Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-10-22
A LOVER IN STONE.

In Yellowstone National park are in
Vulnerable geysers, the waters of which
are strongly impregnated with calcare-
Gus and silicious sinter, white sub
4 stance which instantaneously incrust-
ates whatever it falls upon. Big mounds
and craters are formed by it. Travel
ers place under the streams bottles and
other objects they desire ''turned to
stone as they term it. and as soon as
the sinter hardens carry away their tro-
phies in triumph.
Mr.. Cyril Jacques was morbid,
\ dreamy and downcast young man. With
form, fine face and even wealth at his
command, he constantly meditated sui
eide and determined to become felo de
Sc. He wandered over the world to dis
cover some artistic method Of departing
this life. He paled at the thought of an
| inquest over his mortal remains, of ac-
counts in the press and of speculation by
I his fellow mankind. He climbed Vesu-
vius and for hours contemplated a
plunge into the awful fires below, where
his body would never be revealed. He
I did not fear instantaneous incineration-
not that. He conceived that in the in
/ visible world in which he was bound he
might desire to gather his mortal ele-
ments somewhere, sometime, in the
cycles of eternity. Hence, why SO utter
I ly annihilate them?
I Mr.. Jacques sailed to the boEders Of
the great maelstrom off Norway and
considered plunge therein, heavily
plated in metallic armor. Here again
he paused and foresaw the decay of the
metal and the possibility and absorption
of animal life
He studied aeronautics intently and
consulted the worlds aerostatsc engi-
neers, M. Gabriel Yon, Captains Renard
and Krebs, as to the possibility of an air
ship which would bear him beyond the
earth's atmosphere, out into homoloidal
space. Again defeat. These great men
assured him that, for all his wealth,
finite power could not achieve the in
finite.
In the year 1870 he read Of the first ex-
petitions of DR.. F. V. Hayden into the
unknown wilds Of the Rockies, of the
initiation Of the then worldwide respect
ed United States geological survey, of
the wonderful geyser regions of Wy
oming. Into the northwest corner of
this territory he hastened his fight.
August was waning when he mounted
the terraces Of Mammoth Hot Springs
and saw the clear blue waters gush from
the highest piazza and fall evenly in
stantlv increased n size He sasr that
he had only to sit there to be pushed
higher and higher, while a mountain Of
incrustation broadened below him and
reared him about.
But as he watched the transformation
of liquids into solids he saw that Ger
tain objects at the base of the mound,
as fast as they became incased with
sinter, were pushed down hill, down
toward the valley below. He speculated.
He concluded that some time a concus-
sion Of steam might explode the mound.
and if body were therein it would
become exposed to beasts, men or sun.
So he determined to be incased sepa-
rately and allow his body to be pushed
down hill, to become one of the rapidly
forming, immense mass Of incrustated
objects.
Having formed his plans, Mr. Cyril
Jacques took chloroform and laid down
at the base of the series Of plazzas of
Mammoth Hot Springs, where the gey-
ser waters fell upon him and in short
time incased his body in hardened cal
careous sinter.
While the strange young man was ex-
hausting his life devising astl etc means
of death, Miss Mignonette Favre was
leading a dissimilar career Of inventing
fancies and searching the world for
man who should be q synonym of her
ideals SO created. In her flights Of TO
manticism she had investigated the
widest noble red man III the deepest of
unfrequented deeps, but ascertained that
4 his value set on a woman was less than
that of horse. She studied a widower
president, but, if he fulfilled her dream,
he did not take kindly to her advances.
great prince, but all the princes she
met spoke not Of love. but of az annual
stipend to become her husband.
In 1890 Miss Favre decided to enjoy
the summer in the Yellowstone National
park, tract solely under the jurisdic-
ton OF the government, but formerly
I part of the then territories of Wyoming
and Montana. The d Mammoth Hot
Springs hotel suited her romantic ideas.
While here she often climbed the plazzas
of the great spring. She placed bottles,
combs, horseshoes and other objects un-
der the trickiing streams and saw them
turned to stone" to her hearts content.
4 While she filled big boxes with a varied
\ collection of these and kindred objects,
/ her ideal in this respect, as in the case of
man, was unfultilled.
She saw the big heaps Of objects in
crustated, which seemed to have slid
down into the valley, and she was indig-
nant at the government for enacting
/ laws to protect this avalanche" and
making it misdemeanor to carry any
section away. She clambered up and
/ down the avalanche-for such the slant
4 ing collection of objects seemed to be-
and each day paused before a massive
cone Of white sinter, the solidity and
/ great beauty of which she admired SO
much that it became a monomania with
/ her. The cone was about seven feet in
length. with diameter of two feet. and
\ looked as if it were Il classic To7ic col
umn.
/ At least Miss Favre concluded she
could not live without the cone. In her
frenzied admiration of it she forgot to
search for man Of her romance. She
hired the stableman to take trusted
force Of men, steal the coveted object at
tight and bear it away to Livingston,
Non, by means Of relays OF horses and
stout vehicles. The men conveyed it by
unused paths. avoiding She routes where
officials were stationed, and got it safely
to Livingston. where it was carefully
packed in a long box and shipped to
New York at a total cost Of $l0,0 ,0C0. half
of which went to the stableInen.
/ Miss Mignonette accompanied her
treasure. and on her arrival at her SUI
4 perb mansion on West End avenue had
1 it unpacked and artistically displayed in
an aesthetic, well lighted upper room
which she had converted into sort Of
museum for the exhibition of her trophies
collected while travelling Here she
spent hours daily alIniring her treasure.
examining and re-exami1iing the surface.
which ,vrr1f,,ra1x ,<s.><.,. 3,fe1 f.n1->fa aud