AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL The Late Madame Boucicaut.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 242, 18 February 1888, Page 8 (Supplement)

AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL The Late Madame Boucicaut.

The great family of drapers was honoured in the person of the late Madame Boucicaut. Her magnificent generosity has seldom, if ever, been equalled. Her will remains ft lastingmementoof the most perfect charity, tho highest-minded philanthropy. It was a great thing to have, amassed such an immense fortune ; it was infinitely nobler to have learnt thus to distribute it for the greatest good of all. I havo transcribed the document at great length further on ; it is fitting that every publicity should be given to it, being almost unique of its kind. It shows how thoroughly she had at heart the prosperity of the community over which she ruled; no one, not the meanest employ^ (even those who had been engaged but yesterday), was forgotten. It likewise shows that her sympathies extended far beyond tho limits of her own dominion. Her donations have been made with an extraordinary knowledge of the general needs. She has remembered aliko tho aged, the pick, and the convalescent, the young of both sexes, and also the necessitous of a higher class, and in distributing her magnificent largesse no small-minded bigotry has been allowed to enter. She has placed money in the hands of the Catholic and Protestant clergy, as well as those of the Jewish rabbi. There were more than four millions sterling to divide, and the division has been made with such perfect impartiality, suck tender solicitude, such discretion and intelligence, that it would be impossible to improve upon it, and there is no room loft for suggestion or criticism. But the will speaks for itself, and requires no further comment. She bequeaths : — To all assistants who have been from one day to three year 3 in her service, £40 ; from threo to six y«ars, £120 ; from six to ten years, £240 ; more than ten years' service, £500 each. To all workpeople engaged by the day having worked for less than six months, £4 each ; to the same having worked for the house from six months to six yearn, £20 each ; to the same after six years' service, £40 each. To the workmen employed by the builders having worked loss than six months, £4 each ; to the same for more than six months, £20 each. To the -Ttttchmen in the service less than six years, £20 each ; to tho same for more than six years' service, £40 each. To all professors engaged to teach in the assistants' classes, £40 each. To the Mutual Aid Society for the Bon Marche", for the erection of a haven for convalescents and overworked assistants, her estate of Fortenay-aux-Roses, valued at more than £40,000. To the poor of Verjux, in Saono et Loire, tho - native place of Mme. Boucicaut, £4,000. To the poor of Bellome, in the Arne, native place of the late M. Boucicaut, £4,000. To the poor of Cannes, £2,000. To the poor of Fontenay-aux-Rosea, £2,000. To the Apprentices' Institution of St. Nicolas, £40,000. To the " Jeunes Economes" Society of Mutual Support for Young Females, £20,000. To the Professional School of Pictures for male apprentices, £20,000. To the Association of Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers, and Designers, £4,000. To the Association of Musicians, £4,000. To the Association of Dramatic Artist 3, £4,000. To the Association of Monitors and Industrial Artists, £4,000. To the Association of Professors, £4,000. To the necessitous of the Newspaper Press, £4,000. To M. Pasteur, who has already received £6,000, a further gift of £4,000. For the foundation of three Asylums in (he neighbourhoods of Lille, Rouen, and Chalon-sur-Seine, £105,800. To the asylum of Fontenay-aux-Roses, the building constructed by Mdme. Boucicaut at a cost of £4,000, besides the sum of £20,000— £24,000. For the foundation of an Asylum for Old Women and a School of Needlework for Young Girls at BellSme, her estate of Belldme, valued at £4,000, and £24,000. For keeping up four beds in the wards of the Bell6me Hospital, £4,000. To tho Minister of Fine Arts, for the Museums of the Louvre and Luxemberg, three tine pictures by Fromentin, Courbet, and Dupr6. To the Educational Houses of St. Denis, Econen, and the Loges, where the daughters and orphans of knights and officers of the Legion of Honour are educated free of cost, the whole of her plate and table linen. To each of the 20 arrondissements of Paris £400 for the poor, with double the amount of those of her own arrondissement, £8,400. To the Grand Rabbi for his poor, £4,000. To the Augsbourg Consistory and the Reformed Church, £4,000. To further the Catholic interest in Paris, £1,000. To the Archbishop of Paris, £12,000. There are, moreover, a few legacies to relations, friends, and servants. To the defunct's coachman, Joseph, £8,000. The freeholds of tho business premises, including several buildings besides the great quadrangular pile in which the retail establishment is installed, are bequeathed to the Association of the Bon Maroh^. Finally, the Assistance Publique is made residuary legatee, and is charged with the foundation of an hospital to be called Hopital Boucicaut. The establishment is henceforth to be directed by those gentlemen who are designated in the will : M. Plassard (chairman of the council), M. Morin (her cousin), and M. Fillot, who have hitherto acted as director and f»ub-director. !