FAMILY LIFE--MARRIAGE AND THE BIRTH-RATE
For an English resident in France to become an intimate in the home of
a French family is a rare enough occurrence, and for a visitor to
attempt to discover anything as to French family life first hand is
generally a quest doomed to failure. In the vast mass of the middle
classes the habit of mind is to remain as far as possible on the
estate of one's ancestors or in the place in which one is known. There
is no wish to live in foreign lands; those who are obliged to do so
are pitied, and foreigners who come to take up permanent residence in
France are in most instances regarded as people who, for some
regrettable reason, are obliged to live outside their native land.
This idea prevents the foreigner from receiving a cordial welcome, and
he generally labels the people of his adopted land as inhospitable.
On the other hand, it must be remembered that Belgians and Italians
belonging to a common stock are assimilated with extreme rapidity into
the great body of the nation.
The hospitality of the average French household of the middle classes
is, owing to the need for great thrift, narrowed down to the
necessarily limited circle of the family. No sooner is the aforetime
stranger joined to a family by the tie of marriage than the doors of
the homes of all the relations are thrown wide open to receive him. It
is this custom which makes it so essential for the prospective
parents-in-law to ascertain the antecedents, the status, and financial
prospects of a proposed husband for their daughter. Should some
disaster, monetary or otherwise, fall upon this new addition of the
family, the blow is inflicted upon all the members and all the
branches of that circle. Similar enquiries are put on foot by the
parents of a son who is intending to ally himself to another family.
[Illustration: IN THE PLACE DU THEATRE FRANCAIS, PARIS.]
Wherever the family tie is given undue importance there is inevitably
less willingness to entertain the stranger and to take the risks this
wider sociality involves. So English people, with Paris (which they
do not really know) as the basis of their observations, are too ready
to state with confidence that there is no real home life in France. It
may be that there is less in the capital than in the rest of the
country, but Paris is the least French portion of France. The English,
or more accurately the British, quarter of Paris remains outside the
closely guarded circles of Parisian family life, and large sections of
the city live in water-tight compartments even as they do in London.
What does the average middle-class family know of the French residents
in London? Probably the number of those of the upper classes who are
closely in touch with French residents of their own social rank is
very small, and the humble French population of Soho and Pimlico live
their hard-working lives almost as detached from the rest of the city
as though they were on the other side of the Channel.
One of the most marked differences between the Anglo-Saxon and the
French home is the fact that in the latter the place of the housemaid
is to a very great extent taken by men. The sterner sex dust and sweep
and polish as a matter of course. There is little restriction on the
amount of noise made by the servants, male and female, while they are
about their work. It is quite usual to hear them laughing, talking,
singing, and even shouting to one another, where in an English
household there would scarcely be a sound above the quietest
conversation drowned by the noise of the broom.
The ordinary house of the middle classes does not enjoy that
periodical refurbishing and redecorating accepted as necessary north
of the Channel. With a wife as keen as himself on living well within
their joint income the French head of the family is not urged to put
aside a certain annual sum for new curtains, carpets, chair and sofa
covers, and such expensive items. The initial outlay on the home is
generally considered to be almost sufficient for a lifetime if care is
used in maintaining what has been purchased. It is not necessary to
have entered many French homes to become familiar with the typical
bedroom which is reflected faithfully enough in the average hotel. One
essential feature of a bedroom as the Anglo-Saxon knows it is alone
allowed to form a feature of the furnishing of the apartment. It is
the bed, draped as a rule with elaborate curtains and coverings and
surmounted by some form of canopy. A massive feather-bed-like
eiderdown, covering about one-half of the necessary area of the bed,
reposes at the foot and leaves those unfamiliar with these nightmare
pillows wondering if the people who use them are a practical race. The
dressing-table and washstand are generally hard to find. If there is a
_cabinet de toilette_, these essentials of a bedroom will be stowed
away in what is often a roomy cupboard, and where the feature does not
exist, both pieces of furniture will be so modest in dimensions and
sufficiently well disguised to be almost unrecognisable at a casual
glance. Conspicuously placed, however, will be an ample sofa and a
writing-table not necessarily provided with adequate writing
materials. Every effort is made to give the sleeping apartment as much
the atmosphere of a reception-room as sofas and chairs and an absence
of toilet appliances will allow, for when, right away in the fifteenth
century, it became the custom for the sovereign to hold audiences in
the bed-chamber the rest of French society imitated the royal example,
until it became an established usage in _bourgeois_ circles as much as
in those of the class which enjoyed the direct influence of court
fashions. Democratic and Republican France has swept away the whole
edifice of the monarchy, but unconsciously perpetuates in a most
remarkable fashion the weakness of a sovereign to carry on the
business of the day from his bed!
