Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-05-08
BRIDES FOR CONvICTs.
A Curious Cargo of Human Freight Sent
from France to New Caledonia.

from France to New Caledonia.
A cargo of human freight left France
the other day, in which | am somewhat
interested. It is to me rather novel
way of solving, writes Paris correspon-
dent, a certain phase of the WOman's
rights question, but / am not so sure that
the solution is a correct one. It seems
that each year one of the General Inspec-
tors of prisons visits the six central peni-
tentaries where women convicts are serv-
ing their time to ask for volunteers to go
to New Caledonia as wives for convicts
serving out sentences in that penal colo
ny. Fifty women who answered this APP
peal were shipped the other day from
Bordeaux, and when they arrive at
New Caledonia they will be divided be-
tween the two religious establishments,
one at Noumea, and the other at Bourail.
The convicts of the first class-that is,
those who have distinguished themselves
by good conduct, and who are according
ly to be rewarded by land grants-are in
formed of the arrival Of the women.
Those who are unmarried, or who are
widowers and desire to get married,
go to Noumea or to Bourail, where
they are allowed to make their choice
among the women. Of course, they
are not forced to make choice, nor are
the women forced to marry if the men
who select them do not please them. The
authorities introduce the men and Wo-
men to each other and allow them to act
as they please. During the last century
a more rapid and more curious system
was in force. When the women arrived
they, with the men, were drawn up in
line facing each other. The name of a
man was called, and then the name of
woman, and when the list had been call
= ~ 4
AS for the women who volunteer to eX-
change their cells in St. Lazare and the
other prisons of France for a husband
and perpetual exile in the islands of the
Pacific, it is safe to say that they are mel
ther the youngest, the prettiest, nor the
gentlest of their sex. But, then, those
whom they are to marry are not fellows
who can excite much sympathy, and
they ought to consider themselves lucky
that they are given land and allowed to
found family.
The Government gives each bride a
little trousseau and the husband is grant
ed certain small favors. Along with the
fifty women that sailed from Bordeaux
were q few wives of convicts now in New
Caledonia, who have obtained permission
to Join their husbands and who are &C
companied by their children. 1t is hoped
that in sone way the colonies may be
peopled, and that those convicts who
have been sent abroad for their coun-
try's good may lay the foundation of
virtuous and honest nation. Whether
this be possible or not is a question on
which there is wide divergence of opin-
ion among those who have studied it. It
used to be believed that Australia was
civilized and settled by convicts that
England transported to it, but this is
| legend. With very few exceptions, con-
victs did nothing toward peopling Aus
tralia with honest people. 1t was the
voluntary emigrants who changed the
face of the county and built up the cities
that are to be found in that great Island,
and the first thing these colonists did
when they began to arrive in any num-
bers was to rid themselves of the con-
victs and to put stop to transportation.
The convicts and the descendants of con-
victs were found to be an element of dis
order that had to be got rid of at all risks.
It is well enough for civilized nation
to rid itself of those who have no other
means of making a living than crime
and prostitution by shipping them off to
some unoccupied corner of the globe, but
to expect that with such elements
flourishing colony can be founded is one
of those Utopias which none but the
very foolish or very ignorant dream of.