422 MADAME DE MIRAMION. Madame de Miramion was the first lady in Europe who ever tried systematically to reclaim the fallen of her own sex. She hired a spacious house in Paris, into which she received those who wished to reform, and there she main- tained and taught them, and for such as persisted in ieading an honest life, she procured places or husbands. Other ladies of rank joined her the King assisted, and the establishment continues its benevolent work to the present day. She also founded a dispensary, which not only supplied the poor with medicines, but instructed a number of women in the art of preparing them, and in the making of salves and plasters. An excellent institu- tion founded by her was an industrial school for young girls, where they were taught sewing, household arts, reading, writing, and the catechism, all the pupils being furnished every day with a good plain dinner. In all these establishments, Madame de Miramion labored with her own hands and head, setting an example of devotion and skill to all who assisted her. Her singular aptitude for managing business, and her knowledge of finance, stood her in good stead. During one of those times of famine which used to desolate France, she hit upon the expedient of selling a piece of bread and a certain quantity of soup at cost, or a little below cost, by which many thousands were carried over the period of scarcity who Avould not have been reached by charity. She spent her life in labors like these, devoting herself and all she possessed to the mitigation of human woe, reserving literally nothing for her own enjoyment. It was she who gave that impulse to works of charity which has rendered Paris the city of Europe most abounding in organizations for the alleviation of poverty and pain. She died in 1694. Recently her memoirs have been published in Paris by a member of her family, and the work, I hope, will find its way, through a translation, to readers in America.
