The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-11-02
GAMBETTA'S HEART.
The Rage for Bric.a- Brac-An-
Equities to Order.
Special to THE SUNDAY CALL.

PARIS, Oct. ~, 1s90.-Gambetta's heart
has been the subject of more discussion
than was even that of VoltaiIe. The heart
OF Voltare has been the cause OF numerous
lawsuits. and although its possession is dis
puted by many persons, no one knows its
Whereabouts. Gambetta's heart has oceu-
pied public attention recently, because some
have said it was carried away from France
and lost, others that it had been stolen. and
others that 1t had been destroyed. The
reason for these rumors lies in the TACT vi
OF Nine. Paul Bert's unwillngness TO
give any explanation until she received per-
mission from the committee that watched
over the fate of the precious relic After the
post-mortem examination OF Gam0etta. his
heart was placed IN glass jar and confided
to the care of NJ. Paul Bert, the late
Governor General of TOnquin
The friends OF Gambetta intended some
day to erect a monument for the reception
OF the relic, but, in the meantime, NJ. Paul
Bert placed the jar containing the heart in a
strong chest.
When NJ Bert was sent to Tonquin he
thought that as the relic belonged TO France
he had no right to expose it to danger; con-
sequeDtly, the heart was left in the Paris
home and when, after the death of her huS-
baud Nine. Paul Bert returned to France,
she found the heart as she had left it.
NoW Luat y lSdcb anu LUTEdiHo dio puiiu-
ing monument to their hero at Vile
d Avray, Nine. Bert will carefully guard
Gambetta's heart Until the day the recep-
tacle shall BIZ finished.
Thus Gambetta's heart has had a better
fate than the hearts and brains of other
great men preserved as fetcheS by the
French people.
There are two stories about NaDoleOn'S
heart. One, that Antomarche, the physician,
was interrupted in the preparation of the
conQuerorS heart; when he returned TO his
work the heart had disappeared had been
eaten by rats. The poor doctor was obliged
to substitute a sleeps heart. Another YER
sion is that while the physician slept rat
carried off the heart, but dropped it on the
way to his hiding place. In either case we
have at the lnvalIdes only what a rat was
kind enough to leave US.
MaratS heart was hung in the vault OF the
Cordeliers Club, then concealed in closet.
Where is it now?
Jules Claretie owns Molere's jaw-bone,
and i'll the Cainavalet Museum is lock of
Robespierre's hair. No one seems to know
where is now the mustache that was taken
from Henry ~ at the time Saint Denis was
sacked.
Mirabeau's skull and Talleyrand's brain
We're they thrown into the gutter or are they
now in the possession of some lover of
fetiches? These questions are agiIated
regularly every few months, and never,
never, is there any solution.
According to recent statistics the French
industry that prOspers most at the present
time is that of bric-a-brac. Fashion DEGREES
that one must love what is old; therefore, if
one wishes to be up with the times" he
must admire only what belongs to past
times. As some horror of the middle ages
will bring ten times what chef d'9uvre of
modern times will, naturally there are manu-
facturers of antiquities. These fabricate
ivory carvings, woods, porcelains, designs
In gold and silver and even pictures, but to
arrive at these results they are obliged to
resort TO inventions that would have been
perfectly useless to those whom they copy
They must find lost varnishes. gold no longer
sold, enamelS Of which the secret has been
lost for years. and woods TO which chemis-
try can give the appearance Of age.
BY prOdigiOuS effort OF Imagination
these manufacturers must live the pro-
fessional life of artisans in the olGen time
and think as they did in order to conceive
the same designs, but what their predeces-
sors did by instinct they must accomplish
by education. Their work completed it
lacks the effect of age when touched and
even this effect is now given to these modern
makers of the old.
In summer the bric-a-brac merchant closes
his shop and goes to some watering place.
He iastails himself in some old street and
exhibits in front of his shop all the treasures
he has brought from Paris with few ad-
ditions from Normandy and Brittany.
Sometimes he is even more ingenious;
he lodges with real peasants and in the
cabin he seatters his wares. where tourists
searching for treasures visit the place. The
peasants affirm that they have inherited all
from their ancestors The visitor buys at
an enormous price and finds out the truth
alas! too late. One finds in these peasants
homes Norman presses. carvings to be
placed over doors. old kettles, tongs and
quantities of objects one more hideous than
the other. n Partisan huma Is only CON
sidered perfect when to these objects are
added vestments eaten by rats and moths.
Monsieur Thomas Grimm, the very able
chr0niqueur, says that this mania for sur
rounding ones self with antiquities even
though thew be counterfeit, is running real
industry. Falsiiication is cancer that eats
out the heart OF honest Industry In the
Paris shops one sees only servile reproduc-
tons and vulgar copies of antique work.
Honest artists and workmen are dying of
hunger The public preferrng to buy a
Louis XIV chest of drawers at the auction
house rather than chest of drawers made
in 1890, artisticalv and solidly finished, I'M
scrupulous manufacturers have decided to
make the Louis XIV piece of furniture, and
every day learned amateurs are buying these
limitations"
Mr.. Grimm proposes method for remedy
ing this state of affairs: IF l were Project
of Police, | should suppress all amateur
collections"
Mr.. Grimm's idea seems absurd, but a
practical method for putting an end to this
abuse is difficult to find. Some day the pub
lie will discover that its genuine antiqui-
ties" are only limitations and will renounce
the pleasure of further purchase; when that
day comes, solid modern articles will be
sold as such and each one will have the
worth of his money. When will that day
arrive
BARONESS ALTHEA SALVADOR