Evening star., 1898-05-21

A Woman Of Martinique.
yet are more than ordinarily Intelligent
and said to be superior to the average run
or soldiers in the ranks. There is but little
chance for promotion, however fine a rec
ord one may make, and matrimonial alli-
aEce with any one of them is promptly re-
sented by the best OF the Creole families
and the offending parties strictly ostracized,
stu they are at present the sole bulwark
or France against the rapidly rising tide of
black supremacy, and the only protection
afforded the white inhabitants.
In the Country Districts.
III one wish to see the black at his best
he should go into the country districts. and
from st. Pierre he will not have to go far;
no farther than the river that skirts the
town, the Riviere RoSelane where the
washerwomen assemble, and beat the linen
intrusted to their care out OF all semblance
to anything on earth. These washerwomen
are of free-and-easy sort, and. while
kuee-deep in the rushing water maui the
clothes and indulge in a playful persifiage
at a strangers expense, which is very edi-
Tying to the stranger.
A mile or so from the city is the Jardin
deS Plantes, the once beautiful and yalu-
able garden of acclimatization, with its
rows of palms, its islets floating in the lake
Its cascade, 60 feet high. tumbling into a
and plantains.
The alleys here have witnessed many a
F'rench) duel, as the perforated tree trunks
attest, some of the bullets having gone
wild. Outside the garden used to stand a
strange tree, called L'arbe du yoyageur'
the famous travellers tree of Madagas-
car, Its palmated leaves sheltering a shrine
10 the virgin Many prayer is said hero
by the islander homeward bound for the
mountainous interior, in order that he or
she may have protection from the terrible
serpent known as the fer de lance" which
turks In the grass and underbrush in the
cane fields and even by the roadside and
the fangs of which carry death to whomso
ever they strike.
birthplace Of an Empress
The capital of Martinique, Fort de Franco
is reached from ST. Pierre by a short coast
voyage In a small steamer and all the way
one has glimpses of the gloomy Morne
Pelee, 1000 feet high, its summit usual
ly wreathed IN clouds. Unlike its sister
city, Fort de France (formery in i'm
perlal times, known Fort RoyaD lies
sheltered In deep bay, near the entrance
to which stands the vast fortress of Saint
Louis, built in the last century. The hills
are farther away here than at st. Pierre
and the city is on level land with a great
saNanne In Its center, surrounded with
tamarind trees.
In the savanne stands a statua NJ +ba
Empress Josephine, of pure white marble
an inscription telling you that her birth
place lies across the bay, at Trois Iet, only
four miles distant. A circlet of palms sur-
rounds the statue, their tops beaten to rib
bons by hurricanes from which Fort de
France has often suffered. Fire and hurri-
cane nave reduced this once beautiful city
to poverty-stricken town filled with r,,in-
ed houses. the blackened walls of which
peer through their shrouds of tropical vines
ana SHRUBS. Earthquakes also are not in
frequent, the writer having experienced two
during one of his visits here twenty wears
ago. Fifteen years interyened between bfs
two visits to Fort de France. and he could
not but be panied at the terrible destr,c-
ton wrought by fire and hurricane. and the
absence OF many white people of wealth
and culture. whose places were now filieA
by ignorant blacks
Josephfne's Early Home
When the English attacked Martinique .,
lio2 there existed here a society which
could boast connection with the best and
the highest OF France. Among other noble
men OF France who left the land of their
birth Tor ventures In the colonies was ono
Tascher. who came out here In the year
1I26. Prospering from the first when his
Oldest son was born he had large estates
Of sugar cane. and when the son married
he gave him more than he needed for culti-
Vation Settling upon the estate La Pag-
erie, across the great bay from Fort Royal
ard the fortress. Joseph Tascher de la
Pagerie devoted himself to the raising OF
1t was in the year 1853 In the month of
June, that Josephine was born and her
frst years were passed on the estate with
occasional visits to her aunt. who lived at
Fort de France. When she was ten years
OF age a terrible hurricane DESTROYED her
fathers house, and the family took refuge
in the sugar mill, the ruins of which vet
stand. Here the future empress of France
lived for several years, the roof that coy-
cred her being that of the mill in which her
fathers sugar cane was crushed.
A few miles from the estate la Pagerie fs
the little bourg Of Trois Ilet, where still
stands the church In which Josephine was
baptized, and where her father and mother
lie buried. Her first husband, Alexander de
Beauharnais, was born a few years preyi-
ously in Fort Royal, and thus the town is
inseparably linked with the names Of two
who became famous in the mother land.
When Josephine was sixteen she was sent
to France. and there she married; after he-
husbands death returning to her island
home, with Hortense, who married one of
the Bonapartes and became the mother Of
Louis Napoleon. Here the two lived for
some years happy and contented but final
ly Josephine was drawn again to France,
and neither she nor her daughter ever re-
turned.
Brought into prominence now, through
the West Indies being the storm center of
the present war, Fort de France may yet
become the rendezvous Of French fleets in
diers and sailors were friendly to our cause.
and aided US against the English
Should there be formed an Anglo-Ameri-
can alliance, as against . Galio-spanish
lish fleets arrayed in battle against each
other, and the walls of old Fort Louis may
again reverberate to the thunder OF can
non. as in the days century es3ne;
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