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A PROTESTANT SISTER OF CHARITY

ing that a legion of Little Sisters of the Poor take care of sick mothers at their homes, and look after the household duties too? Can one forget our devoted physicians, so eager to help little children and the destitute-physicians among whom those of the Pasteur Institute, from their modesty, merit all the more enthusiastic mention? It is with reason that we can say, At Paris, to be well cared for, one must be very rich or very poor. The attentions of the highest medical authorities are reserved for those who can pay largely, or to those who are compelled to be treated only in the hospitals. Here is equality established between the last and the first.

The common man who would cultivate his mind finds many means in Paris. He has the popular libraries with their reading-rooms, and loans of books to be taken home. He has all the museums and all the public collections. The admirable Louvre and Luxembourg galleries, the vast scientific and industrial museum of Arts and Trades, the historical Cluny and Carnovalet collections, the wonderful collections of the Museum of Natural History, the greenhouses and parterres of the Jardin des Plantes, are accessible to all classes of society. A man with wornout shoes and no cap can view the Louvre masterpieces just as well as can a Marchioness, and it is very rare that our public galleries are the scenes of any degradation or impropriety

In several quarters of Paris public religious conferences are nightly held. Most of the lecture-rooms were founded by the McAll Mission, established by a

friend of France after the war of 1870. This mission has brought very many per sons into contact with the Gospel. One of the most appreciated speakers at these meetings was the lamented Eugène Bersier. Never did this eloquent preacher use warmer, more incisive, or more charming accents than when he was in the habit of speaking to the audiences in the Salle Ornan.

Among those who have bent their activity to popular education and moralization, mention should be made of Senator Béranger, the courageous adversary of pornography and street license; of M. Frédéric Passy, the apostle of Peace Societies and of International Arbitration; and of the regretted Léon Say, who did so much to encourage Mutual Aid Societies, one of the oldest of which he honored as president.

The theaters (let us praise them highly, since in another way they have accomplished so much evil) have done their utmost for the obscure populace which has little or no money. We have popular representations on certain days, when the seats cost only a quarter or half the usual price. There are also days like the National Holiday (14th July) when most of the theaters give gratuitous spectacles. These occasions are characterized only by the best pieces, and actors dispute among themselves for the advantage of playing before this special public. No other audience is more grateful or more impressionable. They rarely have the pleasure of being present at the play. They are not blasés, nor are they familiar with the wings. Having gained their places by long waiting at the door, they occupy them as conquests; they listen in silence, applaud with enthusiasm, weep all together, the prey of simple and contagious emotion.

I wish to speak a little in detail of two recent institutions, called to do a great good: the Musée Social and the Société des Habitations à Bon Marché. A greathearted man and a real philanthropist, the Comte de Chambrun, formed last year at 5 rue Las Casas an entirely new social

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endeavor-the Musée Social, the aim of which is to put gratuitously at the disposition of the public, with information and consultations, the documents, models, plans, statutes, etc., of social institutions and organizations which have for their object the amelioration of the material and moral situation of workingmen. To this end the Musée Social comprises: (1) An exhibition of graphic tables, indicating the principal statistics of different branches of social economy-Savings, Mutual Aid Societies, Retirement Banks, Co-operative Societies of Production, of Credit, of Eatables and Drinkables, Workingmen's Dwellings, Popular Clubs, Professional Syndicates, Life and Accident Insurance Societies. (2) A library and reading-room, free to the public and containing all the books and the principal periodical publications having to do with social questions in the most important countries of the world. (3) A Bureau of Information, in which several men of authority are at the disposition of the public to respond to all questions, verbal or written. (4) A Lecture-room, in which, during the winter, the most competent men in social questions speak tionale, probably the most extensive in the on that which makes, in France or elsewhere, for the good of the working classes. (5) A Mission service, the aim of which is to send yearly certain distinguished persons, accompanied by young men (who, later, can replace the first), into the principal industrial or agricultural countries, there to study social movements. (6) A Circular, sent free to more than 6,000 labor organizations, in which practical information is given on the social questions of the day. The Comte de Chambrun has endowed the Musée Social with the sum of 2,000,000 francs ($400,000), the interest of which permits a large subsidy, covering the expenses of a work which will render great services to capitalists, to students, and to workers of all kinds.

