Girls in France.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 5080, 16 September 1891, Page 4

Girls in France.

Of the French girl it is hard to speak, not only because she is a mere reflection of her mother, but because she is forced to play a part. Ever since Bernardin de Saint-Pierre made Virginie prefer death to taking off her gown, the writers of France have reminded the maidens of their country that they are innocent, and that the most immaculate virtue, purity and ignorance befit them. Honest old Thomas C;»rlyle, speaking of Tirginie's death, says, " \Vhat a world of prurient corruption lies visible in the aupersablime of modesty I" I echo the sentiment; because, face to face with a violent death, no pure young tori —indeed, I should suppose no human being—would think of clothes or no clothes. The state of society that demands the convent for a girl until she is placed in her husband's hands is a low state, no matter how civilised ; and the safety offered the maidens is the safety of the harem. "litilbul of my grove, star of my darkened existence, I will lock you up, and then jou cannot go wrong." Said a Frenchmen to me once, I was objecting to the colorlessness of tne French girl: " Madam, we like to lenow that no word has been traced by any man on the spotless page of her past when we take a girl for our wife." "Ah!" I observed with malice, "and is the story you proceed to write thereon always edifying!" " Madam is severe." "Notat all; I seek information." I did not get it. The girls of France are the creatures of others, and are supposed to have neither judgment nor will. In school they are docile, tactful, subdued. You will hear a lot of abuse of the teachers in any English or Australian schools, never in France ; the girls are too discreet. They are neither brilliant nor very well educated. Usually convents are their schools, and they are only taught what the church sanctions. As the young men in Roman Catholic colleges are forbidden to attend lectures on evolution, it is very hard for one to image the hopelessly false foundation the church would offer young •women. However, the convent has its good side. My school was not a convent. I wish it had been ; for I learned really nothing save to speak French with doubtful grammar. My only recollection of the educational part of the proceedings presents itself to my mind as a visita of verbs written out in my unformed childish hand. The religious instruction the girls received was not active. They went to mass on Sunday. After they were .all in bed Jeanne de L. said evening prayers in a sing-song, one or two following her in a dreamy monotone. Then they made the sign of the cross and went to sleep, if not too cold. A revival took place ever}" year among those who were to be confirmed or "make their first communiou," as it was called. Their white gowns and veils were a great feature, and they fasted for many hours before the celebration of the mass. Quite unnecessary. We all fasted there in a manner calculated to qualify us for the taking of endless communions. The health of the girls was but little regarded, although I understand that in a convent this is not the case.

There are some excellent features in the French system, nevertheless. As a child, the embryo Frenchwoman lives the life of a child and is left to nurses or nans ; as a girl she passes her time in a convent, or under the care of a governess, frequently an Englishwoman; in all things she is guided by her mother, and the French mother is an excellent guide. As a young married woman she begins, immediately, to feel her social power, and does not become old at twenty-three, after the manner of the young married ■women of our country, save in fashionable circles. Her uneventful early life keeps her fresh for the active life of womanhood, and a marriage which has had little of sentiment about it does not leave her desiUusionne, since she had no false illusions on the subject. Indeed, she takes with becoming gratitude the husband her mother provides : and I am not sure that there is not as much happiness in married life in France as there is elsewhere. One reason for this is that the mother chooses the son of one of her own friends, and the younic people will not only be of the same nationality, but of the same church, society and fortune. A popular impression prevails in England and Australia that the morals of the -French are not of the best. This is hardly just. In reality there may be found in France the highest type of spirituality ; and I need not add that that is not a common virtue anywhere. Many girls who might marry well embrace a convent life, accepting its hardships and many privations with perfect patience. There is a good deal about the young French girl which makes a hardened being like myself rather sceptical as to her naivete. On her marriage she is more keen concerning the presents from her betrothed than quite befits a young person whose life has been flower-like ; and indeed, she has an eye to the main chance generally that would do no discredit to Wall-street. Her meanness is often monumental.

As a married woman I have no French girls for intimate friends, though I have lived for four years in France. It seemed strango to me, for I was overrun with English girls ; but I was told that it was not considered desirable in France for gills to form friendships with older ■women. Nor does a French mother trust her daughter with "dear Mr So-and-so, ' her father's old friend ; though, perhaps, in the main, our Gallic friends are right. I love to watch French girls in society ; and, if ever I had a daughter, I should wish her manner to be like theirs —gentle, quiet, self-possessed, without a suspicion of independence, yet never shy. _ Always under the mother's eye, they can t do the idiotic things English and Australian girls do. The greatest drawback to this system is that a girl's virtue does not come from herself. Though the French wife has been a much-maligned being, there is no doubt that " the love of men and women when they love their best," is a factor not to be ignored ; and the "spotless page "of my French friend is sometimes prettily scribbled over after marriage. If the ingenue of books and the theatre is really as innocent as we are invited to believe, she makes the most astonishing strides in worldly knowledge on assuming the title madame. There must, however, be a great deal to be said in favor of a social and domestic code which turns out the most helpful wives in the world, and certainly the most powerful women our western civilisation has produced are the women of France.