Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-25
NEARLY LOST HIS LIFE
FOR SAKE OF REALISM
Special Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star
PARIS, July 16. 1909.
CGRPR1SING happenings have been re-
~ ported from many quarters of France
this week. None. however, is more
unusual than the exploit of NJ Adolf Ca
pelham, a French sculptor whose thirst
for absolute realism came near being the
death of himself and several others
Realism Is NJ. Capellani's strong point
and when recently he conceived the idea
OF executing figure of man sinking in
quicksands he decided to obtain actual
photographs of some enc in such plight
None was forthcoming, however, nor
could model .be found obliging enough
20 risk his life for art S sake. So the sculp-
Tor made up his mind to be his own
model
he carried out his ideas with quite ex-
iraordinary thoroughness at Mont s,
-nicHei' Where the sands are as treacher-
GUS as In any part of France Having
put on an old suit of clothes he wen, on
TO a dangerous spot and duly began To
Sink At convenient distance photogra
piers. on his instructions pat an q cine
! .natosraR9 camera and began taking pic
,naa, "a n,nl as ne was slowly sucked
uhder- Meanwhile he tried to look and
act as horror-stricken as possible
Inc thing was beautifully carried on,
When II suddenly occurred fo All co,oor,
ca tnat the whole performance was get
! .ihs peTlously near to reality. The SCUM
tor. sucked down almost to Tho u.ist
stopped acting in a hurry and tbs nic
lures taken of him show that his fripb+
was no longer pretense. At the same
. me photographers ceased to pho
tosiaph because they found that they and
their camera were sinking rapidly in tha
quicksands. Help came just i'm time and
all were dragged out safe and sound
" appellant has . finer series of
studies for his statue than ever ha
dreamt of. but one would think he wopId
feel bit uncomfortable when contain,
plating them. None the worse for bis
adventure he is about to set to work on
rIs nSuie winch Will be exhibited at the
salon OF the Artist Francois
From the episode of NJ capeIIani ,,,,n
10 that or French soldier and his wife. :
queer doWry. OF course every French
piidc mas dot and this lady's CON
49,, soleiy OF Two postage stamps. One
"ouid conclude that at all events her
husband was no fortune seeker. hut he
may nave been, Notwithstanding. for tho
Two stamps in question are worth SIS ono
j me! ines are rare specimens of Mauritian
issues and their story is rather In.
terestlng. The lady whose pronertv
lhey are Is Creole and has been
Ih"i ieu several years. The SER
geant who espoused her was told tina,
| ane vaiue of the stamps would increase.
'
framed and put his treasures In a
french bank. This week, his regiment
| peing ordered abroad, he went In tho
pank with his wife to withdraw his de-
post ana MS comrades in arms-troop-
ers-formed a procession to escort the
! couple carrying home their fortuna in
two postage stamps -
| Little Therese Marceau. whose 400 ;s
| seven and who lives at LIE Mans evi
usn.is IS the type of Juvenile monster
/ FGencn
| PRODUCING into their works AS the re
! SUIT or Il prank of hers her youneer
| sister is dead and her mother is In
sane one day this week Therese's par
. =, VINO are farming people. sent her
10 keep her eye on some cows which
were In a field close by the farmhouse
oH she set. accompanied by the Young
! tr chlid. who was only three years old
! rom ume 10 time one of the parents
| looked over the hedge to see that every
| 'hing was going on well. but after
awhile they went to work in another
! field.
=, taking advantage of their absence
ineIest proceeded TO tie her small sis
ter to the tail of a COW and then heat
| the animal to make it rum When the
i parents, nearing terrible screams rush
ea up and stopped the COW. the child
was dead with fractured skull. The
iIio'ners grief and despair were sc
. great that she has lost her reason. and
she Is to be placed under restraint
In France it Is not safe for a newspap per
reader TO say, in public. at any rate. Il
idlslihe lie Matin'': lie Figaro bores me, -
or otherwise to express an unfavorable
OPINION of any journal. BY so doing he
Is likely TO find himself forced to enga &c
IN mortal combat with one and perhap
more or the outraged representatives of
the journal he dislikes. This was dis
covered the other day by NJ Francois
! flameng, the famous French portrait
painter While dining at a restaurant
VIII friends he was rash enough to remark
aloud that he didn't like a certain daily
paper. Thereupon a stout man at a table
near by got up and said: Il write for that
paper. Here is my card. my seconds will
wait upon you. NJ Flameng refused the
card. The other man sent his seconds all
the same to exact reparation, this time for
a double Insult, firstly to the pape which
he serves and secondly 10 himself az a
private person.
NJ. Flameng duly appointed seconds, but
luckily commissioned them 20 say in the
first place. that he really liked the paper
far from hating it, as he had remarked in
his haste. In the second place, that he
never had had the least intention of in
lsulting the gentleman who threw down
the glove for 1t. whom he had not the
pleasure of knowing. Under these CIR
icumstances the four seconds declared that
the honor of the daily paper and that OF
the gentleman who Wri es for it were sa /
isfied. and thus NJ. Flameng was saved
from being challenged by the remainin,
members of the newspapers staff in sue
cession. Otherwise there is no knowing
whether he might not have been called
out eventually by the foreman. the COM
positors. the linotype men and the office
boys. supposing he had survived all tn,
learsier encounters.