, 1888-03-31

garden out of their accustomed leUhargy.
The case of the ''Sham nuns" to which
alluSiOn was made lately in your columns,
is attracting great attention here. 1t
abOundS in ScandalOuS revelations, and
it is simply amazing that the police knew
nothing about the place till quite lately.
The ''falSe convent was opened about
six years ago by two t~ermagants, who
originally had been expelled from a reli.
glOuS congregation Of which they were
members. The "m0jher superior" called
herself "SiSter St Adalbprt,0 and her
artful assistant was Isis er Thprese."
They "sajlpd' under Franc scan colours
and wore the habit Of that Order. Lit,
tie difficulty was experienced in prOvi-
ding funds for the 'h0guS' establishment.
"Sister ST. Adalhert" mveigled a wealthy
old spins er, a Mdle. de St. Andre, to come
and live i'll the convent. She did SO, and,
being half crazy, allowed the ~So-cAlled
''nunS' t. do what they liked with herself
and her money. They shut her up in u
damp room in order to accelerate her
death, and told her that if she dared to
leave il she would be sc, erIastingIy damn
d." Poor Mdle. st. Andre took this ex
tremely bad language forevangeIical truth,
and lived On-half,starved, cold, and com
FORTRESS in her miserable room. She had "A
female friend, however, who came to visit
her, and saw through the frauds of the
sham Sisters" Nevertheless, this per-
son fell a victim to the wileS of he female
swindlers, and was actually shut up her.
self with Idle. st. An lr6-SO, ut least, il
appears from the particulars furnished by
the police, but the point is still involved
in q little mystery. AS to the "boardtrS"
and IN vices If the establishment, theY
were girls Of ftom six to sixteen. Some
OF them p aid for their Slpp0rt, while others
were received grltultOuSIY into the strange
nunery. All, however, had 10 work like
slaves with the n'edje, the sham 'SjSJerS'
having succeeded in obtaining orders from
leading lnrndraperS in Paris aud the pro
vincGS. ''SlSter ST. Adalbert" had also
y retreat for old men in her m0n1stic en-
closure, and had been wy Succ sSful in
obtaining funds for The inStitu ion. Tue
police nave unelrJnel the scandal owing
to the pro, eStation> of the parents of some
of jhe "h0lrIerS," who complained IT the
way in which their children had been treat
ell by tn pseudo. nuns.
An entire family, consisting OF father,
mother, AMI h?re children, were arrested
on Monday as hey had just Quilted one of
the gigantic establishments kept up for
the sale Of nearly every conceivable article
under the sun. Etch member of this in
teresting group had concealed about his o.
her person a large ami miscellaneous assert.
ment Of goods, and jus as they lat'ered
themselves thar they had escaped unno-
ticed they were poupced upon, brought
back, and searched carefully. They were
very decrnt-looking people, but something
in their manner had attracted jheattenliOn
of the employees, and for som time they
had been watched studiously. Is kiep O.
mania hereditary? and was the whole
family a victim Of this diseased Did the
force of the bad example set by the parents
influence the younger brauchf Or was it
the children who led their elders astrayS
1t seems that the employees at these 'tempo.
ria" are seldom at fault in thti. suspicious
of foul play, most of these Iigh.-fugered
gentry wearing a guilty look which soon
attracts the notice of practiSed hands.