Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1875 — The Cheerfulness of the French. [ARTICLE]

The Cheerfulness of the French.

What pleases me most in Paris is the general cheerfulness. I do not observe such wide extremes of condition as in London, such painful contrasts between the rich find the poor. Indeed,! doaotfindhere such abject poverty, nor see such dark, sullen, scowling faces as I saw in the low quarters of London, which indicate such brutal degradation. Here everybody seems to be, at least in a small way, comfortable and contented. I spoke in a former letter of the industry- of the people (no city in the world is such a hive of busy bees) and of their great economy, and this shows itself even in their pleasures, of which they are very fond, but which they get very cheap. No people will get so much out of so little. What an English workman will spend in a single drunken debauch a Frenchman will spread over a week, and get a little enjoyment out of it every day. It delights me to see how they take their pleasures. Everybody seems to be happy in his own way, and not to be envious of his neighbor. If a man cannot ride with two horses he w ill go with one, and even if that brie be a sorry hack, with ribs sticking out of his sides and that seems just refcdy for the crows, no matter, he will pile his wife and children into the little, low carriage, and off they go—not at great speed, to be sure, but as gay ancl merrily as if they were tne Emperor arid his court, with outriders going before and a body of cavalry clattering at their heels. When I have seen a whole family at Versailles of St. Cloud

dining on five francs (O no, that magnificent; they carry their dinner with them, and if probably does not cost tliYm two francs); I adnfire the simple ’.tastes which are so easily satisfied, and the min-acle-working art "which extracts honey froffi every daisy by the roadside. Such simple ami universal enjoyment would not be possible but for one trait which is .peculiar to the French—an entire absence of mauviase honte, or false shame; the foolish pride, which is so common in England and America, of wishing to be thought ,as rich or as great as others. In London no one would dare, even if he were allowed, to show himself in Hyde Park in such unpretentious turn-outs as those in which half Paris will go to tile Boisde Boulogne. But here everybody jogs along at his own gait, not troubling himself about his neighbor. “ Live and let live” seems to be, if not the law of the country, at least the universal habit of the people. Whatever faults the French have', I believe they are freer than most nations from “ envy, malice and uncharitableness.” With this there is a feeling of self-respect, even among the common people, that is very pleasing. If you speak to a French servant, or to a workman in a blouse, he does not sink into the earth as if he were an inferior being, or take atone of servility, but answers politely, yet self-respect-ingly, as if conscious that he, too, is a man. The most painful thing that I found in England was the w*ay in w-hich the distinctions of rank, which seem to be as rigid as the castes of India, have eaten into the manhood and self-respect of our great Anglo-Saxon race. But here “a man’s a man,” and, especially if he is a Frenchman, he is as good as anybody. — Jlev. H. M. Field, in the Evangelist. It is stated that of the present Congress, composed of 336 members, 200 are lawyers, fifty merchants, and the rest editors and farmers. In the United States there are 40,000 lawyers and 2,500,000 farmers—therefore, there is one lawyer in Congress son-every 200 of that profession, and only one farmer for every 130,000, as the latter class in reality only number eighteen in our National Legislature.— Washington Chronicle. —One of the very first events in a boy’s history that makes his heart sad and proves to him the uncertainty and contrariness of the things of this w’orld is the refusal of his new kite to go up as he w’ants it to, and its disastrous fate by being w-recked, paper, sticks, tail and all, in the windward branches of a too-neigh-borly tree. When Arthur w*as a very small boy his mother reprimanded him one day for some misdemeanor. Not knowing it, his father began to talk to him on the same subject. Looking up in his face, Arthur said solemnly: “ Mother has ’tended to me.” . CniLL Cure !—Safe and Sure.—Dr. Wllhoft’s Tonic is curative and protective. It will cure Chills and protect from further attacks. Its reputation is established. Its’ composition is simple and scientific. It contains no poison. It acts promptly and its effects are permanent. It is cheap, because it saves doctors’ bills. It is harmless, speedy in action and delightful in its effects. Try it and prove all that’s said. Wheelock, Finlay & Co., Proprietors, New Orleans. For sale by all Druggists. A great many people have asked us of late, “ How do you keepyour horse looking so sleek and glossy ?” We tell them it’s the easiest thing in the world; give Sheridan's Cavalry Condition Powders two or three times a week. A gentleman in the eastern part of the State, who was about having his leg amputated on account of its being bent at right angles and stiff at the knee, heard of Johnson's Anodyne Liniment. After using it a short time his leg became straight, and is now as serviceable as the other. Personal.— A. F. Herzog.—“l have used SIMMONS’ LIVER REGULATOR, after trying nearly all other remedies, and now am a sound and healthy man—too much cannot be said in praise of such a remedy.” Ask for Prussing’s White Wine Vinegar, warranted pure, wholesome and palatable. The Kansas University has a natural history department with a museum containing 20,000 specimens of animal life, among them 1,600 species of Kansas insects and 300 of Kansas birds. The area of the Southern States is nearly 507,000,000 of acres. There are 55,000,000 of acres under cultivation.