Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1895-02-26
YOUNG NKpoLgci CclFcNUlN1.
mad News From Hls Home Made the Ar
tiucrymnn TALK % Suicide.


tiilcrymnn Talk q Suicide.
Early in August, 1887, little rcbel-
lion, known az the Two Cont Revolt,
broke out in Lyons over an attempt TO
reasscrt an ancient fouGai right concern.
ing the salo Of wine which had long
been in abeyanoo Tho noighboring grr.
risons were ordered to furnish their re-
spociivo quotas for its suppression.
Bonaparto's company was sent among
the others, but the disturbance was al.
ready quelled when ho arrived. and the
month he spent at Lyons was so nerec-
able that, as no wrote his uncle Fesch.
no left tho city with regret ito follow
his destiny. His regiment had been
ordered northward to Douay, in Flan-
ders, and there ho reioincd IL about the
middle of October.
The short timo he spent under the in
clement skies Of that frontier fortress
was a drcary one. Bad news camo from
home. Joseph had somo time before
turned bis eyes toward Tuscany for a
possible career. In order TO test his
chances Of success at court he had made
application for an empty decoration.
The answer 70 his request had been o
gracious permission to prove bis Tuscan
nationality, which was of course equiv
alent to n repulso Utterly without sue
cess In finding occupation in Corsica
and hopeless as to France, he was now
about to mako a final desperate effort,
and, decorated or not, to go in person to
Florence and 10 seek employment Of any
kind which offered. Lucicn, tho arch
deacon, was seriously III, and General
Mnrbeuf. the last influential friend Of
tho family, was dead. Louis had been
promised a scholarship in one of tho
royal artillery schools. Deprived Of his
patron, he would probably lose the ap-
pointment.
Finally the pccuniary affairs Of Mmo.
do Bonaparte wcro again entangled and
. now appeared hopeless She had for
some timo received state bounty for
planting mulberry trees. as France was
introducing silk culture into tho island.
Tho inspectors had condemned tho year 8
work and wero withholding the allow
ance. Her letter put an end for time
to oil study, historical OF political. Ma
poleon Immediately applied, rs his
mother requested, for leave Of absence,
that he might instantly set out to her
relief. His request was refused. Ho
could obtain no leav5 until January.
Dependent and anxious. he moped,
grew miserable and contracted q slight
malarial fever, which for the next six
or seven years never entirely relaxed
its hold on him. The pages of his jour
mil for the ensuing weeks show how
dispiritsd hO was, and contain, among
other things, o long. wild, pessimistiO
rhapsody, in which there is talk Of sui
eide. The plant is of the degeneracy
among men, Of the destruction Of prim-
itive simplicity in Corsica by the French
occupation, of his own isolation and Of
his yearning to SEQ his friends once
more Lifo is no longer worth while.
His country gone, patriot has naught to
live for, specially when he has no pleas
ure and all is pain, when the charao-
ter Of those about him is to his own as
moonlight to sunlight II there wers
but single life in his way, be would
bury tho nvenging blade Of his country
and her violated laws in the bosom Of
tho tyrant. Some Of his complaining
was even less coherent than this. It ID
absurd to take tho morbid outpouring
seriously, except in so far as 1t goes 70
prove that its writer was victim Of
tho sentimental ogoisin into which the
psychological studies OF the eighteenth
century had dcgenerated and to sug-
goat that possibly II ho had not been
Napoleon no might havo been Wer-
ther. Professor Sloano's Life Of Napo-
leon" ia Century.