TRADE IN SKELETONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

TRADE IN SKELETONS.

The trade In human skeletons-surely a very grim and grisly species of merchan-atee-seerns to be developing in new directions, according to am American contemporary, and nowadays one may spend a great'deal of money, if he be morbidly Inclined, upon a variety of articles of "bigotry and virtue" made up from the osseous framework of his fellow man. Indeed, It is surprising how much imagination has been exercised "a devising gruesome products of this character. For about £3, as advertised, one may buy a skull and cross-bones,"beautlfully white" -the top of the cranium being separate and lined with gold-leaf. But for only ten shillings more one can purchase a skull with luminous eyes, the sockets containing two miniature incandescent lamps. This is worked by an electric battery, the jaw being moved at will by concealed mechanism, A "skeleton rider"—a human skeleton mounted astride of a rearing skeleton horse on an oak pedestal—costs £63. The right hand of the rider bears a long lance, and "special attention is given to the correct anatomical posing of this instructive group."

Cheaper, but still very desirable, is a Charlotte Corday, got up in a niamner that would certaiuly have been most pleasing to the young lady if she had been able to see herself thus represented. It consists of a humau skull shut behind the Iron bars of a prison window of masonry, the skeleton hands clutching the bars as In the celebrated painting of the French herofoie. It can be fastened to the wall and operated from a distance, the skull being made to nod at will. "Ghastly and effectively," the advertisement says, and presumably this does not overstate the fact. With a battery to work the mechanism, it costs only ilO.

Such, elaborate contrivances as these are used almost exclusively by secret societ!es. Another one of the kind is a Flying Mercury—a male skeleton, "best quality," poised on one foot and bearing a torch in the raised arm. Xo support is visible, the figure appearing as if in full flight. The torch is practical, and can be arranged to givu light.

Under the head of "human bric-a-brac," says the "New Penny Magazine," are included a number of articles of every day use, composed of people's bones which have been dispensed with by their former owners. There are canes made in part from th'gh-boues, umbrella handles from the uppe" third of the humerus," and smoking sets, likewise "entirely osteological." A novel style of piano lamp is a complete skeleton, kneeling, supporting a handsome brass or silver-gilt apparatus. Carving sets and writing sets are likewise composed of various parts of human framework, and the inon-superstitlous persons may even buy three dice of like material for only fifteen shillings.