Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-04-24
P~ENITENTIARY COCKTAILS.
A Hotel Modelled After a Prison
and Patronized by Rascale.

and Patronized by Rascale.
Paris Correspondence: The latest
sensation in the gay capital is the Tav-
ern of the ~Penitentiary. The invita-
tions were issued in large red bills,
posted on the walls of that extravagant
quarter, Montmartre. 1t was An
nounced that guests would be served
by ex-convicts wearing tho garb of
servitude, at the same time soliciting
for these unfortunates, whose desire is
now the straight and narrow way,
kind treatment and encouraging words
to help them to persevere in the paths
of honor and virtue. These were signed
by Maxine Lishonne.
Maxine Lisbonne, director Of this
establishment, was a member of the
commune and other scientific societies
and consequently paid a visit to this
colony of Noumea, where SO many
even more distinguished than he
Henri Rochefort, for instance-had
been sent to do penance for their ex-
cess Of patriotism. The life at the
~penitentiary, of which one would
hardly be supposed DESTROYS of retain
ing souvenirs, seems to have dilated
L%isbonne's penitence to the extent of
wishing to surround himself with liv-
ing pictures Of his life there.
Our curiosity led US to visit this grim
fantasia, which proves of so great a
benefit to its originator. We entered
q narrow passage, its whitewashed
walls lighted by petroleum lamps, lead
ing to the cafe, . large hall garnished
with simplicity amounting to crude
ness; plain deal tables, warmed by two
huge stoves, the floor covered with yell
low sand. At the end of this vast hall,
to the right, is a small room, on the
door of which is announced that all
customers are shaved free from the
hours of III a. m. to 5 p. m. Not be-
ing customers we were rot considered
free patrons, but the glance caught of
the barber-a rascally looking devil
was sufficient TO deprive US of any de-
sire to be included in the category of
customers" Hanging on the walls
OF the cafe, without frames, were life
size portraits Of prominent socialists,
congenial spirits, and of the same po-
litical persuasion as Lisbonne himself,
two of them well known for thoir
prominence in this line-Louise Michel
and Henri Rochefort. Other ~placards
detailing various drinks under new
names, such as: Noumea (~absinthe),
Boulet, which means q cannon ball
(bock); Soda Canaque and Soupe Cor
gaud de Toulon (chief penitentiary of
France).
Seating ourselves at one of the deal
tables, we were soon approached by
one Of the ex-convicts in his sinister
g~arb-drab breaches, red wooden
jacket, with the initials Il. +. ~(travaux
forces-hard labor) stamped in black,
and green cap, with his number on q
small tin plate adjoining the front. The
click, click of the ball and chain fas-
tened to the ankle and the ball at
tached to the hip, for convenience, of
c~ourse-not the solid ball he was &C.
customed to drag when a convict. He
demanded our order in a soft, spenitno
voice, as though still under thedt fof
correction. This bizarre erocompany
walters fascinated me bv the strange
ness Of the situation. These strange
faces were a study. Certainly the
power of money does not extend to
making a man adopt the garb of dis
grace, no matter the privations the alb
sence of it might incur!
This visit, early in the evening,
brought on another after 10 at night,
when the place was full. What a crowd
of hard and brutalized men and wo-
men it was! Their songs were infam-
Gus, the gestures violent and often i'm
proper. A woman who got up and
posed on n of the tables was Ger.
tainly of magnificent figure; but the
brazenness Of her face and the coarse
ness OF the cries that greeted her were
shocking. The convict walters pulled
her down when she became utterly
outrageous. One of them, with a face
like a gargoyle,s said in tones Of chronic
h~Oarseness:
look here, public decency must be
respected!'
So they had a moral code which
drew the line somewhere ever at Nine.
Lisbonnes.