Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1890 — What Max O'Rell Says. [ARTICLE]

What Max O'Rell Says.

Thrift is.the &ourae.af wealth inErance. We have no railway kings, no oil kings, no silver kings, but we h ive no tenement houses, no union*, jm> workhouses. Our lower classes do not >ape in ridiculous fashion the upper class, either in their habits or dress. The <wi£e of a peasant or of a mechanic wears & simple snowy cap and a serge or cotton dress. The wife of a shopkeeper does not wear any jewelry, because she cannot aflord to buy jeal stones,, and her taste is too good to sallow 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 woak; she saves him the expense of a eashier or an extra clerk by helping him in his business. When the shutters are up she enjoy* life with him and is the companion of his pleasures as well us of his hardships. Club life is unknown in' France, except among the very upper classes. Man and wife are constantly together and Franee is a nation of-Darbys and Joans. There is, I believe, no countrj' wheie men and women go through life on s«ch 'equal terms as in France. In England—and here again I speak of the masses only—the man thinks himself a muc%r 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, bnt I cannot say that I have ever discovered in her the slightest trace of gratitude to man. Will yon have a fair illustration of the position of woman in France, in England and in America? Go to a hotel and watch the arrival of couples in the dining-room. In France you will see them arrive together, walk abreast toward the seats assigned to them, very often arm in arm. In England you will see John'Bail leading the way, xollowed by his meek wife, with her eyes OMtdown. In America behold the dig-

nified, nay, majestic entTy of Mrs. Jonathan, a queen going toward her throne, and Jonathan behind!