The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-12-08
TRADES IN SKELETONS.
APHiLADELPHIA FRENCHMAN'S CREW.
SOME BUSINESS.

A Dealer VINO Has Handled over rive
Thousand Skeletons During His Lugu.
brious C~areer-Hideous Decorations OF
Bedroom-A Being That Loves Bones.
To deal in the bones of human beings
would be an occupation %repugnant to
most men. Yet in the vicinity Of Sixth
and South streets lives an old French
man who finds more pleasure in this oc-
cupation thar anything else in his life.
His store is a veritable den Of skeletons.
The weather beaten sign swinging over
the door, creaking dismally with every
gust of wind, bears this simple legend,
IN. de Robaire, Parfumerie," from
which it is evident monsieur would have
the world believe that he deals almost
exclusively in those perfumed waters so
dear to the feminine heart. Every fam
lily has a skeleton in the closet, however,
and monsieur's family, which consists
only of himself, is no exception 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.
The second floor boasts Of only two
small rooms, the rear n being used as
q workshop, while the other, directly
over the store and fronting on the street,
serves the double purpose of bedcham-
Der and stOreroom.
Such another bedchamber as the one
occupied by the old Frenchman prob
,llr, I1oc ,,D+ cv;c4 or1 hon, ,oor;o,,,
manages to sleep the sleep of the just
among such grewsome surroundings is
an insolvable mystery to the few VINO
nave been admitted to it.
The walls Of the small room are orna-
mented with skulls and crOssbOnes and
real life size skeletons, or rather death
size skeletons, in all sorts of grotesque
positions. Four hideous skulls grin from
their positions on top of the four posts
of the bed, and close to the sides Of the
bed stands a skeleton with arms out
stretched doing duty as a clothes rack.
The whole is dimly lighted up by a faint
glimmer Of light emanating from q lamp
made of a CHASTITY skull suspended from
the middle of the ceiling with thongs of
tanned human hide.
II SKELETON TRADE.
De Rebaire himself is all odd looking
man, and the resemblance between him
and one 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 nous
tache and imperial.
For a score Of years he has been carry
ing on his business in the old place, hav-
ing emigrated from France in 1865,
coming direct to Philadelphia, where he
established himself in business. Fer a
time he had a hard struggle to keep body
and soul together, owing to the number
of competitors in the field, together with
the dizziness Of business. It soon became
necessary for him, in addition to his
other trade, to set himself up as q drug
gist, and he still runs his little shop,
though principally as a decoy.
Late in the sixties, when the Knights
of Pythias were organized in this state,
the demand for skeletons increased. as
they were used to a great extent in the
lodgerOOms. De RObaire prospered, as
a consequence, since most Of his Compel
itors had given up the business.
Off and on during the following twenty
years business was dull and brisk by
turns, but the old man had a1nassed a
small fortune, and there is no reason
why he should longer continue in the
business except that he has taken a lik-
ing 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 q 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 repre-
senting the human frame and build up
the skeleton as it was originally, with
out bone out Of place.
WHAT THE DOCTOR SAYS.
The doctor" while standing in his
workshop a 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
| lave imported from France. You will
notice the high polish on the bones, due
to a method Of preparation practiced
only by the French. They clean the
bones by a process of maceratiOn with
muriatic acid, the whole operation re-
curing two or three months time, while
in this country the bones are hastily and
carele5sly boiled and come out rough
and dirty. In all my twenty years serv-
ice | have never come across a Chinese
skeleton. This is due to the fact that a
Chinaman believes he will not reach
heaven unless his bones rest in the Flow
cry Kingdom.
The different prices Of skeletons are
based upon their degrees Of hardness
and wilderness, upon the development of
the bones and the amount Of absence of
fat in their e~Ntremities. For this reason
the French article is decidedly of more
value than the American or German.
Up to this year over 1000 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 | have a stock of them in
my bedroom, but | would not part with
Iny of these. Mon Dieu! | have come to