The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1880-08-14
BONAPARTE's YOUTH.
Popularity Received Notion of the First
ConsuPs Early Career Erroneous.

Popularity Received Notion of the First
ConsuPs Early Career Erroneous.
philadelphia Record.1
Very much as certain cherished stories Of
our childhood are being stamped as myths i:
the chronicler of to-day dealing with the
character of Napolen Bonaparte. William
Tell and the apple, John Smith and Poca.
hontas and even Washington and the cherry
tree, prove to be nothing more than cunning
ly-devised tales to mislead coniding youth
1t is as bad with the commonly received
netion of the First Consul. Instead of hav-
ing head twenty-four inches in circumfer-
ence it required only No. 81 hat to accom-
modate him; yet he covered his twenty-one
! inches of skull with a monstrous chapeau to
deceive people, That he was without moral
control Mad. de Remusat has shown in her
spicy memoirs, and the Metternich memoirs
and the Bogaslawski papers have also con-
tributed to the literature of disenchantment.
Now comes couple of volumes with more
promised) frem the pen of M. Jung, in
| which more of the disguise is remorselessly
stripped away from the Napoleonic legend.
| The Bonaparte family seem to have been
liars of the most unblushing sort. There
was so much deception on the part of the
parents that it is even now uncertain when
Napoleon was born and what his given
| name was.
"Was the future Emperor born at Ajaccio
on the 18th of August, 1869, or at Corte OH
the 9TH of January, 1868, and was his
name really Nabulion. Napolione or Napo-
leone de Buonaparte?" Such are the ques-
tions Nj. Jung discusses at great length.
| August Is, 1862 is the date universally &C
| cepted and officially celebrated, and it is
| the date borne on the certificate of baptism
| preserved at Paris. "Napoleone Bonaparte"
is the name there given in a certificate
granted July 81, 1771, and copied June %,
l776 But there is also in the archives of the
War Department a Latin certificate of the
baptism at Corte January 8, 1853, ofthe child
of Charles Bonaparte and his wife L@titia,
oorn on the previous day and named "Nabu-
lione," while in the records of Ajaccio there
is an Italian copy of a certificate of baptism
in which the child is called "Joseph Nabu-
lion." Against the genuineness of this last
certificate are the facts that it only pretends
to be copy of an unknown original, that it
is in a handwriting different from that of the
register, and that the name ''Joseph" is
French though at the time the French lam
guage had not not made its way into Corsica.
In the memories of Joseph Bonaparte" he
sets himself down as the eldest son born at
Corte in 176S, but in his marriage contract
august |, 17J4) he calls himself native of
Ajaccio, and the witnesses to his identity and
bachelorhood declare twice that he was born
and baptized at Ajaccio. Napoleon's own
marriage certificate yshe was born "Febru-
ary 5, 176S," but there is clearly a clerical
error as to the month. Josephine represent
ed herself as younger than she was, at the
same time that her husband added to his age,
the object being clearly to render the dis
parity less conspicuous Further, Napoleon
in his letter to Paoli. June II, 1889, says: 81
was born as the country persisted. Thirty
thousand French soldiers such was
the odious spectacle which first met my
gaze. The cries of the dying, the sighs of
the oppressed the tears of despair surrounded
my cradle at my BIRTH" August
cries and signs. for the island had then
Corte in January, 1768, his cradle was en-
vlroned by the last strifes between the Cor
sicans and the French. A solution is sought
in the fact that child of more than
ten years of age was not eligible for ad-
mission at Brienne. In December, 1878,
when Charles Bonaparte wished to place
one of his sons there, only the boy born in
1869 was eligible, and that boy-Joseph-
was too quiet and gentle to make a prom
ising sailor, while the senior-Napoleon-
was quick, ardent and decided. Accord
ingly the father "mixed those babies
up" and launched Napoleon at Brienne
with Joseph's record, and Joseph at Autuni
with Napoleon's. When Louis, on the 4th
Brumaire, year III, was made lieutenant
of artillery, ne credited himself with services
he had never performed and several
wounds" he had never received, while
Joseph September A, year II), when he was
made commissary borrowed from Napo-
leon the title of Lieutenant. Colonel of In
fantry" to qualify himself under formal
law, though he had never served. Ten years
later Joseph Bonaparte drew up his own
record when he was to be brevetted colonel
and set himself down as an artillery cadet in
1853, staff officer in 1892, adjutant in 1898,
as participant in the campaigns of 1893
and 1894, and as having been slightly
wounded at Toulon, whereas he had never
been cadet, staff officer or adjutant, had
STAYED at Marseilles throughout 1894, and
had not been wounded at Toulon.
Bonaparte made very poor subordinate
Almost his first act to ask for five and
half months leave on pretence of illness,
though in reality to settle his family affairs
in Corsica and pursue his literary studies,
and, when it expired, did not return to his
regiment, nor even ask for its extension till
some five weeks had elapsed. In September,
1889, he obtained six months leave, and his
conduct was such that it is surprising he was
not shot for mutiny. Another leave of four
and half months was obtained on false
representation of illness, and after it expired
he remained nearly four months away from
his regiment-in effect deserter-but sue
ceeded in excusng himself on the pretence
that head winds had prevented his passages
When in June, 1871, he left his regiment,
being promoted to a lieutenancy in the Fourth
Artillery, he had been absenton leave thirty
five months out of sixty-nine, and of the
period of ninety-nine months of service
which Napoleon Bonaparte passed between
his debut as ensign and his reception as
general officer, just forty-one were passed
with his corps or on active duty M. lungs
researches had been made in prolific field,
and he has brought many facts to light which
it was the policy of Napoleon to keep from
view. The Emperor himself declared that
his public lite began at the siege of Toulon,
and most chroniclers have touched very ten
derby on the previous events of his career.
Kissing Sister Green.