Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-02

| but ., so well seasoned and richly col
ored. Il sixteenth century house in the
| MarIis-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 of a side
board, which in design and workman
ship was to surpass anything that had
yet been done in the factory where
he was chief workman. All his know
ledge of the masterpieces in carved
oak, all his taste and skill were brought
TO 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 handicraft. Jacques Mollin, his
friend the painter. was at his elbow
| to 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 cornice owed something to Van
Huysum. This heap of wild fowl and
! hares, flung as it were hap-hazard
against q lower panel, was a souvenier
of Snyders. Everywhere the mind of
[
craftsman. And the sideboard was as
the apple of Philip Durand's eye. 1t
was sure to bring him money, which
he cared for only for the sake of his
wife and his home; it might bring him
fame, which he valued for his own
sake, and still more for Rose, who
would be proud by and by to say, Il
did not marry a common workman"
| She was gentleman's daughter,
the daughter of an officer in the Eng
lish army, a man of good birth and re-
fired surroundings. This man of the
people never ignored that fact when
he thought of his wife. He wanted
! to atone to her for the sacrifice she
had made; he never thought of her
as the grisette, earning her living by
the labor Of her hands; but as Captain
| O'Hara's daughter, born and bred as a
lady, STOPPING from her high estate
| to become mechanics wife
How happy were those brief glmpses
of home, those brief hours with gOuge
and clrisel, beside the hearth, Will e
Rose stood by and watched the slow
careful WOrk-the chiselling Of a
feather, the rounding of a peach, the
minute touches that marked the scales
!! Of Il fish.
Yes, even while fear and uncertainty
ruled without, while earnings va nil,
and the stricted economy was needed
! least these days of scarcity should eX-
haust the little capital amaSsed with
such miracles of prudence and self
denial; even now, with the enemy with
| in sight of the walls, with the future
! of France wrapped in gloom, there
was gladneSs in the humble home on
the second floor in the Rue Git lie Occur,
and the little dinner or supper of
bread and salad the mOrsel of Lyons
sausage, or the wine-soup was as a
feast at this board, where Love ever
sat as the chief guest, smiling. blind
! to misfortune, careless of days to
come
AbOve-S stairs, in the journalists home,
! Love also reignCd, and here, too WAS
the deep happiness of perfect union;
but with Castor and Kathleen life was
less calm than in the Durand house
hold. CASTOR was stepped to the lips
in the fever Of politics was, blown
hither and thither, his soul tossed and
agitated by every breath Of the public
whirlwind. He had friends here, there,
and everywhere among the extreme Re
publican party; he believed in Roche
! fort, he WOrshipped Flourens, that hot
headed enthusiast who just at this time
was in command of five battalions
of the National Guard, the beloved Of
Belleville and Mcnilmontant, Il leader
at whose beat of drum that seething
! populace was reauy to rise as one man.
/ The Red Flag was loud in it's re-
proaches against existing authorities.
The Red Flag lauded BlanQuf and the
Blanquists, and was just now at the
height of POPULARITY, rivaling Felix
| Pyat's paper LIE Combat and Blanqui'S
Patrie en- Danger; and yet the day was
to come when the Patrie en- Danger
would cease to charm, and the Red Flag
would not be half red enOugh-would
perish as an effete rag, too tame, too
soft for the age of anarchy and death.
| The day was to come when every
color would be too pale for Paris, seye
! the deep dark hue Of blood.
! But at this time Paris had not yet
begun to suppress it's newspapers The
Red Flag was popular, and CASTOR
Mortemar was the most popular among
its contributors. He was paid literally
for his work; for in this day of doubt
and uncertainty the poorest could spare
couple of sous for a paper that told
! how France was being miSgoyerned,
and called upon the supreme sovereign
peOple-the NIirabeaus and Robes
pierres, and Dantons and Marats of
| Menilmontant, to arise in their might,
and steer the tempest-driven ship to a
safe harbor-the smooth roadstead of
! Communism, COllectiViSm, Karl Marx
ism, what you will; every man his
own master, no hereditary nobility, no
! landowners, no millionaires, a universal
level of blue blouses and cheap wines.
But as weeks and months wore on,
and autumn began to have Il wintry as
pect, and party rose against party,
faction against faction, and agitation
and fever were in the very air men
breathed, kathleen'S breast was flut-
tered by many fears In Gaston's alb
Sence she was never free from nervous
apprehensions, from morbid imagin-
ingS. 1t was only in those brief in
tervals when he was at home, sitting
at his desk, writing passionate vehem-
ent protests against this or that, pro
phecies of evil, wild suggestions fol
wilder action, bending over his paper
WITH pale nervous face and flashing