, 1878-08-22
Royalty's ViCissitudes.
THE UPS AND DOWNS or TIE MURAT
FAMILY.

\ certain quiet, retired, elderly gen
! t.eman, with large black eyes and swarthy
complexion, dressed in almost youthful
costume, and always decorated with the
cross Of the Legion Of Honor, has of late
been missed by those who used to meet
him in his daily walk on the Paris boue-
wards. Few who thus passed him were
aware that he was prince, and that be
was the last son of the "beau sabrcur" of
the First Empire, and the nephew of the
great Napoleon himself The Bonaparto
family in all its branches, has been re-
markable for many things; in nothing
more so than in the strange and often
sudden viCissitudes of fortune that its
scons have undergone. 1t would be
hard to name single child or grand
child Of the Sicur Charles BOnaparte and
his wife Lctitia, who has led other than
Il troubled and uncertain career and not
the least stormy and changing was the
life of Prince Lucien Murat, who died a
few weeks ago at Paris. The world toss
Cd him about from luxury to want, and
from want to prosperity again; and he,
like his dashing, big hearted, vain, aud
|
shuttlccock of Fate.
Joachim Murat's career affords mater
ial for story book as entertaining as
that of Wilmington, Lord Mayor Of
London, or Of Prince Caniche. When he
had married Caroline Bonaparte, and
gloried in the title of "King of the Two
Sciles," and was holding an amusing ex-
travagant and gorgeous state at Naples,
the "beau sabrcur" never forgot his hum
bic origin, and no doubt the better en-
Ijoyed his brief season Of royal power, by
the contrast which the memory Of his
hard. working boy-hood provoked. In
one Of the royal reception rooms, visitors
we're surprised to see, lying on velvet
cushion covered with glass case, an old, q,
worn, postillion's whips and, when,
King Joachim remarked their expression
Of astonishment, he would toss his head
merrily and cxclaim, "That is what l
came fromm From the coy little Pro-
vencal inn where his father offered en-
tertainment to man and beast, where he
himself used to deal out the "wine of the
country and the cheap omelcts, and
where, little later, he acted as postil-
ion to local diligences, to legal rank and
power, was certainly a transition to be
proud of and Boosted of; and we may be
sure that the rollicking, great-voiced
Joachim never failed, when occasion Of
fered, to point the moral Of his rise. He
was as vain, too, of being the husband
of the lovely Caroline. Cesar's favorite
sister, as of being the occupant of a
throne contended for by Spain, Austria,
and France, for many a century.
But Joachim had bis ups and downs,
like all the brothersin-law Of the "COr-
sican orge." After Waterloo even his
brisk logs scarcely saved him from dire
fate at Naples; and his tickle subjects,
after having almost worshipped him for
his generosity, his free ways with every
body, his dazzling showiness, burly good.
nature, would probably have shot him at
the nearest corner, had he not made haste
to get out of their clutches. That was,
indeed, his fate at last; for, when he re-
turned with a band of brayos to retake
Naples, he was caught and executed with
short shrift. He left two healthy boys to
run the gauntlet,of a world that delight
ed to make sport of all whose blood had
Bonapartist mixture. The elder, Ac-
hille, who was rather fondly spoken of
by the Parisians as "le Gros Achile,"
was as well known at all the lounging-
places of the Capitol few years ago, as
the padded and painted diamond Duke
Of Brunswick, or at that wonderful octo-
genarian fop, Auber; great, lazy, good
natured old fellow, who kept clear of
politics, and ate prodigiously, and con-
sorted generally with every ybody that liked
good living, the drama, and the airen
Cocottcrie of Paris. The other Lucien,
had far rougher experience Banded
about from place to place with his exiled
mother, he seized the idea Of making free
America his home and the first thing he
knew, he was shipwrecked on the Span.
ish coast, to be there clapped into prison
by the jealous Bourbon, as the son Of a
usurper of Bourbon throne. AS soon
as he was released; he came to the Uni
ted States, studied law, and put out his
sign. But nobody wanted prince for a
lawyer, and he would have starved if it
had not been for his energetic English
wife, who opened a young ladies, board
ing school. AS soon as the Revolution
of 1913 once more opened the portals of
France to the exiled Bonapartes, Lucien
returned, to become deputy, then, Ut
der his cousin, the Prince-President, an
ambassador. He had his share of the
good things of the Second Empire, but
relapsed into obscurity when the sun Of
the empire set again at Sedan; enjoying,
however, something of ease in his later
days, and finally dying at a good old
age, in his bed. Happily for him, the
foes of the Napoleons were not in the
least afraid Of the Murats; and while
other scions of the adventurous house
have been refused home on their native
soil, the harmless LuCien, like the fat
and jovial Achille, was able to feast on
the sweetnesses of Partisan life to the
end.-App!eton'S JOurnaL
I'M glad to say that our child is a gen.
erous little body. The other day her
grandmother gave her cent to buy her.
self some candy. As she was going out,
Ishe discovered little beggar boy on the
front stans She looked down on the