The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-01-17
HUMAN SKELETONS.
THE TRADE IN THEM.


THE BUSINESS IN NEW YoRK-AN ARTIST
IMPORTED GooDs-FRENCH SCREWED AND
GERMAN RIvErED GooDS-A SKELETON
SALESMAN AND his STOCK.
An employe of the World has been look
ing up this branch OF industry in the
metropolis and thus writes: That the
handling OF human bones, though grim
cccu patton and one calculated to send a cold
shudJer through the bosom of delicate
school girl-les alone many people OF
sterner SORTS still necessary occupation
and one having obviously a scientific end,
there will be few TO deny; nor, further, will
it bedou bted that in this city of New York
where there are so many young surgeons
and doctors with the desire TO possess
complete ''set" strong within them, TO say
nothing of artists who love to cherish
skeleton for its picturesque effect; and OF
certain unfrOfeSsiOnal individuals who affect
fondness for anatomy, having at the same
time no good reason for so dOlng-there
should be naturally brisk demand and
thriving trade in the article of human bones.
The young lady who. having read thus
| far, calculates, with little cold
shiver 'Tmpossible!' should pause and
reflect. Five hundred of these-in her eyes
unwholesome things are annually imported
into this city, to say nothing OF other hum
dreds which are constructed by medical stu
dents and hospital janitors out of native
material. IL she be seventeen years old,
there are $500 such marrowless horrors
which have been silently closing in about
her while her unsuspecting mind has dwelt
progressively on barley candy, bon-bons,
pink dancing slippers and pin backs. Nay,
as, rejecting, she leans her head against the
chimney piece, perhaps there bangles within
two fest OF her fair cheeks human skele-
| ton neatly put together with brass screwsi
| How the color would fly from that cheek if
she dreamed of having such a dreadful
1 IL -
door perhaps who Keeps skeleton In his
cabinet, and that cabinet may be contigu-
ous to the young lsdy's msntle-plece, and
no New York partition is more than two
feet thick; and so it is all quite horribly pos
sible, aud there is not the least bit of doubt
in the world about it. Or, may be she lives
in a fat, aud doctor or an artist or an
amateur in anatomies occupies
THE FLOOR BELOW.
In that case it was better not to let the
thought enter her gentle mind that, per-
haps, beneath her bed-her own bed, in
which she is accustomed to enjoy her inno-
cent msidenly slumbers unbroken-iu
direct line, it may be, with her unsuspi-
cious, quietly beating heart there bangles,
attached to the doctors chandelier below,
one of Msitre Mazzur's French articulated
and greaseless "No. L" skeletons exhibit
I
tinct and separate bones and admitting of
the compound motion of the elbow Joint.
L. is no unreal or imaginary skeleton which
inhabits many of the New York closets; it
is not an unmeaning smell which creeps
out of the medical students room at the
dead OF night, alarming the other inmates
of the house by being different from any
other smell they ever experienced. Maitre
MazZur and the importers do not live
in vain; there are skeletons scattered
about among the community, lfnot quite as
thick as leaves In Vallambrosa, at lea It SUI
ficiently thick to answer all the purposes of
art and whims and science; and the trade in
these has perhaps enough novelty and in
terest to warrant a slight account of the
same. In BECKER street, not far from it's
junction with Crosby street, stands the
house of Maitre MaZzur, the only man out
side of Paris who understands how to ex
tract the oil from human bones so perfectly
that skeleton constructed of the same may
hang in a doctors psrlor without giving
offense. Maitre MaZzur does not appear to
the casual observer materially different
from numbers of his cOuntrymen soiourn-
ing in this city. Nothing in his manner or
his conversation betrays the possession of
that deep astrological knowledge in which
he is admitted to have no peer in the world
save one or two in the tabled Rou de PEcole
Medicine OF the French capital. Indeed
and this is a matter much deprecated py
others of his profession,
MAITRE MAzzUR
keeps his mouth systematically shut where
bones are concerned. The manner of per
fectly extracting the oil from and of per-
tectly articulating the human anatomy is
preserved by him profound secret. True,
the skeletons which pass from under the
hands of Msitre Mazzur suffi ficiently testify
to his ability without the need of Maitre
MaZZur himsslf opening his mouth once.
Tepderly screwed and delicately rivited, ad-
mitting OF every motion, perpendicular,
horizontal, oblique and rotary, and withal
so clean that lady might dsndle them in
her lap without prejudice or fear of evil, the
skeletons of Maitre Mazzur issue forth from
his workshop graceful and inodOrous COM
pany which may we'll fill the heart of the
master with pride. But many would give a
good deal to look into the little room of
Maitre MaZZur, and see how the artisan
does it all. The extraction of the grease
is the particular wonder; other osteol-
ogers car lsy a rib accurately, put
| together a metstarsus Or a metacarpus,
arrange the vertebre with discrimination,
even distinguish the right knee-pan from
! the LETT; but the little maitre of Bleecker
street alone can send his perfectly articu-
lated skeleton forth without grease spot.
Nobody, however, may look into the work
shop OF Ma1tre MsZzur. There stands the
old fashioned house in BECKER street, into
which visitor may freely go; little, plain
board door Ia the upper story will be locked
against him; be may contemplate human
skull screwed thereupon, and Msitre MAJ.
Zur, in his shirt sleeves, will tell him that a
secret is secret, and that he intends to
keep his for awhile yet. What that secret
is, before the puisssnce of which human
grease spots grow faint and die, nobody
other than the maitre knows; 1t came down
to him from his predecessor, and he pre-
serves 1t and utiliZes it, and doubtless profits
| by 1t additionally to profiting by the pur-
suits of his other business of manufacturing
musical instruments. But II the skeletons
| of Maitre Mazzur are the only ones which
may walk abroad, as 1t were, at MONDAY
without being ashamed of themselves, there
are still
OTHER SKELETONS IN NEW YORK
which come from other places than his