The Washington bee., 1891-10-24
DEALS IN HUMAN BONES.
A PHlLADELPHlAN HANDLES MANY
OF THEM EVERY YEAR.

Yearly, and Many Prepared Here
Description of the Business.
To deal in the bones of human beinss
would be an occupation repucnant To-
most men. Yet in the vicinity of Ga
and South streets, says the Philadelphia
Record, lives an old Frenchman who
finds more pleasure in this occupation
than anything else in life. His store is a
veritable den of skeletons. The weather
beaten sign swinging over the door,
cTeaking dismally with every gust of
wind, bears this simple legend M. De
Robaire, Parfumerie. From which it is
evident monsieur would have the world
believe that he deals almost exclusively
in those psrfumed waters so dear to the
feminine heart.
Every family has a skeleton in the
closet, however, and nonsieur's family,
which consists only of himself. is no ex-
ceptiOn to the general rule He has his
skeleton, in fact he has scores of them in
closets and otherwise-the majority
otherwise. The truth of the matter is,
the old Frenchman deals in skeletons
Living as he does in a neighborhood
thickly populated by ignorant negroes,
who are. as rule, very superstitious,
De Robaire has found it necessary to ply
his queer trade as secretly as possible.
The doctor" has occupied his present
quarters for the last quarter of a century,
and enjoys quite large practice among
the colored people. who would have
nothing to do with him did they suspect
the weird dOings above the little shop.
Such another bedchamber as the one
occupied by the old Frenchman probably
does not exist, and how monsieur man
ages to sleep the sleep of the just among
such grewsome SUI bindings is an ID
solvable mystery TO the few who have
been admitted to it.
The walls of the small room are orna-
mented with skulls and crossboueS. and
real life size skeletons, or. rather. death
size skeletons, in all sorts of grotesque
positions. Four hideohs skulls grin from
their positions on top of the four posts Of
the bed, and close to the side of the bed
stands a skeleton with arms outstretChed
doing duty as clothes rack. The whole
is dimly lighted up by feeble gimmel
of light emaDating from lamp made Of
ghastly skull suspended from the
middle of the ceiling with thongs u
tanned human hide.
De Robaire himself is an odd looking
man, and the resemblance between him
and Que of his own skeletons is decidedly
striking He has gaunt, wolflike fea-
lures, his thin upper lip and bony chin
being adorned with an iron gray mus
tache and imperial His head is entirely
bald save for a few bristly red hairs
standing up on his forehead like small
bonfire, and under pair of bushy eye
brows of the same fiery hue his small
black eyes glitter like Goals of fire.
For score of years he has been carrying
on his business in the old place, having
emigrated from France in 1865, coming
1;"1Ict to Philadelphia. where he estab-
1t U himself in business. For time
lie had hard struggle to keep body and
soul together, owing to the number of
competitors in the field, together with
the dullness of business. 1t seou became
necessary for him. in addition to his
other trade, to set himself up as drug
gist, and he still runs his little shop,
though principally as decoy.
Late in the Sos, when the Knights Of
Pythias were organized III the State the
demand for skeletons increased. as they
were used to great extent III the lodge
rooms. De Robaire prospered. as con-
sequence, since most of his competitors
had meanwhile given up the business.
Of and on during the following 20
years business was brisk and dull by
turns, but the old man has amassed a
small fortune. and there is no reason
why he should longer continue in the
business except that he has taken a liking
to his work, such as every true artist |
does. He is an artist in the full sense of |
the word. There is undoubtedly no one
who can articulate a skeleton as neatly |
as he, and it is no idle boast on his part |
when he claims that, with eyes blind. |
folded, he can take a mass of bones |
representing the human frame aud build |
up the skeleton as it was originally, with |
out one bone out of place.
The doctor" while standing in his |
workshop few days ago, with his sleeves
rolled up over his skinny arms, thus held |
forth on the subject nearest his heart: |
This skeleton you see me operating on |
have imported from France. You will |
notice the high polish on the bones, due
to method of preparation praCticed only |
by the French. They clean the bones by |
a process of maceration with muriatic |
acid the whole operation requiring two
or three months time, while III this coun-
try the bones are hastily and carelessly |
boiled and come out rough and dirty. In
all my 20 years service have never come
across a Chinese skeleton.
The different prices of skeletons are
based upon their degrees of hardness and
whiteness, upon the development of the
bones, and the amount or absence of fat
in their extremities. For this reason the
French article is decidedly of more value
than the American or German. Up to
this year over $500 skeletons have been
imported into this country, but they have
become scarce of late, for some reason,
and to supply the demand | find it
necessary to manufacture them of paper
OF course I have a stock of them in my
bedroom but would not part with any
of those. Mon dieu! / have come TO
look upon them as dear friends and COM
panions. Here you see some of my arti.
fetal skeletons made of PAPER mache,
with artificial teeth, and the whole
covered with white polish, which gives
@L,o concordance of tho cyaODine articip I |