Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-27

ering themselves with ineffaceable shame in
insulting the woman who had received
them and ministered to their wants" The
Cri du Peupae persisted, after the fashion
OF socialist sheets, for lack Of money.
Severine never attempted to found another.
She saw her future already made for her in
the security of well-paid contributions to
the bourgeois press itself. To her wounded
companions. socialists too pure" she had
an unanswerable justification when they
reproached her:
Wales. who continued to be one of the
writers On the Matin from the days of it's
foundation; who gave a great deal to the
Figaro, the France, the Voltaire, the
Evenement and the Gil Bias, himself incul-
Gated in me this idea-that one is not held
to writing exclusively in journals which
reflect only the opinions of their readers.
Evidently 1t is more agreeable to write for
the sympathetic. only they are always the
same readers already converted revolu-
tionary socialists, exactly as the public at
our meetings is always the same public.
The great idea does not advance an iota-
1t was Wales himself who cited to me in
who go far from home. among strange
people, to bring them glad tidings.'
Wales himself told me! Who should
know better? Severine has always had her
answer in this phrase. But what Wales did
not confer upon her is her literary style.
her facility for emotion and her feminine
iLsouciance of logic, facts or consequences
In the doing of good. as she understands it.
quantity and quality of work she has, in
ten years, outstripped every Paris jour
.ralist with the exception Of few great
names. Her articles sell papers. And what
have in them the echo of her rhythmic
sobS. the thrilling vibrations of her superb
anger. the sirupy murmurs of her consol-
ing pity. Her subjects never vary.
Her Motives.
When she takes her pen in banda thing
which she does daily-it is to defend no
matter what forlorn cause, to protect no
matter what oppressed victim of the pres
ent social system, or to cry down no mat
ter what abuse.
Severine is always raising money for some
needy person or cause. In this respect she
has laid herself open to the suspicion of
self-seeking, because there is no one au
thoriZed to supervise the handling of the
sums. On the other hand, it would be I'M
just to accept what may be only the in
situations of enemies. On this side of her
career she is at best, however nothing but
an example of a philanthropic woman, ac-
knowledGing 70 law but her sentimental
sympathies.
Her cause is undoubtedly helped by the
fact of the existence of the suffering she
portrays and the evils which form the real
grievance at the basis of the communistic-
anarchistic-socialistic agitation. In her ia
vor the facts remain that she is received.
with her appeals for money. in the best of
the freer Boulevard journals of Paris: that
the great income from her daily writings
ought to amply cover the lavish personal
expenditure of which she is accused. She is
surrounded by a set of social reformers and
literary journalists who receive her hospi-
tally and profit by the rays of her sunlight.
She is moral force, and there are many
who bless her name. But one cannot but
reflect what terrible thing it would be
for Severine should misery and injustice be
banished from the world.
STERLING HELLO.