FRANCE: Lazare Day

As the 18th Century French republicans celebrated July 14, the day the destruction of the Bastille commenced, so last week in all the little hotels of Montmartre the loose ladies of Paris celebrated the destruction of another prison almost as old: St. Lazare, handed over to the wreckers Aug. 9. For 141 years the vermin-ridden prison on the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, built on the site of the still more ancient leprosery of St. Lazare, has held France’s women prisoners, specially harlots. One of St. Lazare’s first notable prisoners was Charlotte Corday, bath-stabber of Terrorist Marat. One of its more recent inmates was the equally publicized Spy Mata Hari. U. S. inmates have included the Comtesse de Janze, the former Alice Silverthorne of Chicago, for shooting her lover (whom she later married) and Mrs. Ruth Putnam Mason, author and actress, for passing worthless checks. On the site will be built a new clubhouse for the Societe des Auvergnats, whose members all hail from the old province of Auvergne. Most prominent of Auvergnats is former Premier Pierre Laval.