Evening star., 1934-03-11
working smocks and wooden sabots
There Is brisk buying and trading fo

working smocks and wooden sabots.
There Is brisk buying and trading for
the weeks provender, a little ex-
change of news and gossip in the
bake shops. Every one buys unbeliev-
able quantities of bread they go off
clasping armfuls of it. while the backs
Of departing carts fairly bristle with
long, crusty loaves. BY noon all busi-
ness is over. The square is nearly
empty and the little bank has closed
its doors for another week. Not until
Sunday, when the church bell is ring
ing for mass, will the village seem
alive again.
But Sunday is different. There is
a leisurely and social tone about every
thing 1t is a day of church in the
morning and recreation in the after
noon Quite apart from the question
OF religious belief. the farmer who goes
TO mass regularly and is approved OF
by the cure has an advantage, in the
eyes of the community. over the nom
churchgoer. His position is sounder
because more conservative, and the
cures approval carries weight
Sunday afternoon in the estamlnet
OF the village inn, or at table in the
little Cafe du Pont, the farmer has a
chance to indulge in that favorite
pastime so dear to the heart of every
FTenchfan. be he town or country
dweller-discussion Of things as they
are and as they should be.
Indifferent to Outsiders.
Politics. Of course. is sure to be
touched upon. Every one has some
theory about that. Yet even though
the argument may grow heated. the
farmer discusses it from a somewhat
philosophic point of view, as though
it were rather an abstract subject
So firmly does he feel entrenched in
his own land and so much engrossed
Is he in getting living from it. There
Is. without doubt, the Chamber Of
Deputies to be grumbled at. That is
fair game for any ones complaints
parcel Of men. most of them from
other parts of the country. making
plans for spending the money that one
has toiled early and late to earn!
Such plans are naturally suspect.
AiC dSSQl dIlCc SOCldlc ID u.
Why pay insurance for a lot of en-
ployes who will take advantage of it
and live on the fat of the land? Ques-
tions OF tax or control OF production.
OF grain. are spoken of with more feel
ing as hitting nearer home, but in
ternational relations are too imperso-
nal to worry about. How other nations
Judge Frances actions or what they
may think of the French are mat
tiers of indifference which have not
entered into his consideration-they
have so little to do with that strip of
land beside the stream!
This indifference to the opinions of
outsiders is not from any lack of pa
triotism-if patriotism means a stub
born love of ones land of birth. These
French country folk, who are so little
known by the average traveller and
who are much too busy to get into
the newspapers, can go to war when
the necessity ariSes-grumbling it is
true, at being torn away from their
we'll loved fields, but ready to fight
doggedly for the land of which these
fields are part. And they die with
a sort of stole uncomplaint-notb be-
cause they don't mind dying, but be-
cause life at best is tough PROPOSE
tion, and one has to take the bad with
the good. and die. if need be, to de-
fend ones land from destruction.
So the dissatisfied political groups
and the unemployed riot in the city.
while far and wide in the background
of the nation lives this penurious.
ground-loving peasantry. which adds
little to the political tumult and con-
tinues to cultivate its garden.
Which will be the stronger element
in France? Is any one bold enough
to hazard a prophecy?