FRENCH DOMESTIC LIFE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VII, Issue 11, 14 March 1891, Page 1

FRENCH DOMESTIC LIFE.

«T is, I believe, the firm conviction of foreigners , that Frenchmen marry for money—that is to say, that all Frenchmen marry for money. As a rule the foreigners, discussing these matters, have a wonderful faculty for generalisation. The fact that they often do so is not to be denied, and the explanation of it is this: —There are in France a number of men belonging to a

class almost unknown in other countries—small bourgeois, of genteel breeding and habits, but relatively poor, who occupy posts in the administration offices. Their name is legion and their salary something like #4OO or #5OO. These men have an appearance to keep, and unless a wife brings them enough to at least double their income they cannot marry. These young men are often sought after by parents for their daughters, because they are steady, cultured, gentlemanly and occupy an honourable post which brings them a pension for their old age. With the wife’s dowry, the couple can easily get along and lead a peaceful, uneventful and happy jog trot life, which is the great aim of the majority of the French people. But on the other hand there is no country where you will see so many cases of mesalliance as in France. Indeed, itisamost common thing for a young Frenchman of good family to fall in love with agirl of a much lower station in life than his, to court her at first with only the idea of killing time, to soon discover that the girl is highly respectable and to finally marry her. French parents frown on this sort of thing and do their best to discourage it, but rather than cross their son’s love they give their consent and trust to that adaptability of French women of w'hrch I was speaking just now—raise herself to her husband’s level and make a wife he will never be ashamed of.

The Frenchman is the slave of his womankind, but not in the same way as the American is. The Frenchman i« brought up by his mother and remains under her sway till she dies. When he marries his wife leads him by the nose, and when, besides, he has a daughter, on whom he generally dotes, this lady soon joins the other two in ruling this easy going, good-humoured man. The American, I believe, will

lavish attention and luxury on his wife and daughters, but he will save them the trouble of being mixed in his affairs. His business is his, his office private. His womankind is the sun and glory of his life whose company he will hasten to enjoy as soon as he can throw away the cares of his business. In France a wife is a partner, a cashier who takes care of the money, an adviser on stocks and speculations. In the mercantile class, she is both cashier and bookkeeper. Enter a shop in France, Paris included, and behind ‘ Pay-Here ’ you will see madam smiling all over as she pockets the money for the firm. When I say she is a partner, I might safely have said that she is the active partner and by far the shrewder of the two. She brings to bear her native suppleness, her fascinating little ways, her persuasive manners.

and many a customer whom her husband was allowing to go away without a purchase has been brought back by the wife and induced to part with his cash in the shop. Last summer I arrived in Paris on my way home from Germany to spend a few days visiting the exposition. I one day went into a shop on the Boulevard tobuy a white hat. Thenew-fashionedhat, theonly one which the husband showed me, was narrow-brimmed, and I declined to buy any. I was just going to leave, when the wife, who from the back parlour had listened to my conversation with her husband, stepped in and said, * But, Adolph, why do you let monsieur go ’ Perhaps he does not care to

follow the fashion. We have a few white broad brimmed hats left from last year that we can let monsieur have a bon compte. They are upstairs ; go and fetch them.’ And, sure enough, there was one which fitted and pleased me, and I left in that shop a little sum of twenty-five francs which the husband was going to let me take elsewhere, but which the wife managed to secure for the firm.

No one who has lived in France has failed to be struck with the intelligence of the women, and there exist few Frenchmen who do not readily admit how intellectually inferior they are to their countrywomen, chiefly among the middle and lower middle classes. And this is not due to

any special training, for the education received by the women of this class is of the most limited kind ; how to read, write and reckon and their education is finished. Shrewd ness is inborn in them and a peculiar talent for getting a hundred cents’ worth for every dollar they spend. To make a house look pretty and attractive with small outlay : how to make a dress or turn out a bonnet with a few knickknacks ; how to make a savoury dish out of a remnant of beef, mutton and veal, all this is a science not to be despised when a husband in receipt of a five hundred dollar salary wants to make a good dinner and see his wife look pretty. No doubt the aristocratic inhabitants of Mayfair and Belgravia in London, and the Four Hundred (with capital letters) of New York, may think all this very small, and these French people very uninteresting. They can, perhaps, hardly imagine that such people live. But they do live, and live very happy lives, too. And I will go so far as to say that happiness, real happiness, is chiefly found among clerks of limited income. The husband, who fora whole year has put quietly by a dollar every week, so as to be able to give his dear wife a nice present at Christmas, gives her a far more valuable present than the millionaire who orders Tiffany to send a few diamond rings to his wife. That quiet little French couple you see at the upper circle of a theatre, and who have saved the money to enable them to come and hear such a play, are happier than the occupants of the boxes on the first tier.

In speaking of nations, I have always taken much more interest in observing the ‘ million ’ who differ in eve>y country than the ‘upper ten’ who are alike all over the world.

People who have millions at their disposal generally discover and adopt the same way of living. People who only have a small income show their native instincts in the intelligent use of it. All these differ and these only are worth studying unless yon belong to the staff of a society paper. I am proud to say England and America are the only two countries in the world where these official organs of Anglo-Saxon snobbery can be found.

The source of French happiness is to be found in the thrift of the women from the best middle class to the peasantry. This thrift is also the source of French wealth. We have no railway kings, no oil kings, no silver kings, but we have no tenement houses, no unions, no workhouses. Our lower classes do not ape in ridiculous attires the upper class, either in their habits or dress. The wife of a peasant or of a mechanic wears a simple snowy cap and a serge or cotton dress. The wife of a shopkeeper does not wear any jewellery, because she cannot afford to buy real stones, and her taste is too good to allow of her wearing any false ones. She is not ashamed of her husband’s occupation. She does not play the fine lady while her husband is at work ; she saves him the expense of a cashier or of an extra clerk by helping him in his business. When the shutters are up she enjoys life with him and is the companion of his pleasures as well as of his hardships. Club life in unknown in France, except among the very upper classes. Man ami wife are constantly together and France is a nation of Darby and Joans. There is, I believe, no country where men ami women go through life on such equal terms as in Fiance. In England

— and here again 1 speak of the masses only—the man thinks himself a much superior being to the woman. It is the same in Germany. In America I should feel inclined to believe that a woman looks down upon a man with a certain amount of contempt. She receives at his hands attentions of all sorts, but I cannot say that I have ever discovered in her the slightest trace of gratitude to man. Will you have afair illustration of the position of women in France, in England, and in America? Go to an hotel and watch the arrivals of couples in the dining-room. In France you will see them arrive together, walk abreast toward the seat assigned to them, very often arm in arm. In England you will see John Bull leading the way, followed by his meek wife with her eyes cast down. In America behold the dignified, nay, majestic entry of Mrs Jonathan, a queen going towards her throne, ami Jonathan behind ! — Mnr Sl'Rell.