The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-04-01
ONCE VERY RICH
SHE BECAME A RAG-PICKER AND
DIED IN POVERTY.
Fatal Duel Between Her Father and
an English Admirer Blotted Hap
piness Out Of Her Life.

"Mademoiselle," the rag-picker,
had a name, though nobody in Ly-
ons, France, knew 1t til she was
found dead on the floor Of her gar
ret. dead Of starvation and old age
com bined. Her name was Marguerite
Carrel. And to her name there hangs
a story.
Seventy years ago, in 1S40, when
Marguerite was 20, the Carrel were
among the silk magnates Of Lyons.
The silk magnates formed a no
bility, an aristocracy as proud in its
own way as the old aristocracy OF
France had been before the revolu-
ton. Marguerite was the Carrels'
only daughter. She was extremely
beautiful, and before she was IS had
as many admirers as the Lyons silk
merchants had grown-up sons. But
she would listen to or look at none o.
them. And then one day a young
Englishman came to Lyons. His
name has not survived.
He was the heir. of an English silk
firm, firm of importers which hao
business dealings with the Duvai
firm, rival OF the Carrels. Between
the families was a feud as bitter as
that between the Montogues and
COputets.
Marguerite Carrel met the young
English friend of the Duval house one
day and fell in love with him, and
he with her. The Englishman was
rich and did not care whether Mar
glerite came to him with or without
a dowry
One night Marguerite Carrel ana
the Englishman left Lyons in post
chaise. Their idea vas to drive south
to mislead pursuit, to make for Mar
settles, and from there to ship for
England.
But old Carrel got wind of their
fight and followed. Forty miles from
Lyons he caught them, and there on
the roadside, under Marguerite Car
rel's frightened gaze, Carrel and the
young Englishman shot one another
dead. What happened after that to
Marguerite nobody knows for GER
tain. She was not seen again till
1870, the year of the. war. Then
one day an old man who had been
helping to carry food and drink to
patients in the hospital recognized
in one of the lay sister, Marguerite
Garcia woman of SO now-whom
he had known and admired as a
young man. She was not nun, but
wore the dress of religious order
and the Geneva cross. She did more
work than any two other helpers in
the hospital.
All that the Lyons Of the last few
years knew about "Mademoiselle
was that she was an old woman, bent
nearly double. with q witch's nose
and chin. She dressed in bits of
sacking and oddments of clothing
which the old clothes merchants had
discarded. She lived, literally lived,
on what she picked up.
All night she was to be seen
prowling up and down the streets of
Lyons, peering about for odds and
ends, begging bit of sugar here,
picking up a cigar or cigarette end
there, on her old feet till and
a. m, when in luck getting a copper
or two from the people who sat out
side the cafes, when out of luck pick
ing crusts from the gutter for her
breakfast.
And early in the morning "Mad-
emoiselle," the beautiful Marguerite
Carrel 70 years ago, was found dead
of privation in her garret. Her filthy
mattress fell to pieces when the po-
lice lifed it, and out of gap in 1t
to the floor rolled $4,000 in gola.