A VIEW OF FRENCH PEOPLE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 40, 4 October 1890, Page 3

A VIEW OF FRENCH PEOPLE.

1,0 longer rather effeminate, rather undersized man with a waxed moustache, but <1 IPS; nV i* a well built, big fellow, who has l»een trained after the English fashion with the Fivnch ideas. That is, he has the English u ' CiV man’s manliness and the Frenchman’s courtesy, the Englishman’s good looks and the French man’s exquisite neatness. He is nearest to * perfection a man can get unless he went up and set on a pillar and made all the women in the world unhappy. Years ago this type was unknown in France, but it is curious to see how the men have seized on the English virtues without losing their own, and with what approval the women look on. Even Madame Bern hardt’s great desire was to have her son look likean English man. Whenever we English-speaking people get among the French we ought to kick ourselves metaphorically, if we are women, ami physically if we are men. Why? Because if a Frenchwoman knows ten English wools she w ill do her best to help you out if you don’t speak much French. She will never smile at your atrocious accent, ami she w ill encourage you until you think your words, which have a flavour of South Fifth avenue with a strong cockney element added to them, are the purest Parisian. Then you grow courageous ami plunge in, and after that you have a very good time. In a similar situation an Englishwoman thinks its very funny when a Frenchman tries to speak English, she doesn’t, hesitate to laugh and she shows no sympathy whatever in his struggles to be polite to her. Englishwomen do not compare well with French ones. The latteris civilised, the other is on the road to it, with the odds against her getting there. Her idea of wit is a practical joke; her idea of after dinner con versation is an oil' colour story. She has few big virtues and m> little ones. Phe French woman would die for a cause or a belief, would work for it, would intrigue for it. and would be capable ot enduring almost anything for the sake of a friend. She understands the art of small talk yithout indulging in a scandal, and gossip, to her. possesses no attraction unless it is witty ; for beauty, brains, and brawn she has a great ad miration, but she ran be gentle and kind, sweet and sympathe tic, where none She reverences blood, and an im poverished lady from the Faubourg is t reateil as a guest of honour where mil lionaires, whose titles are recent, are counted of little worth. I'he Ameri can woman is nearer to the French than is the English, but even the American woman might imitate her in some respects advantageously. Here are some of her She looks well, which means not in a fussy way, after her household. She is the best of mothers and the most affectionate of daughters. She is patient with her husband, giving him asmile when she knows he deserves something else, but believing that it is always a better weapon than a cross word. She can talk for one hour in a pleasant way about things and places and never say a disagreeable word about people. She may be the centre of attraction at the dinner table or in the ballroom, and she is beautifully unconscious of it. She can w’ear a cotton frock so well that you w ill wonder why you ever thought silk or velvet worth consideration. She shows respect for every man’s religion, all that she shudders at is lack of it. She has read the latest new’ book, seen the latest, new' picture, heard the latest new opera, but if you haven’t she never makes you conscious of her greater advantages. She rules in a country where Salic law does not exist, and rules l»y making her sons adore her, her father love her, and her husband respect her. B \B.