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MAIN ROOM OF ONE OF THE
SMALLER PARIS LIBRARIES

The largest library is the Bibliothèque Naworld. With the exception of Holy Week, it is open free to the public every day of the year.

The important question of workingmen's houses has received in France a powerful

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movement by the formation of the Société Française des Habitations à Bon Marché (literally translated, "The French Society of Laborers' Dwellings at Good Bargains"), the chief founders being MM. Jules Siegfried, Georges Picot, and Charles Roberts. One of the honorary presidents was the late Jules Simon. This society aims to encourage in France the construction, by private persons or by local societies, of healthful and cheap dwellings, or the betterment of existing dwellings. It seeks notably to propagate methods of cleanliness and to facilitate to employees, artisans, and all working people the acquisition of their dwellings. To this end the society puts at the disposition of private persons or associations model plans, recognized as the best, as well as all necessary documents and information. Being only a society of propagation and popularization, all actual A CORNER IN THE PARIS lending, borrowing, purchasing of land or building of houses is interdicted, but it

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN

ASSOCIATION BUILDING

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THE LATE REV. R. W. MCALL
The founder and director for twenty years of the McAll Mission

encourages by all possible means the
establishment of building associations,
either joint-stock or co-operative. In
this the society has already had success,
for since its foundation twenty associa-
tions of this kind have been created in
different parts of France. Every three
months it publishes a pamphlet giving
complete information as to what is going
on, not only in France but also elsewhere,
on the subject of workingmen's houses.
Thanks to its initiative, Parliament, on
the motion of M. Siegfried, has exempted
these "Habitations à Bon Marché " from
the ground tax for five years. Hence-
forth, also, in case of the decease of the

head of a family, the house which he has occupied (conditionally on not being beyond a certain modest importance) may be kept undivided by the widow and minor orphans until the majority of the latter. As a result of all these efforts the solution of the question of laborers' houses has received a happy impulse, whose results will only grow greater.

One of the best and least-known sides of Paris is that of family life, whose intimate, self-respecting relations are in contrast with the torrent of dissipation which tumbles its waves in plainer sight. It seems that, at the heart of agitations and tumult, man has felt with greater

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ONE OF THE MANY MCALL MISSION STATIONS IN PARIS

force the necessity of taking refuge in the inviolable silence of home. Paris counts a great multitude of families, belonging to all social classes, for whom worldly life does not exist. These families, far from feverish domains of pleasure, of speculation, of gaming, lead an unimagined existence of work and family peace.

One of the manifestations of family life is the Sunday walk in the wood. To see it, go not only to the Bois de Boulogne, where there is a concourse of luxurious equipages and beautiful toilettes, but as well to the Bois de Vincennes, that immense garden of the Faubourg St. Antoine. On Sunday thousands and tens of thousands of little children go thither in troops. The nurslings who cannot walk yet are carried, and in a net are the provisions for the repast on the grass. When the favorite bit of turf has been found, or the accustomed grove, there is a settling down for the whole day. Then follows the sound of almost endless laughter, sport, and song. Resting on the grass, the fathers of families, employees, day-laborers of all sorts, amuse themselves with their little children, and then run about with them, giving them rides pick-a-back. At certain places, as around the lakes of St. Mandé, where the land is amphitheater-like, you

A MISSION CHURCH-BOAT ON THE SEINE

may observe at a single view hundreds of families installed near each other, given up to the pleasure of breathing pure air in the shade of great trees, and presenting graceful groups of popular joy.

These luminous days have their complement in the sadder days of pilgrimage to the cemeteries. There, too, the family is complete. They go also in fancy towards the dear dead lying far away beyond the boundaries of Germany or Italy, to bring them a bouquet, to give them a tear. I am continually more and more struck with the devotion of our masses in regard to the dead. In the street the most vulgar carter stops his horse and raises his cap when a coffin passes by. On All Saints' Day one sees a vast throng spread itself through the cemetery avenues without the least disorder. Every one speaks in low tones.

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At that time the city was in the hands of the Communists.

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