Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1893 — The French Peasant. [ARTICLE]

The French Peasant.

The steady field laborer is very orderly in his habits and has a good dose of common sense. Each province has marked characteristics of its own. The Bretons, for instance, are staunch, enthusiastic Catholics and Royalists, a stubborn raoe with a will of its own; excellent sailors, poor agriculturists and true patriots. The Provencal, on the other hand, has much of the Andalusian in his oharacter, something, too, of the Irishman; witty, poetical, improvident, grandeloqaent, hot-headed, smelling of garlic ana personated in Daudet’s inimitable “Tartarin de Tarascon.” The Norman peasant is suspicious, miserly, cautious, and a good beginner, who has never yet been known to commit himself by a decided yea or nay. The Northern man is clearsighted in business matters and not overbasdened with heart or imagination. He would let his house burn to the ground without owing to see the blaze provided it were insured.- .[North American Review.