THE SIMPLE LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 444, 31 December 1908, Page 3

THE SIMPLE LIFE.

A Defiance of Modern

Civilisation.

Simple life is being practised with a vengeance by a labourer and his family at Montgeron, near Corbeil, in France. The workman and his wife had hitherto been known as an industrious and thrifty couple, but they nevertheless found it difficult to make both ends meet, having to support six small children, and a seventh being expected. The climax came when they were unable to pay their rent in October, and were evicted from the little flat which they had occupied because the husband had been out of work for some time and could find no new occupation. He gathered up his few belongings and took up quarters for himself and his family under the arches of a railway bridge, where he decided for the rest of his life to defy the State and modern civilisation, which, he argued, had treated him, an honest man, so cruelly. The mayor of two adjoining localities went to see the family and offered to find free lodgings for them, bnt the workman and his wife refused. They met certain charitable persons of the neighbourhood, who offered them money, food, and clothing, in the same way. “ Keep your money,” they said, “we will not accept anything.” A seventh child had been born, and still the strange couple refused all aid. Their case has been brought to the notice of the prefecture of the department, and nothing less is spoken of than enforcing charity with energetic measures.