Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-03-22
Her Only Bitterness Comes
From Husbands Disap-|
pointnent in Never FaVing|
Had laboratory He Wanted

PARIS, March 2O.-Pove1ty?-not
at all.
Bitterness?-maybe just a bit, be
cause all his life her husband want
ed an adequate laboratory and didn t
get it.
These are, perhaps the high spots
in talk I had with Madame Marie
Curie, who has been called the
greatest woman in the world-dis-
coverer of radium and polonium.
Listen to Madame Curie:
Poverty? But no, no! And yet
it all depends upon what you mean
by poverty. If you mean not having
a fine mansion with plenty Of serV-
ants and automobiles; if you mean
not going out into the great world
Of society and wealth and fashion
where clothes and jewels are so
essential, we'll, in that way Pierre
Curie and L knew poverty all our
days.
But that was not his idea Of life,
nor mine. You see my tastes are
very simple and my worldly wants
very few. [ live where my husband
and 1 lived for years. It's a plain
little place, but it's comfortable"
l would like you to see Madame
Curie as she was saying this. She
was dressed in a severe black dress
which certainly looked the worse for
wear. No vanity in this woman.
Her iron-gray hair was brushed
back from her fine brow Her hands,
as they lay at rest in her lap,
showed the stains of work, not only
of laboratory research, but Of every
day homework.
Her Life in Brief
To understand this woman you
have to get her background. Her
father, the Polish Professor Sklo-
dowski, was a teacher of physics
and chemistry in his native city of
Warsaw. Little Marie's playroOm
was literally her fathers laboratory.
When she grew up she came to
Paris to pursue her studies at the
Sorbonne. She lived in a tiny room
on the seventh floor of building in
the Latin Quarter. She lugged up
her own coal and did her own cook
ing and washing.
1t was at the Sorbonne that she
met Pierre Curie, already a teacher
there and on the high road to fame.
They were married in 1895 and their
home consisted Of three little rooms.
At one time Madame Curie was
doing three things any one of which
the ordinary woman would have
considered a good days job-she ran
her household and looked after her
first-born; she taught at a high
school for girls at Sevres; and in
their spare time, she and her hus-
band pursued their great chemical
researches in a laboratory in a half
shed, and impossible to heat in
winter.
Their love story, which began
with their first meeting, had a
tragic finale in 1906 when Pierre
Curie was run over and killed. His
widow succeeded him in his chair at
the Sorbonne one of the highest
honors ever paid a woman by
France.
Madame Curie went on in her
talk:
MY husband always insisted and
Tiagreed that the great thing in life
was accomplishment Of the task for
the love OF it, When we discovered
! radium, we both resolved to draw
no material profit from it. We pub
lished everything to the world and
gave all information possible to per-
sons properly interested
Unexpected Funds
sometimes money came to us
from unexpected sources. My hus-
band and /, jointly with Professor
BeCQuerel, received the Noble Prize
in 1903. We spent our part on
scientific research. I did the same
thing with the Noble Prize awarded
me in 1911. Money flows through
your fingers when you think Of 1t
only in terms of laboratories and
expensive minerals that you need
in your researches.
And that leads me to my only
bitterness. All his life my husband
! had to pursue his great scientific
/ work without an adequate labora.
/ tory. Once the French government
wanted to make him a member OF
| the Legion OF Honor, He refused
| saying he didn't need a decoration
| but had the very greatest need of 8
! laboratory. In this regard l am
now better off than he ever was
| You see me installed here in the
new laboratory of the Sorbonne. But
/ it is still incomplete. France has
/ such a mass Of things it is trying to