The Somerset reporter., 1894-12-10
N.iPULEONIC STOCK.
HIS FATHER WAS A PATRlclAN AMI
HIS MOTHER A PEASANT.
hut the Latter Was CAST In Herois
Mold, and From Her the son Got lii
Tremendous Physical Endurance
Was Mother of a Large Family.

Tremendous Physical EnduranCe-Sht
Was Mother of Large Family.
OF the father and mother of the en-
peror Professor W. NJ Sloane writes
rs follows in Century;
Certain undisputed facts throw q
t'rong light on Napoleon : father. His
People were proud and poor; he endured
the hardships Of poverty with equanim-
ity. Strengthening what little influence
he could muster he at first appears am
bilious and has himself de=Cri bed in his
diploma a. patrician of Florence, San
Miniato and Aiaccio. On the other hand
with no apparent regard for his person
al advancement by marriage, be follow
ed his own inclination, and in 11GI. at
the age Of Is, rashly perhaps, but gal
lantly, welded a lowly and beautiful
child Of II, Letitia Ramolino.
Her descent was T." reverse of her
husbands, although her fortune was
quite equal if not superior to bis. Sh Z.
was of peasant nature to the last day Of
her long life-hardy, unScutimental,
frugal and sometimes INSCRIPTIONS
Yct tho hospitality Of her Iittle home in
Ajaccio was lavish, after the manner
If her kind, and consequently famous.
Among the many guests who avallcd
themselves of II was Mar beuf com
mandcr in Corsica of the first army Of
occupation. There was long afterward
a malicious tradition that the French
general was Napolron's father. The
morals of Letitia Iii Buonaparte, like
those of her conspicuous children, have
boon bitterly assaulted, but her own good
name, ut least has always been yindi
Gated. The evident motive of tito story
sufficiently refutcs such an dispersion rs
il contains OF the BRIDES cXtraOrdina-
ny beauty there never has been doabt.
She was Ii woman Of heroic mold, like
juno in her majesty, unnoVed In pros
pcritv, undauntcd i'll adversely. 1t waa
probably to his mother whom he strong
ly rcsemblod in childhood, that the Ia
nous son owed his tremendous, even gi-
gantic, physical endurance. If i'll his
mother was reproduced the typo Of
Roman matron, in the son would be re-
called the virtues and vigor of an i'm
pcrator.
After their marriage the youthful
pair resided in Cortc, waiting until
events should permit their return to
Ajaccio. Naturally Of an indolent tenn
permanent, the husband was at first
drawn into the daring enterprises Of
Paoli and displayed temporary en-
but for more than "a year be-
b.,o ,,1 Ln ,vaaria1 f,f tlnt,t Ar fb.
head of body of men of his own rank
he finally withdrew to Monte R0tondo,
and on May 30, 1869, few weeks be
fore Paoli s flight, the band made form
al submission to the two French gen
erals, Marbeuf and Vaux, explaining
through Buonaparte that the national
leader had misled them by promises Of
aid which never came, and that, rcco9
nizing tho impossibility Of further re
they were anxious to accept
the new government, to return to their
homes and to resume the peaceful con-
duct of their affairs. 1t was this pre-
cipitate naturalization of the father as
a French citizen which made his great
son a Frenchman. Less than three
months aftorward, on Aug. Is, his
fourth child, Napoleone di Buonaparto
Kae born in Ajaccio.
The resources of the Buonapartes, a.
they still wrlte themselves, were small.
although their family and expectations
were large. An ouly child, Letitia had
inherited her fathers little home and
his vineyards in the suburbs, for hci
mother had married a second time. Her
stepfather had been Swiss norcenary
in the pay of Genoa. In order to socuro
the woman of his choice he became a
Roman Catholic and was the father of
Nine di Buonaparte's half brother, ,Jo-
seph Fesch Charles himself was the
owner of lands i'll the interior, but they
were heavily mortgaged, and he could
contribute little to the support of his
family. His uncle, wealthy landlord
had died chlldless, leaving his domains
to the Jcsults, and they had promptly
entered into possession. According to
the terms Of his grandfather $ Will, the
bcquest was void, for the fortune was
to fall in such II case to Charles mother,
and on her death to Charles himself.
Joseph, his father, had wasted many
years and most of his fortune in weary
litigation to recover the property. Moth
ing daunted, Charles settled down tc
pursue the same phantom, virtually de-
pending for livelihood on his wife's
small patrimoV. He became an officer
of the highest court as assessor and was
made in l772 a member and later a
deputy of the council of Corsican mobiles
The peasant mother was most prolific,
Her eldest child, born i'll 1865, was IA
son. who died in infancy; in 1867 was
born daughter, Marie Anne, destined
to the same fate; in 1858 q son, known
later as Joseph, but baptized as Nabu
lone; in 1869 the great son, Napoleone.
Nine other children were the fruit of
the Same wedlock, and six of them
three sons, Lucien, Louis and jerome,
and three daughters Elise, Pauline and
Caroliue-survived to share their broth
er's gseatllSis, Charles himself, like his
short lived ancestors-of whom five had
died within a Century-reached only
tlrly middle age, dying in his thirty
ninth year. Letitia, like tho stout Cor
sican that she was, lived to the ripe age
of SO in the full enjoyment of her facul
ties, known to the world by the sobri-
uuet of Nine. Mere
horsepower OF the Worlds Engines.
A steam horsepower is equivalent
10 the actual strength of three horses OF
The average weight and size, ana each
horse represents the strength of seven