The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-09-14

"There will be a beautiful headstone with
our names written on it quite plain: 'CY 81
] sent Jean Desire Perrault ct Odettc Celestine,
| son epousc Chiffoniers, and then our age"
continued Perrault, who, now that his tongue
was loosened, spoke unhesitattngly.
"Are you gone mad, Perrault!' asked mis-
wife, bending her shaggy eyebrows
at will be beautiful, like a corper OF one OF
the gardens in he Luxembourg; and 1t viii
belong to us a perpetun0 perpetnte. DO you
understand, a psrpetule!-for ever; Tor nun
dreds of years-always-and all the time
people will know us and speak OF us" con
tinued Pere Perrault,'' without needing his
wife, chuckling to himself aud rubbing his
hands up and down over his knees.
But have you gone made" she cried again,
sinking her hand up in the air. "'What does
1t signify after death to lie in a fine place II
you must labor and weary in life?"
"What does it signify?" cried the old man,
turning upon her with a gesture OF friThctui
energy. ''Ill tell YOU what: Do you remember
Totinl l saw him dead. went to his fu-
neral. 1 did not care for Totin living, but
when 1 saw him lying there on a prhtdsee mo-
tionless, then sewn up in a dirty shee', ma leu
something here"-aud he struck his chest. ut
seemed nothing to me that Totin should grub
in the dirt while he lived; but as he lay there
dead before me l felt somehow as IL l had
loved him. That was why l went to h fu-
neral. Then, when l saw him put down into
the foxse commune, 1 thought, There he is; no
one knew him alive-no one will know him
dead; not his name, or anything about him;
then j said to myself: 'Perraultl Perraultl the
degradation is the fosSe commune.
1.-The foSSe commune or another grave, 1t Is
the same to me- said Mere Perrault, with Bit
ter emphasis. What l want is a little COM
fort in life-that bit of garlen with the cab
bages."
Pere Perrault INDUCED in one of those ex-
pIetires no known in polite society. "a
cabbage garden !-Idon't want your cabbage
| ura rlan r dir in III mn ahina Mt 10 NOT
I will do it. still prefer my trade; l know IT,
and it knows me. Here 1 come TO a heap of
rubbish look at It; l guess what l shall find;
it never disappolnts me, sometimes it gives me
more.n
1t is = rough trade" feebly put in Mere
Perrault, overborne by her husbands vehe-
mence.
cit is q rough trade; all the more reason to
take my ease after death. 1 made friends with
one of the gardeners in Pere la Chaise. He
showed me the tombs. Therei is a fine one to
two people; he told me their story. Iremem-
Der their names, for | said them to myself
over and over again-Madame Louise ct Mon
sieur Abeliarts. They lived hundreds and
hundreds of years ago they loved each other;
they could not MARI, so she became a nun, he
became a monk; but after their death there
they came together. There they lie like bride
and bridegroom. and every one knows their
story, every one lells it. Bah In the f0sse
commune you would lie there, 1 would lie here,'
making a gesture OF his hand in opposite
directions; 'but in our BIZ of ground we'd be
together, md every one would always know
as we we eLdsband and wife"
"That would be genta, certainly" said Mere
Perrault, softly, a thrill of amazement passing
through her frame at these extraordinary
words.
az shall have q picture of our basket and
hooks carved upon the tombstone" sail Pere
Perrault.
I'VE might have Medor's picture put there,
too,n remarked Mere Perrault.
81 believe it-indeed-the roguel Lordl
he irots by our side as IL h. were himselfa
chiffonier,'' said Pere Perrault, giving a
genial kick to the doing quadruped, who sat
up, responsibility, blinked one eye at his mas
ter, and shook his rag of n tail:
The old couple chatted till deep into the
night; for the first time, they forgot to go
rag-picking. Pere Perrault had won his wife's
complete adhesion to the scheme of this wish
to be known to the world and posterity as her
spouse. Her imagination once kindled, tray
eled as fast as her husbands in picturing the
mausoleum, erected to their united memory.
The note had been struck that set these two
old hearts beating in unison. They grew
garrulous with each other, these two whose
married life had been so morose. They con-
fded to each other the fancies that crowded
into their brains. They vaguely felt drawn to
each other as in the olden days when they had
walked as sweethearts in the woods of SceauX,
and the freight glancing upon their wrinkled
a uniting radiance.
