New-York tribune., 1909-06-27
WHITE SLAVE EXHIBIT
Paris Curious about Prints ana
Paintings of the Unfortunate.
Paris, June is.


A philanthropic art exhibition depicting the
social misery of unfortunate women. organized
bv Senator Leon Bourgeois president of the
cf7,vre des Iiberees de Saint-Lazare, an asso-
ciation comprising many of the most prominent
women OF France has been opened at the Ga
Ierie Deyambez in the Boulevard Maiesherbes'
and attracts wide attention. 1t is loan exhlol-
ton Of paintings, engravings, prints ana statues
presenting q series of object lessons ranging
from the early part of the sixteenth century 70
the nresent time One finds sketches of methods
of the rigorous severity and torture Of early
days. gradually mitigated by feelings OF human
ity. from which sprang public curiosity, senti-
ment and moral influences for good. Manon
Tescaut was the ancestress Of Camille, Fantine,
Mana, La File Elisa. Boule -de-Suf, and Mas
Iowa From the Able Provost to TOlstoi, from
Vatican to Steinlen, one follows the tortuous
tale of these women which to-day in France,
thanks to the efforts of the Society Of Dis
charged Women from Saint-Lazare prison.
meets with healthful philanthropy somewhat ap-
preaching the spirit of that exercised by the
Saviour toward Magdalen. This week, in addl-
ton to the picture show the opera Comique
held a speciaI matinee for the societys benefit
Upward of three thousand women have been
reclaimed by the association, and some Of those
saved have arisen to highly esteemed places
society
Intelligence Several well known American
women after visiting the exhibition OF "Wnlte
slavery. expressed deep regret that some of the
charitable associations in the United States do
NOT v,-orlr On similar lines to those adopted with
such success in France.
The pictures now on view in the Boulevard
Malesherbes offer a strange sidellght on the
morals and manners of the French during these
three centuries. Side by side with the OLD
French prints are few striking japanese prints
dealing with the same subject, depicted in the
wonderful and beautiful Japanese formula ana
a series Of prints by Hcgarth and GustaVe Dore'
both with a London background changed by the
,apse of years almost beyond recognition In
that seventeenth century the public authorities
took very serious view Of immortality. Those
were the days when man was hanged for sheep
stealing and one of these old prints shows the
rbvsical torture inflicted on evil nvers. The
pubIic executioner sears with hot iron the SEN
sitive flesh; a jeering and angry crowd looks on
and accompanies the sinners progress seated
backward on an ass, through the streets OF the
capitaI Certainly, if deterrent legislation were
all France would have wiped out this social
blot in the seventeenth and the eighteenth CEN
tury.
Little by little it appears that the severity OF
the laws and also of the public relaxed. The
Revolution swept away oIIe VI '4I7 O11A "
on this class when it abolished the penalty OF
Imprisonment for debts incurred by women 70
the foster mothers of their infants, and a con-
| Temporary drawing shows a group Of grateful
women nursing their babies with cheerful
countenances. A few years later 1t was FOR
hidden to make public spectacle Of the women
who were arrested by the police, and print OF
| 1918 shows the woman and her daughter the
| last TO be thus exposed to the crowd
The nineteenth century had left its artists
none of these judicial rigors TO illustrate, but
the subject attracted many clever pencils
Among these are some fine water colors by an