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Jacques Bonhomme, John Bull on the Continent, From My Letter-box
Jacques Bonhomme John Bull on the Continent From My Letter-box Author:Max O'Rell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE FRENCH IN LEADING-STRINGS. Good Society.—Where to go to Obtain Observation.—The Causerie.—Women of Taste and Culture.—Women's Sovereignty.... more »—The Bourgeois' Wife : her Ways and Shrewdness.—Are French Women Frivolous ?—Mothers.—The Shopkeeper's Wife.—Sound Partnership.—A Lesson in Politeness.—The Peasant Women.—Industrious Habits.— Genius of Economy.—Who made the Suez Canal ?—The French Women Redeemed their Country Eighteen Years Ago. The national character of the French has greatly altered since the disasters of 1870, and no one need wonder at it. They have become more susceptible ; they are now the most sensitive people on earth. The rage for equality is often manifested by a ferocious jealousy of those who rise, either in literature, the fine arts, or politics. All these are failings that we possessed before the Franco-German war, but in a much lesser degree. What has not changed, fortunately, is the character of th? French women—I mean especially the women of the people- Good society is much alike everywhere—like hotels ; it is a question of more or less manners in the former, of more or less fleas in the latter. Good society in France is no exception to the rule. No more are the hotels—far the contrary. But what is there to be learned in what is termed " high society " except gossip from club smoking- rooms and from boudoirs, which might, perhaps, furnish a few pages of Scandalous Chronicle ? It is the people who preserve the traditions of a country; therefore it is the middle classes, the werking classes in town and country, that the observer must turn to. If you wish to study the manners of any nation, take third-class tickets. There is little or nothing to be picked up in a first-class carriage. That the French women of the upper classes a...« less