Normandy say to me:
The thing I find hardest to bear is all
| your talk about bathrooms and drainage over
here. | think 1t is 30 tiresome''
l gathered that she thought Of our plumb
| ing as habit Of luxury, a sort of splash Of
money in creature comforts. What it
| actually is, however, is n time saver, and as
such is the poor mans necessity rather
than the rich mans luxury.
LNOR the last week or more have been
Il overseeing rho renovot,on and tho Martial
| rebuilding NJ y farmhouse in tbn Adi iropndacks
that was built in lSSS, II was built bv n
man ~ modoro.a ,noon. fa "9o fn,,;T T, ot " tom
nrrsons thonrh more oftor ,han not - thot
| number grew 70 be fourtoen or fftecn'
For nearly twenty of these thirty -four
!cnrs IN "nich tne mouse was USED there was
running wh'rr IN only one room ana that
atsr was m ne f m'tTmeh ,hat nGre was no no.
,m n 'ne s.I,un '"pprr ooiIer at .ne PACK OF me
woou stove. consequently an water Tor the
nrur"pm,S Sh i,sb Lor oathS s. and Tor cIeaning tor
n"Sris uie'!es "Eu 10! o,, 'hc Ia"h.r! purposes
Hau 10 pe carried ne men or the fnmlly
rlu r .ot t 'ulr! 'he wafer up or do"h stairs OF
."r vne n,snes UT lor !he cteahlhs' IL was
ii'o,.s s uTne oE sei.hi's' VINO W"r" women.
, na.'' i9"s ptrsuasioh IN" owner OF the
~ ~nouee my pntptuo Win coid running
, Matet ] pu.,. iii." .He house' ana aiter ahoth"r
,u,s t,a'ei,a al po!'tr was connected WIN the
kilGhei ;. s'1Ie ana hot water was connected
VIII VIII 'ms h''rmrn s!n. anu win lhe pain
r3oi'' anu Il si,'hii siationar! Whshstand was
pinreu ie"I 'he tuo. but WIN these IN
hovations my progress toward IN" simplin-
ca'i2,n , vi "orh ior the househoid ceased. lie
|%ouiu tUt mt put running wa'er on the second
too mn,,o, snr,a"t Ing "t neasS pails oy the
,t Mon'et 'nnls lhtrelHre continued TO fhe
@ !as' ~. ~ MS "M "MH.tH"ip WI tnc mouse; lt was
T, so, .me vi. VI lne huaitlohal pumping mat
ua,e nI ". .i'a'' ,i ~. 'nal Vas nrf,lg'ple com
pniea ~ ."t cost or making pains and for
eHtiS INA Hc '"sineered' ms stand was
ninue on .,' srouhn mat plumbing was
usurS ",h ma, the simple lie which he
,I Ln.enuuu ,Lat ms iatlIE snould i've IN MS
MOUSE TouIu pe interlered win by drains and
cesSpoo's ana pipes and Faucets.
! lie HAD the same theory with regard 70
L i his servants quarters: his feeling be;no
! that ns those cospnI additions 70 tha a,an u"e
hold were destructive tenants ,bon sIo"uTna
quarters should be Of the most nrim,ius
,ype, an actual garret room. under rouob
boords and shingles bot ~, o'.r Irof rousn
| 1oaLy no ,he waaebor ,,,,b. ioo,I MI WI
| t,tcben ouartor. Ivero oI.n ca,riiro' J., ~
ion Fverv tin,o tho conL n,,t .h ~ 'n..l .
her reiaiseraoor cra & or .ooK one OUT she had to
Stems and open two storeroom doors tIrs pGatr Wer