The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-22
HARTFORD BOASTS
 ROYAL RESIDENT The Beautiful Duchesse Du Poys Dee Poupees,
 the Lady. FRIEND OF AN ARTIST. Charles Noel Flagg Guards Her From the Pub
 lie Gaze.
FRIEND OF AN ARTIST.
YEsreford courant,1

young lady seem to warrant a news
 paper 'write-up." She is none other
 than the beautiful Duchesse du Pays
 des Poupees and one of the remark
 able things about her is that she never
 eats or sleeps and, what is of greater
 interest to the misogynists, she never
 even talks. She is the quietest lady
 in the town. In fact, she has been so
 unobtrusive that few have known of
 her existence, though she has been
 here for some years. She belongs to
 Charles Noel F1agg, the artist, and is
 "a manikin.
 To those who are used only to the
 variety of lay figures seen in the de-
 partment store windows, 1t would be
 at once matter of boundless in-
 terest and possible opportunities for
 fun should we acquire manikin
 worthy of the name, such as this one
 of interest, since 1t is a wonderful piece of mechanism and more than a
 century old-and amusing in it's being so life-like that the number of stories
 MT Flags, its owner can tell of peo- pie being deceived or startled by it are almost without number.
 The manikin is now in MT. Flagg s studio in the Ballerstein building and
 the artist, by force of habit, has learned to warn everybody, who has not been there before and knows all about it, that it is make believe. Oth- erwise the unsuspecting might be con- fronted unawares, by lovely young lady seated quietly by the studio window, reading the latest magazine or book, or by a fairy, flying through the air with all the grace of ballet dancer or by a washerwonan; on her knees on the floor, for, though MT. Flagg does not believe in the use of lay figures in painting to any great extent, he is not above getting every phase of fun out of his lady friend" that there Is in it.
 MT. Flagg tells a good story about old Dr. Horton, who was for years the principal of the Cheshire Acadamy and man to whom the latchstring of the Flagg house in New Haven, when the family lived there, used always to be out, Dr. Horton had one glass eye and hence not the best of vision. One day he came to the house to find MT, Flagg's father, Rev. Jared Flagg, out. He told the maid he would take a. litle nap In the studio and wait for him, and soon had dosed off. In the meantime, for Joke, Charles Noel Flagg set up the figure in the room and the old gentleman woke up to find a lovely young woman in the room with him, quietly seated by the win dow reading a book. Ever polite, he rose somewhat abashed and began a long apology for going to sleep so rudely. She paid no attention. He thought it was because she was offend ed, so more apologies were forthcom- ing. Finally, he became suspicious and fled terror-stricken into the hall to cry out to the maid, Katrina, Katrl- ma, there is a lady in the studio that has either tainted or is dead"
 The stories that could be told in this wise are many MT. Flagg says that only a short time ago he got boy to help him take the figure down in it's box. which is as old as the figure is, from shelf, and the boy really was dreadfully frightened and shuddered. He thought it was 8 real person in a coffin. That day he had it set up in the studio when the woman who takes care of the rooms come in and tremb- ling asked if she were dead" Ere quently such people call as book agents and others that MT. Flagg does not want to see. When they see the figure they politely back out and beg pardon. MT. Flagg has got in the habit of let ting it go at that.
 The figure is really a family heirloom with the Flaggs. It was brought in the eighteenth century to Boston from France by the famous artist, Washing ton Alllston, the contemporary of Stuart and the men of that school. No other people in the world than the French would have had the ingenuity and patience to make it. Alliston was born in South Carolina in 1779. He gave it to MT. Flagg's father, Rev. Jared B. Flagg, who was one of the best known New England artists of his | day Ever since then it has been in l the Flagg family and probably always will be.
 It is the figure of a young girl about l twenty years old. She is five feet six or seven inches tall, and has luxuriant !! black hair and blue eyes. Her face is remarkably beautiful and lifelike, but | the wonderful thing about all her fig l ure is that it is built on exquisite, al- l most classical lines It isn't as imita- | tive as wax doll In some details, but | it is wonderful in it's proportions. It | is really perfect doll, though the | word "dolI' seems too common a one to use in connection with such mas terpiece of human skill.
 There is not a joint that cannot be | moved, not a position a human being | can attain that this figure cannot. ! Every joint of the fingers and toes, the | neck, the arms and the knees, every | one can be moved. Even the shoulders | can be brought forward or thrown | back the knees may be crossed as nato urally as a living person can do it and | there really seems nothing lacking but | a heart. At each wrist there is lit- tie screw that may be turned that will | tighten all the finger joints in some mysterious way so that the hand will remain as it is fixed. The same may be done at all of the principal joints.
 In all it's long history it has had such good care that it has not been broken in the slightest particular It is ques- tionable whether there is another lay figure in America so perfect. Such | figures were formerly used by artists