Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-10-24
ABOUT STATUE CHATTING.
Result of Political Changes in the
 French Republic.
Heads Don't Fit = Grotesque Effects That Might Be Seen Should the Practice He Intro
 duced Here.
[copyright, 1897 ]

10 UnG frequent changes or govern melt which have taken place in France during the last 100 years must be at tributed the development and perfec- ton of an extraordinary art that may be described as statue grating. Quite a large number of the statues in Paris, as we'll as in the various cities and towns of France, bear other heads on their shoulders than those originally placed there by the artist.
 Probably the best known cases of this statue grafting are to be found in the Cour d'Honneur of the Palace of Yer saiIles. The statues which are now in- scribed with the names of Marshals Mortier, Massena, Jourdan and Lannes on their pedestals were originally sur mounted by the heads of Gems. Las salle, Espagne and of other officers of minor fame and celebrity. These heads were removed by a sculptor by the name of Laitie during the reign of King Louis Philippe, and it seems that while he was at work on the statue of Gen. Espange the latter's children happened to visit Versailles. The spectacle pre- sented by the artist in the very act of decapitating the statue of their revered parent was so great a shock that one of the ladies tainted on the spot. 4 con- siderable outcry was raised about the subject in the PaFisiaR press at the time, but the authorities took no notice thereof and did not stop until new leads had been grafted upon all the statues at Versailles.
 When Napoleon LII. came to the throne after the "coup d'etat, most of the statues of the citizen king and Of the dignitaries of his reign were decap- itated and supplied with heads portray ing the features of Napoleon himself or of his ministers.
 In France it is customary that each prefecture, or provisional governors palace, should be adorned with one or more statues and busts of the ruler of the country for the time being, as well as with those of the minister of the in terior. Every provincial post office is expected to be similarly equipped, with this difference, that a bust of the post master general takes the place of that of the minister of the interior. The same is the case with every pubic school, as well as with all the customs and inland revenue offices throughout the length and breadth of France.
 Of course, it would never do to re- tain in the place of honor statues or busts of personages who. for one reason or another, no longer hold office, and who possibly have been disgraced. For instance, were President Faure to make q state progress through the provinces, he would scarcely relish the spectacle of statues and busts of old President Grevy meeting his eye at every corner. gazing down, so to speak, upon his slumbers from the corner of every bed chamber that he might occupy at the palaces of the provincial governors during his tour. The eonseq quenee is that all statues and even busts that are now supplied wholesale to the gov ernment for official use in the provinces are invariably provided with removable heads. That is why one sometimes finds the face of President Faure, who al ways wears high stand up collars. looking down upon one from the body and from the raiment of his predeces- sor, President Perier. who affected turned down collars cut exceedingly low in the neck That, too, is the ex- planation why the head of the present prime minister, who, as an exceeding ly thin and frail looking man, is seen perched on the phenomenally fat body of statue that was sculptured to rep resent the excessively stout Prime Min ister Dupis, who was in office at the time of President Carrots murder. But probably the funniest arrangement of this kind was the fixing of the head of the tall and stalwaIt President Faure, whose stature surpasses that of most of his countrymen, upon the shoulders of a statue that had beer carved to DOT tray the dumpy figure or President Thiers, who was nothing else than a dwarf, and in every respect physically the reverse of the present chief magis- trate.
 It would be curious, to say the least, if, in the course of time, this art were to be imported into this country. I'm agine seeing the head of Bryan perched on the body of President Mckinley. that of Senator Sherman upon the torso of ex-President Cleveland, and the fa- miliar figure of Mayor Strong support ing the equally well-known head and face of Hon. Richard Croker. There is something very fascinating in this idea of statue grating, and it's ad- vantages are so obvious, especially in republics such as ours, that but little time may elapse before it is applied in the United States.