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MADAME LUCE, OOF AliGIERS. 307
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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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.
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methe interest which she took in the establishment , and her regret at not being * able to visit itdeigned to accept some _sjDeeimens of
_, these embroideries , and was so good as to give me an order for more .
Xi Je suis avec respect , Monsieur le Prefet , " Votre tres humble et tres obeiss ante servante , ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ - " Eugenie Luce . _"Alger , 27 Decembre , I 860 . "
On the back of the report Madame Luce has written , c ( The school has at this moment 150 scholars . Twenty work at the embroidery ,
and while gaining their own livelihood honorably , cost nothing to the Administration ., I hope , that the new Administration will
comprehend all the importance of this establishment , and will sustain it as it deserves to be sustained .
"En ma Allah ! . "( S'il plut a Dieu !) "
The present state of Madame Luce's school has been witnessed by the many English who have passed the last winter at Algiers—of
whom the writer was one . The old Moorish house , No . 5 , Rue de Toulon , is in the heart of the compact labyrinth forming the Corsair
City . The little narrow steep streets , which often break abruptly into regular stepsare "wholly inaccessible to any vehicle ; only
a laden donkey can , pass up and down and under the dark tunnels where the thoroughfare lies between dwellings which meet
overhead . In one of the steepest , darkest , and dirtiest of these streets , a very handsome arched doorway leads into the oblong vestibule
where servants—and , in the olden day , slaves—were supposed to wait . From this we emerge into the square court of two stories , open
to the sky . The class rooms are both above and below , and the quaint little figures which linger about the doors are the scholars
for whom Madame Luce has fought so severe a battle . They wear full trousers and jackets ; their hair is twisted into long pigtails
behind and tightly bound with green ribbon , on the crown of their heads are little velvet caps embroidered with gold thread ; their
nails are tinged with henna ; their legs , from the knees to the ankles , are bareand are then finished off with anklets and slippers . They
talk rapidl , y in an unknown tongue , and sit writing French exercises , and doing sums on black boardsor sit under the trees of a sunny
, yard at the back , sewing frocks and towels and dusters like any other school-girls all the world over . But one of the number is no
longer to be found in any group . The gentle and clever _TsTefissa Bent Alithe same who was at Amboiseand who was since
sub-, , mistress under Madame Luce , died in the early spring of prolonged consumption . The writer saw her iiot long * before her death , and
doubly sad it was to see a carefully educated Moorish woman , capable of doing so much to helher sistersfading with half
p , away her mission unfulfilled . The pale patient girl lay in a small room
z 2
Madame Luce, Oof Aligiers. 307
MADAME LUCE , OOF AliGIERS . 307
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1861, page 307, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071861/page/19/
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