National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-02-12
FEMALE FENCERs.
A Young Lady Fcnoer who Conquered
the Best swordsmsn In France.
NJ. n.T.-.. MI. ~.

A Young Lady Fcncer Who Conquered
the Best swordsmsn In France.
NeD orleans Times-Democrdt.
To those who know little Of the secrets Of
swordsmanship the feats Of Catalina and Of
La Maupin might we'll seem incredible
especially In an era when tho art in which
they excelled was almost universally pro-
fessed by the upper Glasses. How could the
delicate wrist ofa woman acquire the supple
strength required for life and death on
counter with sinewy troopers or professional
maitres.d'drmesI Women cannot often now,
as in the old barbarian days, find either the
strength or courage requisite for battle duty.
Since the era of Tacitus woman must have
lost in force what she may have gained in
beauty. There are few white maiden arms
now capable OF hurting o stone with the
force Of a cstapult." But those versed In tho
art Of the sword are we'll aware Of how little
mere brute force weighs in the balance Of
life and death against cool skill; and the his
tory Of fencing gives us many noteworthy
instances Of gigantic strength foilod by scien-
| tihc training Even now we observe in the
| daily papers Of Paris-where fencing has
| again become q fashionable sport among
ladies-accounts Of some dainty swordswoman
whom IL would be very unsafe for ordinary
fencers to seriously provoke. What training
| may accomplish with woman Is perhaps bost
shown in Vigeants account Of Jean-Louiss
| dau ghter.
1t were hard indeed to say whether the
Chevalier dc st. George (also Of San Domingo
| origin) or Jean-Louis was the more perfect
master of the art; but We may believe with
| Vigeant that the latter will always remain
the "grandest figure in the history Of the
nineteenth century fencing" Visosnts
father studied long under jean. Louisville
only died in 1S65-and Vigeant himself now
one of the greatest living teachers Of the art,
acknowledges having disciplined himself &C.
cording TO Jean Louis's rules for ten years
without intermission. What Jean-Louis him
self was capable Of our readers have already
learned from the story of the famous
duel against thirteen fencing masters,
which was not long since published in
these columns. He was one Of the great
benefactors of fencing, to use Vigesnts
term-having suppressed all useless sword
play, all fancy fencing-and reduced the
French system TO Its present matchless
Florentine and other foreign school systems
This severely perfect mood he taught to
his daughter, partly indeed to crafty her
own wishes, but chiefly, no doubt, to show
what his lessons could accomplish oven with
a young girl. After two years training he
considered her sufficiently expert to invite
some of tho beat fenoers in Paris to witness an
exhibition Of her skill. Her first adversary
was professional fencing master, who was
so chagrined at being shsmefully worSted
by q girl Of 10, that he only aoknowl-
edged his defeat when Mile. Jean-Louis
proposed to remove tho buttons from both
foils The best amateurs shared his defeat;
and the young woman showed such oxtraor
binary skill that she was even regarded az
capable of succeeding her father as teacher.
But some time after these remarkable victo-
ries she married DR.. Veillard, Of Toulouse,
and abandoned the foil forever. The mar
riage was happy, but Of brief duration for
the young wife died within the year, and
without even leaving to her husband the con-
ISOLATION of child. But she 10 not forgotten.
Among the fencers of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
the swordsmen who still boast Of having
studied under Jean-Louis-her memory is
held in almost as much generation as that Of
her father, and the old mon still speak Of her
with some such chivslrous and admiring TO-
spect as might have been paid to Catalina,
the nun, on her triumphant return from be-
yond the Andes and the Atlantic to hel
native Spain.