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164 MADAME UJCE, OF ALGIEKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
A Short Account Of The Life And Labors O...
Such , was the _hxrnian material which Madame Allix dared to _conceive of as capable of being" raised to something * aj ) proaching the
condition of her European sisterhood . This was the way in which sheset to work , being profoundly persuaded that till something * was done
to alter the social spirit of Moorish interiors , no true amalgamation with the conquering * race could ever take place .
While collecting her small funds , and laying her large plans r she perfected herself in the knowledge of the native language ; and
in 1845 , fifteen years after the conquest , she commenced a campaign among the Moorish families of her personal acquaintance ,
endeavoring" to persuade the fathers and mothers to entrust their little irls to her care for a few hours every daythat they might
be taug g ht to read and write French , and also to , sew neatly—an lishment in which the Moresques are as deficient as they are
in accomp Latin and mathematics . By dint of coaxing , presents , entreaties , and the most solemn assurances that she would not interfere with
the religion of the children—by using , in short , her personal influence with all the energy of a philanthropist and the tact of a
Frenchwoman , she contrived to get together four little girls , whom she installed in a house she hired for the purpose , and she began
to teach them without an hour ' s delay . In writing this account I follow corroborated a long b memorial y my own addressed personal observation by her to the on Minister the _j _^ resent of War state ,
of the school . By degrees , as the rumor of her _j ) lan _sjDread among the Mussulmansone child after another dropped in -upon hertill
the numbers ran , up to thirty and to forty . Finding it answer , beyond her hopesshe then began to demand support from the local
, government—the same support which they gave to the education of boys—telling the officials that it was in vain to hope to rear a
better , a more rational and civilized race of Mussulmans , so long as their wives and the mothers of the next generation were left in
worse than the ignorance of the brutes , to whom God has given sufficient intelligence for the performance of the _simjxLe duties and
the enjoyment of the simple pleasures of their _, state . But _the Algerine officials saw no manner of good in educating Moorish
women ; they did not believe that " as the wife is so the husband is" reversing Tennyson's stanza in Locksley Hall ; and though they
complimented , Madame Allix upon her energy , they declined allowing her pecuniary assistance . She , who had counted on
demonstrating to them the value and the success of the' experiment , was almost in despair . The expenses were heavyand altogether
, defrayed by her ; the children had to be bribed to come—and to be helpedsuch as were of poor familiesby foodclothinglodging , and
school- , books . It all fell on her , small mean , s , and , though the school was answering in its moral and intellectual ends , there
seemed nothing for it but to close it , and lament over the failuro of so noble an experiment , and the waste of much time and-money .
The 30 th of _Deeembei _* , 1845 , came ,, on wliiclx day the Ccmncil of
164 Madame Ujce, Of Algieks.
164 MADAME UJCE _, OF _ALGIEKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1861, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051861/page/20/
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