e
foolish education our girls receive. They learn so little housekeeping
at home, that when married they are obliged to begin all over again,
unless they prefer, like a majority of their friends, to let things as go
at the will and discretion of the "lady" below stairs.

At both hotels I have referred to, the families of the men interested
considered it beneath them to know what was taking place. The "daughter"
of the New England house went semi-weekly to Boston to take violin
lessons at ten dollars each, although she had no intention of becoming a
professional, while the wife wrote poetry and ignored the hotel side of
her life entirely.

The "better half" of the Florida establishment hired a palace in Rome and
entertained ambassadors. Hotels divided against themselves are apt to be
establishments where you pay for riotous living and are served only with
husks.

We have many hard lessons ahead of us, and one of the hardest will be for
our nation to learn humbly from the thrifty emigrants on our shores, the
great art of utilizing the "tails" that are at this moment being so
recklessly thrown away.

As it is, in spite of markets overflowing with every fish, vegetable, and
tempting viand, we continue to be the worst fed, most meagrely nourished
of all the wealthy nations on the face of the earth. We have a saying
(for an excellent reason unknown on the Continent) that Providence
provides us with food and the devil sends the cooks! It would be truer
to say that the poorer the food resources of a nation, the more
restricted the choice of material, the better the cooks; a small latitude
when providing for the table forcing them to a hundred clever
combinations and mysterious devices to vary the monotony of their cuisine
and tempt a palate, by custom staled.

Our heedless people, with great variety at their disposition, are unequal
to the situation, wasting and discarding the best, and making absolutely
nothing of their advantages.

If we were enjoying our prodigality by living on the fat of the land,
there would be less reason to reproach ourselves, for every one has a
right to live as he pleases. But as it is, our foolish prodigals are
spending their substance, while eating the husks!

No. 30--The Faubourg of St. Germain

There has been too much said and written in the last dozen years about
breaking down the "great wall" behind which the aristocrats of the famous
Faubourg, like the Celestials, their