The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-12-13

The Center of 1t Is Not a Fort
ress, but a Sunday
School.
a School Not at All Easy to Man
agc-Life of Residents In the
F~aubourg.
lwritten for THE HELENA Is%pEpENpENr.l

[AAMN MI AA"H hELhAfh NANhAfh s-f'o hSN - 4
Hr7HE FAuBOURG ST. ANTOINE is
-NHI. place IN Paris never forgotten by
SlS readers OF French history. 1t was
from this Faubourg the people swarmed in
1889 and pulled down the walls and loosoned
the prisoners OF the Bastilo.
Ii was the women of this Faubourg st.
Antoine who three months later marched
bnreheaded TO Versailles, ten miles away,
and brought back with them to Paris the
Baker the Bakers Wife," mi the
"Baker'a Little Boy" as they called the
king, the queen and the dauphin. All
through this terrible revolution these
women ran about Paris, red caps on their
heads and long pixies in their hands, crying
for the blood of the aristoorats,
In 1913 and again in 1871 the Faubourg
st. Antoine repeated the part it had played
in 1889. There is revolution in its blood,
and little wonder! The Fauboure is hungry
most of the time, and when fighting means
more bread" it is glad to fight.
Not all of the revolutions in st. Antoine
have been bloody. There has been a peace
full one going on there for twenty years.
Paris in general knows little or nothing Of
it.
W IAc CCAbcA VI ulo AZ AOso u
ress or a barricade. 1t is a Sunday school.
Twenty years ago a few people connected
with the McAll mission to France, SO we'll
known in America, resolved to start a Sun
day school for the children Of st. Antoine.
After eight years Of exciting ups and downs
two young men, one of them a Scotch
man, Mr.. G. E. Greig, who has given
his life to the poor of Paris, and a
hs NV arIao h
had q picture in the salon, took the school.
They were full of bright ideas. Mr.. Greig
could sing and play. Mr.. Christole could
draw. They soon had the room full of
children. A queer lot they were, lawless as
their fathers who had pulled down the bas-
4ile and built barricRdes In defiance of gov
ernnaents and armies.
1t was not an easy matter to run the
school,. Many a boy came in expressly to
break up the meeting. One day one of the
worst chefs OF the streets, with all his fol-
lowers at his heels, opened the door and
came in. Confident of their ability to
''clean outs the school, they began to boot.
MIR. Greig does not believe in nonsense.
He promptly collared the leader of the
'oung ~ruffians, and marching him ahead,
>tarted for the door.
One of the band had q heavy stick, and
he ran after, with it raised, to strike MIR.
GreiA over the head. The latter was seized
with a sudden impulse to turn around. He
did SO. turning his captive at the same
time. Down came the stick, but not IN
the head of the superintendent. The
young brigand received it's full weight.
1t was a sheepish pair of fellows who
went out of the door amid the applause of
the Sunday school, which shouted until the
-.rafters rang: "Vive Monsieur Greiar' st.
Antoine is generally for the man who
comes out ahead.
st. Antoine girls are not much better
than the boys. Their mothers have no
time to bring them up" Many of
them are ish-wives. They sit all day by a
little cart filled with damp cod and rays
and slippery cells, or they are
wheeling their wares Nlong the street. In-
stead of fish they sometimes sell vegetables
or fruit or cheap notions. They often must
fight to protect their goods.
OF course such mothers do not spend
much time training their little girls. These
girls have the faculty of finding out every
thing which goes on from one end of the
Faubourg to the other. No matter what it
is-fght. street song, fire, procession, Sun
day school-they are always .in it,"
Among the little girls who came to st.
Antoine in its early days was one who is
now q teacher, d fine young woman of per-
haps rs. She found her way to the Sunday
school curiously. At the time OF the COM
mune her father, after one of the awful
DAYS of riot and bloodshed, took his little
girl on his arm and went to the cabaret
~(saloon, as We would say to discuss the
situation and drink with his comrades.
The TRANCE scenes there were never for
gotten by the child.
When she grew big and bad she took it
into her head one day to go with a band of
little Faubouriennes, of whom she was chef,
to see that cabaret. She found in its place
a Sunday school.
She came several times, and always was
~riotous. At last Mr.. Greig kept her after
SCHOOL, and talked to her seriously. She
said when he stopped: you will never
have TO talk to me again, Mr.. Greig." He
never did, To-day she is one of the best
teachers in the school, sings IN the choir
and helps in all the work in the McAll mis-
sion.
This girl comes from a typical F~aubourg
home. There is but one room. At one end
stands the fathers work bench; in the
middle the mothers washtub; at the other
end the table: at one side a bed. There is a
dark closet where the family heap things in
the daytime and where the children sleep
at night. This home is up in the seventh
or eighth story of the dingy old houses
which line the streets OF the old quarter.
From such material and such homes one
of the best Sunday-schools | ever saw has
been made. This school uses the same les
sons that we do in the United States. Its
picture cards and papers are printed in
America, in French, of course.
OF course the school has its merrymak-
ings, the greatest of which lB Mt Christmas.
Then there Is Il tree and presents for every
body. These are distributed strictly &C.
cording to merit. Good lessons, good be-
havlor, regular attendance are richly re-
warded by the st. Antoine Santa Claus.
This Christmas ia complete down even to
SUNDAY achool scholars who never APP
pear except during the gift season. Oiseaux
do Noel (Christmas birds) is what the Eau
bourines call them. Last wear they received
worry suitable presents. Among the many
things which Partisan Btreet-hawkers sell is
a bideous bird made from highly colored
feathers and woods. In profound solemnity
Mr.. Greig presented to each of the Oiseaux
de Nosl one OF thege CAV monstrosities.
Every body saw the point and some OF the
gift hunters were 30 ashamed that they
have taken to regular attendance to redeem
themselves. An interesting thing about
this French Sunday school is the wav pupils
are PAT to work when too big for classes,
The big boys become policemen. Sunday
school policemen sounds dtoll, but with
ont such n fore c l am afraid there would
sometimes be riot, il not bloodshed, in the
mission walls. These policemen have their
posts in the room. and young desperadoes
are passed from one TO another in short
metre and landed in the street. At least
u half dozen are put ont at every session
There is nothing dull about Sunday sohoo!
in the Faubourg.
Many OF the older girls and boys become
teachers, others sing in the choir. others
help at the weekly soup. This soup ia
one way that Mr.. Greig takes of teaching
his young people that II they are poor 70