Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-16

cold winter, the chilly spring, the lack OF
work and the scarcity of bread. Louise
Michel talked to Citizen Girault on the
same subjects. Then off they started on
the impulse to give lectures and distribute
to the poor the proceeds. Giving lectures
she was stricken with pneumonia at Toulon.
There is not a child among The
rich or poor of Paris who doubts for a
moment that Louise Michel was lecturing
to benefit the poor with single mindedness
and blind love. No one in all Paris would
dream of accusing her of seeking to make
a quiet living by the way. By this time
they know her well, the rich and poor
alike. And this is why they call her Good
Louise in her old age
The anecdote of the scabby dog who sat
on her candle amounts to the same thing.
Every in Paris knows 1t. 1t has been
cited a thousand times to illustrate her
character. 1t was hateful little mongrel
that Louise had picked UP in the gutter.
He was greedy, snappy, peevish, nervous,
noisy, ill to look at, worse to SMELL and he
insisted on sitting her work table and
interrupting conversations. One day, after
upsetting her ink bottle, he capped the
climax by backing up against her single
candle, sitting on 1t and putting 1t out at
the same moment he burned his tail.
How can you tolerate the little wretch"
asked her visitor And Louise Michel re-
piled with delicious charity:
yes, it is true that he is disagreeable.
But If 1 put him out, who else will take
him?"
Aeco "a 4SAoSh'
I remember her several years ago when
she came to Paris on such another trip as
this one to Toulon. An immense crowc
OF the Paris populace had assembled 1T
the railway station to do her honor, and
while waiting for the train to come I heard
two workingmen dispute passionately to
whether she ought to be called THE Red
Virgin" or 1.-The Black Virgin" red being
the color of the commune and communism,
while black is that of the 1nternationale
and anarchy.
She has not changed since then. She is a
virgin truly. having never married and
being so phenomenally ugly that, as she
has herself said no idea of romance ever
entered her head, even as a girl. Then, as
last week and today, she covered skinny,
bony wisp of body, worn out with terribly
ceaseless energy, with nondescript gown
of rusty black. Her old black hat was al
ways crooked on her head and from 1t al
ways foated a long, rusty black veil, like
the black flag of the Internationale indeed.
But, all the same when this strange old
virgin. as f1eshless as the Famine and as
thrilling as Revolt. let herself be borne
from the railway station to the lecture hall
on the shoulders of the bowling crowd the
working folk of Paris shivered to their
marrow
They trembled with emotion, sympathy.
gra titude confidence. They did not idolize
her. They did not even look up to her. She
was one of them. The people saw itself
in her as in a mirror, and it recognized its
own image
Begging and Giving.
Louise Michel has been called reversed
Sister of Charity that Is to say, perhaps.
a Sister of Charity calling revolt instead
of resignation. She sprang from very poor
people. She was very poor child, and,
starting out at once on her career, fitted
herself TO become a primary school teacher.
This gave her a handle for her boundless
sympathy and activity. That her pupils
should have food and clothes seemed more
important to her than learning. She had
great power of speech. And from that day
on she never ceased to wrest bread, clothes,
money and medicines from those who had
them-never mind who--to hand them over
to those who needed them-no matter who!
This begging and giving has been her real
life work The more picturesque of her acts,
such as getting herself condemned to life
transportation after the commune and get
ting sent to ClairvauX penitentiary for
leading the bread riots of 1888 are mere
episodes And begging francs and sous at
time instead of large sums like a swell
philanthropist, she has nevertheless, in the
long run, distributed more millions than
the greatest of them.
How far she would go in her mania for
distributing will be shown by a couple of
anecdotes. One evening Alphonse Montegut
and Georges Meuzy, two newspaper men,
met ner on the street, ShVerinS IN MD
winter in a worn black cotton gown so
wretchedly thin that they dragged her, re-
sisting, to one Of the hand-me-down shops
of the Rue Montmartre and fitted her out
in good wooden garments, shoes and gloves.
Louise let them fit her out. She only
asked that the storekeeper send her old
clothes to her address.
Gave Away the New.
ITO give away, doubtless?' said Montegut
to MeuZy.
But they were not to give away, as they
found out the next day Because they
found her again shivering in the old thin
cotton dress, without her new coat, hat,
shoes or gloves. Louise had given the new
things awayi
Another time-it was shortly after the
anarchist Lucas had fired at and wounded
her-Montegut went to see her at Levallois.
where she lived In little frame shanty,
amid stray dogs and cats that she had
brought home out of pity. There he found
her; but not Alone A slouchy man with a
red beard was cooking dish of onions and