face by the Pharisees of Anglo-Saxondom. Yes,
full of good men, crammed with good women, and the excellent ladies of
the philanthropic societies of America should take it for granted that
there are many, many good and virtuous people besides themselves.

You don't cut down an apple-tree because there are two or three bad
apples on it. You cut down the two or three bad apples, and all your
efforts tend to see that the hundreds of good ones are made healthy,
happy, and comfortable.

I have no hesitation in declaring, after six visits to that great and
most hospitable country, that the American women of good society are
probably the most intelligent, bright, and brilliant, and certainly the
best educated and the most interesting, women in the world.

But when I see what some American women can do in public life, outside
of the beautiful sphere in which they were intended to reign supreme, I
feel ready to appreciate and echo the remark that Frederick the Great
was wont to make when he met a woman alone in the streets of Berlin:

'What are you doing here? Go home and look after your house and your
children!'

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE LIBERTY OF ANGLO-SAXON WOMEN

The mistakes made by foreigners--Misconstructions--Educational
systems--Girls do not lose their charm by independence.

Continental men visiting England and the United States do not, as a
rule, understand the comparative familiarity with which they are
treated by women to whom they have been properly introduced. They are
often in danger of misinterpreting their kindness of manner, and
regarding as affectionate advances or invitations to flirt what are
meant as only polite attentions.

This awkward error is one into which not only Frenchmen, but all men of
Continental Europe, are very apt to fall, unless they happen to be men
of fine perceptions, in other words, perfect gentlemen. Young girls in
France are kept so much to themselves, and young men are so completely
separated from them, that when one of the latter finds himself, through
some accident or fault of supervision, alone in presence of one of the
former, he feels called upon as a man to make himself particularly
pleasant, if not actually to make a declaration of love.

Of course, there is not in France anyone, not even the most
conservative provincial mother, who does not admire, above all in
America, that sweet liberty which is enjoyed by the women, married or
unmarried. There is not