Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-05-24

the guns OF the Moblots. Everywhere the
creak and crash OF falling timber, the.
scream Of dying beast or bird. There. where
the gag profession of carriages tfsed TO cir.
culate In the, afternoon sunlight, were. now
Loneliness, and ruin: here and there q few
scattered plumes, white on the greensward,
showed where death hat been; here and
there the thick black smoke, and ftful
fame, marked a newly fired thicket. s.
Paris was a camp, n every citizen q
soldier. But the soldiers duty was neither
onerous nor varied at this period. There
was the morning rendezvous from seven TO
eight, the day and night watch on the ram
parts, short slumbers under canvas, for the
easements which were to shelter these
heroes later on were not yet built.
Among these soldiers OF the National
Guard Philip Dufand and CASTOR Mortemar
were both numbered. The charmed life Of
the newly welded was over. The domestic
hearth was lonely. The husband could only
return TO his home in the intervals Of his
service as a defender Of his city. And the
wife was full OF fear In her lonely home, or
proving in the .neighboring streets on some
sfiall household errand, lettering with other
wives on dborsteps or al street corners, de-
vouring the last news from the ramparts.
Trade was at a stsndstilL Each National
Guarl had his allowance of a frarc and q
half q day, with a small sum for wife or
family; but 1t was almost impossible for him
10 carry on any handlcraft during this reign
| of chassepot and Remington: Some there
were-the few, the elect among WORKERS
who contrived to accomplish something I'M
their brief respite from soldering; and
among these was Durand. His employer
had shut mp his factory. What good was
there in creating articles Of luxury-artistic
cabinets q la Renaissance, writing-tables g.
la Dubaryy, commodes q Ia Ma~intenon,
what use In initiating the finest works Of
Bull and Reishier. when the city was grit
with Iron; and might ere long BE- girt with
fre9 when at any evil hour, as yet unmark-
ed upon the calendar, d bomb might explode
in the middle Of tlc factory, and send Bull
and Reisnief, delicate inla!d-work, orrnolu
and cherry-wood, pear-tree and ebony, in q
shower Of splinters through the shattered
roof? The proprietor slowed away his
choicest woods in his cellars, and locked up
his warehouses; and workshops. Nc -@c2-
could be exported from a UIocRaded city;
and in the city there were no purchasers Of
art furniture.
But this did not constrain Durand to lay
aside his gouges and chisels. Before his
marriage he had brought home 10 his little
workshop some fine pieces of old wood, coll
lected in various hooks and corners of Paris
ar oak panel from the wreckage Of a
church, an old walnut sideboard, thick,
heavy, clumsy, but O., so well seasoned and
richly colored. from a sixteenth century
house In the Marais-and with treasures
such as these TO his hand Philip Durand had
no lack Of work. He had undertaken a
magnum opus in the shape If a s-ieboard,
which In design and workmanship was to
surpass anything that had yet been done in
the factory where he was chief workman.
All his knowledge Of the II a ,ter- pieces in
carved oak, all his taste and skill were
brought tD bear upon this piece Of furniture.
His long Sunday afternoons in the Louvre,
his study Of the art-books in the Imperial
Library, all helped him in his handicraIL.
Jacques Mollin, his friend the painter, was
at his elbow 10 make suggestions while the
drawings for the sideboard were in progress.
The mighty dead had their part In the work.
This tangle Of fruit and flowers on the cor
nice owed something TO Van Huysu:s :. This
heap Of wild fowl and hares, flung as it
we're hap-hazard against q lower panel, was
a souvenir OF Snyders. Everywhere the
mind Of the artist informed the hanl OF the
craftsman. And the sideboard was as the
apple Of Philip Durand's eye. Ii was sure
to bring him money, which he cared for only
for the sake II his wife and his home; 1t
might bring him fame, which he valued for
his own sake, and still more for Rose, who
would be proud by and by 70 say, Il did not
marry a common workman"
ITO BE- Cdntiausd1