Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1918 — TRIBUTE TO FRENCH WOMAN [ARTICLE]

TRIBUTE TO FRENCH WOMAN

Nation Owns Her. > The French woman te brought up to neglect none of the arts that attract men. Even In .munition plants the woman worker knows where the mlrrqr hangs, often has her powder puff at hand, and gives tosconseiously the deft touch to the Lyman Powell in the Design*. If It has sometimes seemed to us that the French wife overlooks too easily the unconsciousness qf a bushpnd, It is because wie have failed tt» understand that French women are exported to keep themselves so attractive to the mate after marriage as well as before that he will. not want to wander over fields. ’ If lt.be asked what woman is sufficient all through life-for the double duty of being a good wife«and a good mother, I name you France, add that French women are in this regard the marvel of their sex and the strongest bulwarks of monogamy. ; And all talk about the lower birth rate in France is beside the mark. The child is held so precious in the French mind that he usually remains a dream child till the-right conditions are in sight for his upbringing. If allowance be made for that fringe of the unproductive found in every land, it is doubtful whether the birth rate among the high-minded and responsible is lower over there than over here. The French woman cannot be summed up in a-phrase.. Contrary to the general opinion, she> Is simple, practical, sensible, tenacious, deliberate, cautious, farsighted and affectionate. She is sensitive but not sentimental. She Is talkative but not superficial. She Is ebullient but enduring. She Is a compound of heart and head, which explains Joffre, Petain, Foch and the Pollu, who have fought these four years past our battle as well as their own and have been the surprise of every friend as well as the exasperation of the foe. . If Waterloo was .won on the playing fields of Eton, Rugby, Harrow, certainly . the Marne, Verdun, the Somme were won in the French house where the French woman lives and manages,, smiles and plans, suffers and “carries on.”