The average husband regards the _cabinet de toilette_ as the peculiar
possession of his wife, and would hesitate to enter that annexe to his
bedroom unbidden. Possibly to those who have been brought up with this
idea the English custom of providing a small dressing-room for the
husband and allowing _madame_ paramount rights over the whole bedroom
may seem unaccountably odd.
Formality is generally the prevailing note of the reception-rooms.
Comfortable chairs have only lately begun to make their appearance at
all, and as a rule the middle-class household maintains a traditional
severity in the arrangements of its drawing-room. Straight uninviting
chairs and an absence of any indications of books, magazines or
papers, or anything in the way of a needlework bag or a writing-table
that is in regular use, deprive the room of any home-like
individuality. The extreme economy exercised in the use of fuel makes
the unnecessary lighting of a fire a wanton extravagance. Commodities
in Paris cost double or even more than double what they do in the
British Isles, and in the country generally one-third more; the
salaries of the civil and military officials, who form such a big
section of the middle-class population, are considerably less than
those enjoyed in England, and the incomes of the professional classes
are as a rule smaller than those of the Englishman. Add to this the
abnormally high rents of Paris and it will be understood that in the
capital there is always need for the most rigid economy. _Madame_ must
keep a watchful eye on the household store of coal, not only to see
that it is not wasted in her own fires, but to make sure that
pilfering is not carried on by her servants. Where in England a fire
is kept quietly smouldering, it will be raked out in France and
relighted when required a few hours later. In this way a good deal of
hardihood in the endurance of cold is developed, and contrivances in
the way of stoves that burn fuel with extreme economy are much in use.
This restraint in coal consumption reduces the quantity of carbon
particles discharged into the atmosphere of French cities, and
accounts to a great extent for the clearer air the inhabitants enjoy,
at the same time keeping the annual bill for coal and wood down to
very modest proportions.
Economy must also be rigidly maintained in the purchase of food, and
this is generally accomplished by discreet buying in the markets. A
servant or a member of the household makes daily purchases in this
manner, and the middleman's profits on the chief part of the food
required are successfully avoided. In Paris the maid-of-all-work, who
is generally the only servant employed in a modest flat, makes these
daily purchases, out of which she obtains from those with whom she
deals a commission of a _sou_ in every _franc_ expended. This is a
universally recognised custom, but in addition there is a prevalent
but altogether reprehensible practice, known as _faire danser l'anse
du panier_. It is pure dishonesty, for the _bonne_ puts down in the
books a small overcharge on each item, and this with the market-man's
_sou du franc_ amounts to a considerable sum in the course of a year,
often nearly equal to her wage. It is an interesting fact that Breton
servants are generally quite guiltless of the overcharge system, for
the people of Brittany are of much the same stock as the Welsh,
concerning whom there is a proverb for which the writer fails to find
justification.
