I am a little girl five years old, named Emma. I have lived over a
year in France with papa and mamma and my little sister, although
we were all born in America. Our home is on the beautiful river
Seine, near Paris.
I have already crossed the great Atlantic Ocean three times. My
grandpa in America has taken HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE for me since the
first number, and my mamma reads many of the stories to us. I have
asked mamma to write and tell you some of the sights of every-day
life in France. I can neither read nor write myself, but I will
tell mamma what to write about, and she will express it better than
I could. The French people enjoy living out-of-doors. If they have
only a tiny garden no larger than some of our grass-plots in
America, they buy an iron table, chairs enough for the family, and
perhaps two or three others for relatives or friends who may come
to take a meal with them, and then they eat out-of-doors, enjoying
themselves around these little tables in the garden more than they
would staying in the house.
They are easily pleased, these French people, in the country. In
the summer they have many charming fêtes. Every little town or
village in France has, at some time during the warm weather, a
fête. A convenient piece of land is taken possession of or else
rented by the authorities in charge of the fête. They sub-let small
portions of the land just large enough for each merchant to erect a
table upon, like our tables at fairs in America. The merchants
bring their families with them, for the fête lasts several days.
They sleep in the large wagons in which they bring their articles
for sale, and they set up little stoves, each with a long pipe
attached, and there the women cook their meals. The "draught"
out-doors is sometimes very troublesome, and the poor women have
hard times to prepare their dinners. Each merchant spreads out his
array of goods on his table in as tempting a manner as possible,
and over each table is arranged a little shed to protect the goods
in case of rain.
At these fêtes in the country one meets all the world. There are
the doctors, the lawyers, and all the grand people, as much amused
and pleased as the laborer in his blue blouse. Besides the tables
of goods, there are many funny things to make people laugh. There
are balloons sent up in the air--not great balls shaped like
immense pears, but made to represent men, women, and little boys
and girls. These are colored to show their faces and hair, their
bright waists, skirts, or trousers, and then they are inflated with
gas and sent off in the air. They look very funny as they float
away higher than the houses and trees, like great fat men, women,
and children. I have been at fêtes with my mamma, and have seen
gentlemen and ladies laughing as merrily as the peasants at these
droll balloons. Sometimes, when not properly inflated, they come
tumbling down, and then the spectators fairly scream with delight.
At the fêtes, too, they have odd-looking circus tents, where for
fifty centimes (ten cents of American money) one can see the
poorest circus shows imaginable. There are queer views of all
kinds--fires, murders, and earthquakes. These exhibitions may be
seen for about three cents.
The other day we saw at a fête a sort of panoramic view of what
goes on in a person's stomach after eating salt pork sent from
America. The French government is opposed to receiving salt or
smoked pork from America, because it is said that trichinæ have
been discovered in it. In this exhibition we were shown the stomach
as it should be, and the stomach after its owner had eaten American
pork. The effect was very startling, the various organs and
intestines twisting about in the most bewildering manner possible.
They have wooden horses with women's heads of different
nationalities, French, German, African, and Russian. These wooden
horses go round very rapidly, a real horse turning the machinery
which sets them in motion. You can have a nice ride for two cents,
to the music of a hand-organ.
But I shall weary you if I tell you any more. Perhaps I will write
again, and describe more of the life of the people who dwell in
sunny France.