The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-07-09
FRENCH WOMEN IN PRISON.
Ahe Paris Prison of ~. Laxare,
and Hts Fourteen Hundred
Female Prisoners
[Corres pondent OF the Graphic.
PANS Nav % 1874

The difficulty of gaining admission Us
visitor to the prisons and asvlums Of Par
Is so great that the effort is only under
taken by the very strong-minded Of eithe
sex. 1t one is a foreigner he must frs
get letter of recommendation from hi
ambassador This letter must be presen
ted to the project of police, who reside
somewhere in the Palais de Justice, an,
may be found in the course of half da,
If one has the courage and strength to b.
sent from pillar to post, from one office t
another, up stairs and down stairs, tw,
or three times around the Palais, anC
finally to be taken up by a lobbyist, who
by dint Of questioning, becomes convinced
that you do wish to visit the "COncier
| gerie, and leads you to some one invested
with sufficient authority togive you pass
Such was my experience, and to fortity
the remnant of my undertaking, for
was curious to know the French method
of treating female sinners, | attached a
brave and noble hearted Irish lady to my
cause, and we set out for st. Lazare, the
one prison for women Of all ages and de-
grees of crime in Paris.
1t was a perfect spring day, with the
air full of sunshine, when we passed
through the Port st. Denis and reached
the prison. Although the complete sep
aration of male and female prisons, and, of
course, prisoners, ismade sogrand feature
in the French system that the mothers with
male infants occupy distinct apartment
from those with girl babies, yetthe keeper
of the KEYS who conducted Us through the
prison was a man. All the other officials
were women-a sort of nun regiment, at
tired in long dark wooden dresses, with
drapery of black and blue flowing from
the head, and lighted up with the con-
ventionaI white head-bands and immense
collars.
The prison, enormous in extent, Is an
old building, decrepit, excellent for a
life-killer, disastrous for an abode of
human or inh imam beings, high walls,
open courts planted with trees, balus-
traded stairways, dormitories full of single
beds, work-rooms, large eating-room, a
pretty chapel for the sisters and an
ugly one for the prisoners, all clearly
kept, but permeated everywhere in in
firmaries, dark low passages, eating,
sleeping and working rooms, with an
atmosphere that makes a person at once
ILL., What contrast between the splendid
churches, the peerless boulevards, the
magnificent bridges, the royal palaces
ard the female prisons Of the French capt.
tai
The prison consists Of divisions and
subdivisions. There is the compartment
for those arrested who await their trial;
that of the tried and condemned who wear
the convict's dress, a dark-striped flannel
dress, a coarse white cap that only reach
es to the back of the ears, and under
which the uncut hair is tucked; the COM
partment of young girls placed there by
their parents for corrections" another
for girls of the town, and still another for
old and infirm mendicants. The sub-di-
visions are made with regard to the ages
of the criminals. the children ranging in
years from seven to sixteen being by them
selves, and the others grouped according
ly.
Eagerly | looked for the means en-
ployed to elevate and benefit the young
girls, many Of whom had been picked up
for being lost in the streets, or for begging,
or for having been ungovernable at home.
| asked one Of the sisters" to tell Us what
they did to inspire the girls with honest
motives, and to help them to be strong
against temptation. ooh, we teach them
to read and write and to learn the cate
chism, and they attend mass and sing and /
sew"
q suppose you know the history of each /
one, and something Of her trials and temp
tations ?"
"Oh, no, we know what she was
put in here for and how long she has to /
stay"
The prisoners all rise to their feet when
a visitor enters like lot Of school girls /
They wear hardened. unimpressible look, /
those under thirty years Of age,
that was fearfully noticeable. Out Of the /
fourteen hundred saw was but one who
had a face that could be called handsome
She was an English woman, and of all
the women / ever talked with deci-
dedly the most hardened and unregenera-
tive. \ !
"But what are you doing here ?" +
asked "You look like gentlewoman. "
ooh, | am !" she replied coolly. Il
belong to an excellent family. Ny
father is surgeon and my husband is a
agent" and she twirled a
wedding ring on pretty hand
But why do they allow you to be kept
in this place ?"
ooh, they don't know 1t; | wouldn't
have my friends know was here for the
world Because l won't tell who | am,
and am here IN France without passport,
is why am here"
ooh, that is all nonsense; nobody asks
for your passport in France. You did
what was it ?" Twisting her
hands with dramatic air, she shrugged
her shoulders with, "Oh, | couldn't tell
you, it was so dreadful! You remember
the Lady Falkner case? Well, it was like
that" Lady F. had been arrested for
shop-lifting.l
"But why should you steal? you never
had need, Pm sure"
ooh, no. l have all want All my
wants are supplied. 1t was a misunder-
standing, you know" and witha miserable
laugh she made grand courtesy and ran
away-a woman to organize a band of
robbers, capable of any crime, and will
commit a misdemeanor the moment she
shall be out of Jail.
After our talk with her we came across
two other English-speaking prisoners-one
a good-faced English woman who had not
yet had her trial, and who, with tears in
her eyes, declared she would never again
be caught in St. Lazare; the other was
Boston woman of Irish descent, whose
husband. an American, was also in prison.
She, too, had been arrested for theft
was so hard to live in Paris when one did
not have plenty. A kind English woman
had been in the prison and had taken her
baby out and placed it in the country.
The English clergyman never came there
to visit the prison, and it was very rare a
French lady was seen as a visitor, she
said. However, they were well enough