Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-20
Twenty of the Most Distin-
guished Ladies in Paris.
CELEBRATED WRITERS
WHO HUNT UP AND ENCOURAGE
UNAPPRECIATED SISTERS.
In Joining the Academy the Twenty
Ladies Give Up Their Own Chances
Of Winning Literary Prizes.
Special Correspondence of The Star.

| Special Correspondence of The Star.
PARIS, May 8, 1905.
Twenty of the most distinguished women
of Paris meet together once a month-to
hunt up and encourage unappreciated sis
| tiers. l assure you, they form an extraordi-
| narily interesting coterie.
All are writers of celebrity or social place;
MANY of them are the wives of famous writ
| ers: and two of them (by exception are
| wives of the same great writer, Catulle
| Mendes, as you shall see.
You have heard the names of most of
them. Some, like the matriarch Madame
Adam with her SALON. Madame Dieulafoy.
| the explorer of Sousa and wearer of mems
| clothes; and Madame Lucie Felix aure
| Goyau, daughter of the late president of
| the French republic, are almost house hold
! names in America. Others were either born
! in the United States, like Madame TIL.
| Benton, or have great numbers of Ameri-
can friends and write on Franco American
| subjects, like Madame Pierre de Coulevan
and Arvede Barine. Still others have been
| translated into English with sensation, like
| Marcelle Tinayre with her "Mason du
| Peehe'
These remarkable women not only write;
| they also occupy themselves with their
French sister writers, known and unknown,
which is. indeed, the object of their monthly
meeting. This month they met at the apart
ment of the widow of Alphonse Daudet
| Last month it was chez la ComtesSe
Matthew de Noailles Next month it will
be with Madame Henri Lapauze. Their first
meeting, however, was at the Hotel des
Sccletes savantes. which is always open to
them, because these twenty literary Paris
iennes compose no less corporation than
the new Academy of Women distinguished
alike in its origin, object, composition and
connections.
The Concourt Academy.
You have heard of the celebrated Con-
court brothers, themselves writer's in their
lifetime, and now after their death still
patrons of writers? They left a very con-
siderable fortune to found a Concourt
academy, composed of ten literary men W ho
enjoy life-pensions of 5000 francs each and
the right to vote an annual Concourt prize
o. 5000 francs to the writer of the best
FRENCH book of each year This year their
choice fell on Monsieur Leon Frappie but
one OF their number, j. X. Huysmans said
on the day following their vote: "Cndoubt-
eddy we would have crowned The Conquest
of Jerusalem but the author is a woman,
and we really dared not create such trou-
blesome precedent"
This unusually frank statement got con-
siderable circulation from its subject-mat-
ter. its tendency, and the position of its
author: From one end of Paris to the
other ladies criticised It's unfairness and
before the writing men of Paris could say
Boo the Womens Academy was formed
and held its first meeting at the Hotel des
Societies Savantes. Nor was this ALL To
give financial weight to its DEGREES analo-
gous to those of the Concourt Academy
the old-estabished publishing house of
fiachette endowed it with an annual prize
of 900 francs, to be awarded by its mem
bers to the lady writer who shall publish
what is, in their judgment, the best French
book of each year.
Now you will observe the abnegation of
each of these twenty ladies in Joining the
academy. Beyond all possibility of douht
they form, together, the great bunch of
women writers of France-so much so IN
deed, that any one of them, perhaps, might
easily produce next year. the best French
book written by lady outside the mem
bership of the academy. Now YOU see
they cannot vote the prize to one of their
own number. Therefore we may say of
any one of them. taken separately, that she
gave up a good chance of winning the 5000
francs the day and hour that she consented
TO become member,
Distinguished Women.
Some of these ladies, like the Comtesse
Matthew de Noailles Madame Juliette Adam
and Madame Lucie Goyau, have no need of
any ones 5000 francs. The de Noailles are
all that is most aristocratic of the old
regime, connected in old times with the
Lafayette family and today the possessors
of the magnificent old chateau of Main |
tenon. Madame Julette Adam is from one |
of those bourgeois families that has always
had money.
Also, she has always been a republican |
You might say that the present French re-
public formed in her salon in those now |
old days when she first introduced Gam
BETA to Paris society. Many another great |
man of today owes his first start-when he |
hungry and unknown enough-to this |
untlring lady. Helen Stanley recently trans |
lated her memoirs into English Putnams) !
Observe Madame Adam. The whole world |
knows her doughty name. and, indeed, she |
is fine example of something rare in the |
world yet always existing here and there |
in France, lie, the female politician She |
has not only done practical politics. but has |
also written extensively on political sub |
jects. 1t she who founded the now sue |
cessful Nouvele Revue-which somehow or |
other slipped out of her hands when il be |
gan making money, and her salon is still a |
place of political combinations, though per- |
haps a trife run to seed. All, the salon of |
Madame Adam. For how many American |
women has it not been a kind of Mecca |
What did they expect to find? Ladies and |
gentlemen sitting in silly row and talk !
ing literature and stateScraft? They oftener |
talked jobs
Madame Lucie Felix-Faure Goyau is an
other with a salon. That is to- say she |
takes herself seriously and has great for
tune to back up her pretensions. Being the |
daughter of very rich man who became a |
very swell president of the republic, she |
was at one moment lifted almost up TO |
aristocracy. Felix Faure, at the moment of |
his tragic death, was becoming nationalist |
chief and who knows where he might have |
ended? At the historic chateau of Fon-
tainableu he received his ministers like a
Louis XIV, and at Rambouillet he gave |
hunting parties like a Francis l. He had |
a fine job. He was the most decorative of |
presidents and was not afraid to spend his |
money hitting the French in the eye as
they say, and he just beginning TO
test his power when he was taken Off
Daughter Of Former President.
has gone in for all that is high and good |
Georges Goyau, her husband, is one of
the chief writers of the Revue des DeuX |
Mondes, treating historical subjects as |
conservative She herself has written very |
creditable books-creditable to her taste and |