The Working Women Of France

The groat misforiune of Frenoh villages is the degrudütlon of tho nomen jhrouh laburs wliieh böicmg to men. In their artiest years tkev teud the I flocks nid gather in the harvettt. Whila yoiing girls, nn instinct of coquetry, and tho foresight ot their mothorn removes thoiji from thd rude fatigues of husbntuiry ; but no sooner do they many than all is changad ; they abaudon the house, and follow thcir husbacds into the field--. You seo thera bowed t9 carth, na laborera, or laden with enormons weigbts, like beaats of burden. There are districts in Franoe where thoy are harnessed to curta with tbo os and the ass. Froni that time their .kin becouies shiiveled, their oompleiions like coal, iheir features coarsa and homely, and they fall into a premature decrepitnde, more liideous iban that of oíd age. Hut, wiiilst tlnis peiforming t'iio labora of mi-n, their owa 'abors - thüKu labor which sweeten nnd retina all otherw - ro:nain negleoted or unknown. Nothing ean be more tilthy, tiothing more unwholesome, tban the interior of t' eir cottages, - fowkt, ctucks, pigs, contending tor a tneal - tho door opening ir.to the mud, and the Windows, where thero are ony, serving ooly os vent holes to Cfirry utf tlio smoke. Itis there, neverthele-8, in a hole iniry ua that 'f a savüge, amidst the gruutings and fotid emanations, that every eve ning iwo iinman boings, male and female, repose Irom tlio fatigues ol Ihe day, Nobod)' is there to receive tbein, nol hing to flatler their regards; the ta bie is Qiiif'ty, and the hearlli cold as ioe. There, lastly, óther labora await the woman, and, beforo thinking of her husband's ftupper, or the care of ber childreii, she must ihink of tha utabio and of supper for the beasts. If a-ked for examples of these things, we will cite wholü provinoe. tho richewt as wellü ihfi poorest of Frunce; Perig'rd, where the vromen livt in a state of tilth and abjrctne'S, wliich re-.ictg on the whole f'anniy ; Picardy and Limoiipin, wherp, degraded to tho loweat rauk, and as of an inferior race, they serve their husbands at table, without ever daring to take a place at liin sido; IJiescia, where they are mere laborera, mere beasts of burden ; lasilv, Briltanv, where the husband ife, and children, reduced to a state almost savage. live all pell-meil, io the same filthy chamber, and eat black bread in the eame trongh with their sheep and hogs. Everywliere the degradation of tha women a suro proof of the brutishness of tha men and every.where ithe bruüshness of the men a rrecessary conseqnence and reaction froin the deyradation ot the women. Do not offer ibem comforts or wellbeing; they would rejjct it au üotueU'ing wortliless or vry strango. To desire oomfort, it is necesaary lor them to kuow what comfort is, and ages have pass&d over their cabins withmit leaving thero any other tlioughta than those of labor und wretchedness.