PEEPS OF FRANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 78

PEEPS OF FRANCE.

(Special for the Otago Witness.) These articles, from the pen of a hew Zealand girl, who has gone to France to complete her education, have been specially written for my Little Folk. We hope that after reading them, you will have a new idea of a country which, to many of you, is known only as another place to be learned about in a cco'xranhv lesson.—DOT. * XV. Mes Betites.—lt may interest you to hear what a little French girl has to say on the subject of English girl s and their trousseaux. Antoinette, from Paris, spent several months in England, and decided that English girls were not at all economical. “Do you not then ever sew —do you not make your own trousseau? ” she remarked to Perpetua, who was crouching over the fire struggling with a crossword puzzle.

“ Trousseau ? ” Perpetua dragged her mind from the puzzle. “ But I'm not engaged.” “Engaged? Fiancee?” Antoinette looked amazed. “ And do you wait until you are engaged to start to make your trousseau ? ” “Of course. What’s the use of making it before ? ” “ Drole, tres drole,” murmured Antoinette; “ the English who are said to be so practical,” and off she went, at her amazing pace, even speaking English she made great. speed. Yes, very droll, decided Antoinette, to wait to make one’s trousseau until the engagement—just the time when there is no time to spare. She had started her trousseau directly after her premiere communion—like all French girls. Her mother had given her a chest, an old oak chest that had been hers before she wa s married, and already the chest was half-full; everything in it having been made by herself. In the chest were tablecloths, sheets, pillow-slips, lingerie, and all sorts of lovely things, and “ when you come to Paris I shall show them all to you and yon will see how much I sew. and when I am engaged it will all be ready and I can go out all the time.” How does the above proceeding strike you ? It is different from ours, isn’t it? But most French girls marry, and 23 or 24 is considered a suitable age for marriage. In Antoinette’s opinion English girls are rather happy-go-lucky in the matter of housekeeping and cooking, as well as in the matter of needlework. It seemed to her, during her stay in England, that the girls spent all their time talking on the telephone or doing cross-word puzzles. They did not trouble to learn to cook or to sew. She wondered how they would manage if they did not all marry “ the rich man.”

My mother, she had only a bonne a taut faire—a what do you call it? a general servant —when first she was married, and she made her own dresses, trimmed her own hats, and made the cooking: mv father says never shall I make the cookinsr like my mother, but yes, lam certain that I shall do it; for if I marry not a rich man then I shall arrange always my room myself and the cooking, and thus shall I make my economics to have a dowry for my daughters. In England you have no dowry—that surprises me very much. If a girl have not a dowry, must she then go always to her husband for all that she wishes to spend? The Englishwoman, who is of such an independence, I do not understand.” Such a-re Antoinette's views on the English girl and her ways. What would she say. I wonder, of the New Zealand girl? Would she think us economical and thrifty, in spite of the fact that few. if any of us nowadays, keep up the good old fashion of having “ a bottom drawer.” prefering to wait, like our English friends, until the fiance appears on the

Doubtless our country and hack-blocks life would ba a revelation, not only to Antoinette, but to all French girls, none of whom can have any conception of the conditions under which many women still live overseas. The French girls are undoubtedly far less independent and selfreliant than we are, and many of our colonial ways would strike them as being exceedingly rough. Take, for instance, our habit of riding astride—this, for a girl, is practically unheard of in France even now. and the “ califaurchon,” or astride position is considered most ungraceful. French girls ride really very little, and when they do, they ride always “ en femme,” which is to sav, a side saddle. There is a considerable amount of hunting in France, and in this, as in-all other forms of outdoor amusements, • the French have followed the English example. Just now, in the Riviera, much golf is bemg played, and very gay crowds gather every day flong the sea front. It is holiday weather, and the sunshine and the roses seem almost too good to be true. Jeanne. COSY CORNER CLUB AND OLD WRITERS. Dear Old Writers, —The following letter has come to me from Elaine of the Cosy Corner Club. I give it to you as it was sent to me, and hope that some of you will feel disposed to do as Elaine asks.—Your friend, DOT. Dear Dot, —I have been readinsr the letters sent to you by your Little Folk, and have come to the conclusion that you are a very fortunate person indeed to have such a large and loyal following. But what happens to your contributors when they become 21 years of age? I know that they send you an Old Writer’s -'letter once a year, but what happens tn the meantime? I wonder if some of them would write to me. and help to swell the ranks of members of my Cosy Corner Club. The programme, which will be found in the Ladies’ Page, is attractive and it would only mean one letter a month for six months of the year. Do you think they would? It would be very gratifying to me to have some of your ex-Llttle Folk in the club—-any who are no longer children and are interested in the programme I have prepared. Hoping that this appeal will meet with a response.—l am. dear Dot, ELAINE, of the Cosy Corner Club, AN OLD WRITER’S TRAGIC DEATH. In the waiting room at Stonehouse L.M. and S. Railway station (England), Colonel J. R. Morton Ball (Divisional Coroner) held an inquest early this year on the body of Cyril Hilbert Jones, a railway porter, aged 23 years, whose home is at Brookside, Wood Green, Longhope, Gloucester, and was employed at the Stonehouse Midland station, who was knocked down by an express train passing through the station, and hurled on to the platform suffering from terrible injuries, which caused instantaneous death. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and associated themselves' with the Coroner in an expression of sympathy with deceased’s parents and family in thetr bereavement Mr Cole, on behalf of the company, Mr Brown, on behalf of deceased’s colleagues, and Mr Abell, speaking for the staff at Stonehouse, also associated themselves with the expressions of sympathy,

and Mr William Jones replied on behalf of his parents and members of the family. [The above is an extract from an English paper, and gives notice of the death of Bert, an Old Writer.—DOT.]