The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-29
BY HORsLEY BROS. & FIGUERs.

Mons aloft, where they hung by thei
tails, like chandeliers, sending fourtl
unearthly sounds.
"The dear boy fancies he'll catc]
them again I" said Giraud.
"Ma fol p said Maquet, s'I shouldn'
be surprised. Curiosity, with them, i
still stronger than fear"
"Theyl" chimed in Michel the garde
ner, who considered Dumas collection O
animals as kept for his (Michel's) owl
private amusement. "Theyl They
are as obstinate as mules, and will un
cork as many bottles of soda-water al
you like to give them. Monsieur knows
how they are caught in their own coun
try?"
"No, Michel"
"Monsieur doesn't know thatr' ex
claimed Michel. pitying his masters ig
| norance. cat least, monsieur knows
that they are very fond of maize. Well
the negroes put maize into a bottle
whose neck is just large enough to ad
NIT monkeys empty hand. The mon
sooner than drop it, lets itself be
caught"
cit is a consolation, Michel, that il
OCSeHOb y hhOn INV u
catch them"
Monsieur may make himself easy
as to that. Alexis, another soda water.
Truth compels the avowal that a Sc
cond, and even a third, experiment
were tried, with exactly the sameresults,
to Michels glorifcation. Alexandra
wanted to continue it further, but Du-
mas observed that poor Mademoiselle
Desgarcins had a swollen nose, bleed
ing gums, and eyes starting out of her
head.
cit isn't that" said Alexandra.
You are thinking of our soda-water.
I assure you, messieurs, that my fa-
ther, whom everybody takes for a prodi-
gal, is the most miserly man on earth. -
After having done pen-work till 3 in
the morning, Dumas was still in bed at
s. The door opened, and Michel's head
entered, in a visible state of agitation.
"Here's a mess, monsieur - he alb
ruptly exclaimed. 81 don't know how
they managed it, but the monkeys have
made a hole in their cage big enough
to let them out"
every well, Michel; the remedy is
easy. You have only to buy a little
maize, and put it into narrow-necked
bottles.
"Ah yes monsieur may laugh, but
he won't laugh when he hears the rest. F"
Mon Dieu, Michel what has hap
pened ?"
"They have opened the aviary"-
''And the birds have flown away.
All the better for them"
"What has happened, monsieur, is,
that your six pairs of doves, your four
teen quails, all your rice-birds, Java
sparrows, widow-bird, Virginian night
ingales, all, all are killed or eaten"
"But, Michel, monkeys don't eat
birds"
"No; but they fetched a companion
who did-Mysouff. 1t is a veritable
massacre. Only come and see"
It was a sight, indeed. Potich dan
Cling gracefully from the branch of a
maple; the last of the Laidmanoirs
practicing gymnastics on the green
house door; Mademoiselle Desgarcins,
still in the aviary, bounding from east
to west, and from north to south. The
trio were recaptured without employing
maize-bo bottles, but not without consider
able and spiteful resistance. MysOuff
was easily caught. They had only to
shut the aviary door, and the culprit
was in the hands of justice. What
should be his punishment ? Michel,
incensed at the loss of his pets, was
for shooting the murderer on the spot;
Dumas opposed the summary execution,
deferring sentence till the following
Sunday, when his usual visitors would
form a jury. The criminal would be
left meanwhile on the theatre of crime,
on bread and water, under lock and key.
On Sunday, his feline avicide mOnOma-
MIA being admitted as an alternating
circumstance, he was condemned to the
mitigated penalty of five years impris-
onment, without hard labor, in mon
keys company. Political events, how
ever, came to his relief.
The revolution of February broke
out-the fifteenth or sixteenth change
of government which Dumas the elder
had lived to witness. During revolu-
tions money comes slowly in and slips
quickly out. Instead of working at lit
erature, Dumas started q journal, LIE
Mois, and wrote for another, La Liberte.
The two brought him in thirty-one
francs per day, but by his Theatre
he was daily out of pocket
one, two and sometimes five hundred
francs. The only chance was that the
partisans of Barbes, Blanquin and Lee
dru-Rollin, whom he attacked without
mercy in his papers, would, by the ap-
plication of stick or stone, at once put
an end to his writings and his wants.
Meanwhile, he must reform his es-
His three horses and his |
two carriages were sold, as always hap
pened in troubled times, for the quar-
ter of what they had cost him. Mysouff
was treated like a political prisoner,
that is, simply set at liberty and turned
ldrift to seek his fortune. Mademoi-
,elle Desgracins and company were
to the Jardin des Plantes.
Dumas lost home, but his apes gained
/ palace. After revolutions it somtimes
happens that monkeys are lodged like
princes, while princes have to take up
With monkeys lodgings, unless the
princes have frightened all Europe, in
which case they are lodged like liOns.-
A II n