The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-09-14
EXPOSITION LETTER.
Written tor the Citizen.)
PARIS, August 2S, 1900.

| anu SUOTN comes from there
showing so much mistaken piety
and benevolencc that | cannot re-
frain from telling it. The heroine
of it is MademoiSelle Noualhier.
young, good looking and rich, and
she has a very peculiar mania,
for | can call it nothing else. Her
mania is to bring carriage loads
of incurable consumptives from
the Paris hospitals to die in her
hospice at Limoges, because there
she can be certain they will make
a good chriStian-that is to say
Catholic-ending. They are dy
ing in the hospital; their lives
are not prolonged by a 30O-mile
train journey; it may be in the
depth of winter and, as a rule, to
which there are few or no excep-
tions, they do die shortly after
their arrival at Limoges. TO
compensate them for their Journey
and the added suffering it entails.
they are sure Of receiving the last
sacramentS surrounded by nuns
and priests. Within the last
three years six hundred conSump.
tiyeS have thus been brought
from Paris to Mile. Noualhier's
hospice. Not one of them is now
alive. This has been going on
for the last twelve or fifteen wears.
Needless to say the Limourins
have long been shocked and sean
dalized by this unique work of
christian charity. Crowds have
gathered at the railway terminus
to see the poor incurables come
in. and on one occasion the MAYOR
was induced 10 go up to Mile.
Noualhier and demonstrate with
her. The one result of his inter
Nentlon was that Mile. Noualhier
put on a look of surprise and in
CURED the mayors name, and the
matter was there dropped. AS
time went on, however, other cir.
cumStanceS began to move the
people. 1t was noticed that in
the quarter which contained the
amateur hoSpice deaths from con
sumption became alarmingly fire.
quent while the death rate from
consumption in other quarters of
the town stood still. 1t was no.
ticed, too, that houses in the hos
plce quarter were falling out of
occupation and that the region
was gradually turning into soil
tude only broken by a daily and
sometimes hourly procession of
funerals from the hospice door.
The result was that a week or two
ago the towns people woke up,
their patience at an end. They
formed a committee, organized
noisy meetings about the hOSpice
doors, had stones thrown at the
windows and appealed to Paris.
The appeal has only met with
partial success and the matter
will probably have to be fought
out before the Supreme Court of
Appeal. The Minister of the In.
terror said he had no power him.
self to order the hospice to be
closed, nor could he forbid Mile.
Noualhier entering the Paris hos
pltalS on certain days like anyone
else. All he could do he did.
namely, recommend the mayor to
issue notice that any institution
proved to be endangering the
sanitary state of the town should
be closed. Mile. Noualhier, how
ever, seems to have good ground
technically as long as she adopts
all the precautions prescribed by
the sanitary authorities, and this.
OF course, she takes good care to
do.
But what, it may be asked. is
Mile. Noualhier's own iustifica-
ton of her conduct. She came to
Paris the other day and published
statement of it. 1t is, as might
be supposed, purely sentimental
and piOus One-that as the forms
Of unhappiness and illness are
multltudinous, the forms of be.
nevolence to cope with them must
be multitudinous too. She alleges
moreover that in the last three
years sixty patients have been
cured by her or sent much i'm.
proved in health to their homes.
Against this there is the fact
that before the hospital lets the
patient go, the patient is declared
incurable. Mile. Noualhier also
asserts that the houses on either
side of the hospice are partially
occupied, but on the other hand
there isthe testimony of numerous
house owners that their houses.
once full, have now ceased to let.
The case on the whole is, as any
one can see, an extremely curious
one and unique in the annals and
methods of benevOlence.
Let me correct and at the same
time expand statement pub.
lished by the Associated Press to
the effect that "Americans who
were in Paris during the Spanish.