_Dejeuner_ at 11.30 or 12 and dinner at 6.30 or 7 are the two
essential meals of the day. Breakfast, served in the bedroom, consists
of coffee or chocolate and small crisply baked rolls with butter and
perhaps honey, while the Anglo-Saxon meal called tea is only an
established feature among the upper classes, where English customs are
extremely fashionable. The two chief meals both consist of at least
four courses, with a cup of coffee added to give a finish to the
whole. It might be thought absurd for those who are poor or living
with great economy to begin their meals with an _hors-d'oeuvre_, but
Miss Betham-Edwards, whose knowledge of the French is sufficiently
wide to be an authority, asserts that a careful housekeeper will give
this preliminary course as an economy, for being great bread-eaters a
little scrap of ham or sausage or herring eaten with several mouthfuls
of bread will take the edge off the appetite and enable her to be less
lavish with the other courses. Soup is very frequently made out of the
water in which vegetables have been stewed with a suspicion of
flavouring added, and the meat courses are provided not from large
joints, but from little scraps of meat which the French butcher
produces in astonishing quantities from the same animal as his English
neighbour handles in an entirely different and very much less
economical fashion. These methods of cutting with a view to quantity
rather than quality give much of the meat an unhappy toughness as
though it were cut across or against the grain. Even the
_bonne-a-tout-faire_ will prefer to make a sacrifice in the quantity
of food in each course of a meal if by so doing she can be quite sure
of finishing with a cup of coffee.
The contrast of the mid-day meal, consisting of a chop and bread and
cheese, supplied by the small provincial hotel to the commercial
traveller in England, with that provided or obtainable in France, is
astonishing. It is true that the knife and fork given for the first
course must be retained for those that follow, but this little
labour-saving custom can be overlooked in the presence of the savoury
dishes that follow. Still more pronounced is the contrast when
dinner-time arrives, for a very large majority of country hostelries
in England will offer nothing more varied than a large plate of ham
and eggs or cold meat, followed by bread and cheese and perhaps
apple or plum tart. It is the universal demand for appetising and
well-cooked meals throughout France that ensures for the wayfarer
wherever he goes an excellent dinner of several courses. It would,
however, be unfair not to mention that a very great improvement has
been taking place in the hotels of England in the last few years owing
to the demand for well-cooked meals caused by motorists. The
pre-eminence of France in this matter will cease to be remarkable
before long if the present rapid progress is maintained. If one
enquires still further into the reasons for French folk being dainty
in the way their food is prepared, the explanation given by Mr. T.
Rice Holmes that Celtic peoples as a rule have weak stomachs may
perhaps be the correct answer.
[Illustration: EVENING IN THE PLACE D'IENA, PARIS.]
If wall-papers are not often renewed in French houses, there is a
delight in clean raiment which is most commendable. Clothes which are
not washable are frequently sent to the cleaner, and as the most
poorly paid _midinette_ generally buys good materials for her clothes
they last some time, and will stand cleaning and refurbishing better
than the average clothes worn by her equals in England. This is
typical of the inborn thrift of the whole nation. Personal ablutions
are, on the other hand, not so frequent or so thorough as among
Anglo-Saxons, the supply of water for this purpose being generally
very meagre and the basin for washing the face and hands awkwardly
small. The itinerant bath is still to be found in country towns. It is
brought to the house of those who desire to indulge in this luxury,
and the water at the required temperature is provided also. The
rinsing out of a bath with a little clean water after it has been used
is not considered a sufficiently thorough method of satisfying
individual fastidiousness, and a cotton covering large enough to
entirely line the bath is therefore usually provided for each person.
If one adds to this the difficulties confronting those for whom it is
considered scarcely within the limits of propriety that they should be
entirely unhampered by garments while in the bath, this simple
operation of the toilet becomes a somewhat laborious undertaking!
It has been already stated how great is the reverence of the French
for the family. It is certainly fostered by that wonderful institution
the Family Council, a form of highly developed autonomy dating from
the far-away days when France was a Romanised province. The council
is formed to look after the welfare of orphans and weak-minded and
ne'er-do-weel minors. It consists of six members--three from among the
relatives of each parent--and is presided over by a local _juge de
paix_, who is attended by his clerk.
For those sons of wealthy parents who are developing into incorrigible
idlers and a source of perpetual anxiety to their parents, owing too
often to the excess of ill-judged kindness lavished on only sons by
widowed mothers, there has been instituted in France what is known as
_la maison paternelle_. If sent to this establishment the boy
generally threatens to commit suicide or some other desperate act. He
is at first placed in a solitary cell, where he is under the constant
supervision and the special care of a "professor," who is appointed to
deal with the particular case. By salutary talk, the most inflexible
discipline, and regular studies, accompanied by a judicial kindliness,
the refractory youths are almost invariably brought to their senses
after a few months, and retain the warmest affection for the
professors in after years.
