The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-25
ATTACK ON EMPRESS
Josephine, NapoIeon's Wife,
Dragged Over the Goals.
SHE WAS NOT FAITHFUL
According to an Historian
Who Quotes Letters.

Paris, Dec. IN. Frederic mason IO-
minds one Of a sculptor who makes a
monument Of a great man and places b.
low on the pedestal bas-relefs represent
ing the most striking incidents in his life.
Consciously or unconsciously, he gives to
Napoleon a higher stature in each Of his
successive volumes on him, and reduces
the members Of his family TO that Of
pigmies. He has curious and, in one
sense, interesting way of working. He
has no system, no method. he does not
/ follow the chronological order. He writes
/ under the spur of the documents which he
discovers or which fall into his hands
Last year, for instance, he gave US
magnificent Quarto volume on Josephine,
Empress and Queen He had before told
US all about Josephine's early days, her
family, her father Beauharnais; this year
| he studies Josephine at the time when
she became acquainted with Bonaparte,
and his study brings him to the some
what unexpected conclusion that Joseph
inc, who, once married to Bonaparte
lived for several years in constant fear
Of a divorce, had herself thought Of d.
vorcing Bonaparte in the early period Of
her marriage. NJ Mason tells US thet
this marriage was never considered by
her. at first, in the light of permanent
union. Divorce had become very easy in
the time Of the Directory, and conse-
quently the marriage tie had ceased to De
much respected.
Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine had
only a. civil marriage. There was no OPP
position to it, as they were both Of age.
She gave herself out as having been
born on the 23d Of June, 1907, though she
was really born on the 23d Of June, 1853;
Napoleon made himself older by one
year. These inexacdtudes, however, could
not invaHdate the marriage. Bonaparte
had insisted upon having a civil marriage,
whereas Josephine would probably have
dispensed with 1t, and would willingly
have been to the rising general what she
had been to Barras.
Napoleon" says NJ Mason, wanted
this ceremony; he cared about It. With
the passionate desire which he felt to ac-
quire and, so to speak, to stabilize his
acquisition, to have a legal title (for, in
some respects, he remained the son Of
lawyer. he thought by this ceremony to
assure himself the mistress who he feared
might otherwise escape, and over whom
he thus established a right First, ne
loves her with his twenty-six years,
which had remained chaste with his viz
gin temperament, with the ardor Of his
meridional blood, and it IS joy for him
to possess at last one Of these women of
Paris. 'the only women who know how
to love, and who deserved to be loved
Then if he loves the woman. he loves
also the viscountess, who will give him
an entrance into the world to which he
aspires; the social being who viii give
him a footing in society. He does not
merely marry his mistress, he marries
great lady, the Old regime. Too mex
perienced to judge, too young to under
stand, too provincial to know. he believes /
that such a marriage is a marriage and |
that it counts
Nobody is there to tell him that a re-
ligious marriage is a necessity. Who are /
his witnesses? Barras, the former lover /
Of Josephine and Lemarois. one Of his /
own aides-de-camp. Who are Josephine's /
witnesses? The corrupt Tallien, and an
unknown person. Bonaparte is. besides. /
still in the Jacobin camp. General Ven /
demiaire. as he was called at the time, I,
the friend Of Robespierre the younger, Of I
Rtcord, Saliceti, must be content with a |
civil marriage As for Josephine. she T
knows very well what she is doing; in her [
eyes a civil marriage counts for nothing, /
It will be very easy to break the tie A .
religious marriage would be Of more con
sequence 1t would uncIass her. for it is .
the only real marriage in the eyes Of the |
people whose opinion is of value for her /
She loses for a time her title Of viscount
esss but If Bonaparte ceases to please, /
she viii become again the Viscountess de I
Beauharnais. The world, her world will 1
ignore, or feign to ignore, her having I
been anything else. NJ. Mason speaks
severely of her:
On her part you viii find no idea Of
duty no disinterested thought, no dream
of love for a lifetime; at best. an impulse
Of the senses, q caprice. an amusement
She has struggled since her child
hood in an abyss Of misfortunes and Of
annoyances out of which she has sue
ceeded in emerging only by expedients
And it is an expedieHt she finds at the
hour when, ruined getting older. without
consideration, she has no right To raise
difficulties
Napoleon leaves hts wife two DAYS
after the marriage. and goes to Italy; he
rapidly wins victory after victory. and.
between two battles. he writes letters TO
Josephine urging her 20 come and join
him Some of these letters have been
preserved but were not printed IN the
correspondence III Nano-eon.