, 1872-10-18

question is now pending in one of the French
courts, the decision Of which will be OF vital
interest to many thousands in this country, and
will come directly home to almost every one,
who has to depend upon art to repair the dam
ages which time inevitably causes IN propria
persona. This question is whether false teeth
and the other artificial acceEEories, which tend
to preserve the divinity Of the human form, are
liable to seizure for debt. The universality Of
the use Of artificial aids to beauty heightens the
Importance Of this decision. In tho fast age in
which We live, man as well as woman gets out
OF repair very rapidly, and needs almost constant
patching and tinkering to make presentable
appearance. Otherwise, the most Of us
would simply be more or less picturesque ruins,
notwithstanding the assertion Of the anatomists
that the human form renews itself every seven
years. After man passes thirty-fve, some
times before, he begins to moulder and crunhle,
for the reason that in these thirty-fve years he
has done what ought to have taken seventy
years to accomplish. He has lived too fast,
eaten too fast, drank too fast, walked too fast,
worked too fast, played too little, slept too lit
tie, and rested too little. Gas light, acids,
poisons, writing deHks, high stools, coal stoves,
carbonic acid, omnibuses, tight boots,
and o'clock dinners, followed faithfully
and perslstently for thirty-fve years, make it
inevitable that art must be called in to help na-
ture along. As nearly all Of us are in this con-
| dition, it becomes question Of prime impor-
tance whether the law can step in, and, taking
| away the aids to beauty and appliances Of art,
| lea1e us cheerless lot of human ruins, natural
| fractions instead OF artistic integers. Then,
again, as every man imbibes from the maternal
| fount the irresistible desire to get into debt,
and gradually, as that passion becomes habit,
| gets into debt with the most perfect ease, and
| with q AIicawberish Indifference as to the time
and manner Of satisfying his little
obligations, the prospect for art
becomes still moro discouraging, it this decision
| allows the creditor to take mans teeth out OF
his mouth. II tile ruthless creditor can take
the teeth, what is to hinder him from taking the
wig the g1ess-eye, the rubber-nose, the cork
leg, the wooden-arm, the tin ear, even coat, Int,
vest, pants, and boots, and turning man out,
with no other clothing than q pair of eyeglasses
and 8 tooth-pick, to prove the truth of Plato's
famous definition OF man. MicaWber; Mania
| 1ini and skimpole we're constantly in debt.
Every man who met those fascinating creatures
carried their I 0 Us in his pocket, and there is
no record to show that their voluminous prom
ises to pay ever involved them in any mora
/ serious trouble than the time they occupied
in writing them, or that they suffered therefrom
in the elegance of their personal appearance by
the loss of any Of those little objects Of art
with which they we're accustomed to repair the
ravages Of time. The application of such prin-
cple, however, as the creditor in tue tootl,-suit
seeks to establish, would fill our streets with
collapsed JAWS, bald-heads, one-eyed, onc-leSged,
and one-armed cripples, not to mention the
absence OF raiment, ruins of men who now
stand credited with the symmetrical graces Of
Apollo and the beauty Of Adonis, and whose
real conditions are known only tc
their 7alets, if they have any, and
to their looking glasses if thoy have
not. II mans hair, teeth, and eyes are not
sacred, what is sacred7 Humanity, not to
speak Of the universal love for the beautiful, re-
volts against the remorseless creditor Whe
would carry his greed so far as to leave mans
head as bare as q tiled floor, invest him with &
sightless orb instead Of the awe-inspiring OK
preston Of glass-eye, and compel him to fee6
On spoon yictnala, who has been accustomed tc
!. feed on roast beef and boiled turkey, simply be-
cause the Yjctim owes him certain number O.