The herald., 1893-12-13
QUEER AND GIFTED.
AN ARTIST WHO PAINTS MONEY LIKE
THE REAL THING.
a Soldier, Socialist, Artist and Journalist,
and He Has a Hobby--His Great Regard
For Rabelais-Somc of His Remarkable
Paintings Described.

Forty-fourth street, paints United States
currency 80 that it looks real, and yet he
farely has in his pocket two coins to
Jingle together.
Over the bar of Seventh avenue sa-
loon 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, s5, $40, SEQ, So5 and $50 and
800, $500 and $500 bank notes, apparent
ly fresh from the United States treasury,
are escaping by hundreds. The bills in
some Of the barrels are weighted down
with heaping shovelfuls of gold coin of
the larger denominations. These seem
to glitter in the light. and SO do the dia-
monds and turquoises which have fallen
from the kegs and lie sparkling beside
them on tho 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 temptipgly.
To the left Of this painting hangs an
other OF about the same size, which, as
1t not only tells story of its own, but is
the key to the life, struggles and aims Of
the man who produced it, is the most i'm
portant and interesting in the place. The
spectator appears TO be standing inside
the railing Of n bank or largo mercantile
counting house. Before him is the tell
er's or bookkeepers desk, upon which,
cleverly foreshortened and painted, lies q
ledger, the ruling and writing on tho
pages CT which are well simulated. To
the left of the book is bottle of ink,
from which u pen protrudes. Under the
desk lies an overturned stool. The cash
drawer, with its brazen handles, is open,
and desperate looking man, with un-
kempt, tawny brown hair and long
beard, squints along the glistening barrel
of loaded seven shooter on the other
side of the grating around the desk,
while an aged crono in red cloak stands
beside him. md with her skinny arm
thrust through the open window III tho
grating transfers, with n greedy and tri-
umphant leer, bulky packages of realis-
tic bank notes from the drawer to fold
of her slsir'.
Stand in what part of the room You
will, you are 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 unmistalably
Seen to linger 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 to the aspira-
tions, appointments, joys and sorrows
bf Victor Dubreuil ex-fnancier, soldier,
Journalist, organizer, porter and stable
man, and at present artist, author and
socialist agitator
This will be better understood when it
Is explained that the title of the picture
Is "a Prediction For 1900; or, Warning
TO Capitalists
81 am vat you peeps call vairsateel,"
said the artist. II paint re steel life, 70
genre, re landscape, 20 portrait-any
Eing vatevare. como to Amerique. I
have no monnaie. l go to Theophile
Keeck, 20 bankaire on Clinton place.
| work zere as stapleboy dwendy-two
uOulc u CttJ lcl lOuI luOADs EcU 0Mtla
lollaire mons. By my economic l safe
forty-fve dollaire. Zen say: 'Dubreuil,
Eou owe monnaie. You must pay heem.
You cannot get reech as a stapleboy.
Vat, zen, will you dor / salt, 4 will pc
COON one arteest.' So do so.'
Besides being an artist, M. Dubreuil
has been a soldier, serving with the
French army in Mexico. He was clerk
In banking house and then went into
the business on his own account. He
became interested in the formation of
company which should do for France
and Africa what the East India company
did for England and India, with the diff
ference that through Dubreuil's company
the worlSingman, not the capitalist. was
to reap the reward. To further this
kcheIne, he became newspaper man.
and for six months published La Polit.
lque d Action. Judging by his own state.
blents, this journal was so searchingiy
and caustically truthful as to arouse
first the ire and then the fear Of capital
lists. who, according to his stors.', ruined
him.
During his good fortune and his bad
there has been one occupation that has
always engrossed this soldier-banker-
eocialist-artist. 1t has been the study Of
Rabelais, with the intention of explain
Ing him to his fellow countrymen and
the world.
In the quiet retirement of his studio,
on West Forty-fourth street, the self
taught artist tolls day and night to fin
lsh the annotations on Rabelais' works,
which are nearly done, and at which he
has been laboring for 1S long yeara.
These, he declares, will open wide the
eyes of the entire world, and with in
Sentions at which he has been toiling
will bring him in by next year sufficient
means to return to France, liquidate his
Indebtedness centime for centime, crush
his enemies and reorganize his African
Development company. Dubreuil be-
lieves that Rabelais has foretold for all
Gme the outcome of the capital and la
Eor situation, and that it is only neces-
sary to make the laboring classes read
the great satirist through his spectacles
in order to start them on the right track
toward working out their temporal sal
walton.
Besides the Rabelais commentary and
the inventions, which include new mo-
tor for vessels, suggested by the recoil of
n fn,Ht e47C Il ~.11,