Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-07-02
STRANGE STORIES.
THE FRENCH LAW FOR REGULATION OF
MANNERS.
How It Is Perverted and Innocent Women
Insulted-The Constitution-Vic-
tor Hugo's New Work.

PARIS, June 4, 1881.
There are institutions in France which il
is to be hoped may never be established IL
CUR own country, the country OF liberty
and progress and of higher morality
emanating from esteem for womankind.
The severity of law is supposed by some
to repress an evil, yet experience has
proved that such is scarcely ever the case,
for instance the hanging for stealing tended
rather to the increase of that crime, and it
NAV be said that the law in France called
la regulation deS moeurs Regulation of man.
ners), even though it offers greater physical
safety on one side, produces greater
moral degradation on the other. This
subject is one almost too delicate to be
brought before the public, and yet it is one
which concerns the public more closely
than is supposed. 1t is subject which
has impassioned the women of England
and Scotland, and which leaves the French
women Indifferent, although it is they
whom it alone concern. The agents des
moeurs continue their work with more or
less scandal, but the people, when &C.
customed to an established state OF AFFAIRS
even when their consciences cry against
them, never propose to change them until
some unusual event occurs to awaken them
from their lethargy. The first cry within
my memory against these agents des naoeurs
| ever heard was some years ago on the
occasion of the
ARREST OF wELL-KNowN ACTRESS.
Mile. R., who was passing along one OF
the principal boulevards on her way to the
theater. She was accosted by an individ-
ual who asked for her card, but the young
lady being both spirited and indignant,
struck him in the face with her fan, and
by loud demonstrations attracted crowd.
It was found that the individual was not
a police agent at all, but protited by the
established law to insult an honest woman.
When this event was discussed great
many other circumstances were recounted,
which had proved more disastrous, but the
knowledge of which had been withheld
from the public. 1t was recounted that in
one of the principal cities of France young
girl, who was the stay and hope of her old
grandmother, was returning late one night
from the factory in which she was en-
ployed, when an individual whose
fancy she had captured some time
before accosted her several times along the
route and endeavored to lead her into con.
versation, but on her treating him with
silent contempt, and out of revenge, he
called two policemen to arrest the young
girl who, he said, had accosted him with
out having in her possession the card such
as delivered by the police. In spite of the
girls earnest protestations she was carried
off to prison and not released until the fol-
lowing evening, which release was effected
through the intercession of her employer,
who had missed her and made inquiries for
her. In the mean time the poor old grand
mother passed the night in anxiety and dis.
tress, and so great was her sorrow at the
misfortune which had befallen her grand.
daughter that she died few days after,
and so great was the modification and I'M.
happiness of the young girl on account of
the outrage she had endured that she was
taken with violent fever that ended her
life.
ANOTHER CASE
Is related which occurred at Paris, of a
married lady who stood outside by the
door of tobacco shop while her husband
was within lighting cigar, when two
agents des msoears arrested her and dragged
her to that dreadful st. Lazare prison.
The husband spent the entire night look
ing for his wife and became almost insane
with grief. The woman died three days
after, owing to fright and modification
caused by the treatment she had endured,
The minds of the people became very much
agitated over the affair, and many Of the
Republican journals demanded the abolish
msnt of that law which had been the cause
of such disastrous and painful events. but
the Republican journals, while &C
knowledging that it was a necessary evil,
insisted on its maintenance for reasons
which would fail to convince any one OF
moral inclinations. 1t is really to be re.
GREETED that custom cannot be done away
with which offers but an apparently imme.
date protection, while it is encouraging
vice and undermining the foundation Of
morality. After time the subject was
dropped, and things returned to their nor
NAL state, and it has only been of late that
the attention OF the public has
AGAIN BEEN AWAKENED.
a Nine. Eyben was recently waiting in the
Passage Panorama IA public thoroughfare
for her children to come to her from theil
school, so that she could conduct then
home, when two agents des moeurs, ap
preached her, accused her of conducting
herself improperly, and in spite of her pro
testations, carried her off to prison. Hel
younger sister had been in the habit O.
going for the two little girls each day tc
bring them home from school, but she was
at that time i'll, confined to her bed, which
necessitated the mothers going in her
stead. The poor woman duplicated these
men to accompany her to her home, that
she might prove to them who she was, and
explain away any error which might exist
but she was roughly dragged to the police
station of the Rue Villedo, shut up
in an unclean cell with lewd women
until S o'clock in the evening, and
stripped not only of her money,
around her sore throat and which she in
vain demanded. At s o'clock she was
transferred to the police station of the Rue
Richelieu, where, when Intercepted, she
begged the officers to accompany her at
her expense to her dwelling, where were
her sister and children, that she might
convince them of her responsibility, but
instead of acceding to her demand she was
treated as prostitute. conducted to a
third police station situated in the same
street, placed in a cellular wagon at mid
night and landed at the depot at o'clock
in the morning. She remained prisoner
at the depot for three days without any
news from her family and without being
able to let them know where she was she
could not even learn if her children had
ever reached home, and it was owing only
to the intercession of an official that she
was released the following morning. As
may be imagined, the Indignation and un.
happiness of this
UNFORTUNATE WOMAN
Were very great, and her friends made the