SISTER CANDIDE'S FUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 161, 9 July 1910, Page 15

SISTER CANDIDE'S FUNDS.

i "A MIBACUE WANTED TO BALANCE a ' -HER FINANCES. , ' ■■ I"■■■ ■ - . . 1 Short and .thick-set; with a "typical French peasant face and a pair of brilliant, beady » black eyes; Sister' Candide, the. well-known - sister of charity, is (wires the "Daily Mail" i Paris correspondent on May 23) in the i women's prison at St. Lozare,- while her 1 fiood faith is ithe subject of a storm of . controversy in 'the Press and eimong the B publlCiiHer arrest, it .will be remembered, was due 'to the action of a number of prominent jewellers, from whom Sister Candide ob- , itaitted an immense quantity of gems on the '• ground -Uiat ehe would find - customers for * tiioiri; devoting her profits to her various • works of mercy. The jewels have disaps peared and the dealers are unpaid. It has been ascertained that Sister Can--3 dide is not, properly epeaJtlng, a nun, and 3 the Archbishop of Paris is reported to have stated that she had no relations with- the s ecclesiastical authorities and 'that the 'habit " she wears is that of the "Hospital Sisters r of St. Ann," an order founded by herseif. 1 'Aiany years ago she <was a nun of a 'teaching order, since dissolved, arid was l _ IMMENSELY POPULAR WITH HBE PUPII/S. / ~ / j Tien she embarked Tipon her caxeer of disas--0 trous charity, and became eobtremely. well c known through hdr untiring efforts to raise j money for her various homes. Her charity s was recognised- by a decoration conferred r upon iier by President Loubefc. a Sister Candide .toad two principal estate toiishments, the Ormessdn Home for Tuber--5 culous Children—which !had, in addition, two j at viliere-sur-tilarne and at 'Noisy--1 le-Grand—and the St. Salvador Home. There t was also a })eautifully-ftfcted nursing home in Paris. These establishments were CONDUCTED ON A. MOST ELABORATsE . SCAIiE. i The 'hundred children at the home for con-. stttnptlves Cost;B/ a head daily. • (The St. Salvador institution was a nursing home for the wealthy, and its value was enhanced ;by the discovery of valuable antirheumatic springs. THe friends of Sister 'Candide ilscrlbe her ruin to her childlike t tfaith in a miracle happening to .balance her a finances, and her overwhelming good nature, a which made it impossible for her to refuse j asylum in her various homes to the penniT less. - • Meairvrhlle nothiiig is Knotfrn of tfie .. tHNOKSiOTJS SUMS - wHici passed through.tier haidg. The'cfficials at her homes, .which were entirely dcs ipefldeflt upon the mdnetary support fof--3 .warded regularly toy this femarkable'womaii, J are in despair. Th* lengthy cross^eiaini- • nation tit the StSter itijr *he magistrate yeSi terday threw no light ott the question *here 3 the intiney fiad gone. ■ ' •:: ■> ! Dr. Leon Petitj the secretary of the Oγi messon establishment, who hanged himself, 5 seems to have taken his life only on awak- ; eniojf to the fact that the charities to which i he had devoted himself <were ruined. t The doctor has left a number of notes to 3 his friends; bitterly-upbraiding Sister Can- ) didej and calling lor vengeance.