Show W OMEN ROLE floe fine sight for suffragists at cancale bancale in ill france Franc ii feminine police keep order and feminine labor carries op the oyster industry that makes mak es the place famous bancale cancale Can Cati cale francein these lays days 0 of of suffragist movements rights arid and feminine business ac acumen ninen anyone in search afan of an exam plo of an ail unusual sort might drop in upon this french channel port of 0 somo some souls when they are all at homo hoille wid and see a truly woman run town there Is no woman mayor no woman lit in the town council tile the offices aro aio left as it a mere matter of form to tile the men who are seldom there to fill thorn thein but the omen coinon are arb a law unto themselves thom selves thoy they make up tip thu the whole town transact all tile the business puttee police the place maintain order arid and strict sanitary conditions manage the schools unit and at the samo same time carry on oil the most amous oyster industry of france doing the iho entire cultivating and selling seiling and transporting the prod proa net of the ocean beds oven even loading and unloading tile tho seagoing ships that come and go tit at tile the port and what Is still moro more interesting to their sisters in other parts parta of the world the girls of Cati cancaro cale tire are the first to be married of all the girls of north and central france ask a french sailor where of all ports excepting of course out of chivalry ills his own native town the most moat beautiful of french fisher girls nio are to bo be found and lie he will tell you at canaille cancale Can cale cille you will believe him too when you walk along the quays and the narrow streets ste lets arid and see the pretty faces and neat will trim figures set off to tho the best advantage in III tho the breton dress and loan clean white caps or watch the little groups in the thel shade of the street in III tho the after noon or within thu tho deep set get stone P e C aa e 1 17 Z oyster girls of cancale bancale Can cale doorways mending nets and gossip ping as fast as their french tongues can call wag the conditions that mako make this a woman run town come about in the most natural way in III the world all tile the men are fishers and they spend the greater part of the year at sea they are good sailors and they man the craft that venture across the atlantic to tile the french fishing grounds along the newfoundland coast it was their rights that used to come up frequently for adjustment by fishery commissions and it is the loss of their vessels that almost every year brings sorrow to cancale bancale and the neighboring coast when the men do return they find that the town has been managed so well in their absence and the thrift of the women has been so well exercised that they are content not to meddle and to let things go on as they the have been going there are proportionately more widows and young widows too in cancale bancale than in any other town of france A fis hermans bride waits for four years after she has heard that the boat her husband sailed away upon has ewt anz ot been reported and then she puts on tier her mourning it is this uncertainty as to the fate of the men thrown helpless and homeless upon the tear fear that at any time they may be their own resources that makes tho the women of cancale bancale C f self reliant and that leads them early to seek somo some means of their own for an honest live lahood for the men that remain in tho the town the women do not seem to entertain the greatest respect most alost or of them have become incapacitated for work or are shiftless and idle so the women run matters themselves the thrift that the conditions mentioned inspire is something of a passion among the women it seems that there Is a constant struggle with each one of them to make more money than the man who goes to sea they frequently accomplish this too for the returning fisherman finds finda frequently that his yearly gain of or got after a hard battle from tile the sea Is more than equalled equal led by the patient and careful housewife that he teft left at home |