A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE. 207 



At Dieppe I first saw the wooden shoe, and heard 

 its dry, senseless clatter upon the pavement. How 

 suggestive of the cramped and inflexible conditions 

 with which human nature has borne so long in these 

 lands ! 



A small paved square near the wharf was the scene 

 of an early market, and afforded my first glimpse of 

 the neatness and good taste that characterize nearly 

 everything in France. Twenty or thirty peasant- 

 women, coarse and masculine, but very tidy, with 

 their snow-white caps and short petticoats, and per- 

 haps half as many men, were chattering and chaffer- 

 ing over little heaps of fresh country produce. The 

 onions and potatoes and cauliflowers, etc., were pret- 

 tily arranged on the clean pavement, or on white linen 

 cloths, and the scene was altogether animated and 

 agreeable. 



La belle France is the woman's country clearly, and 

 it seems a mistake or an anomaly that woman is not 

 at the top, and leading in all departments, compelling 

 the other sex to play second fiddle, as she so fre- 

 quently has done for a brief time in isolated cases in 

 the past ; not that the man is effeminate, but that the 

 woman seems so nearly his match and equal, and 

 even so often proves his superior. In no other na- 

 tion, during times of popular excitement and insur- 

 rection or revolution, do women emerge so conspicu- 

 ously, often in the front ranks, the most furious and 

 ungovernable of any. I think even a female conscrip- 

 tion might be advisable in the present condition of 



