Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-15
Was Once the Stronghold Of the
Knights Templar.
NOW 4 SHOP FOR OLD CLU MEN
An Institution Patronized by the
Poor Of Paris.
MANY CURIOUS INDUSTRIES
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.


Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
PARIS. January l. 1898.
! $50 you are going to play the part of a
working girl?"
| Yes, for the first time in my life" 1t was
Sarah Bernhard who was speaking, just
/ before the new play which has caused her
! to be alternately acclaimed and Kissed by
Parisians who adore her.
| Il have already played two roles of peas
| ant women, but there was always a cos
| tune with wings to the bonnet and all the
rest This time there will be no brocade,
| no silks, nor flowers, nor gold and lilies,
nor even makeup for my face.
| "A cotton gown and an apron, already
| worn! Every day something is brought
from the Temple Market You understand
| that everything is dsinfected, passed
through the drying stoves. At first my girls
| held out and cried little, but now they
understand and are doing their best. We
| have had to find 200 costumes. We finally
bought new dresses at one of the big shops
| and sent them to a factory town, where
| they were traded off for old duds."
| Sarah's experiment has not pleased the
| Parisians, because the play-Octave Mir
| beaus The Evil Shepherds UP the
| most painful phases of the conflict between
| labor and capital and at the end, when the
| soldiers have fired on the strikers, Sarah
Bernhard in her working girls gown OF
dark blue Calico with white dots, falls
| bleeding and dead along with the rest.
She Is not pretty as a working girl-She
| who has won her great successes some
| empress or other ornamental heroine; and
at the death she is horrid. Then, the play
| does not conclude, but rails bitterly at cap
| italist and socialist leaders alike Yet it
| is SO powerful, there is so much gore in it
| for theater where even Secret Service
seemed violent and failed, that Sarah. as
ha nj cir may hos To
have triumphed once again.
Calls Attention to the Market.
She has at least drawn attention to the
| famous market, with it's 2, 400 separate lit
tie shops in the one great Enclosure, which
occupies one Of the spots most famous in
Paris history. Not half the shops are used
| now. and tie market Of the Temple is
slowly dying, with the changed condition
of the working classes for whom it was
kept up.
Only a few years since the American ar
fist who cane to Paris to study and live
cheaply came down here to buy all sorts
| OF secondhand furniture-beds and bedding
| did he, too, disnfect0 chairs and tapestry
| all of which he had for a song, he
| thought, although ne paid automatically
| three times what the workingman would
| have given.
Now, there is no more furniture for sale
| and little tapestry, though even the poor in
tdrlS, Where every one 5 eye Is Trained TO
desire beautiful things, cover the baroness
| OF their walls with bits of colored hangings.
In time the venerable old place. will disap
| pear. with so much else of vanishing Paris.
| 1t is worth seeing before it is quite gone.
1t is only thirty years ago that the pres
| cnt structure was erected, which shows
that Paris outgroWs the plans of it's max
efs as quickly as Chicago or any American
city might do. The buildings are great iron
sheds. forming six long. high pavilions.
The French were among the first to use
iron in their architecture, and all these
| markets, built under Napoleon LII are much
alike. They furnish room for numberless
stalls or separate shops, in long rows,
where the customer can pass along a street
| and chaff and barter. They are light and
| airy, protected from wind and weather.
Through the center of the Temple Market
| runs The public street, which is also SPAN
ned by an archcd roof from the iron grid
ers. On one side are the provision shops.
On the other-and this is the real curiosity
are the old clothes shops and shops for
all other bric-a-brac which the day laborer
may be supposed to buy. AT least, it was
SO once.
Called for knights Templar.
The place has it's name from the site of
| the old Temple, stronghold of the
knights Templar. These doughty knights
of the middle ages were supposed to be al
ways galloping away after the Turk and
infdel in the Holy Land, OF on some wild
crusade In reality, most of them were
squatting down in the latest places of
Christian Europe, building castles with
vast walled-in Enclosures near the chief
cities, and by their union becoming so DOW
elful that kings hated them, while the
church made up its mind that they were
considerably worse than the infideI they
were invented to kill.
SO French King Philip the Fair, in the
year of grace 1911, without warming had
tile Temple surrounded and all the knights
h,. dow into,
as the romances say, they lay for years on
the damp straw of dungeons. Out of 5ej
knights, fifty-four We're burned at a slow
fire iE the Faubourg Saint Antoine, where
the revolution was violent 400 wears
later
After seven years. the heads of the order
We're brought up before Notre Dame
confess their crimes before the people bu,
they only protested their innocence Then
the fair Philip took them to the end of the
island. where the statue of the Gallant
King Henry " now stands. and burned
them also. They cited the king who did
the injustice, and the pope, who had not
succeeded in preventing it, although he
| tried. to meet them before another and
| more impartial judge before the year was
out.
| the father of Boccaccio the great F,oren-
| tine story teller, was in the crowd. and
heard the words of the aged Jacques de
Molay. grand master. who fifteen years be-
| fore had taken Jerusalem-the last time it
has been in Christian hands. The French
Freemasons of today claim utilization with
the Templars and celebrate the memory
| Of Jacques. de Molay. Both king and pope
| died within the appointed time.
Who Took Refuge There.
When the Templars were done for, the
king took their stronghold for himself
The tower he kept for palace or prison,
| as the fit seized him. The Enclosure he
turned over to those of his people who
needed protection against the mobiles or
usurers. or other exploiters of humankind.
Thus three classes of men needing protec-
ton came to be associated with the Tenn
pie, and they all exist in the Paris of to-
day.
The first was made up of debtors who
could not pay. Here they were safe from
arrest. Nowadays debtor, unless he can
prove his good faith, is apt to be arrested
for swindling and to make acquaintance.
SO to speak, with the damp straw of dun
geons. The second class comprises all the
skilled laborers who could not get on with
their trades union. or guild. as it was
called This was light matter in those
days. Just as it is getting to be in this age;
Int hero inside he pla thar