Year: 1875

DIR. Henry VI. Field, in the interest


ing series of letters which he is writing
for the Evangelist, upon his tour around


the world, discOurses thus about the


cheerfulness of the people of France


in contrast with the English or own


cOuntTymen:


"What pleases me most in Paris is


the general cheerfulness. do not OBJ


serve such wide extremes of condition


as in LOddoD, such painful contrasts


between the rich and Door. Indeed, /
do not find here such abject poverty,
nor see such dark, sullen, scOwlIng
faces as saw in the low quarters of


London, which indicate such brutal de-


graduation. Here everybody seems to


be, at least i'm a small way, comfortable
and contented. l spoke in a former


letter of the industry of the people (nO
city in the world is such hive of busy


bees) and of their great economy. and
this shows itself even in their pleasures
of which they are fond, but which they


get very cheap. No people will get so


much out of so little. What an Eng


lish workman will spend in a single
drunken debauch Frenchman will
spread over a week, and get a little en-
jOyment out of it every day. 1t delights
me to seehow they take their pleasures.


Everybody seems to be happy i'm his
own way, and not to be enviOus of his
neighb0r. 1T a man cannot ride with
two horses he will go with one, and
even if that one be sorry hack, with
ribs sticking out his sides, and that
seems just ready for the crows, no mat
ter. he will pile his wife and children
into the little, low carriage, and off
they gO-nOt at great speed, to be sure,
but as gay and merry as If they were
the Emperor and his court. with out
riders going before and body of cav
airy clattering at their heels. When
have seen whole family at Versailles
or st. Cloud dining on five francs %
no, that is too magnificent; they carry
their dinner with them and it probably
does notcost them two franes). admire
the simple tastes which are so easily
satisfied, and the miracle-wOrking art
which extracts honey from every daisy
by the roadside. Such simple and uni
versal enjoyment would not be posi-
BILE, but for one trait which is peculiar
to the French-an entire absence of
mdurdise hORte, or false shame: the
foolish pride, which is SO common IN
England and America, of wishing to
be thought as rich or asgreat as others.
In London no one would dare, even If
he were allowed, to show himself in
Hyde Park in such unpretentious turn
outs as those in which half Paris will
go to the BOis de BOulOgne. But here
everybody jogs along at his own gait,
not troubling himself about his neigh
Dor. Live and let live seems to be, if
not the law of the country, at least the
universal habit of the people. What
ever faults the French have, | believe
they are freer than most nations from
envy, malice and uneharitableness.'
With this feelingOf self respect |
even among the common people that is
very pleasing. IL you speak to a French
servant, or to a workman in a blouse. |
he does not sink into the earth as if he
were an inferior being or take tone
of servility, but answers politely, yet
self-respectingly, as if conscious that
he too is a man. The most painful
tfing that found in England was the
way in which the distinctions of rank.
which seem to be as rigid as the castles
of India, have eaten into the manhood
and self-respect of our great Anglo
Saxon race. But here "A mans a man.
and especially if he is Frenchman, he
is as good as anybody