News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-29
LOUISE MICHEL.
A COMMUNIST JOAN OF ARC DYING.
To be Granted n PardOn-The Story of the
Life of the SchoOimistress of Noumea.

lille OF the SchO0iHsStreSA OIL NOumeas
Paris dispatches say that it is the in
tention of the Government soon to re-
lease Louise Michel, the Communist,
from prison and to grant her free par
don. She is in dying condition. She
has been in prison this time nearly a
year. Her life has been thus admirably
summed up: Louise is sort of repre-.
sentative child of the revolution and she
has strange history. Fifty years ago
she was born in an aristocratio- French
chateau without being an aristocrat. Her
mother was scullion who worked in the
chateau and her father was master of the
house. She was brought up in the place
and she received an education suited to
her fathers rather than to her mothers
rank. In time, when the fathers own
son was sent adrift for disobedience, she
took his place in the family circle, still
acknowledging on her own part and
tending the peasant mother who had
brought her into the world. Then, as
she came to be woman. she caught the
Victor Hugo fever of the revolution and
in a most perilous way, not as mere
outpouring for the relief of the soul, but
as a series of precepts for action. She
began to write-somewhat in imitation
of the master, as shown in the titles
of some of the things she gave to the
world: "Our Lady of Vroncourt, Soc
cidentals," Spring Leaves" Summer
Storms" "Winter Winds" Dawn
Songs" and "Voices," both from heaven
and the other place, with now and then
something in the grotesquely comic vein.
like the memoirs of Frog" She sent
some Of these things to the poet and he
sent her back an edition of his works
with a priceless autograph. She was
evidently smitten with the disease of lit
erature, but events were to determine
father died, the protecting lady of the
house followed him and Louise was
turned out with her mother on her hands
to earn bread for two ere she learned to
earn it for one. That was bad, but a
proposition made to her to alleviate her
lot was worse. They actually wanted to
marry her to some local shopman-she,
the inspired feminine Isaiah of the new
time ! That decided her; she rushed
away to Paris with all speed and set up
a school for little boys and girls at
Montmartre. Here the Commune found
her. This is, in brief, the history of
Louise.
To the Communists the strange
schoolmistress of Noumea is looked
upon as kind of modern Joan of Arc.
A caricature represented her as red Sis
ter of Mercy, armed with musket instead
of a cross, and the symbol of Masonic
fraternity instead of a rosary. She was
born in 1885, in the Haute- Marine. She
studied history, and discovered that at
each evil epoch it would have sufficed to
suppress one man in order to save the
country. Charlotte Corday in assassi-
mating Marat hoped to save France.
With the same object in view Louise
Michel, while a schoolmistress at Mont
martre, wished to kill Napoleon LII.
The idea was deeply fixed in her mind.
She had her photograph taken, standing
at table, with one hand resting on
deaths head and the other hand raised
and pointing upward in tragic attitude.
At that time Louise Michel wore mourn
ing for Liberty; she dressed entirely in
black, with the exception of red rose
in her dress or in her bonnet. In 1870
Louise Michel became an anebulonciere.
During the siege of Paris by the Yer
sailles troops she fought dressed as
national guard and picked up the
wounded with the bullets whistling
around her ears. During the Commune,
excited by the fever of the first siege,
she offered the insurrectional govern
ment to go and shoot Theirs at Yer
sailles. The government refused at first,
telling her that she could not go to Ver-
sailIes. To show that it was possible,
Louise Michel went there and returned.
She had not attempted to see Theirs,
having given her word this time. Then
Ferre disarmed her, saying that the
Revolution must not be established on C
crime. At the time of the repression of
he Commune Louise Michel denounced
herself. She was tried before council
of war and sent to New Caledonia,
where she taught the children of the
exiles and looked after their sick. She
returned to Paris amnestied, and re-
manned quiet until the petty bread riot
of 1888. Louise Michel demands for
women the right of voting and eligibil-
ity. She believes in the equal division
of goods and in future when the wicked
shall have disappeared. In short, she
is a victim of Victor Hugo. Her head
has been turned by "les Chatiments, P"
and for want of an opportunity she has
remained a platonic Charlotte Corday.