Show THE FORTUXE OF FRAAGE2 Thc Strength of the Xtition Lie in L the Shrewdness of Women In the course of a vivacious lecture t recently delivered in London by the ingenious in-genious and observant French essayist whose pleasure it is to be publicly known by the pseudonym of Max ORell the influence of the fair sex upon contemporary society as exercised exer-cised in different civilized countries was explained and exemplified with remarkable re-markable acumen and felicitousness M BJouet points outbasing his dictum dic-tum no doubt upon a careful study of his fellow countrymens characteristics that a Frenchman entertains peculiar pecu-liar views about woman In his eyes she is an everpresent and fixed idea ills interest in her is never exhausted I There is nothing more absurd than this he adds to the mind of an Anglo II Saxon If Frenchmen mixed more I with the other sex as children they I might probably acquire the Anglo Savn coolness The object of a mans I worship must always have something I I of mystery Hence Frenchmen considered consid-ered woman far superior to themselves II sot because she really was so but because fr be-cause they made an ideal of her In the French household woman is queen she h > ads her husband and he does not complain nay he consults her about his investments and that is why wealth is so stable in France for women wo-men are not speculative It is the height of absurdity to charge Frenchwomen i French-women with frivolity How asks M Blouet can a woman be frivolous who Is the confidante of her husband and has a deliberate voice in his affairs Among French tradesfolk the wife keeps the books manages the Sand S-and can carry it on should she become 4 S a widow Certain comparisons instituted by Max ORell between girls of the French and English bourgeoisie and workingclass more particularly the rural peasantry from which domestic I servants are chiefly recruited on both sides of the channel are justly favorable favor-able to the lecturers practical and I thrifty countrywomen As he correctly cor-rectly observes when the daughter of a French tradesman marries she Is emancipated whereas an EngUsh girl of that class who enters the matrimonial I matri-monial state often loses her liberty In England a woman rarely knows any I I thing about her husbands business certainly not as much as his clerk I I I while in France she is familiar with jt to the minutest detail As to the wife I of the French peasant proprietor she Is enthusiastically designated by M 1 Blotret as the fortune of France and this Is by no means an extravagant or hynerbollcal eulogy of a woman who is i p notoriously industrious sober saving ever busy In the house the fields or I I 0 the market Herdaughter moreover I < r as a rulethough t1sf does not wear i i r I c v I I j JJ c ± i I U > I f t 6 < a 0 l swhen she goes out to service pays a monthly visit to the savings bank on receipt of her wages whereas the English servantgirl buys a new hat and gets photographed in it There is too much truth in this satirical satiri-cal allusion to the proverbial prodigality prodigal-ity of female domestics in this country where the love of showy finery and the I craving to emulate their social superiors supe-riors in external display stimulate many British girls to squander their hardearned money on fallals ill becoming be-coming their station in life Frenchwomen French-women of the middle and lower classes are fdr the most part content to seem to be what they really are and regard with salutary scorn those few among them who sedulously ape the appearance appear-ance and bearing of their betters The description of them as the fortune of France is fully justified by facts that are within the cognizance of all those who have watched the course of events I under the Imperial and Republican I regimes alike during the past forty years It was the unremitting indus try the inflexible thrift the indomita ble conservatism of French women I that enable France to pay for Napo leonic splendors at home and adven tures abroad that accumulated the I national savings with which the trican uf waridemnity of 1S71 was liquidated long before the expiration of the stipu lated terms that kept up the standard of general well being throughout France after she had suffered defeat spoliation and territorial loss in such sort that her people have almost cheerfully borne the oppressive burdens of ever increasing taxation and sur mounted successive financial calami ties of tremendous severity French men owe much of the commercial bouyancy and industrial resourceful ness at which all the world wonders to the superb qualities of French women mothers wives and daughters alikewho are their indefatigable busi ness partners as well as sympathetic life companions their agents and asso elates friends and comrades It is their pride and pleasure not only to earn but to save to make provision against a rainy day to keep in re serve serves as they idiomatically put it a Telegraph pear for the time of thirstLondon |