, 1888-12-09

HAlu.
Tho little Sale DIES Conferences in the
Boulevard des Capucines was filled last
night by n mixed crowd, assembled to
hear Louise Michel lecture Oh the Role
of Woman in Modern Society,"" On one
side of he hall was a group of personal
friends of the "grande cheyenne" habi-
tues of her sort of political meetings, and
these had for the occasion donned their
Sunday head covering instead of thc
SLOUGH hats they wear usually. In the
front row sat the Italian Revolutionary
Cipriani, recently arrived from the
peninsula kingdom, where he has been
spending the last few years of his life in
prison. He does not seem TO have suf-
fered much from the long confinement;
his long beard Is jet black, his hands are
white, his face bears n contented express
sion, and he wears his broad hrimmed,
high hat j~auntily inclined to ono side,
with the air of a man who knows that
he is n fine looking fellow.
AMONG THR AUDIENCE.
Among the determined enemies Of so
ciety l noticed also Pcre Hyacynthe Loy-
son and many other well dressed bour-
geois. Indeed the respectable elemen;
formed four-fifths of the audience, and
most of them were young ladies and
middle aged or venerable matrons who
had come out of curiosity to see and hear
the monster" whose name appears in
reports of all meetings at which incita-
tions to acts of pillage and violence form
the burden of the Grafton delivered.
Whom the monster made her appear
ance she seemed IA little bit surprised ut
finding herself in the presence OF srch a
nice audience. Sh had no. gotten her
self up especially for the occasion and
wore the shabby black dress, small
Grape bonnet and long veil thrown back
over her shoulders that form her ofdi-
nary costume when in public. 1t was
with shaky accent, and in n rather nasal
voice that she announced her subject,
but rs soon as the first words were pro-
nounced Louise Michel, herself again,
had recovered that presence of mind and
cool boldness which rarely desert her.
AS she spoke the physiognomy of most
Of her hearers, especially those of the fe-
male portion of the audience, betrayed n
surprise quite amusing to contemplate.
II was easy to read on their faces that
most of them were saying TO themselves:
What! Is that her! Is that the Louise
Michel we have heard and read so much
aboutl That the woman? WHY she
looks like a Protestant school teacher,
and as ugly as a scarecrowl" Yes, Louise
Michel is undoubtedly n very homely
person, but there is n CLEAN of intelll-
geuce about her face which, when she
hlfdhnt btNOllND tAlttulnRlH dnlIlldltu
and mobile. 1t was evident, however,
that most of the audience were disap-
pointed, and after h had spoken u few
minutes their attention began to flag.
Moreover, what she was saying was not
easy to follow or understand because of
the ~disjointed connection between the
ideas and the remarkable rapidity with
which she was speaking. Shenever picks
her words, but h frequently uses images
of wonderful Dnatin fraghnngu urbt,l,
sound all the more strange COM
ing from such lips. Once started, she
goes on mt break neck gallop, catch
ing at n thought here, throwing of
a daring expression there, leaping over
all obstacles, and apparently endeavoring
to realize some dream of unattainable
perfection of which her credulous soul
has caught u glimpse through the mists
that becluud her eXceedingly-erude CON
ccptions of things here below.
RELATING AN ANECDoTE.
Starting with the assertion that '.wo-
man has today the faults of a slave and
man thoso of Il conqueror, F." she declared
that women are necessary, and that q
time will come when the world will learn
how to utilize their rare faculties. That
time will be an epoch, and wars will
no longer be wagcd, because electric
mitrailleuses will have been invented
IN l. bbDllANoH AllOlloillNl6 VI Illlll Ut
a shot, and thus force nations to dis
arm For the present it was the duty
of woman to prepare for the advent of
that golden age when nothing would
prevent them from reaching u perfect
equality with men. To prove that her
sex were capable of that equality, she
related an anecdote from her W ex-
perience;
when / was attending lectures, " said
she sin order tn Epcura "a 6iplpnn no N
qualified school teacher, 1 one day heard
an DID savant trying to demonstrate, with
the aid of we skulls, that n woman's
head was smaller than that of u man,
but he never noticed that, misled by o
change of labels, made by a pupil with
whom l am well acquainted, he was all
the time using one anatomical specimen
for the other"
Now and then Miss Michel said things
which pleased the revolutionary group of |
her hearers, but were not at all to the
liking of the rest of the audience. Speak
ing of woman, as affected by novel i'm
preston, she said that for her part she
had never felt anything comparable to
the sensation experienced when, march
ing at the head of n battalion of com
munists, she contemplated the marvellous
picture of burning Paris spread out be-
fore her eyes against the red back
ground of the glowing sky. But this
cynical declaration called forth angry
protests, and Louise wisely dropped into
another strain, protesting that she did
not wish to see women concerning them
selves with politics. Scientific and arts
tic studies were the only ones to which
they should devote themselves. "Let us
have no leagues" said she, 'for the pur-
pose of demanding rights today which
will no longer be our rights tomorrow.
Woman Is naturally FOOD and yirtuous.
and when she knows all things she will
no longer be the charming creature whose
coquetry troubles man: she will no longer
be faithless, because she will not be ig-
norant of the fact that her neighbours
husband is not n bit superior to her own"
Henry Hayuie in New Orleans Plea
yune.
Coming Events.
N,.- NJ ~.