A REMARKABLE WOMAN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1759, 6 February 1888, Page 2

A REMARKABLE WOMAN

Mdme Boucioauit. proprietress of the Paris BonMarcLe whose deah -a reported from Kioe, was a remarkable woman. Her fortune is given by soma j mraala as exoeeding four million* sterliag. The: P«rii correspondent of the " Daily News " s<ty«: — " This universal prov der won for her. self a plaoe m the history m Paris Mdme Boucioauit, the daughter of a washer* woman, and herself, for a long course of yeats, a shopgirl m L<j Petit at Thomas, where she met her husband, Arintide Boociciult must long be retne nbured for h r de-ds of eh irity and intelligent mun fici-nce. Both her husband and only Hon died before her. On earning to Paris I more than 45 years ago, an illiterate p-»aaaok girl, Mdme. Bouaioanlt became a saleswoman m the Petit St. Thomas, m the Hue de Bac She was 28 years old Her husband belonged to a much better family ; bat he and the fell m lore with uaoo other, and to work together at the same counter determined to set up ; n business on their owq account. At th s period of her career there was a good de»l of distress m Paris, pn I she made a resolution to sell as near to cost prise as sac could possibly afford to poor folk There were nanny oluma on the edge of the iver filled with shinty tenements, all of which hay» disappeared Tht-ir denizens b oame the customers of the shop, aud she provided a special cla«s of goods which were on sale every Saturday evening. This determination brought its own reward, and the miserable (shop was brought up to «uoh a pitch of prosperity that its proprietors bought the huuae next door, and one by one many other?, until they owned a whole bock '1 hrn blook they demolished not many >era age, and on its site stands the p«Utiai Bon Ma ohe, the annual businers of which range* from eight to tea mi lions sterling. Ma iauie tioaoioault foon led an asylum for old men n. ar hot suburban rmdence at Fmtenay-aux--1. 0 (es At her native commune of Verjux she eodowed t-vo xoh-jols. built a btiJga at a cos ot £20,000 endowed 10 beds m the Be 1 ivue Hospikl, and gave m the hard winter of 1870 to the poor of Paris 30,000 blankets tier subscription to the Pasteur laettiate wu £6000 The conort and reading roms for the staff of the Bun Marobe vvere eadowed at her eugi^eation by her hu«nand, aad not long ago she adied £160,000 to ao insurance and retiring f oud which be created for thier benefit. Per greatest act of generosity was the admission of 96 members of her staff as shareholders m the Bon Marche. They had,' between what they baa saved and what she and her husband had given them, a capital of £300,000. Her part amounted to half a mi Ili n sterling, independently of plant and premises. The porters, coachmen, and stablemen were all provided for by meaus of a retiring fund, from which, if they were dismissed, they could withdraw the money sunk therein, with mUtest at 3£ per cent*