3-079-365 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Plate 7: Messieurs et Dames!, 1838. "Les mines d'argent, les mines d'or, les mines de diamant ne sont que de la pot-Bouille, de la ratatouille en comparaison de la houille...Mais (que vous m'allez dire) tu vends alors les actions un million? Mes actions, Messieurs, je ne les vends pas je les donne pour 200 misérables francs j'en donne deux pour une, je donne une aiguille, un cure-oreille, un passe-lacet et je vous donne encore ma bénédiction par dessus le marché. En avant la grosse caisse!" (Ladies and Gentlemen! Silver mines, gold mines and diamond mines are nothing, thin gruel, ratatouille, compared to my coal. But - you are going to say - you must be selling your stocks for a million? I don't sell my stocks, gentlemen, I give them away against two measly hundred francs. I give two for the price of one, I give a needle, a cotton-bud, a bodkin, and I give you my blessing to cap it all... Now let's hear that big bass drum!" Standing on a pedestal, the rogue Robert Macaire harangues the crowd of onlookers. He holds a bundle of crumpled papers in his hand. His accomplice, Bertrand, carries a drum on which is written "ANNOUNCEMENTS"). Plate 7 from 'Caricaturana,' Les Robert Macaires, 1838.