Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-10
NAPOLEON'S PARENTS.
He Owed His Physical Endurance to
His Mother.

From the November Century.
Certain undisputed facts throw a strong
light on Napoleon's father. His people
were proud and poor; he endured the
hardships of poverty with equanimity.
Strengthening what little influence he could
muster he at first appears ambitious, AMI
has himself described in his diploma as a
patrician of Florence, San Miniato and
Ajaccio On the other hand, with no ap-
parent regard for his personal advancement
by marriage, he followed his own inclina-
ton, and in 1864, at the age of eighteen,
lashly, perhaps, but CALAMITY welded a
lowly and beautiful child of fifteen, Letitia
Ramolino. Her descent was the reverse of
her husbands, although her fortune was
quite equal, II not superior, to his. She was
OF peasant nature to the last day of her
long lfe-hardy, Unsentimental frugal and
sometimes INSCRIPTIONS. Yet the hospital
ity of her little home in Ajaccio was lavish,
after the manner of her kind, and conse-
quently famous.
Among the many guests who availed
themselves of 1t was Marbeuf commander
in Corsica of the first army of occupation
There was long afterward q malicious ira
cition that the French general was Ma
polecns father. The morals of Letitia di
Buonaparte, like those of her CONSPICUOUS
children, have been bitterly assailed but
Der own good name, at least, has always
been indicated. The evident motive of the
as it contains. OF the brides extraordinary
beauty there never has been q doubt She
was woman of heroic mold, like Juno in
her majesty, unmoved in prosperity, un-
daunted In adversely. 1t was probably to
his mother, whom he strongly resembled in
childhood, that the famous son owed his
tremendous, even gigantic, physical endur-
ance. If in his mother was reproduced the
type OF Roman matron, in the son would
be recalled the virtues and vigor of an i'm
perator
Limited Means.
The resources of the Buonapartes, os they
still wrote themselves, were small although
their family and expectations were large
An only child, Lettla had inherited her
fathers little home and his vineyards in
the suburbs, for her mother had married a
second time. Her stepfather had been
Swiss mercenary, In the pay OF Genoa In
order to secure the woman of his choice he
father OF Nine. di Buonaparte's half
brother, Joseph Fesch. Charles himself,
Napoleon's father, was the owner of lands
in the interior, but he could contribute little
to the support of his family. His uncle, a
wealthy landlord, had died childless, leav-
ing his domains to the Jesuits and they
had promptly entered into possession. Ac-
cording to the terms of his grandfathers
will, the bequest was void, for the fortune
was to iall In such a case to Charles
mother, and on her death to Charles him.
self. Joseph, his father, had wasted many
years and most of his fortune in weary lit
igation to recover the property. Nothing
daunted. Charles settled down to pursue
the same phantom, virtually depending for
a livelihood on his wife's small patrimony
He became an officer of the highest court
as assessor, and was made in 1772 a men,
Der. and later a deputy, of the council of
Corsican mobiles.
The peasant mother was most prolific.
Her eldest child, born in 1765, was son
who died in infancy; In 1767 was born a
daughter. Marie-Anre, destined to the same
fate; in 176S a son, known later as Joseph
but bapused as Nabulione; in 1859 the great
son, Napoleone. Nine other children were
the fruit of the same wedlock, and six of
them-three sons, Lucien, Louis and Je-
rome, and three daughters, Elise, Pauline
and Caroline-survived to share their BROTH
er's greatness. Charles himself like his
snort-lived ancestors-of whom five had
died within a century-reached only early
middle age, dying In his thirty-ninth year
Letitia, like the stout Corsican that she
was, lived to the ripe age of eighty-six, in
the full enjoyment of her faculties, known
to the world by the sobriquet of Madame