Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 16/19

September 25, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The Consequences of Flight (15895 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 18/19
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies, Dr. Roberts (Murdoch Mysteries), Thomas Edison, Auguste Lumière, Gustave Eiffel, Marcel Guillaume, Antoine Lumière, Alphonse Bertillon, Louis Lumière
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay, Historically Accurate, Bycicles
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

24 and 25 June 1900

24 June, Sunday

Looking back at this journal I find that the harder the events, the least I write here. The last week confirms this observation. It certainly has been filled with worry. James tries. His mood is fragile. We took Guillaume's counsel to heart and he resigned his previous clients, both boys. He has not found any new client, man or woman, which means he remains home through the day. Our situation would certainly lead better men to drink. James tries, but darkness pulls at him. Not only have we lost his small wages, but we lost mine as well.

The perpetrators at the Bank, a floor manager and a first-level accountant, were indicted Thursday last and I was "renvoyé ^1 ^" the next morning. Mr Duponnois spoke on my behalf to the Bank's board, and arranged to let me keep all my earnings since April. It is part of the agreement between the Sûreté and the Board of directors; the whole affair is being kept confidential, my pseudonym apparently secure, and the Bank believes I was part of the investigation from the first ^2 ^. I met the Juge d'Instruction ^3 ^yesterday afternoon. I do not know if he knows all the particulars of our actual situation. Perhaps not; he did not mention it. Rather, he scolded me for not having declared myself as a policeman on foreign soil upon my arrival. But perhaps he knows more about the situation: before I left the Quai des Orfèvres ^4 ^, he handed me permanent residency papers, for both James and I, under our true names. He did this without comment, as an aside as he shooed me out of his office and thanked me for my service.

We must conclude that Guillaume, or more likely his father-in-law at his behest, interceded on our behalf to the authorities. Could it be? How else would we have avoided arrest for our pseudonymous presence in France? The Law being immutable, who else could have organized this reprieve?

We must now once again make employment our primary concern.

25 June, Monday

A boy knocked at our door just now with a message ordering us to the commissariat ^5 ^. It was signed my the station chief, not by Marcel Guillaume. We are anxious, of course. Hopefully these words will not be this journal's last entry.

Murdoch was "let go".
There is, in fact, no trace of these events in the Paribas public record.
In the French judicial system, a Juge d'Instruction is a magistrate responsible for judicial investigations. As an investigating judge, they oversee indictments and the initial stages in a prosecution.
36, rue des Orfèvres not only houses the Sûreté de Paris's headquarters, it also houses the Palais de Justice, Paris's central courthouse, including the High Court.
The village of La Chapelle's former mairie, i.e. its town hall, was constructed in 1845. When the village was amalgamated into Paris in 1860, the building was transformed as the neighbourhood's administrative centre , also housing three schools, a courthouse, and its commissariat, i.e. the police station. The town hall fronted on rue de la Chapelle (now rue Marx-Dormoy). However, by 1900, most of the police station's activities had been moved nearby at 65, rue Philippe-de-Girard. An apartment building now stands at the site of the police station.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 15/17.

September 20, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The Consequences of Flight (14025 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 15/17
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies, Dr. Roberts (Murdoch Mysteries), Thomas Edison, Auguste Lumière, Gustave Eiffel, Marcel Guillaume, Antoine Lumière, Alphonse Bertillon, Louis Lumière
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay, Historically Accurate, Bycicles
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

17 June 1900

17 June, Sunday.

Marcel Guillaume is a filthy liar. Certifiably. He possesses excellent detecting skills, but he is entirely made of gall. I wonder at his cunning, as much as I rage at his deviousness. Unbelievable! Outrageous!

He finally knocked at our door today, minutes after I returned from church. He must have been waiting for me. We have been waiting for his visit for 21 days. An anxious wait, to say the least. Yet he knows more about us than is comfortable. I could have escaped Paris, as we did Canada, but James did not wish it. To tell the truth, I am tired of running too.

