THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



375 



THE FOUNTAIN OE NEPTUNE, AT VERSAILLES 



raph "by TT. C. Ellis 



The leveling of the ground for the gardens and park of the palace at Versailles, the mak- 

 ing of a road to Paris (n miles distant), and the erection of the Aqueduc de Maintenon to 

 bring water for the fountains from the River Eure are said to have occupied 36,000 men and 

 6,000 horses for years, while the palace itself cost in the neighborhood of $100,000,000, in 

 addition to the forced labor exacted under the old feudal system. The fountains at Versailles 

 only play on the first Sunday of each month from May to October and on special fete days. 



or she must be given a bountiful start 

 in life. 



What is the effect of this attitude to- 

 ward the child? To an American it 

 makes the higher class French girl an 

 adorably innocent and totally feminine 

 woman — the number of international 

 marriages during and after this war will 

 prove the statement — while to that same 

 American it makes the young Frenchman 

 starting on a commercial or professional 

 career seem rather lacking in that ag- 

 gressiveness and daring so much admired 

 in American business circles. 



Again, for the sake of the child, the 

 family and the foyer, the French wife is 

 more likely to forgive transgressions of 

 matrimonial rectitude than would the 

 American wife. A father's neglect of his 

 family is, in the French woman's eyes, 

 far more criminal than the temporary 



straying of the husband into doubtful re- 

 lations with another woman. 



With us conjugal rectitude is of pri- 

 mary importance ; with the French that 

 rectitude which sees that the home re- 

 mains intact and comfortable is more im- 

 portant. In other words, your French 

 wife is likely to consider domestic faith- 

 fulness more essential, more to be de- 

 manded, than conjugal faithfulness. 



no militant sueerage spirit in 

 France 



Such a home, such a privacy of domes- 

 tic life, does not encourage the French 

 woman to take a large part in the public 

 life of her nation. For instance, there 

 seems to be an astonishingly small inter- 

 est among the average French women as 

 to whether they shall ever be allowed to 

 vote. They seem very willing, in their 



