Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1893-12-12
QUEER AND GIFTED.
AN ARTIST WHO PAINTS MONEY LIKE
THE ZEAL THING.

a8AAHNa $4,000"
Poor Victor Dubreuil, who lives in
Forty-fourth street, paints United States
currency so that 1t looks real. and yet he
rarely has in his pocket two coins to
Jingle together.
Over the bar Of n Seventh avenue So
-oon hang several Of his pictures. One is
called Barrels o. Money" The barrels,
or kegs. are Of good, stout oak, set in a
row three deep, and from their yawning
mouths 81, s., $40. SEQ. $25 and so and
800. 500 and $500 bank notes, apparent
ly fresh from the United States treasury,
nre escaping by hundreds. The bills in
some Of the barrels are weighted down
with heoping shovslfuls Of gold coin Of
the larger denominations. These seem
90 glitter IN the light. and co do the dia-
nonds and t%urquoises which have fallen
from the kegs and lie sparkling beside
them on the floor. With them are large
bank note sandwiches done up in paper
wrappers, over the edges Of which crisp
new edges Of the bills curl temptingly.
To the left Of this painting hangs an
other Of about the same size, which, as
It not only tells a story Of it's own, butts
the key to the life, struggles and aims Of
tho man who produced Il, is tho most inn
portant and interesting in the place. The
spectator appears 20 DO standing inside
the railing Of a bank or largo mercantile
counting house. Before him is the tell
er's or bookkeeper's desk, upon which,
c~ieverly foreshortened and painted, lies a
ledger, the ruling and writing on the
pages Of which are well simulated. To
the left of the book IS a bottle Of ink,
from which a pen prOtrudes. Under the
desk lies an overturned stool. The cash
drawer, with its brazen handles, is open,
and q desperate looking man, with I'M
kempt, tawny brown hair and long
beard, squints along the g~listening barrel
Of a loaded seven shooter on the other
eide of the grating around the desk,
while an aged crone in a red cloak stands
beside him, and with her skinny arm
thrust through the open window in the
grating transfers, with q greedy and tri-
umphant leer, bulky packages Of realis-
tic bank notes from the drawer to q fold
Of her skirt.
Stand in what part Of the room you
will, you arc compelled to gaze down
the barrel Of the revolver, which covers
the spectator at all points, and to shud-
der at the hungry leer Of the woman,
which, strange to say, Is Enthusiastically
seen to huger upon her careworn face,
although her eyes, those windows Of the
soul, are hidden by her blood red cloak.
The woman is the artists ex-washer-
woman, now gathered to her fathers.
Her desperate looking accomplice with
the pistol is the artist himself, and the
entire picture is the key 10 the aspira-
tions, disappointments, joys and sorrows
Of Victor Dubreuil, %ex-nnancier, soldier,
Journalist, organizer, porter and stable
man, and at present artist, author and
socialist agitator.
This will DO better understood when it
is explained That the title of the picture
is "a Prediction For 1900; OF, a Warning
TO Capitalists"
II am vat you peeps call vairsateel,"
said the artist. II paint re steel life, 20
genre, re landscape, 20 portrait-any-
King vRtevare. gone to Amerique. /
have no monnaie. l go to Theophile
Keeck, 20 bankaire on Clinton place.
j work Eere MS stapleboy dwendy-two
hours u day for four mons. / get dwell
dollaire q mons. By my economic l safe
forty-fve d%ollaire. Zen l say; 'Dubreuil,
you owe monnRie. You must pay heem.
You cannot get reech as a s~tapleboy.
Vat, zen, will you do? 1 salt, 4 will pc
COON one a%rteest.' So l do So"
Besides being an artist, NJ. Dubreuil
has been a soldier, serving with the
French army in Mexico. lie was clerk
in a banking house and then went into
the business on his own account. Ho
became interested in the formation of a
company which should do for France
and Africa what tho East India company
did for England and India, with the diff
ference that through Dubreuils company
tho worldngman, not tho capitalist, was
70 reap the reward. To further this
scheme, he became a newspaper man,
and for six months published La Polit-
iQne d'Action. Judging by his own state
ments, this journal was 20 %searchingly
ard caustically truthful as. TO arouse
first the ire and then tho fear Of capital
lists, who, according to his story, ruined
him.
During his good fortune and his bad
there has been n occupation that has
always engrossed this soldier banker
Bocialist-artist. 1t has been the study OF
Rabelais, with the intention of explain
ing him to his fellow countrymen and
the world.
In tho quiet retirement of his studio.
on West FoIty-fourth street, the sell
taught artist tolls day and night TO fin.
ish the annotations on Rabelais' works.
which are nearly done, and at which he
has been laboring for 18 long years,
These, he declares, will open wide the
eyes Of the entire world, and with in.
ventions at which be has been toilipp
viii bring him in by next year sufficient
means 10 return 10 France, liquidate hil
indebtedness centime for centime, crust
his enemies and ~reorganize his African
Development company. Dubreuil be
lieyes that Rabelais has foretold for al
time tho outcome Of the capital and la
Dor situation, and that it IS only neces
sary 70 make the laboring classes read
the great satirist through his spectaclel
in order 10 start them on the right track
toward working out their temporal sal
walton.
Besides the Rabelais commentary and
the inventions, which include a new mo
tor for vessels, suggested by the recoil Of
cannon, and q patent suspender, which
he Is arranging 10 sell to the American
government, the artist Is painting an \
legorical conceit which he calls tn,
"ApOtheosis Of Liberty. New Yorl
Cor. ST. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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