And there he was, prancing in to reveal his host of lies, with smiles and not a hint or remorse. When Guillaume was in Canada last year, he was not a police detective at all. He was still a bachelor last year. He pranced around Toronto for the better part of two weeks, insulting my officers, throwing jabs at my accent, sleeping his way through a throng of well-to-do ladies, all the while telling me he was married to one of them, the one he called Angélique. ^1^

In March of last year, Marcel Guillaume presented himself to me as an Inspecteur of the Sûreté de Paris away for an international police conference in Montreal. There was no such conference. What he was then, in fact, was a lowly gendarme on leave. He had taken it upon himself to investigate the disappearance of Monique Poirier ^2^ to impress his soon-to-be father-in-law, Commissaire Duponnois, by bringing back her killer. Indeed, he fully admits the ruse! Un petit mensonge, he says! ^3^ No remorse! Not for lying to he. Not for cheating on his betrothed, whom he married in April last year! ^4^

He is not even an Inspector today! He is but a lowly provisional investigator, attached to this very neighbourhood. Investigating petty thefts and battery. His father-in-law is merely allowing him to observe the investigation at the bank.

I marvel at the coincidences. That I would have met Guillaume already. That he would be stationed in La Chapelle where we settled ourselves. That he would participate, however minimally, in an investigation at my place of employment. I rage and yet there is nothing to be done about it. Because for all his lies and gall, he is the police officer and we are the fugitives. His mirth at our situation is not welcome, frankly insulting, but we held our tongue.

It took so long for him to visit us because he took the time to investigate us fully. He worked to deflect all suspicions away from me. He informs me that as soon as the investigating team realized I was not who I claimed to be, I was first put under suspicion. I would have done the same under similar circumstances. Guillaume revealed my true identity to them. He proved my innocence. From then on, it was presumed I was undercover at the bank in the course of an investigation, and I barely escaped arrest for investigating outside my jurisdiction without having declared myself at the Sûreté. Guillaume managed to convince his father-in-law to leave me alone, but only after I shared my own information. After this, he gathered all he could about our lives and our assumed identities, quickly realizing the true reason for our presence in Paris. He spoke to our neighbours. He spoke to Mme M. He spoke to R. And here we are now: Marcel Guillaume mockingly pleased to find us in Paris, in his backyard, the fact that we are "Pédérastes" ^5^ is the hight of humour to him, making light of our flight from the Law.

He left us with two pieces our information in which we must take heed. Firstly, the neighbourhood has deduced we are lovers. Most of our neighbours are comfortable with this fact, ans so long as we remain "those nice Canadians" we should not be bothered. He assures us the police officers at La Chapelle station will leave us alone so long as this remains. However, James must stop tutoring children. No police officer of any rank in Paris will not tolerate a confirmed homosexual in a position such as this, even if all agree that James would never touch a child in an inappropriate manner. Guillaume recognizes the money James brings in as a tutor is essential to us, but he will not budge.

Secondly, he warns that it will most likely be revealed to the bank officers that I am not who I claim to be when the culprits will be indicted. They have been identified and arrested, and the monies found. Once the Board knows about me, I will be let go from the bank. Guillaume claims he sympathizes with our situation, but with the grating levity that he never suspected my nature. He left us insisting we should not despair and that he would return with more information.

There is no record of Guillaume's specific activities in Toronto in March 1899, though one must admit this behaviour is contradictory to the man's public personality, including his self presentation in his two published memoirs.
See 21 May, notes 1 and 3.
"A small lie".
Marcel Guillaume married Élise Émilie Duponnois on 25 April 1899, in the 15 ^th^ arrondissement, where he resided. His own memoirs as well as his biographers recognize that this marriage and his good relations with Victor Duponnois greatly facilitated his early advancement in the Parisian judiciary police.
"Pédéraste", literally pedophile and most often shortened to "pédé," was the official designation for men engaging in homosexual activities in France until well into the 20 ^th^ century. From 1791 to 1981, Parisian police kept a central file identifying all homosexuals, cross-dressers and male prostitutes in the city, known as the "R egistres des pédérastes." Authorities worried about the potential social disruptions caused by those whose activities were not illegal in France, but which were nevertheless considered unnatural and perverted, as the association with pedophilia attests. As such, those homosexuals that were in close contact with children, cross-dressers, or those who were publicly open about their orientation were regularly harassed by police. In the early years of the 20 ^th^ century, homosexual groups were also commonly suspected of anarchism. The word "pédé" or "PD" remains common in today's vernacular in France, though it is generally acknowledged to be both gravely inaccurate and derogatory.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 14/?

