Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-15
CONTEMPT OF WOMEN
Was One of the Prominent Traits Of
Napoleon's Character.
HOW JOSEPHINE MANAGED HIM
His Idea Of Woman's Sphere, as Shown in
His School Regulations.
THE SPY sYSTEh FOR HIS OWN WIFE
WRITTEN FOR THE prsrArcH.,

will attempt to deny that Napoleon Bona
parte had a soul above buttons. No one
will gainsay his greed for glory. his fierce
rapaclty for power, his Unsuitable ambition
which gave him no rest, but led him from
rank to rank to almost the eminence of a
god. While repudisting the divine right
of kings, he "waded through slaughter to
a throne, where, by his master mind h
military genius, he terrorized all Europe.
brought kings down to the dust and made
the Vatican a valley of humiliation.
He began to climb the steps of fame under
the red flags of the democracy, he reached
the heights in a blaze of glory as an autocrat
of the first magnitude and came down like a
stick upon the clone barren isle" OF st.
Helena. He aimed to make himself SUI
preme ruler of France and to fashion the re-
mainder of Europe into a footstool, to be
knocked about or upset at his royal pleas
ure. But while, in popular parlance, he
proved himself to be a ''holy terror" for a
time, the world walked up and beyond his
victories at Marengo, Eylan, Wagram and
Austerlitz he found Waterloo, which. as
Carlyle says, "tumbled him helpless into
vacuity, where, beyond rescue, he had to
sink and break his heart and die. Our last
great man."
How the Character Stands Time.
What that great man was made of history
now begins to tell us. His arrogance and
conceit grew as his honors fell thick upon
him and he became afflicted with that sad
disease of greatness known as "the big
head" he treated the crowned heads of
Europe with contempt. He parted their
possessions and divided them up to suit his
imperious will. He so ill-treated and in
suited the Queen of Prussia that to her dy-
ing day she impressed upon her children as
a duty to %infict. retribution, and never to
pardon the wrongs that their country suf-
fered at the hands OF France.
he hesitated not to threaten the Pope
with deposition from his holy Office. With
the ~roughness OF a conscienceless conqueror,
he demanded submission. He claimed the
domination Of Charlemagne and the powers
of Emperor of Rome. He intended that the
sovereigns of Europe should be his subjects
and reign only by his permission. Nor was
he less despotic and arbitrary in civil life.
The phrase "as false as a bulletin" origin
ated, it is said, in his dispatches from the
seat Of war. Their lack Of truth he de-
Tended upon the score that 1t was necessary
to deceive the enemy, to keep mp the cour-
age of the army n to sustain the hopes
and desires of the people. His idea of the
freedom of the press was to demand that the
public should bsdeceived by cleverly written
articles against England, Austria and
Prussia. His praises were to be sounded
and his measures ardently approved.
Napoleon Feared a Woman.
He had a horror aud fear of the pen OF
Madam de Stael. Her Punishment from
Paris, the suppression of her books, the
prosecutions she endured were a recognition
of the fact that he, the conqueror Of Europe,
was afraid OF a woman with brains. In his
spiteful littleness he called her q "shs
crow" q bird of i'll emen," q Creature
whose residence upon French soil meant
measureless mischief" His fear of learn
ing for women was also shown by his regu-
lations for the management of a girls school
at Econen, in which he planned what they
should eat and wear, and how they should
be educated. First, they were to be taught
religion specially. as 3 guarantee for hus-
bands and fathers. They were to be schooled
in faith, but not in reason. 1.-THE weakness
of a woman's brain, the uncertainty of her
ideas, her destiny in society, the necessity of
resignation" notwithstanding to his
no~tions-nothing 80 much as religious
training.
For the boys school at Fontainebleau it
was the reverse. Prayers and the oateohism
were for the girls-science and mathematics
4uA u boJs AhC AL y " DV 0hShb
very little of physics, history Or geography,
andno Latin or foreign tongues. Their work
for three-fourths of the day was to be given
to knitting stockings, embroidery and the
making of underwear. Thus did the great
soldier bring his mind down to the details
of filling in the time of the school girls.
What he wanted for France was good moth
ers. This with an eye to providing his
army with recruits. Poor mothers What
- L. 1.-- -T1.zI g. A. s---A.k-
ambition of this selfish man, whose glory
and greatness were purchased by the sacri-
fee of millions of their sons
His Treatment of the Women.
Nothing more plainly shows the narrow
ness of the mind and meanness of the nature
of Napoleon than his treatment of women.
He made war upon the salons where literary
men and women exercised freedom of speech
behind closed doors. BY his despotlc will
he muzzled the press, he managed the
theaters, he coerced the Church. In order
that the coming generation should not 60
wrong, he revised the catechism and tackled
on a continuation to the Fourth Command
ment to the effect that as Christians I'VE owe
especially to Napoleon I. love, respect,
obedience, fidelity, military service-the
tribute ordered for the preservation and de-
Tense of the Empire and his throne; we also
owe him fervent prayers for his health and
the prosperity of the State" Failing in
such duty, they were taught that they Gre
sisted the order established by God himself,
and rendered themselves worthy Of damna-
ton"
Bonaparte even when in love was bent
upon conquest. His personal appearance
was against him when he eourted Josephine,
as we are told. He was short and squatty,
and homely by reason of an eruption upon
his face. She regarded him with indiffer-
ence, and even then discerned something oil
his despotic character. He loved her al
much as his selfshness would allow. His
desire to marry her was not alone for love,
but as a stepping stone to fortune. General
Hoche and Caulaincourt are said to have
been his rivals, but that he overcams the in.
difference and approximations of Josephine il
made evident by their marriage.
Napoleon as q Bridegroom.
Shortly afterward he took the field in thi
campaign against Italy. His leve letters
are as full of warmth and passion az those
of any Romeo. But that the wife, by hel
frivolous love of pleasure, gave him some
cause for worry. is made plain, says a recent
writer, by the fact that some Of these Letters
were full of threats, and show unmis
takably the torments of jealousy. Jose
phlne has been set up by most writers
as Q saint entitled by her angelic
goodness and fortitude to have o hale
round her head, but this seems mainly to
have been caused by the desire to make
Bonsparte blacker by way of contrast She
was by all accounts possessed of great per
sonal charms, was good natured, and dis
tinguished for the eminent social quality
tact.
She exercised but little influence over hel
husband, save through sacrifice. She stood
~ ave os him. and allowed him tn dictate