THE FRENCH GIRL.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3326, 3 November 1919, Page 3

THE FRENCH GIRL.

Andree Violis, the famous French journalist, says of her counti-y—wo-I men:—- | Our English friends must totally re-I vise their old-fashioned ideas about French girls. The poor little “made-I moiselle,” who was spoken of in England with a pitiful smile, who was not allowed to cross a street without her mamma or her 'bonne, could not walk a mile, sat all day bending on an endless embroidery, read baby books, and (did not think at all, th'e"gil'l who did? hot dare to look up into a miinfs face! "till her parents had safely entrusted her to a husband of their own choice ——this traditional French girl '5 no more. ’ .. Indeed, the change -had taken placegradually and quietly for many years». But the war has hastened the evolution. All the girls I know are working for the same examinations as their brothers. We had already plenty of ,womell doctors and barristers; we jwill soon have women engineers, ‘chemists, electl‘icia.ns, architects; for Tlll the great State schools which -lead to the highest degrees and situations, {and which hitherto had been reserved to men, have from last year opened their entrance examinations to women. The army and navy school are the only ones to which they are not admitted.

MOl-em_'cl-. the French ,r_>_'il'l goes about alone in Paris, travels by herself. Like her English sister, she meets freely young men of her age; talks and walks with them, and,)in spite of grandmamma raising indignzantly her hands to the sky. she pro-ton-ds :'~:‘:1n is quite able to select ‘nor fiflllc:>«> 1:-ersolf.

Papti. who, owing fo finmicial and economic cil-cumsltances, is not at all Sure ‘.lO may give ht‘-1‘ a dot: ]'l!':77i‘v"!‘.‘.Z‘... o\'er}>zl:~«’h-1106 with laoiisx-hold «iifii-3121-ties, nod their .‘1Dp1'OV:!1 with * s.mnewhat anxious smile. ~

But the'Fronch gig-I does not only play tennis, (*y(=l<?. drive a motor—Cal‘. swim——she is also an athlete. Five societies athl<>tiqll(~s. the best known of which are .-\<'-ruioinia and Femina Sports, have been started this year and vie with each other in success. There is in Neuilly a feminine Stake wliere you can see P-\'(‘l‘_V day yofk Atalantas. bar f.‘.l'mCd and bare leggéd, in sandals and short white tunics. racing through green lawns, practising‘ high and Tong jumping, throwing qnoits, climbing‘ up poles. And a few days ago the women athletic ch-ampionnat was contested. The dark-haired Mlle. Fercoq has jumped a height of I_motre 32 centimetres; the fair-haired Mlle. Liebrard has won the 300 metres race in 48s; and many others have distinguislied th€l]l.‘sL‘lV'eS in many ways_ -

If the English" girls do not take care they will lose their world supremacy for sports. Mlle. Lcnglen, tho little champion, has now her many girl followers and rivals.

If the proverb, “Ce que femme vent," Dieu 1e veut,” is ‘always; true, the war is. very far from having killed the taste for sports in France. So much the better for reconstruction and for the future of the French race.