Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 260, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1912 — HAS RIGHT TO KILL? [ARTICLE]

HAS RIGHT TO KILL?

French Woman Writers Discuss Case of Mme. Bloch. Six To)'Two Against Woman Who Shot Rival—Various Opinions on Crimes of Passion and Literature. Paris. —Some French woman authors have been giving their views on the right of their sex to kill. Their opinions are based on the case of Mme. Bloch, who wrote books signed with the name of Frederic de Beaulien and who shot and killed Mrs. Bridgeman, who had won M. Bloch’s affections. From the prison Mme. Bloch announced that she had received “innumerable letters of congratulation” and that many of them came from her sister authors. The suggestion that woman writers sympathized with Mme. Bloch’s act moved Le Mirolr to make an Inquiry. Of the eight women of letters who gave their opinion only two supported Mme. Bloch’s action. The first of this minority, Mme. Marie de Vo vet; writes: “Although murder inspired by Jeaiousyds reproved by all in principle, nothing is more difficult to judge In the various forms It may take. The best thing, it seems to me, is to treat it with charity, thinking that before a woman’s hand could seize a weapon there must have been suffering enough to constitute presumptive expiation.” Mme. Aurel, the other supporter of Mme. Bloch, writes: “If a rival had dared to set me at defiance I believe that I should have done aq. Mme. Bloch did. It is none the less a misfortune." As for the six woman writers who condemn Mme. Bloch’s crime, more (hnn one finds that a desire for selfadvertisement, a feeling that the aotlon would boom her books, had some influence on her mind. Mme. Daniel Lesuer, the best known writer of the eight quoted, says: “T hold that he who. kills ought to accept death; otherwise he is the most cowardly of being*. On this condition only can vengeance to death be clothed with any grandeur.” Mme. Jeanne Landre would have a law passed that, except in cases of self defense, no acquittal should be allowed when a death has been caused. She. casts doubts on the sincerity of

all persons who look for advertisement in their profession. Mme. Jane Catulle Mendes,' widow of the poet and dramatist, believes that love may cause crimes of passion, but cannot in any way excuse them. "1 do not see that modern literature Is a factor in multiplying these acts of savagery which seem to me to have their origin in feebleness of hearts and feebleness of the code.” Mme. Rachilde argues that "to commit the crime which was the motive of the second crime required two people ;" then why kill the woman and spare the man? Because she loved her husband, the father of her children? If that was so she ought to have forgiven. Literature a broad back. A true lover of letters would have had the wit to fire in the air, if this form of advertisement was absolutely necessary. Mme. Valentine de Saint-Point, the lecturer on "Futurism,” has no sympathy with lenient verdicts v ln crlmeE of passion. She says: "A person who pretends to be acting without consciousness of what he Is doing or under the influence of madness is a much greater social danger than a conscious criminal, and as au individnal much more lnßiguidcauL” Mme. Andree Corthls Is unhesitatingly against Mme. Bloch. She says: “I cannot understand love that has no dignity, love that thrusts itself upon and clings to its object, not this extraordinary idea of longing to keep a man who flees from you, even if scandal, force and mhrder are necessary to hold him.” 1 __