THE FRENCH ARISTOCRACY OF TO-DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13537, 7 September 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE FRENCH ARISTOCRACY OF TO-DAY.

J M. Paul Botjbget, in L'Emigre, has been drawing a pathetic picture of a French aristocracy out of place in modern civilisation,; and too proud to work if not too proud to beg. But that the future of the French aristocracy is less bleak and sordid than some people imagine is evident from certain interesting inquiries that are being .made among others, by M. Emile' Bcrr, of the Figaro. In France, as in Miss Corelli's England, there arc "lazy noodles of aristocrats," who do nothing but heap up debts and then prowl about for "women to pay them" ; means fellows who are kept by women. But in France this contemptible class of men appears to be dying out pretty fast. Instead of loafing about for marriageable dollars, your young French aristocrat is going into trade. He is emulating Peter the Great at Wapping. "Climb up,", said Peter, shouting down from the foretop to tho Ambassadors on deck who hud come to consult, him, "I am busy with my tarpots." "Come in," shouts the young French aristocratic workman in his shirtsleeves, "my hands are too greasy to shake." lie names of de Rohan, Luhersac, de Vogue, de Urancey, de Mun arc well represented in factories and workshop's. One distinguished aristocrat conducts a. rope factory, another does a roaring business as a winedealer, a third as a boatbuilder, a fourth as the manager of an ironworks", and so on. And the best of it is that so many of these aristocrats are the real thing—that is to say, of historic descent, with famous names. The mushroom aristocrats are the snobs. The industry which has the. greatest fascination for your French aristocrat is the automobile industry. 'It may almost be called an aristocratic trade. In Renault's workshops, in Dietrich's, and many others, . the sons of aristocratic families learn their trade just as if they were '• roturiers," : estimating themselveslucky and happy on ninepenco an hour. The example of the Marquis de Dion, whoso name stauds so high in the automanufacturing world, has fascinated—intoxicated—many a French blue-blocd, sick of idleness and ashamed of it. In which respect the Marquis de Dion is a moral force of the highest value.