Where the brilliant Second Empire failed, the Republic had little chance of success.With each succeeding year the "Old Faubourg"withdrew more and more into its shell, going so far, after the fall of Mac Mahon, as to change its "season" to the spring, so that the balls and FETES it gave should not coincide with the "official"entertainments during the winter.
The next people to have a "shy" at the "Old Faubourg's" Gothic battlements were the Jews, who were victorious in a few light skirmishes and succeeded in capturing one or two illustrious husbands for their daughters.The wily Israelites, however, discovered that titled sons-in-law were expensive articles and often turned out unsatisfactorily, so they quickly desisted.The English, the most practical of societies, have always left the Faubourg alone.It has been reserved for our countrywomen to lay the most determined siege yet recorded to that untaken stronghold.
It is a characteristic of the American temperament to be unable to see a closed door without developing an intense curiosity to know what is behind; or to read "No Admittance to the Public" over an entrance without immediately determining to get inside at any price.So it is easy to understand the attraction an hermetically sealed society would have for our fair compatriots.Year after year they have flung themselves against its closed gateways.