world of fashion and commerce by colored placards, at the head of
which were these words, "Approved by the Institute." This formula,
used for the first time, had a magical effect. Not only all France,
but the continent flaunted with the posters, yellow, red, and blue, of
the monarch of the "The Queen of Roses," who kept in stock, supplied,
and manufactured, at moderate prices, all that belonged to his trade.
At a period when nothing was talked of but the East, to name any sort
of cosmetic the "Paste of Sultans" thus divining the magic force of
such words in a land where every man hoped to be a sultan as much as
every woman longed to be a sultana, was an inspiration which could
only have come to a common man or a man of genius. The public always
judges by results. Birotteau passed for a superior man, commercially
speaking; all the more because he compiled a prospectus whose
ridiculous phraseology was an element of success. In France they only
made fun of things which occupy the public mind, and the public does
not occupy itself with things that do not succeed. Though Birotteau
perpetrated this folly in good faith and not as a trick, the world
gave him credit for knowing how to play the fool for a purpose. We
have found, not without difficulty, a copy of this prospectus at the
establishment of Popinot and Co., druggists, Rue des Lombards. This
curious document belongs to the class which, in a higher sphere,
historians call _pieces justificatives_. We give it here:


THE DOUBLE PASTE OF SULTANS

AND CARMINATIVE BALM

Of Cesar Birotteau.