As a rule the French child of almost every class except the very
lowest comes into the world with the prospect of some future
inheritance of land or capital. The first infant in a very large
proportion of families is both alpha and omega, and it is very
exceptional for parents not to restrict their offspring to two or
perhaps three, which is almost counted as a large family. For some
time past census figures reveal the very remarkable fact that
considerably over 1-3/4 millions of married couples are childless.
Rather more than a quarter of the marriages result in one child;
another quarter has two children, and 17 per cent are childless. Thus
the duty of making up the deficiency of one large section and the
total failure of another falls upon one-third of the married couples,
and the latest returns show that this task is only just accomplished,
the average number of births for each family hovering about the
bed-rock figure 2. The year 1907 was altogether alarming, for the
figures showed 19,890 more deaths than births for the twelve months,
and it has been with considerable relief that the civilised world has
seen the surplus turned over to the more healthy direction in
subsequent years. With a population that does not increase there is
less and less danger of overcrowding or of extreme poverty, and
therefore France houses her citizens better than Germany, England, or
the United States. The individual child arrives in the world with his
or her place more or less made in advance, and as the years pass by
the son or daughter steps into the vacancy caused by the departure to
"the land o' the leal" of a parent or relation. Such an even balance
of vacancies and new arrivals tends to make livelihoods more stable in
France than in the countries where the number of persons to the square
mile is steadily increasing; it robs the whole nation of any desire to
find homes outside the limits of the fatherland, and makes it
practically impossible to make any real use of colonial possessions.
Until civilised countries come to settle their differences without the
senseless and futile appeals to brute force, by which they have
unsuccessfully striven to do so in the past, this static condition of
the population of France can only be looked upon as a calamity, but
the growing strength of commercial ties is weakening bellicist
prejudices and national antipathies every day, and the fact that the
nations are now asking themselves whether any advantage is gained by
fighting a civilised people shows that the world is on the threshold
of emancipation from what is most truly a great illusion.
Being so often the only child or one of two, the infant enters on life
as the ruler of the household. The devoted parents, instead of
following the golden maxim, which says "Apply the rod early enough and
there will be no need to use it at all," give way to every passing
mood or whim of their offspring, and insist that the nurse shall
follow the same foolish course. If the infant cries it obviously needs
something, and this must be supplied regardless of character-building.
No wonder that _la maison paternelle_ has been found a needful
institution in the land! Maternal duties are not as a rule undertaken
by the mother, and in a very large number of instances this is
necessitated or at least encouraged by the large share in the
maintenance of the household taken by the wife. In Parisian flats the
_concierge_, owing to the smallness of his wage, is generally obliged
to go out to work and depute his wife to undertake his duties during
his absence. A mewling and puking infant under these conditions is a
nuisance and must be brought up elsewhere.
In the average middle-class home the children are not given their
meals in the nursery, but at a very early age eat at the same table
as their parents, and enjoy a varied menu including wine when English
children are still having little besides milk puddings and mince.
Much more is concentrated into the earlier years of life in France
than across the Channel. This is particularly so in regard to the
_jeune fille_, who ceases to come under that title as soon as she has
reached the age of twenty-five. The business of getting married must
be achieved by that time, or else there is nothing for it but
acquiescence in the popular judgment that the young girl has become an
old girl--is on the shelf--and to preserve her self-respect must
retire either to a convent or a conventual boarding-house. This custom
is, like many others, as undesirably mediaeval, gradually breaking
down owing to the strongly intellectual training now given to the
_jeune fille_ at state _lycees_. No religious instruction is given in
these schools, and the girls are therefore developing a new
independence. A change, too, is taking place in the extremely secluded
life that girls of the middle and upper classes have hitherto led.
