The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-09-15
FRENCH WOMEN JOURNALISTS.
Come Arc Ranked Among tho Notablca Of
Paris-Their Work and Manners.

Come Are Ranked Among tho Notablca Of
Paris-Their Work and Manners.
The newspaper women of France are
comparatively few. They are constant
ly accused of total lack of the critical
faculty and of want of perception of
the ridiculous. Furthermore, their ideas
on ethics. and philosophy are said to be
"stale." Nevertheless it is true that
their contributions to magazines and pe-
riodicals are impatiently awaited and
widely read, after which many of the
masculine writers go into mental con-
vulsions and tear their vocabularies in
tatters in trying to prove that these femi-
nine effusions were worse than worth
less.
The women who, in spite of this, per-
sist in writing do not have sinecures.
Not long ago at celebrated criminal
trial woman journalist presented her
self at the court as the judiciary reporter
of leading morning newspaper in Paris.
The police are said to have been aghast
when Nine. Severine drew forth her pad
and pencil and demanded admission to
the press tables. The guards were some
what taken aback, and, with deplora-
BILE lack of French chivalry, wanted to
turn her away. But, by wit OF wiles of
some sort, she gained her point and
cleared a pathway for all women report
ers who shall come after her.
Nine. Edmond Adam is another wom-
an journalist, perhaps the leading one in
Paris. She is politician, author and
editor. She has been honored by the mu-
nicipality of Paris in having her name
given to one of the streets of the capital,
an honor rarely bestowed on q person
during his lifetime. 1t isn't much of
street, to be sure, the Rue Juliette Lam
Der but it is young and may grow some
day. Under Napoleon Ill Mime. Adam
had salon in opposition to the imperial
government, and there she reigned She
was young and handsome then, with soft,
pretty hair and bright blue eyes. She
was an intense republican and a great
friend of Garibaldi. At the close of the
Franco-Prussian war she had no one in
France to particularly oppose, SO she Sc
lected Bismarck. Such phrases as these
have been attributed to her: Bismarck
and mep' Bismarck was to have been
oyerthrown by mer' cat last the car
condescends to follow my political views!"
She is good speaker and can talk on al
most any subject. Her dinners are de-
cidedly interesting. One-fourth of her
guests arc usually officers of the French
army, another fourth is composed of po-
Gtical men, and the others are artists and
literary people. The dinners are usually
followed by receptions, which are at
tended by cabinet ministers, deputies,
senators, diplomats and journalists.
There are, except on special occasions,
few women.
Nine. Severine is both more valiant
and more sentimental than Mime. Adam.
Severine, as she is familiarly called, is q
well known figure in Paris. She has
been nicknamed Mamzelle Gavroche and
Jenny L'Ouvriere, and although she is
much given to literary floods of tears,
she writes vigorously and well. She has
her own particular conceptions of good
and evil. Severine imbibes her political
views from The Cri du Peuple (The Voice
of the People,, and Nine. Adam drinks
of the fountain of La Republique Fran
caise, founded by Gambetta. Severines
ambition is to secure the abolition of
capital punishment.
Nine. Yver is curious figure in the
newspaper world. She frequents the
prefecture of police, and is remarkable
for her persistent praise of the police
and the justice they dispense. Good"
in her mind, is represented by the project
of police, the detectives and the gem
darmes, but never by the prisoners.
Gyp is another woman journalist, but
her name-Mme. de Aiartel-is better
known in connection with novels on Pa
risian high life and as author of few
comedies. She is noted contributor,
i'll very light vein, to that lively publ
cation, La Vie Parisienne. Gyp is popu-
lar. and, besides being writer of great
talent paints with success
Perhaps the most successful newspa-
per women in Paris are those who write
about the thing they know best-fash-
ions. But men are encroaching some
what upon this territory, and altogether
woman's place in French journalism is
not all that could be desired.-New York
Sun.
Why Is It?
- &c hot ,