The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-10-27
A FRENCH EPISODE.
A Chemist becomes Famous through n vaIu-
able ID scovery and his wife n RavinR
Maniac, ...-.t d.

Chemist becomes Famous through n valu-
able ID scovery and his wifc n RavinR
Maniac. ...-.t % II
A Paris correspondent tells the follow
ing touching story: The sad case of
the insanity OF Nine. LIE Due, wife of
the well known chemist who has achieved
such wonderful thing in diamonds, is
attracting much attention. The story is
as follows: M. LIE Due is chemist
whose hobby has been diamonds for
years. He was in moderate circum-
stances, yet with n fairl prospect before
him when he married the daughter of q
we'll known silk dealer. Shortly after
the marriage NJ. LIE Due commenced e1-
perimenting on charcoal, believing that
he could discover the secret of creating
diamonds from it. He worked night
and day on this hobby, and, Of course,
spent oil the means he had and all he
could borrow to carry on his expert
ments. His family more than once was
in very Strengthened circumstances, and
his father in law discovering that all the
money he gave his daughter was handed
over to her husband to continue the ex-
perlments, endeavored to induce her to
leave him and return to her home. The
chemist had imbued his wife with his
strange infatuation and she would not
| leave.
NJ. LIE Due discovered after several
years, what others had discovered be-
fore, tho fallacy of his attempts,
but he also made discovery
Of no slight Importance, that he
could harden crystal to about the con-
| sistency of diamonds and plate these
crystals with real diamonds. His pro-
cess was similar to that Of electrotyping,
the battery being used, and the diamond
dust or diamond clippings from dia-
monds being used as copper is, the re-
snlt being that the crystal was diamond
lied, if I may use the term. He made
some of these mock diamonds, and
taking them to a broker the chemist was
delighted to find that his work was
taken for the real Jewel. Nj. LIE Duo's
father .in-law died q few years ago and
his wife inherited some two hundred
thousand francs. This she turned over
to her husband willingly, and it was de-
voted to the laboratory. The poor
woman was as fully carried away as the
chemist, and her desire that he should
succeed, with her fear of failure, and
with failure that her children should
suffer from poverty, worked seriously
upon her mind. or late she has eyii-
IDENTIFY suffered much, but she kept her
grief from her husband, and hoped for
the best.
When the chemist finally succeeded
| In his scheme and turned out stones that
even the brokers believed to be real dia-
monds, lie rushed with the glad tidings
to his wife. She partook of his Joy, yet
her mind had been SO strained that the
blow, joyous as it was, was too much for
her, and she, after listening to the ex-
clamations of her husband, broke out
into an unnatural peal of laughter,
which was followed by tears and cries
1t was evident that she was insane that
she had suffered too much, and reason
had deserted its throne. At times her
mania was Of quiet kind, but often it
was of the most violent description,
bursting forth into terrible expressions
of rage. On several occasions she at
tempted to take the life of her youngest
child, declaring that all their property
was gone and only poverty stared them
in the face, and it became necessary to
remove her to private madhouse, where
she ls now confined, subject to the most
terrible rawlings.
Poor M. Lie Duo! On the very day
that he became famous in Paris has this
terrible affliction befallen him.