OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 125, 31 May 1927, Page 16

OUR PARIS LETTER

DEVOTED "MOTHER"

TWO HUNDRED CHILDREN

(From Our Own Corrt.p.ndint.) . PAEIS, 30th March.

Keeognition of thirty years of devotion to children of the poor of Paris was given yesterday by the Academy of Moral and Political Science by the award of the Audiffrei-Pasquier Prize of .15,000 francs, to Sister Marie Made-, leine Lacave. Having discovered several children who were running wild, their parents being either unable or unwilling to, look after.them, she took charge of them to the fullest extent of her slender means;: Her work attracted the attention of awealthy woman, who gave her a house and garden in the Eve Vigee-Lebrun, and she is now a second mother to about 200 children, who resort to the house between school hours for recreation, advice, and encouragement. AGED SCHOLAR'S SUCCESS. M. Louis Andrieux, who was Prefect of Police many years ago, and was the doyen of the last Chamber of Deputies, yesterday passed his examination at the Sorbonne and was admitted to the degree of doctor of philosophy, at the ripe ago of 87. At the beginning of his address to the board of seven examiners, M. Andrieux mentioned that he took his licentiate's degree at Lyons in 1860, and he added that it seemed to him original to be able to present the fruit of his studies of a subject which greatly interested him sixtyseven years earlier. Standing erect, and to all appearances full of vigour, M. Andrieux delivered a long dissertation on the teachings of two intellectuals of the past—Alphonse Eabbe, the historian and philosopher, ,and' the Abbe Gassendi, theologian and astronomer. As soon as the examiners announced that M. Andrieux had passed, he was congratulated by M. Clemenceau, who said: "Well, now that you have taken your degree, I suppose you will be making a start in life," to which the new doctor of philosophy replied in the same vein: "Yes, I am thinking of taking up a scholastic career." M. POINCARE'S RETORT. In spite of his earnestness and'concentration in Parliamentary debates, M. Poincare does not disdain an occasional mild repartee. He was questioned in the Chamber on Friday by M. Charles Baron, as to the prospect of the Social Insurance Bill "becoming law before the end of the year, and he replied that the Senate had already expressed the intention of adopting the measure. This did not satisfy M. Baron, who said the Senate was generally slow, and that it was a question of age. The Premier immediately replied amid general laughter: "You are very kind, M. Baron, but I have not noticed that I am any slower than you are;'' EPICURES' BANQUET. Though the annual dinner of the Club dcs Cent, given at the Hotel Scribe,' complied with the regulation restricting the " . number of principal dishes to two, the menu in no way Buffered in point of excellence. It is customary at this function for the meal to be subject to critical discussion, after which the chef is called in and given the views of the assembly. On this occasion the verdict was eminently favourable, and the Scribe chef, M. Gourbault, who is proud of his title of maltre queux, was warmly congratulated on his cremo de volaille, for which 50 chickens were used, and his hot pheasant pate. In an address after the dinner, Baron Fauquieur mentioned that Napoleon, who attached great importance to good cooking, selected Junot for tho post of Governor of Paris because he had a remarkably good cook. Most of the foreign diplomatists were invited to Junot's table, and, under the influence of the chaleur communicative dcs banquets, let out a good many secrots which they might otherwise have kept to themselves. FAIR MONARCH WITH SIMPLE TABTES. Mile. Adine Lesage, the "Queen" of tho 16th arrondissement, who has just been elected to tho higher. dignity of "Queen of Paris," is a pretty blondo, 19 years of age, the daughter of a wineshop-keeper. She has two maids of honour, Mile. Bertha Lacroix and Mllo. Georgette Ferre, and all three of them are typists. Mile. Lesage repudiates till desire to become a film actress, and says she loves her typewriter. Her chief ambition is to have a little motorcar of her own. Sho will have a busy , time this year if sho carries out tlie Fotes Committee's programme. In addition to her numerous public and semipublic appearances in Paris, she is to make a tour of tho chief provincial cities and watering-places and figure m the Petrach and Laura celebrations at Avignon. MLLE. EVE LAVAIiUERE. Mile. Eve Lavalliore, the once-famous Parisian actress, who several yearg ago surprised the public by going into completo retirement and living the life of a religious ascetic, made an application through counsel yesterday for an injunction to prevent the publication of a book entitled, "Les Confessions d'Eve Lavalliere." It was represented on her behalf that her only desire was to be forgotten by the world, and that she was entitled to the "right to s)lence." Counsel for the author and publisher undertook not to issue tho book under the title objected to or in any form which might give the subject matter the apPe-^ a?s?, o£ ra record o£ conversations with Mllo. Lavalliere; but, he added, that the author look yd upon her as an historic personage who might reasonably be made the subject of a perfectly respectful study. The Court adjourned the case for a fortnight. THE COURTEOUS "AGENT." Though doubts have been cast upon his ability to control traffic with the same success as his London colleague, usually by persons who get their ideas of France from unreliable sources no one can deny that the Paris agent is si model of courtesy and willingness to oblige the stranger in a foreign laud. To an observer yesterday, there seemetJ more of th« proverbial French politeness in the manner,and charming smile with which a policeman held up a crowd of large motor-cars in an important thoroughfare that a frail old Englishwoman with a bundle micht cross in safety than in the act itself, although it should be added that the official carried the bundle, and escorted its owner from kerb to kerb.