230 



COURBET, GUSTAVE. 



of iron in solution after boiling. It is then 

 treated with soap and alkali to counteract the 

 acid effects of the nitrate, or, technically ex- 

 pressed, to " kill the iron." It is given suc- 

 cessive baths of nitrate, followed by successive 

 applications of soap and alkali, until the de- 

 sired weight is acquired. The process is the 

 same which is used in honestly dyeing the 

 silk, but a single treatment is sufficient for 

 coloring purposes, each succeeding bath an- 

 swering no other purpose than to add fraudu- 

 lent weight. The adulteration can be con- 

 tinued in the second process of bluing with 

 prussiate of potash, followed by a bath of 

 gambier, cutch, or other astringents, fastened 

 with tin salts, and then an application of 

 acetate of iron, and a second gambier bath. 

 Every time this is repeated the thread acquires 

 additional weight, but, through the action of 

 the astringent on the gelatine in the silk, loses 

 clearness and brilliancy of color. A bath of 

 logwood dye gives brightness to the dull, dis- 

 colored thread. In this bath is a large quan- 

 tity of soap, often eight ounces to the pound, 

 which is absorbed in considerable quantities, 

 and with the alkali forms a kind of fat. In 

 wear this greasy substance works to the sur- 

 face, making the shiny appearance and the 

 smoothness which is produced on the surface 

 of black silks after short use. The soft and 

 satin-like texture, and the stiff and rustling or 

 "scroopy" character in the piece goods, are 

 produced by different treatments of the same 

 thread. An application of oil and soda pro- 

 cures the soft and satiny finish, and a little acid 

 gives it the stiff and rustling properties. These 

 processes of adding extra weight account for 

 the common faults of black silk, such as crack- 

 ing in the folds, turning shiny, and pulling out 

 of shape. The large use of dye for the pur- 

 pose of adulteration was not practiced until a 

 quite recent period. Twenty-five years ago 

 the highest proportion of dye employed was 

 33 per cent. ; 17 per cent, of dye is all the 

 weight that is required for coloring. Of col- 

 ored silks, browns, drabs, slates, etc., are not 

 weighted over 25 per cent. ; silks dyed with 

 aniline colors do not admit of this adultera- 

 tion. Of twenty-eight samples of silk goods 

 on sale in the New York stores, those which 

 sold at three dollars or more a yard were 

 found by an expert (Lewis Leigh, of Pittsfield, 

 Massachusetts) to contain 55 per cent, of 

 weighting; those between three and two dol- 

 lars, 74 per cent. ; and those under two dollars 

 and above one dollar, 94 per cent. : the aver- 

 age of all grades was 74 per cent. 



COURBET, GUSTAVE, a French painter, born 

 at Ornans, in in the department of Doubs, June 

 10, 1819, died at La Tour de Peilz, near Vevey, 

 in Switzerland, December 31, 1877. He re- 

 ceived his first education in the seminary of 

 Ornans, which was at that time under the man- 

 agement of Abbe Gousset, subsequently Cardi- 

 nal Archbishop of Rheims. He continued his 

 studies in the college of Besancon, and at the 



CULLEN, PAUL. 



age of twenty went to Paris to study law. 

 Suddenly, however, he relinquished law for 

 painting. He worked chiefly by himself, though 

 for a thort time he visited the ateliers of Steu- 

 ben and Hesse. In 1844 one of his pictures 

 was for the first time admitted to the Salon. 

 The boldness of his realism attracted a great 

 deal of attention, but he found more opposition 

 than favor. The Revolution of 1848 made him 

 very popular, and he was much admired as a 

 gifted representative of a radical naturalism in 

 art. His pictures, " L'Apres-din6e a Ornans " 

 (1849), and ' ; L'Enterrement a Ornans " (1850), 

 achieved especially a notable success. Among 

 his portraits, those of Berlioz and Proudhon 

 are greatly valued. At the beginning of 1870 

 Courbet was made Knight of the Legion of 

 Honor, upon the proposition of M. Maurice 

 Richard, Minister of Fine Arts ; but he refused 

 to accept the honor from the Government of 

 Louis Napoleon, in a letter which produced 

 considerable sensation. The Paris Commune 

 of 1871, in which he took an active part, in- 

 trusted to him the administration of the na- 

 tional museums, and during this time he caused 

 the demolition of the column in the place Ven- 

 dome. After the overthrow of the Commune 

 Courbet was arrested and sentenced to six 

 months' imprisonment. Subsequently he was 

 also sentenced to defray the expense of restor- 

 ing the column. This sentence ruined him 

 financially, and he fled to Switzerland, where 

 he remained until his death. From 1872 to 

 1877 his pictures were not admitted to any art 

 exhibition in France, on the ground that the 

 part he took in the Commune had made him 

 unworthy to associate with men of honor ; but 

 at the approach of the Paris Exposition of 1878 

 the prohibition was removed by a jury of artists. 

 Proudhon, who was a native of the same de- 

 partment, has devoted the greater part of his 

 work " Du Principe de 1'Art et de sa Destina- 

 tion sociale " to Courbet, as the representative 

 of a radical art-school. 



CULLEN, PAUL, a Cardinal of the Catholic 

 Church, born in the county of Kildare, Ire- 

 land, April 29, 1803, died in Dublin, October 

 24, 1878. He belonged to a family of the mid- 

 dle class long settled in the counties of Kildare 

 and Meath. Passing through the ecclesiastical 

 college at Carlow, he completed his studies in 

 the Irish College at Rome. Subsequently ad- 

 mitted to the priesthood, he became rector of 

 the latter college, and also held for a time the 

 rectorship of the Propaganda. In 1849 he was 

 selected by the Pope to fill the vacancy in the 

 Archbishopric of Armagh caused by the death 

 of Dr. Crolly, although he was not one of the 

 three whose names were submitted to the Vati- 

 can ; and in 1852 he was appointed Archbishop 

 of Dublin, in succession to Dr. Murray. Final- 

 ly, in 1866, he was created Cardinal, and took 

 for his title that of St. Peter in Montorio. He 

 was distinguished as a theologian ; and, as the 

 fervent, unflinching asserter of Catholicity and 

 of the Church's rights and dignity, he was one 





