Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-24
4. MIGHTY MEAN MAN.
Bessie Bramble's Opinion Of the Great
Napoleon as a Husband.
HE OFTEN TORE HIS CLOTHES UP,
And if Josephines Shawl Didn't Suit Him
He Threw It in the Fire.
A TYRANT IN HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD
WRITTEN ron rup n,sp.rct !,

WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.1 =.
"a true delineation of even the smallest
man is capable of interesting the greatest, +"
says Carlyle, truth which all will recog-
nize. Biography, which is only higher
form of gossip than the ordinary, is inter-
esting to all readers. This is especially
true when the subject is well known and
portrayed to the life-when virtues are not
unduly magnifed nor faults wholly OBJ
scured, when he appears as man like unto
ourselves, and is not written up as sort
of demigod
Someone has confessed that the story of
| George Washington as told in the school
readers was always painful to him. As told
there the hero of the Revolution is shown to
be so tremendously good that his example
goes for nothing with the average boy. He
is represented as unapproachable-a being
| who, from his youth UP, was model so sIl-
perior that no modern boy could come within
thousand miles of him. A saint who
would calmly take Ga lickin'" rather
than tell little white lie, is made of very
uncommon stuff as young folks think to-day.
Human nature is human nature, and it is
therefore quite likely that they-as did the
man of whom we speak-will feel relieved
when they grow up and find that the Father
of His Country allowed himself to swear
when he got lawfully mad;" that he was oc-
casionally tart in his temper; that he and
Martha had little spats now and again, and
that he no more loved his enemies than do
other men. They will rather rejoice that
in losing the saint they find the real man,
who is none the less the world-renowned
hero and revered patriot.
The Little Things Interest.
No brighter page is there to be found in
history than that which records the genius
and capacity of Washington as soldier in the
field and as President Of the Republic, but
it is in the former on his estate, the husband
in his home, the details of his everyday life
as friend and neighbor that most people
take greatest tinterest-especially women.
The memoirs of Talleyrand, now so soon
to be published seem, as far as known, to
throw but little new light upon the private
history Of the Bonapartes. He relates his
part in the great transactions of his day,
which make up so largely the military and
political history of the great man, but an
ADLER pen has long before given the inside
story Of the mushrooms that found place for
few brilliant years in the palaces of the
Bourbons. Like so many of the million
aires in these days who have risen from the
ranks, the Bonapartes were engaged in
constant struggle for precedence, place and
power. They always hated Marseilles, it is
said, because it was in that city they lived
when their reputation was a little shady,
and those of its people who knew them at
all, knew them as deficient in education
ties of life. After their advancement to the
IL. of Ia
Napoleon never forgave the people of the
province for the retailing of the disparaging
"reminiscences, and that he allowed his
wrath against them to interfere with the
material interests of the seaport city.
Napoleon's Family at Paris.
His mo ther and the entire family seem to
have focked to Paris when Napoleon at
tanned power to benefit by all he could be
wrought upon to bestow. The mother was
not brilliant woman, but she seems to
have had aprudent turn of mind, for while
the sun of fortune shone upon them she de-
voted herself principally to saving and
amassing money, with which, when the
storm came, she returned to Rome and lived
comfortably upon during the rest of her
life. The sisters were intensely Jealous of
Josephine, and never ceased in their efforts
It was nothing but lies-lies to which he
was only too eager to listen.
This delight in gossip and scandal was one
of the prominent traits of Napoleon's char
acter. He wanted to know everything
about everybody and no one received from
him warmer welcome than he who came
freighted with the mean and petty tales that
find origin in envy and malice. Men are
fond of assuming that this delight in gossip.
is mostly confined to women whose lives are
narrow and whose minds are given to small
things, but little thought and observation |
shows that the brethren give as much time
and tattle to their neighbors' affairs as the
most proficient adopts of the sewing socie-
even invited and encouraged tales as to his |
wife. Such was his suspicious nature that |
be had no scruples of delicacy or honor as to |
talking over her shortcomings with their |
friends and relatives He kept.
The Threat of Divorce
ever impending, and at times seemed to en-
Joy humiliating her before the entire court |
by his attentions to other women. He had |
spies ever at hand to report her smallest
doings and sayings. She on her side, en-
ployed the same methods to find out his
goings-out and comings-in, and usually got
enough of tattle and scandal concerning
Napoleon to make her thoroughly unhappy.
She was frivolous, not very Intelligent, but
she was sensitive to such indignities as
we're heaped upon her when the mood of
seized upon him.
With all its thorns, however, she valued
her high position. She enjoyed its prestige
md its power. The prospect of becoming
! divorced wife, of resigning the grandeur
of court and crown, of retiring into OBJ
,curity while her enemies gloried in her down.
all, constituted the skeleton in Josephine's
,loset. At times Napoleon seemed to- take
lelight in displaying this hideous horror
% his wife, and again he would gladden. her
Joul by appearing to forget all about it. But
With her knowledge of the boundless am.
,ition of the man, her hours of happiness
must have been few and her sorrows keen.
Not often in real life are the cups" so
high and the "downs" so deep as they were
n the lives of Napoleon and Josephine.
Military genius which raised the artillery
nan to the throne of the Bourbons and to
he mastery of kings is rare quality, and
veil for the world it is His passion for
var, his success in winning victories made
Tim the autocra of France, while his eager
less for power led him to grasp at every
bread, even in the household, that he
night hold everything in his own hands.
lie dictated the management of the house,
he observance of etiquette, the style of