FRENCH NUNS AS "SWEATERS."

Evening Star, Issue 11863, 17 April 1903, Page 3

FRENCH NUNS AS "SWEATERS."

Saturday, February 28, saw the end of a case at Nancy (France) against the nuns of the Good Shepherd, who were accused of “sweating”, the girls in their charge. One of the ex-inmates, Mdlle Locoanet, brought an action for damages. M. Saint Aubin, the Procureur-General, thrilled the court with terrible details which it was his duty to lay bare. Mdlle Locoanet, he said, has undoubtedly lost her eyesight by the work set her. With scorn he rebutted the argument, of the nuns that she was not the only sufferer, but that other inmates had become almost blind also. The sanitary condition of the establishments was shocking. Baths were forbidden, body linen refused, and the poor girls wore their clothing to rags. They

were all anaemic, a doctor was scarcely ever called in, and when a remedy was prescribed it was ignored on the ftlea that it was too dear. It required am epidemic of typhoid fever to induce the Mother Superior to make some slight improvement in the way of diet. The human machine, added the ProcnreurGeneral, had been abused to the uttermost. Taking the lowest estimate, the workers in embroidery gained two francs a day. Mdlle Locoanet had worked for the “Good Shepherd ” at Nancy for sixteen years, and had never received a penny. During that long period she had been ill-treated, and was now thrown on the .pavement helpless and destitute. M. Saint Aubin expressed himself with singular moderation, but his tale powerfully affected the audience. Mdlle Locoanet wai authorities were ordered to pay all the costs About fifty witnesses testified to the hard ships imposed ou the inmates of the con vent.