Minister's Morning

Minister s Morning

That respected, venerable statesman Minister of Justice Louis Barthou visited, last week, the prison of St. Lazare and there presented one Sister Marie Perpetue with the Order of the Legion of Honor for her 50 years' work among fallen women at the prison.

Soon M. Barthou, impeccably frock-coated, issued out into a courtyard where the children of certain women prisoners were at play. Rushing in a merry group around the Minister of Justice they shouted "Oh, Papa! Papa! Give us a sou, papa!"

Horrified, the Warden attempted to hush these shrill cries. But the face of M. Louis Barthou only crinkled in a smile: "Eh! mes petits, do I then resemble your so many 'papas'--what is the mystery?"

Soon the children "confessed that an interne attached to the prison hospital had bribed them with sweetmeats to cry "Papa!" at the first man they should see that morning, who, by pure chance, was the Minister of Justice.