APPENDIX. 397 



that nearly every female of the lower and middle classes in 

 France earns her bread with the labor of her hands. Among the 

 peasantry in the rural districts the women work habitually in the 

 field; in the towns and cities they pursue avocations in which 

 women are usually employed in this country, besides monopoliz- 

 ing, to a great extent, many of the branches for which, in this 

 country, we rely entirely upon men's labor. I would commend 

 to the thoughtful consideration of grocers, and other small 

 dealers who at present find it hard to get along and pay clerk hire 

 and other expenses, whether or not they cannot get their wives 

 and daughters to occasionally " look after the store," and thereby 

 j^ave the expense of an extra hand. I have not now in my mind 

 the larger class of stores, where there is heavy work and' constant 

 occupation for two or three men, but allude more particularly to 

 the smaller class of shopkeepers, whose business is not large, and 

 to whom it is an important matter to keep expenses down to the 

 lowest possible point. Are there not many such to whom a wo- 

 man's assistance in looking after the interests of the store at odd 

 times would make the difference between success and failure ? 



In the agricultural districts of our own countiy, where much 

 butter is made under the old dairy system, farmers' wives probably 

 work harder than do the women in the agricultural districts of 

 France, notwithstanding there is much field work done here by wo- 

 men ; but in other farming districts the women have comparatively 

 easy times, and certainly the shopkeepers in America do not receive 

 nearly the same amount of help from the women of their families 

 as those of France do ; but pardon me for this long digression on 

 the subject of women's work. I do not mean in any way to in- 

 sinuate that women in America are less willing to work than 

 those of France, nor do I suggest that able-bodied male loafers 

 should rest while women toil-; I simply call attention to the fact 

 that the customs of the two countries differ somewhat in this re- 

 spect, and that the intelligent labor of women may be utilized to 

 a considerable extent by grocers as well as by other shopkeepers. 



From Bordeaux to Paris is a distance of three himdred and 

 sixty miles, yet it took us but nine hours by the mail train to 

 make this, including stops— not a bad rate of speed for even our 

 fastest trains id America — and considering that we made one stop 



