Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-03-02
LOUISE MICHEL IN ENGLAND.
How the Woman Looks and Talks.

nj. ID. Conway writes to the Cincinnati
Commercial Gasette-N1lle Louise Mich
el has for some years now been knowIfti
Eng gland as the latest of the red spectres
which have long been domesticated spe
cies of political demon in France. Sen
tences from her harangues to the prole
tarlate Of Belleville and elsewhere have
tlngled along the wires unquenchable by
the sea, and been brought hot on oui
breakfast tables. When, therefore, il
was announced that she had arrived in
London. and was to lecture here, n con.
| siderable curiosity was awakened. We
were to see live cheyenne of the Revo-
luton, genius of the Commune, to OBJ
serve her graceful, curling horns, per-
haps get glimpse of her cloven feet, and
see the sparks dart out of her burning
eyes. Well Louise Michel has finished
her course of lectures, has gone back to
Paris, and has left here the impression
that she is IN earnest and talented woman
who has something to say that our time
cannot refuse to hear. In fact, she has
made decidedly good impression. The
London Times has carefully reported her
lectures, and even papers from which fa-
vorable comments might least have been
expected-the st. James Gazette for in
stance. which placards its "anti-radical'
rinciples-have treated her seriously
and with respect. There is nothing in
the personal appearance of this daughter
OF the revolution to account for this
friendly reception. Moreover, as she
cannot speak word of English-and she
made point of this, ascribing it to the
neglect of female education in France
her lectures were heard but by few and
followed by fewer they were read i'll re-
ports and judged on their own merits.
Probably some of those who went to hear
her were disappointed at not finding n
more dashing personage, or the fire of n
heroine. A lady who declared, in one Of
her lectures, that the proudest day of her
life was when she stepped before the mi
trailleuse and cried "Vive Ia Commune -
who had known exile in New Caledonia,
who had returned to arraign the republic
as too imperial, had become represented
in the English imagination by conven-
tionalized figure very different from this.
A plain-very plain-woman, apparently
tperhaps not really near fifty, steps out
on the large platform, all alone, rests her
hands on the. table before her, and with
hardly any change from that attitude,
and with little change of voice, delivers
her hours address. She has no notes,
and never hestatcs for word. Little by
little, however, / found certain striking
characteristics in this woman. Her voice
is musical, it is younger than her appear
aucc, and tine contrast suggests Il feeling
that she has been tossed amid tempests,
beaten on by fate, so that, presently, the
lines III her face become pathetic inscrip-
tions. Then the entire absence of man.
ner, the total self-forgetfulness, the lack
of any attempt at fine speaking, became
to me impressive. She was as little ornate
III her dress-a dingy black Grape, plain
as shroud, without ruifle or II ldtce, or
even collar. She wore neither Sg nor
brooch, or other ornament, not even n
comb i'll her hair-which was dark, thick
and glossy, and might have been made
her glory. but was cut rather short Thus
homely III look and attire was this French
woman, who, with simple speech, por-
trayed the beautiful world for which she
and her co-revolutionists are toiling and
suffering. Except that her vision is of
terrestrial paradise, she might have been
a nun. Her appearance seemed to an
nounce that she Is dead to this world, to
its existing order that her life is per-
petual mourning for Its sorrows, and uc-
cepts no enjoyment that can be turned
into bread for the hungry. l suppose she
would regard n brooch or ribbon MS a
sin against her only Humanity. In
fact, by the time, she got through her
lecture. she appeared to me an almost
tragical apparition, the creation and or
gan OF millions OF the miserable, an i'm
personal and unconscious symbol of the
sad social anomalies of the Old World.
Sometimes her listeners smiled, or even
laughed aloud, but she never smiled.
Nor did she weep, nor by any sentence
appeal to sentimental mood She has
long passed all that Her voice is femi-
nine, but her statement is masculine she
leaves unrelenting facts to plead for them
selves, such as the starvation wages of
large numbers of the workingwomen of
France. She names the exact sum paid
in this or that industry, and shows in an
words the moral-or immoral