They are not invariably taken to school and fetched by a maid, and it
is quite possible that this emancipation from continual supervision
may lead to a considerable modification in the present method of
arranging marriages. The existing system of the choice of a husband
for their daughter being made by the devoted parents has a striking
similarity to the customs of the Far East. The young men the _jeune
fille_ is allowed to see are only those who are eminently eligible,
that is, whose financial position is sound and whose family
connections are not likely to cause anxiety when brought into the
family circle by the union of the two young people.
[Illustration: THE CENTRE OF PARIS.]
To the French mind the idea of the betrothal of a man and a girl
without the necessary means for immediately entering the state of
matrimony is looked at with the most extreme disfavour. "Falling in
love" might lead to most undesirable family ties, for each of the two
parties concerned marries a family as well as a husband and wife
respectively. No, the _mariage d'inclination_ is a danger, and the
young people must learn to fall in love during the honeymoon, a task
the French girl seems to find less impossible than it sounds. The
Anglo-Saxon method of a growing and entirely non-committal intimacy
followed by a period of betrothal scarcely exists in France. Having
little knowledge or experience of men, the girl accepts the suitor
proposed by her parents because, as a rule, she has not much choice
and the time is short before she has reached the old-maidish age of
twenty-five. Then beyond this there is all the thrill and romance of
some new and strange life in which she may succeed in falling
desperately in love with her husband. If not, the situation has
occurred before, and the average married woman seems to find some
solace in other interests; there will perhaps be a son or a daughter,
or possibly both, and on them it will be easy for her to expend her
pent-up feelings of love, and later on there will perchance come what
is an ideal with the average Frenchwoman--the satisfaction of being a
grandmother.
During the short time between the formal acceptance of her proposed
husband and the wedding ceremony the affianced pair are not as a rule
allowed to be together alone. No doubt in many instances this harsh
ruling of long-established custom is broken through, but it would be
done surreptitiously unless the parties concerned were exceptionally
emancipated from the great body of French tradition. It is also quite
unusual for the mother to speak of love when discussing with her
daughter a man who has offered himself as a husband; it is merely
understood that he is pleased with the girl's general appearance and
not dissatisfied with her _dot_.
Strict Roman Catholics do not recognise the civil contract beyond
going through the required legal ceremony. The banns, stating several
personal particulars regarding the parents as well as the contracting
parties, are put up at the _mairie_ ten days before the marriage can
be performed. If the betrothed pair have not reached the age of
thirty, they must have the consent of their parents, but over
twenty-one they are able to obtain that consent through a legal
process at the office of a certified notary. Even extreme action of
this character does not entail total loss of a certain portion of the
parental inheritance, for the Civil Code does not permit parents to
leave more than a proportion to strangers. One-half must fall to the
children's share. Quite recently an example of the small satisfaction
this may cause to the recipients came to light. An aged grandparent's
estate produced a sum of 100 francs, to be divided equally between
four legatees. The legal expenses entailed in certifying the status of
each party and other matters ran up to such a large sum that the
surplus divisible was barely 20 francs.
On the appointed day the wedding party assembles at the _mairie_,
where the mayor, after reading to the couple that portion of the Civil
Code relating to the duties of the married state, hears their
declaration and the permission of the parents, after which both
parties exchange wedding rings and are pronounced man and wife. The
register having been signed, first by the wife and then by the
husband, the civil ceremony is complete, and in Republican society the
wedded pair as a rule trouble themselves not at all about the attitude
of the Church to the contract they have made. Many, however, as
already stated, do not regard this as the real wedding, and the bride
and bridegroom remain apart until the next day, or perhaps two or
three days later, when the religious ceremony is performed in a
church. There the wedding rings are blessed before being put on, and
the completion of the religious ceremony is marked by the presentation
of a tray for offerings. One cannot be very long in a French church
without this opportunity presenting itself. The writer has vivid
recollections of his almost precipitate retreat from the Madeleine
after he had been present for a short time at a service in that
classic church on the occasion of his first visit to Paris. His memory
recalls how cheerfully he paid for his seat for the first time, how he
produced another coin when, with a charming smile, a young woman
applied for a second alms, and how, when a third bag was placed before
him with the words _pour les pauvres_, he found a sou, and in a few
moments had, with a sigh of relief, exchanged the Gregorian
solemnities of the great church for the rattle and stir of the
_Boulevard des Capucines_.
