The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-06-12
BANQUETS TO STATUES.

A Partisan lady who died recently
won a certain amount of notoriety In
the French capital by entertaining at
dinner for over a decade marble
statue of her late husband. From the
day of her partner death until her
own decease she always dined with the
statue, which was five feet in height,
placing it at the head of the table and
setting before it food and viands by
way of oblation, says TIt-Blts.
The late King of Bavaria always had
a bust of Marie Antoinette by his side
when he sat down to dinner. He re,
garded the stone image absolutely the
same as if it were the queen herself,
placing the most costly viands for its
consumption and speaking to it in ten
der tones.
There is an old gentleman living near
Glasgow who has for several years
dined daily with a statue. He is
bachelor. and the statue is a counter.
felt presentment of his sister with
whom he lived and who died suddenly
of heart failure. At her death an exact
model of her in a sitting posture was
chiseled by sculptor, and this was
attired in her clothes and placed by her
bereaved brother in a chair in his din
| ing-room. From that day to this the
| statue has occupied a seat at his dim
| ner table, with a maid servant standing
beside it, whose duty it is to place food
and drink for it at every meal.
1t Will be remembered that Mr.. Clyde
| Fitch the dramatist, gave a banquet
| once at which there were q number of
| half human size dolls, dressed to rep
resent the female characters in certain
of his plays.
Cases of sculptors falling in love with
the figures they chisel are by no means
uncommon. One sculptor became so en-
tranced with one of his works that he
used to worship it in a most extrava-
giant fashion. Another knight of the
mallet chiseled a Venus, and fell in love
with it to such an extent that on sew
eral occasions he entertained it at din
ner table. inviting his fellow sculptors
to toast it in bumpers of champagne,
It seems incredible that men should
| live in the tombs of their wives vet
! there are several cases on record of
men who have done this. Jonathan
/ Reed, for instance, sat daily in vault
| in Evergreen cemetery, New York, by
the side of the coffin containing the
| remains of his wife.
| Mr.. Reed. who was an eccentric gen.
! tleman of cons derabIe wealth. erected
a tomb al a cost of 500, and after plac-
ing the body of his wife in it, furnished
| it with dressing table and mirror,
| chairs, table, china vases. boxes and
| all the property belonging to his wife,
| including old gloves, balls of yarn.
: pieces of unfinished knitting, photo
| graphs and boxes of letters.
! The coffin stood on a shelf, and over
this Mr.. Reed threw piece of cheap
japanese mating, gaudily painted with
flowers. Regularly every morning the
bereaved husband visited the tomb, and
! remained there until the cemetery
closed at clock in the evening. He
usually sat on a chair by the head of
| the coffin. hut occasionally he would
| stand at the door of the vault with
mementoes Of his wife in his hand. The
vault is an imposing structure of gran
| ite and over the door is engraved
Jonathan and Mary T. Reed. -