September 18, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The Consequences of Flight (12944 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 14/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies, Dr. Roberts (Murdoch Mysteries), Thomas Edison, Auguste Lumière, Gustave Eiffel, Marcel Guillaume, Antoine Lumière, Alphonse Bertillon, Louis Lumière
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay, Historically Accurate, Bycicles
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

25 and 27 May 1900

25 May, Friday .

There was a conflagration yesterday. That is is the only word I find that applies to what happened between James and me. I could not write about it until now. James was drunk, massively so, and I had been ruminating for most of the afternoon, knowing Guillaume will arrive at our door at any moment. I would do the same were I in Guillaume's position.

Never have we been so cruel nor loud with eachother before. Even when I thought him a killer, I never flung such bile at him as I did yesterday. Of which he returned in equal amounts. We tore at eachother for hours, bearing all our pain and despair since To. The worry, the grief, the gaping holes left by cutting ourselves out of our lives. After the recriminations and the accusations were thrown, we were both exhausted, both literally on the floor, his back to the door, mine to a chair, James wept. Through it all, since October, James had never shed a tear, not in front of me at least. Then he told me everything. The truth finally.

He believes he committed a grave mistake when planning our escape. He said he realized it within days of our hiding in Sault-au-Récollet. What had gutted him so completely and drove him to despair and drink is so simple and so obvious, I cringe now. Why had I not seen it previously? He gave up his name. He says he should never have changed his name. He is no longer James Pendrick.

He explained that through all of his life, through all of the difficulties he experienced, from his father's death, through Sally, the Rembrandt, the death ray^1^, the loss of the high rise and his investments and fortune, he always had his name. Through it all, he was James Pendrick and no one beats James Pendrick. James Pendrick survives everything.

But James Beckett is no one. His is not a world-renown civil engineer, not a brilliant inventor. Beckett is not an architect, not an industrialist. James Pendrick would have realized the de Suffren walkway was unsound before it collapsed. He would not have run away from Bourdais and he would have confronted Eiffel under his Tower. Pendrick would not have to cow away from all acquaintances visiting Paris this Spring. But Beckett does run away, must hide, because Beckett is a two-bit tutor who repairs bicycles on the side. A useless sodomite. A moping drunk living in a third-floor closet. I should have known.

This morning, he told me before I left for work that he looks forward Guilaume's visit. Because once Guillaume comes here, whatever happens to us, he will be James Pendrick again. Perhaps a prisoner, perhaps a criminal extradited to Britain or back to Canada, but himself once more. He was home, plainly sober, when I returned from work today, but not very talkative. We read in silence in our bed and loved gently. He sleeps now as I write this. I pray I won't lose him, us, in what is to come.

27 May, Sunday .

Church was a boon this morning, solace after this trying week. James chose to accompany me for the first time since I've known him, not because he has found God, but so as to not be left alone in his thoughts. We stayed in La Chapelle all day. I convinced him to try the pool with me. It is a new and serviceable building, very clean, with naturally heated water pumped from an artesian well ^2^ . The water washed away our troubles for a while. So much so that we were asked to leave when we splashed around a bit too much. James smiled freely for the first time in too long. It was somewhat bittersweet, but genuine. We truly lanced the abscess on Friday. I feel light.

Marcel Guillaume came to the bank yesterday, alone rather than with a delegation from the Sûreté. I gave him my notes. He caught my eye from across the accounting room, circulated, strolled, around the desks. When he neared mine, I feigned accidentally dropping papers and pens at his feet. I passed him the report in a tightly folded bundle while he played at helping me pick up everything. He slipped it in his breast pocket and walked away.

Come what may, like the Bard says ^3^ .

This most likely refers to the microwave weapon developed by Sally Hubbard and her accomplices in a scheme which ultimately revealed herself as a criminal while clearing James Pendrick of all wrong doing, saving him from the noose. One will remember the movie The Murdoch Trap (2012) famously opens with the weapon in action and famous inventor Nicola Tesla saving the day. See both Gunn's biography of Murdoch and Burke's thesis on Hubbard.
The Hébert Public Pool, on Place Hébert in the De La Chapelle neighbourhood, was opened in 1896 in an industrial hangar and is still in operation today. It is fed with artesian water at 26°C to 30°C.
Shakespeare, Macbeth , Act 1, Scene 3.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 13/?

