The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-04-05

her true character. In 1870. when was sent
as member OF the government for the ma
ticnal defense of the Tuilerses to seize the
Josephine to the Secretary of Barsas II ', ram
as follows: Tel Barras that shall not be
able to take supper with him this evening.
Bonaparte comes back tonight This com
promising note had been carefully preserved
by Napoleon I'LL in one OF the drawers of his
desk. On it he had written IN mis- own hand,
Keep this
Josephine was not only Barras's mistress.
but she was accomplish OF a band of rob-
bers, who swindled the French government
out of millions OF francs under the pretense
OF furnishing food and clothes 10 the French
army II has been proved that she in
fiuenced the placing OF contracts and that
she received large commissions for SO doing.
Such was this Josephine, whose virtues Nile.
Montijo, was to initiate. / am inclined 10
think that she initiated Josephine very faith
fully, because, during the Franco-German
war in 1870, the soldiers at Sedan were fur
nished with the same cardboard shoes as the
defenders of Genoa in 1799."
Rochefort's parents had no great opinion
or his literary ability. When ne was a
young man he was known at home as 1.-The
idiot" A gentleman who had procured
HH s eI.ei position ON the staff of the
What have you done, sirg my mother
and sisters exclaimed" says Rochefort.
ing in such journal as the Charivari They
won't employ him three days. ALL the poor,
,sds e, boy! >, What Via! madrsss can have
Rocheforts first duty on the Charivari was
to invent legends for pictures and cartoons
drawn by Daumier. THE artists" says
Rochefort, often turned in their pictures
est idea what they represented, and
I had to break my head to make
the. text fit iDtelligently. For that
L fnr
In those days. If anyone predicted that a day
would come when writer's of mere chroniques
would earn as high as two thousand francs
a month ne would be set down as, vision
airy and ilusonist. Later, when / went on
the staff OF the Figaro, and it got abroad
among the Boulevard cafes that my articles
were paid for at the rate of a hundred and
twenty francs piece, the crowd stood for
hours waiting for me to come out OF the
office. At the Charivari 1 got two sous a line,
and each writer was limited to- hundred
lines. This infiexible law limited all our
salaries to eighty-five or ninety francs a
month"
WAR REGULATIONS.
Concerning the war with Austria, Roche
fort says: The war against Austria, under
taken with the object OF emancipating the
Italians by man who held the French in
bondage. left no impression ON me. 1 only
remember the coming home Of the troops
and the bombastic phrase of Louis Bona
makes war for an idea This is absurd
Nations never make war, but governments
do. which is not always the same thing,
and sometimes it's quite the contrary.
| never took any interest In battles, all Of
which seem alike to me: If you receive more
bombs on your head than the enemy You are
beaten; II the enemy receives more bombs
than you ne, is beaten It's virtue In war
to get killed and it's a sign of luck when
one isn't killed, but as the intellectual or
moral quality Of the person killed has moth
Ing TO do with the result, I've never been
able to take much interest in warlike OPP
erations, most of which are surgical. The
only fighting by force of arms that has ever
been able to move me or excite my en-
thusiasm Is the struggle OF the weak against
Its despots. So 1t can be imagined how en-
thusiasic l grew when one fine night in
May, 1860 the news came to Paris that Carl
baldi, at the head OF 1000 men, had raised
the standard OF revolt in Sicily"
During the siege of Paris, Rochefort and
the national defense took measures to keep
the masterpieces Of the Louvre from falling
into the hands OF tina Germans. He says:
We went to the Louvre and took down
number Of celebrated pictures, notably the
'Noces de Cana the 'Tombeau' OF Titan;
the Belle Jardiniere. of Raphael; Depart
pour Cythere,' of Vatican. and We sent
them to Brest, where they were placed on
snip which was kept ready to sail at the
first alarm. This measure was, however, in
sufficient, on account of the number of mas
terpieces left behind. Happily, and probably
owing 10 forgetfuness on the part of Bis
marck, who is not enormously interested in
art, our National Museum was not included
in our war indemnify
The story of how Rochefort started his
famous pamphlet is mast interesting Roche
fort was one Of the most bitter enemies of
the Imperialist party, and the government
feared him as such. He was not able to say
In the papers with which he was connected
all that he wanted to say, and all that
people expected him to say, so ne determined
pages. in which he would be absolutely in
dependent. He determined to call it La
Lanterne," explaining as his reason that
lantern serves both TO light the way Of hon.
est people and to hang evil doors.
The press censorship in those days was
very severe and Rocnefort had great diff
Guilty in obtaining permit of publication.
He started with a capital Of 20o00 francs,
subscribed by Villemessant, editor of the
Figaro, and VI. Dumont, one of the pro-
that it would be sufficient if they printed
1900 OF the first number. but his printer
prevailed upon him to print Is, 900. The day
Of publication came, La Lanterne' was is
sued at II a. M, and two hours later the
entire edition was bought out; by oclock
still going at full speed. unable to satisfy
the demand. BY the next morning 10000.
had been sold, and Rocnefort himself had
to run all over Paris to recruit binders to
sew the copies. No such journalistic success
had ever been known In France. The sec
ond number was even more successful than
the first, and the Parisians Literally fought
to secure copies. Rochefort used to receive
500 letters q day, mostly from women. Ma
poleon Eli made several attempts to stop the
cess And it unquestionably did much to
hasten the final ruin of the empire.