Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-08-05
FRENCH FEMALE CONyICTS.
The Government Taking Great Pains
to Secure Them Husbands

The Government Taking Great Pain.
to Secure Them Husbands.
French female convicts and prisoners
are treated with more kindness, on the
whole than persons of their class are il
England. Their matrons and warder
esses are Augustine nuns, whose rule
though firm, is gentler, more merciful
and more steadfastly equitable than
that of lay-women could be. The fe.
male convicts are allowed the same
privileges as the men in the matter oi
earning money and buying things at the
canteen. Those of them who are young
also enjoy privilege not granted to fe-
male convicts in other countries that
of having husbands provided for them
by the State. Only those husbands
must be convicts. Every six months a
notice Is circulated in the female pen
itentiaries calling upon all women who
feel minded to go out to New Caledonia
and be married, to make an application
to that effect through the Governor.
Elderly women are always very prompt
in making such applications; but they
are not entertained. The matrimonial
candidates must be young, and exempt
from all physical infirmities. Girls
under long sentences readily catch at
this method of escaping from the intol-
erable tedium of prison life; and the
pretty ones are certain to be put on the
Governors list, no matter how frightful
may be the crimes for which they have
been sentenced. The only moral quail
ification requisite is to have passed at
least two years in the penitentiary.
The selected candidates have to sign
engagements promising to marry con-
victs and to settle in New Caledonia for
the remainder of their lives. On these
conditions Government transports them
gives them decent outfit, and ticket
of-leave when they land at Noumea.
Their marriages are arranged for them
by the Governor of the colony, who has
selection of well-behaved convicts
ready for them to choose from, and each
girl may consult her own fancy within
certain limits, for the proportion of
manageable men to women is about
three to one. Of course, if q girl de-
clares that none OF the aspirant bride
grooms admitted to her inspection have
met with her approval, the Governor
can only shrug his shoulders in the
usual French way. 1t has happened
more than once that pretty girls have
been wooed by warders, free settlers, or
time-expired soldiers and sailors, instead
of by convicts. In such cases the Gov
ernor can only assent to marriage on
condition that the female convict's free
lover shall place himself in the position
of ticket-of-leave man, and undertake
never to leave the colony. Love works
wonders and there is no instance on
record of a man having refused to COM
ply with these conditions when once he
had fallen in love. There are some in
stances, though, of the authorities hav-
ing declined to let female convict
marry a free man when they were not
convinced that the latter was person
of firm character and kindly disposition.
For the women's fakes it is necessary
that they should not be married to men
who would be likely, in some moment
of temper, to fling their disreputable
antecedents into their teeth. There is
nothing of this kind to fear when a
female convict gets welded to man
whose past life has been as bad as her
own. Why the French Government
should have saddled itself with the re-
sponsibility of promoting marriages
among convicts it is difficult to say; but
the experiment has on the whole yield
ed very good results. The married
couples get huts and free grants of
land, and all that they can draw from it
by their own labor becomes theirs.
During five years they are subjected to
the obligation of reporting themselves
weekly to the district Police office, and
they are forbidden to enter public
houses, and must not be found out of
doors at night. This probationary
period being satisfactorily passed, they
get their full freedom, but subject
always to the condition of remaining in
the colony.
To this rule the law has distinctly for
bidlen that any exception shall be
made. On no account whatever must
convicts who have accepted grants of
land and contracted administrative
marriages" as they are called, ever re-
turn to France. They are at liberty,
however, to send their children to
France if any respectable person in that
country will become answerable for
them, and undertake to provide them
with good education. The sons of
convicts are born French subjects, and
will be required at the age of 20 to draw
at the CONSUMPTION, and serve their ap-
pointed terms in the Army. From what
precedes it may be inferred that the lot
of convicts in New Caledonia is fairly
pleasant one but We have spoken as
yet only of those convicts who have
tickets of-leave, and are more or less
free to roam over the whole island.
Those who have not earned tickets Of
leave are kept in the penal settlement
of the Island of Nou, or are employed
on public works, road-making, house
building, etc., in gangs, moving and en-
camping from place to place during the
fine season under military escort. The
lot even of these convicts cannot be
called hard one as compared with that
of convicts in other countries, and OF
French convicts under the old system OF
bdgnes, or transportation to Cayenne.
The climate of Cayenne was so deadly
that ell the convicts transported there
either died or contracted mcurable
( maladies. AS for the old bagnes oi
Brest aud Toulon, they were very hells,
| where the cOnvicts were kent chained in