September 18, 2018 by Tournevis

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The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

21 and 22 May 1900

21 May, Monday .

James returned well past midnight last night. I help my piece. He was too drunk to reason with in any case, I could tell from his breath and demeanour. He still slept when I left for work this morning, but was gone when I returned just now. As worried as I am for this well-being, I must face the fact we many have bigger problems. Tragic ones.

Inspector Marcel Guillaume^1^ was at the Bank this morning. He was with several gentlemen of the Sûreté de Paris^2^, including a Commissaire, named François Duponnois^3^, according to the citybook, confirming what I overheard. They were touring the floors with several members of the Board. I know Guillaume recognized me. His expression was unmistakable. We worked closely last year back in Toronto^4^ and neither of us has changed much, except that he has cut his hair. From the few words I caught, this is an investigation about anomalous transactions, no doubt those I noticed. Guillaume looked straight at me, showed surprised for a second, then smiled. I dare not wonder what he concludes about my presence. We are living in Paris under aliases with forged documents. We are fugitives from the law. And now a member of the city police knows of me.

Heavenly Father, give me strength. I am going in search of James.

James is home. It is already nearly morning. I found him at __. He came back willingly, though he was too addled for me to explain our predicament, but he knows I must speak to him in the morning. I cannot sleep. St. Michael protect us^5^.

22 May, Tuesday .

Had to leave before we spoke.

No sign of Marcel Guillaume or any other police officer today, but we were given the half day off. A large portion of our ledgers have been take onto evidence. There are none to work on today. So I returned home just past noon, not long ago, and will write a clean copy of my own notes on the transactions for when Guillaume inevitably come knocking on our door. No doubt he will. Though I cannot hope much for our Future. At least, what is left of this Toronto Policeman will still serve the Law one last time.

James returns.

Marcel Guillaume (1872-1963), arguably France's most renown investigator and police officer. He became a commissaire of the Sûreté de Paris (see note 2 below) in 1913 and from 1928 began a career at divisional chief of the Judiciary police force in Paris, leading the Brigade criminelle from 1930 until his retirement in 1937. He is considered to have been one of the most successful police investigators in France's modern history, and his most famous cases involved organized crime. In 1945, he was part of the group investigating Adolf Hitler's suicide in Berlin. (see also note 4 below)
The Sûreté de Paris is the predecessor to today's Direction Régionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris, being the criminal investigative police of Paris. Founded in 1812, by the time the journal was written, it was headquartered at 36, Quai des Orfèvres. (see also 29 March, note 4)
François Victor Amédée Duponnois, in 1900, was a commissaire of the Sûreté de Paris, i.e. the Parisian judiciary police force, and Marcel Guillaume's father-in-law.
Toronto Police archives show that Marcel Guillaume was in Canada in March 1899 and collaborated with William Murdoch in the capture of Jacqueline Chiasson, a serial murderer who had escaped arrest and prosecution in France by taking an alias in Toronto. It is interesting to note that those same case files refer to Guillaume variably as an "Inspecteur" or a "Detective", as does Murdoch in this journal entry. However, French archives clearly show that he was only an ordinary police officer in 1899. In January 1900, he became an enquêteur-stagiaire (i.e. an investigator in training) at the De La Chapelle neighbourhood police station under commissioner Pontailler, and still filled the position at the date of this journal entry. He would only become an Inspecteur several years later. Nevertheless, it is a known fact that Guillaume's career advanced at a brisk pace, both because of his investigative genius and his connections to his father-in-law, who took him under his wing as it appears to be the case here.
Archangel Michael is the Catholic patron saint of police officers.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 12/?

September 18, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

**The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

17, 18, 19 and 20 May 1900**

17 May, Thursday

James continues to drink. The past two weeks have made for a tense household. I have not managed to speak to him about it. To make matters worse, four of the ledgers I am normally tasked to proof have shown, in the same period, identical operations between accounts that should not be related. I do not want to write specifics here, but I have taken separate notes. I am concerned, as those operations should not be possible. However, as a mere vérificateur I am not allowed to enquire. I flagged the first of these operations as anomalous, but cannot know what came out of it. Or rather, I must deduce that nothing came out of my notice, since so many additional entries appeared since. Everything balances, there are no errors in accounting per se. All columns "add up". But monies that disappear from one account, only to reappear, just as the same amounts appear elsewhere. I am no longer a detective.

