Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-24

Carlyle) was aye hard man to live with. "
This seems to be true of most men of genius
Shakespeare leaves evidence that he and
his wife did not live happily together, since
by his will he left her only his second-best
bed. Few women, as history goes, have
had mora unpleasant married life than the
| young wife Of John Milton. So unhappy
| did he make their home that both wife and
| daughters hated him. Byron's married life
was a tragedy. The marriage of Dickens
was failure, and his treatment of his wife
will ever be blot upon his memory
The Logic of Ruskin.
Ruskin, with all his beautiful sentiments
upon Queens Gardens and the power OF
women, was unhappy in his marriage, and
holds women responsible for all the suffer
ing, injustice and misery upon the. earth.
Josephine, by his course of logic, was re-
sponsible for the wars of Napoleon, respon-
sible for the millions of lives that were lost
by his ambition-just as upon Eve has been
piled all of the sins of the world. 1t may
have been that if Josephine had been
more intelligent and less given to
frivolity; that if she had had a
stronger sense of right and wrong, and been
less lazy and selfish; that if she had had
sense enough to grasp the situation and been
less given to study of dress and devices to
make herself look young; that if her love
for her children had prompted her to think
more of their happiness than their eleya-
tiOn to rank, and that her affection for them
stirred her to feel the woes of others, she
might have exercised an influence over
Napoleon for good 1t may have been that
had she been alive to her duty in the State,
that had she been moved by true love rather
than vanity, had she been courageous for
peace rather than war, had she been stronger
in her love of country than in her passion
for cashmere shawls, she might have pre-
vented the divorce from her husband, the
bloodshed and desolation throughout Europe
and the downfall of Napoleon.
1t would seem as if his plan for conquer
ing Europe, and his mastery Of affairs in the
field, and his conduct of the civil govern
ment of the Empire, constituted enough
business for one man, but Napoleon regu-
lated besides everything in the household
servants and salaries-with as much care
and economy as Victoria manifests over her
cheese parings.
Where His Temper Led Him.
He growled over what his clothes cost,
but he sacrificed many to his tantrums He
hated dressing, and when anything did not
SUIT him, he would fly into q passion and
fire it across the room or into the fire. /, He
had horror of BARRIERS and always shaved
himself. One of his habits when not in a
good humor was to stir the wood fire with
his foot and kick over the burning logs, in
his wrath, much to the detriment Of his
shoes He would not be bothered with
courses at dinner, but insisted upon having
everything on the table at once, and he
usually spent not more than ten minutes
on q meal He had a fondness for eau-de-
cologne and used it to- the extent of 60
bottles.a month. Imagine warrior stepped
in cologne
He insisted upon Josephine dressing hand
somely, and she was nothing 10th, but gave
her mind and her time to it. She, in the
days of the Empire, had eight dressers who
spent hours in 'making her up" to look
young and beautiful. She changed every
article of her attire three times day. If
Napoleon did not like her gowns they were
changed at once. On one occasion, as re-
lated, when he did not fancy one of the
richest of her dresses, he emptied bottle
of ink upon it. This mattered little, as she
seldom wore anything twice. He would at
other times throw her shawls which did not
please him into the fire. Shawls in those
days were the fashion, and Josephine gloried
in the possession of from three to. four hun
dred, for some of which she paid from 81, 900
gance has gone out of fashion, but may come
round again as the Empire styles are being
revived.
Crowned Through Contrariness.
With the divorce in mind, Napoleon at
first did not intend that she should be
crowned as Empress, but his family were so.
importunate that she should be deprived of
this honor that he grew contrary in proper
ton, and determined that she should share
in the glory of his great day. Moreover,
he about this time would have relinquished
the divorce altogether, if the chief physi-
elan, Corvisart, in whom Bonaparte had
great faith, could have been induced to
enter into the secret plan to palm off a false
heir as the child of Josephine and Napoleon.
But Corvisart refused to take any part in
such an arrangement, and ves insulted by
the mere proposition, much 70 Napoleon's
amazement
The marriage Of Josephine and Napoleon
had been performed by the civil power only,
but Josephine longed for the sanction Of the
church ceremony, probably with a view Of
the divorce. In an interview
with the Pope, she confded to him her
wishes, and he promised to require that the
church marriage should precede the corona
tion in which he was to take part Napoleon
consented and they were married by Card
inal Fesch. But no rules of church or bull
Of Pope could restrain Napoleon when he
set his mind to the contrary. The church |
had eventually to knock under and, contrary
to church rules and precedents, the divorce
was obtained.
Napoleon's Coronation Costume.
Napoleon, who Is best known BY his |
picture in which he appears In very plain
Uniform, must have been weighed down |
With the magnifcence of his coronation |
costume, especially as his ermine mantle |
llone weighed go pounds. He wore white |
velvet knee breeches with diamond buckles, |
/ red velvet coat embroidered with gold, a
white sash, short cloak sewn with bees,
md q plumed hat, turned up, with ada
nond buckle. Josephine was equally |
in white satin and ermine-
trimmed train with magnificent display of
diamonds. How soon . divorce, disaster,
leath followed this magnificent parade his
ory tells. After his fall, Napoleon turned
o the wife he had divorced for sympathy.
lie wrote to her: ~ have heaped benefits
Ipon millions of wretchesl They have all
,etrnyed me-" Neither of them seemed to
axe thought of the desolation and misery
hey had brought upon millions of innocent
eings in pursuit Of their selfish. ambitions
nd greed of greatness.
His second wife, the Austrian princess,
ad no real love for him, and gave no token
fter his fall that her vow of taking him for
etter or for worse was held by her to be