THE FRENCH HOME.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18015, 6 March 1924, Page 2

THE FRENCH HOME.

"When tho history of French civilisation for tho last 50 years or so comes to be written (writes a French correspondent to the "Daily Telegraph"), an important chapter will have to be devoted to the influence exerted by English customs and manners over the French people during that period. At the time when fashion decreed that a knowledge of the English tongue was to become the hall mark of a good education, the facilities for cheap travelling had made exchanges of visits possible. Many prejudices were thus killed. The English were acknowledged as the greatest authorities on comfort, tho English child as the healthiest and best cared for in the whole world. English nursery-maids and governesses became increasingly numerous in France, although not as numerous as French governesses in England. It is from England that the revelation came that tho clothes were made for the child, and not the child for the clothes; that to fall and scratch one's knees and tear one's clothes, to love climbing and puddles is no sin, but part of the painful process of growing up. That games develop, not brutality, but moral qualities as well as foster strong muscles, and that death or mutilation is not the penalty for playing football. The mentality of the free English girl long puzzled and frightened French parents. But the benefit of games and exercise to the health could not be denied, and French girls are now allowed to play tennis and lacrosse; some football and swimming clubs have even been formed. They go out even when it rains, and the use of the water-proof is no longer left to tho very poor—it used to be called cache-mise in my youth—and to eccentric old maids careless of their appearance.