Vol. XXXIV, No. 5 ' WASHINGTON November, 1918 



THE 



iATDOMAL 

 GEOGMAPHDC 



I 



OUR FRIENDS, THE FRENCH 



An Appraisal of the Traits and Temperament of the 

 Citizens of Our Sister Republic 



By Carl Holliday 



Dean of the University of Toledo, Ohio 



WHAT manner of men are these 

 French with whom our soldiers 

 have been fighting side by side ? 

 To many an American a Frenchman 

 has long meant simply an elegantly 

 dressed gentleman with a waxed mus- 

 tache, a multitude of gestures, a shoulder 

 that automatically shrugs, and a heart 

 that is very susceptible to feminine 

 charms ; but during the last four years 

 the average American has been revising 

 his opinions of this citizen of the most 

 civilized country on the globe and is now 

 asking in amazement, "Can this dainty 

 gentleman that I considered super-re- 

 fined, romantic, sentimental, and effete be 

 the hero who has held at bay the most 

 ruthless nation in the history of man?" 



Even so. This same gentleman, so dif- 

 ferent in his entire composition from 

 those rugged, home-spun characters that 

 we have produced — and admired — in 

 America, is now the marvel of the world. 



The French have proved to us, what 

 we have long been unwilling to admit, 

 that a man may be artistic and at the 

 same time brave ; that he may love finery 

 and at the proper time fire a shot from 

 a mudhole in the trenches that is heard 

 around the world ; that he may spend 

 hours talking about art and belles-lettres 

 and, when the call comes, inarch into a 

 man-made hell and calmly lay down his 



life for his country. In short, we Amer- 

 icans have learned from the French that 

 a man may possess all the refining effects 

 of culture and at the same moment be a 

 hero. 



It is a wholesome lesson for us to 

 learn that boastful swaggering and im- 

 polite aggressiveness and lack of con- 

 sideration for the subtle, dainty refine- 

 ments of civilized society are not neces- 

 sarily related to strength, endurance, and 

 heroism. 



the unique French temperament 



The French temperament is unique ; it 

 is social champagne. A people full of 

 tender feeling, they are not in the least 

 averse to a public demonstration of emo- 

 tion. 



While the English and the American 

 hide such sentiment with a certain ap- 

 pearance of stoicism, this unabashed peo- 

 ple expresses itself frankly and publicly 

 with kisses, embraces, tears, and an amaz- 

 ing flood of vivid words. 



A school-boy when leaving his mother 

 at" the door as he departs for school re- 

 ceives more attention, hugs, warnings, 

 and tokens of affection than would a 

 Seattle boy starting for New York. 



A family gathering or separating at a 

 French railway station is an occasion as 

 full of tears and cheek-kissing and pro- 



