The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-12-12
QUEER AMI GIFTED.
AN ARTIST WHO PAINTS MONEY LIKE
THE REAL THING.

a Soldier. Socialist, Artist and Jon, aalist,
and He Has a Hobby-His Great Regard
For Rabeiais-some OF His Remarkable
Paintings Described.
Poor Victor Dnbreuil, who lives i'm
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 q 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, s., $40, $50, $a5 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 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 a
other of about the same size, which, as
it not only tells a story of it's 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 q bank or large mercantile
counting house. Before him is the tell
er,s or bookkeeper's desk, upon which,
cleverly foreshortened and painted, lies a
ledger, the ruling and writing on the
pages of which are well simulated. TO
the left of the book lis q bottle Of ink,
from which a pen protrudes. Undert the
desk lies an overturned stool. The cash
drawer, with it's brazen handles, is open,
and o desperate looking man, with mn
kempt, tawny brown hair and long
beard, squints along the giistening barrel
of q loaded seven shooter on the other
side of the grating around the desk.
while an aged crone in q red cloak stands
beside him, and with her skinny arm
thrust through the open window in the
grating transfers, with a greedy and tri-
umphant leer, bulky packages of realis-
tic bank notes from the drawer to O fold
Of her skirt.
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 Enthusiastically
seen to linger upon her W 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, disappointments, joys and sorrows
of 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, a Warning
to Capitalists"
81 am vat you peeps call v~airsateel, :
said the artist. II paint re steel life, re
genre, re landscape. re portrait-any-
Zing vatevare. Igome to Amerique. ]
have no monnaie. | go to Theophile
Keeck, 20 bankaire on Clinton place.
work zere as stapleboy dwendy-two
hours a>day for four mons. | get dwell
dollaire a mons. BY my economic | safe
forty-five dollaire. Zen ] say: 'Dubreuil.
you owe monnaie. You must pay heem.
You cannot get reech as q stapleboy.
Vat, EN-, viii you doy / salt, i viii pc
COON one arteest.' So I do so.r
Besides being an artist. M. Dnbreuil
has been q soldier, serving with fhe
French army in Mexico. He was cleEb
in q banking house and then went into
the business on his own account. H<
became interested in the formation of q
company which should do for France
and Africa what the East India company
did for England and India, with the diff.
ference that through DubreuiPs company
the workingman. not the capitalist, wa
to reap the reward. To further THU
scheme. he became a newspaper man
and for six months published La Polit
ique d.Actien. Judging by his own state
ments, this journal was SO searchingly
and causticaily truthful as to arouse
first the ire and then the fear of capital
lists. who. according to his story, ruined
him.
During his good fortune and his bas
there has been one occupation that In!
always ~engrossed this soldier-banker
socialist-artist. 1t has been the study 81
Rabelais. with the intention OF explain
ing him to his fellow countrymen an(
the world.
In the quiet retirement OF his studi0
on West F~orty-fourth street, the sea
taught artist tuiis day and night to fin
ish the a~nnotations on Rabelais' works
which are nearly done, and at which hi
hAs been laboring for 10 long years
These. he declares. viii open wide tn
eyes Ut the entire world, and with Id
v~entions at which he has been toilinl
will bring him in by next year sufficien
means Ii return to France, liquidate hi
Indebtedness centime for centime, crusl