Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-08

the women. It seems that there is constant
struggle with each one of them to make
more money than the man who goes to sea.
They frequently accomplish this, too, for
the returning fisherman finds frequently
that his yearly gain of $50 or $500 got after
a hard battle from the sea is more than
equalled by the patient and careful house
wife that he left at home.
Good looks Always Pay.
Good looks are one of the commodities
of the town and they have always paid
we'll. TIT great French painter Feyen-
Perrin came here years ago and found
models for his famous L Retour de la
Peche Aux Huitres" that hangs in the
Luxembourg at Paris, and since then ar
lists and photographers rave been coming
to paint or snapshot new generations of
oyster women and marine scenes.
The girls that posed for Feyen-Perrin are
mothers and even grandmothers now, but
their daughters or granddaughters, as
pretty OF figure and face, are still much
sought after. They all know the artists
weakness and work upon his sympathies
with admirable a~droitness and shrewdness.
Josephine came to the hotel to pose for
an artist who was collecting Breton types.
The price of the sittings was arranged
quite to her satisfaction and the work was
we'll under way. One day there was a tear
in the pretty models eye.
Nothing; nothing at all" she said, with
a gentle sigh, but the tears would come in
spite OF her apparent effort to repress
them. My brother is very H." she said at
last, quite reluctantly, and we poor folks
have nothing to buy medicine with. Alas!
Alas"
Josie Knew Her Business.
Two francs came quickly from the artists
purse and the same amount from a visitor
who was watching him paint. The brother
was no better the next day nor even the
next. 1t was so sad a case OF lingering
sickness. Josephine had really had a
brother, the artist afterward learned from
another artist for whom Josephine had
also posed and who had likewise contrib
uted to the poor fellows relief. but he had
died some fifteen years before. She wa
but a mite Of a girl then herself, but sum-
mer artists have since listened to this sac
story and have so generously contributed
that Josephine, good thrifty soul, has now
almost dot enough to marry Jean when he
comes back this season from his cruise.
The proprietor OF the hotel said that she
had run the place for so long that sh'
had forgotten when first she took charge
Some one must take care of the artists
and the visitors or they would not come
she said. and a great source of genera
revenue TO the town would be lost. II tn
women did not do this work no one els
would.
So years ago when her husband wa
lost at sea she opened a small place fl
what is now only one OF her rooms, an
when the demand for more space came an
the money TO pay for 1t was earned sh
enlarged her quarters until today she ha
an establishment that would do credit [
any man in any man-run town. She dt
not think either that she had accomplishe
much.
Post Cards and Oysters.
The photographer who came from Pari
to take types for post cards found tina
whereas at many other places pretty girl
were glad TO pose for nothing he had
pay the girls of Cancale or not have thel
pictures. Some wanted 20, 80 or even II
francs. One girl demanded as her fee 70
posing the agency Of the cards at III
hotel. She got It and now has all the bus
ness that she and her widowed mother ca
attend to in their little home.
But oysters made Cancale Famous an
they constitute the principal industry
which the women are engaged. The Freno
bivalves have a coppery taste and a greer
ish tint. You would not care for ther
after having eaten American oysters; fe'
people do. They are content with one san
pie and that IL usually an experiment
The season has not been good; too COLI
and the high winds and storms have II
jured the BEDS" said . resident 'rh