A SHATTERED LIFE

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 280, 19 August 1908, Page 5

A SHATTERED LIFE

For fifty years No. 19 Boulevard Poissoniore, in Paris, a liouso of four stories, has (says a correspondent of tho "Daily Express") been closely shattered, and yet it has been continuously inhabited. Servants wero seen to enter and loavo tho building, and ono day last June, it was dressed in the black and silver trappings which usher Franco's citizens to their last resting-place. Mme. do Provigny, its occupant for fifty years, was dead.. She was an old lady of 70, and for the last half-century sho lived in that closed and shuttered house without a newspaper, without an open book, without a iiowcr, and without a word to her from any living soul. For fifty years Mine, do Provigny woro whito satin. Sho wore it on her wedding day, and always dressed in whito to tho end. Fifty years ago 51. de Provigny died. They had been married the samo morning, and the young husband died of apoplexy an hour after tho ceremony. When sho recovered from the shock, if, indeed, she can be said ever to have recovered from it, Mme. do Provigny had the liouso shut up, but sho retained her servants on condi : tion that they were never to confront her with, a living being, and never to speak to her again. She did not know tho trend of public events. Motor-cars wero unknown to her. Sho did not know whether France was a republic. Sho had. never heard of tho Dreyfus case, of the Death of Queen Victoria, or of any national or international event. She died recently, and in' her. will left tho whole fortuno to men and women aged over 60 years of good character. Sho left a largo house in the country as a home for them, and £400,000 for its support. If, for any reason, says a medical man, a poultice cannot bo put on as soon as it 'is made,' put it between two hot plates and stand it over a saucepan of boiling water; never put it into tho oven to keep hot, as tho dry heat hardens the outside of it, and it is very likely to chafe tho skin. All poultices except linseed meal should be put into muslin bags.- Linseed should be spread on muslin, and the meal itself put against the skin, with nothing in between.