18 May, Friday

James drinks. I smell alcohol on his breath nearly every night now. He tells me he is too tired for intimacies, yet when they occur, his love felt [sic.] desperate last night. He became agitated when I hinted there is a need for us to talk. I've mentioned my concerns about work and he dismissed them brusquely. He won't hear a word about any of it.

19 May, Saturday

James is the same. As of today, I have noted 17 identical transactions across four ledgers, involving eight accounts, all pertaining to lower profile governmental investments. Every column balances in the end. Money does not go missing per se, so much as is appears in places it should not go. My notes are in my desk at the bank. I have not chanced taking any papers with me out of the building.

20 May, Sunday

I fear for what life we are attempting to make for ourselves here since we arrived. Everything is still so new and yet it is falling around me. I left our apartment this morning for Church as is now my habit with the belief that I would meet James at the Monumental Gate^1^ around noon. He never arrived. After an hour of waiting, I made my way back to La Chapelle only to find our apartment in a mess and James gone. It was mid-afternoon and there were two empty wine bottles on our small table. Over the past 16 days by my count, his alcohol consumption had only worsened. Mme M came to tell me he now spends much of his time at Le --- , drinking liquor alone and growling at those who try to speak to him. She says he is not a violent drunk, nor does he become disordered, but she too is worried. She apologized for not having spoken sooner. As I write this, he has not returned and it is late. I don't know if I should go there and bring him home. Why should the bistros here be opened on Sundays?

The main entrance gate to the 1900 Exhibition grounds at the Place de la Concorde was designed by architect René Binet (1866-1911). It was 45 meters high, and was flanked by two columns referred to at the time as minarets. At its peak stood an allegorical statue of Parisian Woman. It was a stunning example of the then-emerging Art Nouveau style and was lighted by more than 3,200 coloured lights. The gate was torn down shortly after the Exhibition closure.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 11/?

September 18, 2018 by Tournevis in Création, English

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The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

29 April, [1 May] and [undated May] 1900

29 April, Sunday

We finally managed to visit the Celestial Globe^1^. In every way it is a marvellous testament to Man's genius and the wonders of the World. I am still in awe. A 45-meter sphere painted blue and gold sitting on an 18 meter base. The structure is so large as to necessitate escalators to ferry visitors to the garden platform, from which one has a wonderful view of the Exhibition grounds and the city past it. Even if it is dwarfed by Mr. Eiffel's tower nearby, is remains stunning. Inside is the most stunning display. In the optimally lighted caverns, one sits in luxury on leather chairs to witness panoramas projected on the concave surface. We saw the most precise views of our solar system's eight planets and far away constellations. The visitors are called "living room astronauts"^2^. Astronauts is a wonderful word, star navigators. James is certain Man will visit the stars one day soon.

[1 May], Tuesday Morning

Thank Heavens we visited the Globe on Sunday. Yesterday, less than a day after our visit, the walkway crossing the Seine and leading to its gardens collapsed!^3^ We walked on it on Sunday! The newspaper tells us there are victims. We are both shook.

No time to write about seeing Villard^4^ last night.

[undated May]

I have noticed James is morose. It is the only word I find applies. His face clouds over when he thinks I am not looking. Other than the clients with whom he spends time, teaching English, Mathematics and the Science, he remains at home, alone as far as I know, and goes on long solitary walks. I have offered we go to the public pool for a change of pace, but he flatly refused. Twice this week, Wednesday and Thursday, he returned home after I did, well past eight, smelling of alcohol both times. For all the years we have know eachother [sic.], I have never known him to drink in excess. Indeed, he has drunk less since we have been together, partaking sparingly, matching my own restraint. He never overly drinks in my presence even now and he is never overly late, but I must take note of any emerging patterns.

I thought he was getting better.

See, 15 April, not 11.
"Astronautes de fauteuil," literally "chair-bound astronauts". This marks the first known use of the word astronaut in any language.
On 31^st^ April 1900, the reinforced concrete walkway leading to the Globe céleste collapsed over de Suffren street, killing eight people and injuring another ten. The inquiry over the incident in preparation for the trial found that architect and engineer Napoléon de Tédesco (1848-1922) was not responsible, but rather that the excavations made by the city were too close to the walkway's base.
Possibly they met with or heard a talk by Paul Villard again.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 10/?