The husband and wife paid a mysterious
visit to Pere la Chaise next day. They kept
their project close. At the promised treat to
his mates, Pere Perrault was lent as the
grave about it. After a while the scheme
oozed out, however, and the Mouffetardians
received the inform ltion first with incredulous
laughter, then with boisterous derision. The
unconcern of the couple at the sallies they
provoked had n dampeaing effect upon their
brilliaucy, and brought to the perpetrators
thereof a humiliating sense of. wasted powder
and shot.
After a while it became apparent that the
community was growing accustomed to the
idea, that some of its members were even dis
cussing it with something like interest. Pere
Perrault was silent before a knocking spirit,
but at any manifestation of sympathy his
tongue was uuloosed. Pere Blot, who hal
been the first to approach the theme in a spirit
of friendly inquiry, was taken into his couti-
dence. He came back one day and explained
to his comrades assembled at rere Michel's
gdyyoHe that he had been to Pere Ia Chaise,
that he had seen the site of the tomb, that the
ground was actually bought. 1t was in the
second row of graves, the place on the first
row having proved too expensive. Pere Blot
here explained with lucid gasticulations that
the tomb W uld be easily seen from the path.
way, it being placed between an obelisk ans
pyramid in the foreground. He further told
that the remainder OF the 1000 francs had been
divided into portions to pay for the headstones
and expenses of the two funerals, and thai
Monsieur lie Cure had the charge of it. 81
| 0nu, CO1cllQcu ECTc DiDC, UrlDpllg his ldnC
down on the table, "that Perrault has had
good thought in buying this grave; it is no
!, he only who will profit by it; for If a fine tomt
is put over a chiffonier's body, in a place where
r everybody shall see it and talk about it, | say
all of his trade gains respect by it,"
In 4 small community, a decided attitude Of
mind is catching; Pere Blot made converts
there and then. A certain elation might bt
i noticeable i'll the depor. meut and glance of thu
/ Mouffetardians who adopted this doctrine. ant
2 acknowledged the scheme a worthy one. i
seemed as if these despised waits and pariah:
5 felt vaguely the cheer of the redeeming sacred
t ness of the body.
= b. he time the tombstone was to be designed
E the Quarter Mouffetard had taken the matter
/, in hand is one of personal interest. For thu
E better display of the Inscriptions it was deci-
4 ded that there should be two headstones. Th'
character OF the letters was a question OF muct
/. noisy discussion. The majority, headed b,
Mere Perrault, considered that an amount o
| hourisheS gave dignity to The signs Per-
n Perrault inclined to plain and honest lie tiers
A compromise was at last effected. The names
of the two occupants would be recorded will
4 due ornamentation, but the word "chiffonier,'
\ the word that, placed there, was to be glorifi
cation, an apotheosis of the craft-was to b
4 carved in characters that Pere Perrault salt
$ would ''skip'' to the eyes at a distance of an
: one who could read. The epitaph was recog
i niZed to be second only in Importance to tina
word. Mere Pcrrault, and not a few with her
were swayed by The stonecutter's offer to pu
q g Reluiescent in pace.' Latin would have
{ good effect, a little air-cossu. But Pere Per
rault, ambitious of a wider immortality thai
e that which he could share with he learne,
O only, ruled tina, every word should be " al
French" After this decision the compar !,
k proceeded to the composition of the epitaph
d The following may pass as a specimen of som
submitted:
d Cy git Jean Desire Perrault, Chiffonier
II who for forty years W ,rked in dirt, and VIII
o now rests in humble hope Of a country where
no refuse exists"
After some discussion, such inscrip ions
felt to be derogatory to the t~rade-were pu
is aside, and two not strikingly original phrase
n were substituted. Over Mere Perrault's grave
n as belonging to the sentimental sex, it wa
decided to eyhort the passer-by to drop a tear
on Perc Perrault's to ask the passer-by to offe
up a prayer
"Af!er all, remarked Pere Perraul-, com
placentlv, putting away at his stump of a pipe
a prayer, some tears, are all one can give t
lie the dead; those fine ladies and gentlemen il
their coach can't have more"
Space will not allow us to dwell upon the d.
m lighted appreciation by the chiffoniers of tn
:. StOnpcuttpr's reDresentatiOn of the two haI