Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-25

onment; was the subject OF diplomatic nego-
tiations; held court, appointed ministers
and bestowed titles of nobility in France
and England long before the scandals in
connection with the sale of decorations led
to the fall of President Grevy.
"Oreiie-Antoine l., +" otherwise common
place NJ. de Tournens, whose history reads
like page from "Gulliver's Travels" or
those of the equal veracious "Baion Mum
chausen," first saw the e,light in the town of
Perigueux, in France. His parents and
relations in their widest dreams never
pictured him as future royal parsonage.
and his early lie was of the usual bour-
geois order until he in process of time set
tied down to the unpromising occupation OF
public notary at Nantes.
He Was Born for Greatness.
However, NJ. de Tournens had a studious
turn and a soul above quill pens and parch-
ments. He believed that glory awaited
him somewhere. He sought it-not at the
cannon's mouth, but beneath the Southern
Cross hy taking voyage to Buenos Ayres.
On arrival at the capital of the Argentine
Republic he, sirgulsrlv enough, met with
another Frenchman who seemed to be on
the same erraud as himself, for he induced
our hero to join him in sort of exploring
and hunting expedition further South.
They landed below the southern frontier OF
the Argentine and, true to his bourgeois
instincts, NJ. de Tournens began TO trade
with the aborigines.
The Indians had at the time some diff
Guilty in deciding as to the section of the
Territory over which their wild nomad sway
really extended. They claimed that Pata-
gonia and Araucania were their property,
but while no one disputed the ownership of
the former sterile region, both the Chileans
and Argentines wanted TO possess the fertile
Araucania with its wealth OF bleating foeks
and lowing kline. M. de Tournens had a
solution OF the difficulty as bold as the means
adopted by Alexander the Great to open the
famous "Gordian Knot"
Tournens' Novel Solution.
His project for settling the difficulty was
to attempt to be-or rather to proclaim him:
self-King of this vast region without being
asked by anyone. 1t was rather a luckIess
thing for the new monarch that the Chileans
had not at the time as much work upon their
hands as usual. They were neither at wal
with their neighbors nor trying to float loans
in Europe. The consequence was that the
moment the President of Chile heard, in
some mysterious way, of the '.fad" which
had taken possession of the notary, he with
oSaub eclZcu anu OTueI6u 0lul
to be immured in, an old fortress, despite the
prisoners threats and protests of what "his
friend, Napoleon I'LL" would do for him.
According to, NJ. de Tourneus, the EN-
peror would, upon his simple request, lend
him not only an army, but throw in a feet
or two into the bargain. The Chilean Presi.
dent did not pay much attention to these
terrible menaces, but promptly proceeded to
forget all about the kinglv parsonage whom
he left languishiug behind the prison bolts
| and bars-ior six years. Naturally, the
ambitious prisoner had a more retentive
memory than his jailers, SO he appealed tc
his friend, Napoleon lie Petit" as Victor
Hugo bitterly dubbed him in one of his
novels. The Emperor, however, at that
time had his hands quite full of his schemes
for military glory in Mexico, and hac
neither the time nor the inclination tc
bother with either the notary or his king.
dom.
The Unexpected Happened.
A glance ct the map of South America
will show our readers the extent of territory
the modest Frcnchman wanted to rule by 3
coup de plume. The French have a saying,
always be prepared for the unexpected u
and the captive in Chile had subsequently
an unlooked-ior opportunity of realizing
how apt the proverb seems az times. The
Mexican campaign suddenly went wrong