September 18, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

**The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

26 and 28 April, 1900

26 April, Thursday.

My fellow proofers at the Bank spent most of the day asking me if there were kids around. I imagine they thought it funny.

28 April, Saturday.

Writing before Church on the Sunday.

Last night we were strolling back to our bicycles after visiting this Exhibition -- still the Concessions scientifiques^1^, though I would not mind going to the national pavilions soon for a change -- we passed under the 300 Meter Tower^2^, where we witnessed the most peculiar sight of three elderly well-dressed gentlemen in top hats and coat tails, engaged in a three-way shouting match. More peculiar was James's reaction of infinite mirth. The gentlemen were arguing about metal alloys, of all things, and none too politely, and gathering quite a crowd. James recognized them instantly, but only informed me of their identity when he managed to stop laughing when the oldest of the three left in a huff, the gathered public parting like the Red Sea at his exit.

We had witnessed the end of a rare and most-specialized engineering debate between France's best-known modern architects, no other than Armand Moisant^3^, Jules Bourdais^4^ and Gustave Eiffel^5^ himself. I only knew of the latter until last night, and we were standing under his greatest creation at the time. James tells me we will need to visit the others' respective great works. Trocadero Palace^6^ for Bourdais; Apparently, he lost a bid for construction of the tower Mr. Eiffel built. James calls Moisant the most proficient in the design of modern metal-framed buildings, and who James admires the most, but I know his preference for metal structures since structural engineering is his own specialty. He listed a host of Parisian buildings we should see some day. We did not linger after the debate fizzled, James was not willing to chance being recognized by Bourdais, whom he met twice before. As we cycled home, James recounted how Moisant's building of the Bon Marché^7^ was "messed up" by Eiffel when the latter "intervened" in the building's extension. I did not know how petty engineers could be.

The scientific section of the Paris Exhibition grounds in 1900 flanked the Champ-de-Mars garden park on three sides, with the large Gallerie des machines and its elaborate waterworks (Château d'eau) facing the Eiffel Tower at the other end of the garden park.
The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, was originally called the "Tour de 300 mètres" and was only beginning to be habitually referred to as Eiffel Tower at the turn of the 20^th^ century.
Armand Moisant (1838-1906), engineer and architect. Specialized in large metal-framed buildings and contributed the most buildings for the 1900 Exhibition.
Jules Bourdais (1835-1915), engineer and architect. Bourdais was favourite for the design of a monumental column cum lighthouse to be built for the 1889 exhibition until Gustave Eiffel proposed his famous metal tower.
Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), engineer, architect and industrialist. He and his firm designed and built hundreds of buildings and structures all over the world, the most famous arguably being the Eiffel Tower (1889) and the base of New York's Statue of Liberty (1886).
Co-designed by Jules Bourdais and Gabriel Davioud, Trocadero Palace was built for the 1878 Universal Exhibition. Always a contested building, it and its gardens were modified for the 1900 Exhibition and finally torn down in 1937 to make way for buildings for the 1937 Special Exhibition.
Le Bon Marché (originally called Au Bon Marché until 1989) is one of Paris's oldest department stores. Founded in 1838, it was expanded in 1869 by architect Alexandre Laplanche, and expanded again in 1872 by architect Louis-Charles Boileau (1837-1914) and engineer Armand Moisant. A further expansion occurred in 1879, in which Gustave Eiffel was involved, though Moisant was the primary structural engineer for all works on the structure from 1870 to 1887. Le Bon Marché is still open today.

Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 9/?

September 06, 2018 by Tournevis in English, Création

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The Consequences of Flight (9622 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 9/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies, Dr. Roberts (Murdoch Mysteries), Thomas Edison, Auguste Lumière, Gustave Eiffel, Marcel Guillaume, Antoine Lumière, Alphonse Bertillon
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay, Historically Accurate, Bycicles
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

21, undated, and 24 April, 1900

21 April, Saturday.

Famine in India is worse than initially reported. The war against the Boers continues and there is war in Tchad^1^, and the Boxer Rebellion^2^ is deadlier with each report. Mme M tells me that not only did she lose her beloved Fernand in 1848, she lost her one and only son in the Commune^3^, at a barricade just a few streets from here. Man is a vicious creature.

