The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1886-01-28
AT MADAME TUssAUD,s.


AT MADAME TUSSAUD'S.
One OF the Sights Of London.--Its Psrsn.
nisl POpulsrity..who Its Foundress
.Was.
The waxwork show is the one sight
in London which the country holiday
maker will not miss on any account.
It's popularity is perennial; and We
have been credibly informed that some
most respectable folks are in the habit
Of visiting it once . year regularly, rs
.their betters' 60 to the Academy or
the Grosvcnor, and recognize with Joy
their old friend the policeman or the
smiling old gentleman on the sofa.
Everybody has heard Of the show;
but everybody does not know that its
foundress was in her day rather IA
nous woman-"The most remarkable
woman in England" the great Duke
used to call her. She met, while yet a
girl. at her uncle's table, many Of the
men whose names became afterwards
famous Voltairc, Rousseau, Franklin.
R0oespierrc. Mirabeau and Marat.
She was drawing-nistress and friend
to the Princess Elizabeth; one Of the
gentlcst and most innocent victims Of
the Revolution. After the Reign Of
Terror she married, and when she had
attained the age when matrons usually
settle down to enjoy existence more
thoroughly than ever, poor Madame
Tussaud found herself in England
alone, with scarcely penny in her
pocket. The happy thought struck
her that she might follow the ex-
ample of her uncle, and form q kind of
museum of wax casts OF contemporary
celebrities, turning her natural skill in
wax modelling to practical account.
Tho idea was success. Madame
Tussaud made fortune. Tho exhibi-
tion has always been . favorite one,
and it is not likely to be less popular
now that the figures have been remov-
ed 10 . building large enough to hold
them and their visitors without crowd
ing. and without the accompaniment
of sitting atmosphere. The great
marble staircase ut the entrance, the
original price of which was Ell, 900, is
of itself worth visit.
Wax figures are not, Of course, in
any true sense, works Of art. They
strive to initiate, not merely to repre-
sent nature; and the result is not one
which can possibly satisfy our sense of
the beautiful. In painting We have the
representation of nature by line and
color on Hat surface; in sculpture we
have the same thing by the modelling
Of colOrless marble or brOnze-to at
tempt both solid form and color at
once is to make caricature. to give
the impression that the artist is aplng
nature, not reyerently following her.
A painted statue is as much piece Of
inc0ngruity as picture with moving
figures would bc-neither can be taken
seriously. Yet the figures Of Madame
Tussand's give one curious sense oi
reality. One almost feels in the pres
ence Of the famous men whose efligies
are here. 1t does not take q strong
imagination to fancy that the weird
experiment in Poe's gruesome tale has
been epeated-that these are the act
ual bodies of those whose names they
bear, with their souls, arrested in the
hour of death, imprisoned within them.
They are conscious, these images; they
see the gaping crowd swarming
around them, though they are power
less to resent the intrusion. What q
medley Of famous names! Old kings
and queens and demagogues, famous
beauties and popular preachers. Car
dinal Wolsey and Sir Moses Montefi0re,
Count Cavour and Sir Wilfrid Lawson!
It may not be art-it may be : show
only tit for children-but one cannot
help looking. The very emotions
raised by the names, and the quee..,
impertinently striking resemblances,
are enough to produce . curious ner-
vOus excltement-of which one is
ashamed. but which tits impossible to
ropress.
For those who care for relics, there
are plenty here. There is the guillo-
tine which slew poor Louis xvi, the
coach which carried Napoleon to Wa
terlOo. and the camp bedstead on
which the great Frenchman breathed
his last. Here. too, are the reading
chair Of V0ltairc and the garden chair
Of Napoleon, and the shirt worn BY
Henry Nv. Of France when he was
stabbed by Ravaillac. But when we
come to Napoleon's knife, his pocket
handkerchief. his coffee-cup, his tooth
brush-we had almost said his piece
Of string and his shaving papers-we
feel inclined to say, with the American
settler who found that the Indians had
come down, burned his homestead
and murdered his whole family. This
is too ridic 'lus!''