Year: 1873




To many of us there is something
shocking in the business-like airs with
which French people contract alliances /;
but among the poorer population, at
any rate, the calculation, foresight, de-
lberate preparation of home, and ar
rangement of the means of supporting
it, means lifelong comfort, each of the
contracting parties having a due regu-
lated share of the duties to perform.
The only bit of extravaganza is the we'd
ding dinner, followed by a ball. In a
couple of days the duties of life are
taken up, and the wife is busy with her
linens and saucepans. Mr.. Walker de-
scribes marriage among. English farm
laborers So" Women brought up in ig-
norance of comfort of course are care
less about the means of providing for it.
They are needless how they marry and
when married never think of the duties
of their situation. / recollect young
woman, the wife of laborer in the
country, once applying to me respect
ing some alleged harsh treatment on
the part of shopkeeper to whom she
owedlmoneE On investigating the case
| found that she regularly spent about
three shillings a week in sweet things
and that she held herself entitled to
pass the first year after her marriage in
complete idleness, privilege, discov-
cred, by no means seldom claimed. OF
course the habits of the first year would
become in great measure the habits
of after life and the indulgences in
sweet things would most likely be
transferred in time to things less harm
less"


When Celestine married her Antoine,
who was a railway porter, she begged
that she might return to my service for
the months she had to remain in Paris,
before leaving for Italy, where her
bridegroom had effected an excellent
engagement that would keep the pair
in comfort. She pleaded that in this
way she would not have to draw on her
resources, all of which would be wanted
for her installation in her new home.
She was very proud at the same time,
to beg that my family would taste the
wine of her husbands vintage, grown
on bit of land belonging to his family,
in which he had share. So the Paris
railway porter was an infinitely small
wine-grower in his native place, and
the desire of his life was to earn money
in "the capital of the world" to carry
back to the little property. In marriage
he looked fora wife who would husband
his resources and at the same time add
to them. I leave others to moralize
and sentimentalize on the subject. 1
give the facts as they come under my
eyes, and if [ dwell upon them it is be-
cause they appear to me to be very near
the foundation of the difference there is
between the domestic and social pre-
dictaments of the wage earning classes
ofEngland and France. Celestine could
turn every hard of the family income
to the best account; could make a
thoroughly good dinner out of the slight
est and cheapest materials ; could knit
her husbands hose and spin the flax
for his linen while the pOt-au,feu was
bubbling within ear-shot; and having
cultivated the habit of saving all her
life, and being among saving people,
could invest intelligently. Let the
reader not run away with the idea that
my old cook and the railway porter will
ever become rich people. They are
thinking only of their old days and of
a crust of bread to leave their children.
They will never move out of the class
in which they were born. But the COM
forts of their degree they will command
when they are old They will grow their
own wine and vegetables, rear their own
COW, and be able to give yin d'hon-
nour any day to the friend who may
pass their way. And Celestine's is the
every day marriage of the French work
ing classes. the Year Round.