gineer, 'it is due to the potash. These
miners are so addicted to washing themselves and use such quantities of
strong soap, that it has permanently affected their hair.' Upon which
another engineer, also familiar with Auvergne, broke in: 'That's all
very well; but I have seen many miners in Auvergne with the same tint of
hair and beard, and you know that there they wash their faces, at the
most, once a week!'

This last speaker was an exceedingly shrewd man and, as I found, a
strong Conservative. He had been asked to stand as a candidate for mayor
in his commune, but had declined, though his personal popularity made
his election almost a matter of form. I asked him why. 'Let myself be
elected to a political office by my workmen!' he said; 'how can a
sensible man think of such a thing? Ask men to give you their votes, and
what authority will be left to you? No, I think I know my business too
well for that. They tried that sort of thing, you know, during the war,
and a beautiful business they made of it! I suspect it was the Germans
who suggested it!'

What I am told of the morals of the people here reminds me of the
traditional reputation of certain sections of Pennsylvania settled by
the Germans in the last century, and of the Dutch in Long Island. There
is a good deal of drinking. _Buvettes_ are forbidden within the limits
of the _cites ouvrieres_, but in the communes they are very numerous,
averaging, I am assured, as many as twenty to every 1,200 inhabitants.
To open a _buvette_ nothing is needed but a police permission, and the
_buvettes_ are kept, for the most part, by the wives of miners and other
artisans, as a means of adding to the family income. Beer is very cheap,
costing only two sous a litre. Wine and spirits are more costly, though
a great deal of gin is made, and inexpensively made, in the country.
There is much sociability among the people, and great practical
liberality as to the conduct of young girls, the ancient practice known
as 'bundling' in New England being still in vogue among these worthy
Flemings. M. Baudrillart, who evidently inclines to a favourable
judgment of these Northern populations, puts the truth on this point
very considerately.

'Conspicuous historical examples,' he observes, 'prove to me that the
flesh is weak in this province of Flanders. The severity of public
opinion does not always make up for the laxity of the control exercised
by principle. Unmarried mothers are numerous,