We took two cinematographic shows today. The Lumière Bros^4^ projected on the biggest screen ever devised, 21 meters! James asked how they had managed to project at this size without incinerating the celluloid. August Lumière was answered vaguely and only stated it had to do with the refraction index of the lens. It is obviously only part of their solution and makes little sense on its own, but we posit he does not want their accomplishments to be reproduced by 'some Americans', by which he means Edison^5^ no doubt. I can understand why he suspected James: he does sound like an American when he speaks French. They were also said to be presenting examples of film in colour, but not today.

The other show was at the Photo-cinéma-théâtre^6^ at the other end of the Exposition grounds. Mr. Gaumont presented scenes featuring many celebrities, the only one of which we knew of was Sarah Bernhardt^7^. If the normal screen size did not impress us, the electric phonograph which was coupled to the projector certainly did. Cinema with sound! The technology is yet cumbersome, but I can easily imagine all theaters using sound technology in the coming few years. James tells me Edison is working on a similar system and he cannot tell whom of Gaumont or Edison stole the idea from whom. As I write this, late into the evening, he is jotting down ideas from ameliorating sound delivery. We agreed that the sound is Gaumont's system is only well heard by those nearest the photograph and that large theaters could not use such technology effectively as of yet.

Undated

Our bakery has been opened since the 18^th^ century^8^. Incredible.

24 April, Tuesday.

I learned something interesting today. I was commenting on the odd impression I had that there were always more children in the streets on Thursdays when they should be in school and all my floor colleagues burst laughing for the better part of five minutes. There are indeed more children in the streets on Thursdays because they do not have school on Thursdays. Rather, they go to school on the Saturday, instead. Not having children ourselves and there being no children in our building, only bachelors, we could not have known. When I informed my co-workers that in Canada children stay home on the Saturday and Sunday consecutively, they groaned in horror. Paul ___ called Canadians uncivilized and unusually cruel, blamed the English for it, for forcing our children to go to school for 5 days straight without rest.^9^

At the time, France had been engaged in a colonial war in Tchad against native forces. Resistance forces were crushed and Tchad was annexed as French territory in September 1900.
The Boxer Rebellion is a complex and multi-fronted, anti-foreign, anti-colonial and anti-Christian uprising taking place in China between 1899 and 1901. "Boxers" refers to the practitioners of Chinese martial arts who composed the resistance forces. The latter resented foreign commercial and political interference and corruption, notably foreign involvement in the opium trade. By the end of the conflict, colonial forces composed of British Empire troops, among others, and with American aid, crushed the "rebels" and marked the end of the Qing Dynasty.
The Paris Commune was a radical socialist and revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 18 March to 28 May 1871 in the aftermath of the end of the Second French Empire in September 1870. For the better part of Spring 1871, Paris was under siege and the streets were mired by popular barricades, notably in the La Chapelle neighbourhood. The Commune forces were crushed by the French Regular Army in the later week of May 1871, known as the Bloody Week. Between ten and twenty thousand individuals were killed in the conflict.
August (1864-1848) and Louis Lumière (1862-1954) were among the world's first film makers, coined the word "cinematograph" and are credited for many notable advances in cinematic technology. During the 1900 Exhibition, they innovated with one of the biggest screens used to date, 21 by 6 meters, as well as with colour, using a subtractive colour process known as the 'bichromated glue' process.
Léon Gaumont (1864-1946) was among the world's first film makers and is credited with many advances in cinematic technology, including some of the first narrative movies. At the 1900 Exhibit, he presented an early version of his Chronophone system (patented in 1902) that synchronized a cinematograph projector to a phonograph using an early form of switchboards.
Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was a world renown entrepreneur and serial inventor who, among dozens of other inventions, was also among the world's first film makers.
Sarah Bernhardt (1864-1923) was a world-famous French stage actress, known for playing both male and female parts. She went of several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures.
This may be the Boulangerie Chamat, situated one door down from Saint-Denys-de-la-Chapelle church, the façade of which in contemporary photographs boasts having been founded in 1779.
Indeed, from the 19^th^ century to 1972, primary schooling in France took place on Monday to Wednesday and Friday to Saturday. From 1969, primary schooling on Saturday afternoons was abolished. In 1972, the school rest day moved to Wednesday. Today, there is no primary schooling on Saturdays.