Show POVERTY O DOES ES iT NOT EMBiTTER EMBiTTER- MADAME CURIE Discoverer of Radium Has No Desire for Wealth as as Represented by Palaces and Aut Automobiles 0 mob i I e 3 BY MILTON BRONNER NEA Service Staff Correspondent Copyright 1924 by NEA Service PARIS March 15 not Poverty Poverty not at all Bitterness Bitterness maYbe just a bit be because because because be- be cause all his life her husband wanted an adequate laboratory and didn't These are perhaps the high spots In a talk I 1 had with Madame Marie Marra Curie who vho ha hap hail been called the greatest woman in the tho world world dis discoverer coverer of radium and polonium Listen to Madame Curie Poverty But no no And yet It all' all depends upon what you mean by poverty If you mean not having hav hay ing lag a fine mansion with plenty of servants and automobiles automobiles' If you me mean n not going out into the great world of society and wealth and fashion where clothes and jewels are so feo essential well weIl in that w way y Pierre Curie Curle and I 1 knew new poverty allour all allour allour our days HAD SIMPLE TASTES But that was not his Idea of life nor mine You see ECO my tastes are very simple and my worldly wants very few I live where my husband and I 1 Jived for Its tIts a plain little place but Its It's comfortable I would like you to see Madame Curie Curle as she was saying this Sh Shwas She was dressed In a severe black dress which certainly looked the worse for wear No To vanity in this woman II Her lIet- Iron-gray Iron hall hair was wa-s brushed backed from her fine brow Her hands as they lay at rest In her lap showed the stains of work not only of laboratory research but of oJ everyday everyday housework To understand this woman you have have- to get her background Her Hur father the Polish Sd Skie- Skie dowski was a teacher of physics and chemistry in his naive city of Warsaw Little Maries Marie's playroom was literally her t fathers father's laboratory When she grew up she came to to- Paris to pursue her studies at t time e She Sho lived in a tiny room room on the seventh floor of a building In Inthe inthe inthe the Latin quarter quartet She lugged up her own coal and did her own cookIng cooking cooking cook cook- ing and washing It was at the that she met Pierre Curie already a teacher there and on th the high road to fame They were married In 1895 lr home consisted of three little rooms HELD TRIPLE JOB JOB- At t one time Madame Curio Curie was wast t doing three things any anyone one of which the ordinary woman would consider a good daY days Job she job she ran n her hous household household house house- hold and looked after her first firstborn orn she taught at a high school for girls at and In their spare time she and her husband pursued their great chemical rese researches in a labOratOry laboratory labo lab h in a half half- half barn arn and half shed and impossible to heat in winter Their love story which began beganI with their first meeting had a tragic trag trag- ic finale in 1906 1006 when Pierre Cu Curia I was run run over over and killed His widow succeeded him In his c chair at at the Sorbonne one of the highest honors ever paid a woman by France Madame Curie went on in her talk My Iy husband always Insisted and I agreed that the great thing in life was accomplishment of the the task task for forthe forthe forthe the love of it When we discovered I radium we both resolved to draw no material profit from It We pu published pus pub everything to the orld and gave all information possible to persons perSons per per- sons properly interested Sometimes money came to us from unexpected sources My husband hus bus band and I I. I Jointly with Professor received the Nobel prize In 1903 VVe We spent our part on scientific scientific sd- sd research I Idid did the same thing with the Noble oble prize awarded me in 1911 Money l flows through your fingers when you think of It enly ny in terms of laboratories and expensive minerals that you rou need in your researches WANTED NO DECORATION And that leads me mo to m my on ony Y bitterness All his life lite my husband had to pursue his great scientific work without an rot adequate labora labora- tory Once Orice the French government wanted to make mako him a a. member of the Legion of Honor He refused sa saying ing he didn't didat need a decoration but had the greatest need of a labora labora- I tor tory In th this s regard I am now better better better bet bet- ter off than he ever was You see me installed here in the new laboratory laboratory labo labo- of the But it is still Incomplete France Prance has hag such sucha a mass of things it is trying to doad do doand and ad d the tho funds are often hard bard to find I 1 lecture twice a week In the Sorbonne and I 1 work in this laboratory laboratory labora labora- tory toh- assisted by my elder daughter Irene So even after I 1 am gone there will be a Curie to go on with the work j i I asked her whether she was ever ever coming back to tb America Sh She smiled one of her beg wistful smiles I 1 ma may never get a chance to goback goback go goback back to your our generous country 1 I Iam Iam am kept so busy here hete You Yott can cantell cantell tell the American women omen the mag magnificent mae mag- gift of radium they made to me roe when I was over there Is beIng beIng being be be- be- be ing employed both In experiments and In curative work But for tho the American women I. I could Id not have gone ahead as I desired t |