But to return to the wedding ceremony. The young couple having been
now made man and wife in the sight of Church as well as the State,
they start on their voyage together into the unknown, to discover one
another and, if possible, after what answers to a time of courting, to
fall in love with each other. Should this time of exploration into
each other's characters and temperaments, likes and dislikes, prove
entirely unsatisfactory, it becomes a matter of acute interest to
enquire how the knot may be loosened or untied. Until 1883 divorce was
not legal, but since that year of emancipation the Civil Code permits
it for several reasons. These are divided under three headings:
first, unfaithfulness or desertion on either side; second, acts of
violence and _injures graves_, which covers the great area of
incompatibility of temperament; and third, penal sentences passed on
the man or woman. It is fairly obvious that this wide doorway will
permit the entrance of a great majority of those who wish for freedom
from an ill-chosen partner, and the result has been a steady increase
in the number of divorces in recent years. The figures were 10,573 in
1906 and 13,049 in 1910. Even the Church of Rome will allow the
marriage tie to be severed under certain conditions not perhaps open
to a poor couple.
There can be little doubt that divorce in France is facilitated by the
fact that the wife has in most cases an independent source of income,
and is therefore economically on her feet in the event of a
termination of her wedded state. She is, generally speaking, looked
upon with less favour as a divorced woman than is a man. No doubt this
is due to slow-dying prejudice in favour of the man in these
circumstances. Changes are, however, coming with such accelerating
speed in these matters that anything written to-day is more or less
out of date by the time it is printed.
To come back to the normal condition of married persons in France,
there is no doubt that, surprising as it may seem, the _jeune fille_
does in a very large majority of cases settle down contentedly with
the husband chosen by her parents. She blossoms with the speed of an
Indian juggler's magic plant into a woman of affairs, and in a very
short time is taken into the fullest confidence in monetary matters by
her husband. Many develop such a capacity for business that they
rapidly out-distance their men folk in such matters, and if, as is
very often the case in middle-class life, they are obliged to
contribute towards the family budget, their earnings will frequently
exceed those of the easy-going husband. Any one at all intimate with
France knows the keenness and capacity of the woman in business,
whether as a shopkeeper, a manageress, or a hotel proprietor. They can
drive a hard bargain and are less easy to deal with than men, although
the writer is inclined to think that he has met quite as many men as
women who are difficult or unpleasant in a financial matter.
In spite of this frequently existing superior ability in dealing with
money matters, a wife must obtain her husband's written consent before
she touches her capital! And further than this, the Civil Code
requires that the husband must make good any deficiency from his
wife's original _dot_ should he wish to obtain a divorce,
notwithstanding the fact that the diminution had taken place with her
consent; and it is a curious and interesting fact that in the case of
disagreement the husband finds the Code ignores the perchance superior
wisdom of the wife.
As a rule it is _madame_ who rules the household, while "_mon mari_"
is a worshipper who obeys willingly, both being the slaves of their
child or children, to whom within the strict boundaries of _comme il
faut_ nothing must be denied. How, with such spoiling as children, the
French man and woman grow up to do their share in the world's work it
is hard to understand. Possibly the dislike evinced by the race as a
whole to undertake an adventurous career entailing risk, the lack of
some of the luxuries which have been long enjoyed, and an element of
uncertainty may be in part ascribed to the lack of discipline in the
nursery. An explanation for this characteristic might be given by
merely pointing to the figures of population, which, as just
mentioned, remain almost stationary, and do not provide that driving
force which sends other peoples out into new lands in great numbers;
but this condition of a static population has been brought about
voluntarily by the people themselves, through their desire to be sure
of a safe and prearranged career for their offspring. And so it is the
family life of the French, the predominance of the weaker partner, and
the craving after those conditions of existence generally regarded as
feminine, which result in a weakening of France as a colonising
nation, and often cause misgivings in the minds of those who are her
well-wishers.
[Illustration: THE MARKET PLACE AND CATHEDRAL AT ABBEVILLE.]