The news & observer., 1903-12-27

trick of war, precisely as a gambler
might discover a new trick OF cheating,
and, greatly favored by fortune, he
played his marked cards successfully TN
| I'll they were revealed to other experts
and began to be played back on him,
when down he went like any other charl-
| atan. He had neither the self-restraints
Of great character nor the sagacity of
a great intellect. That he was, person
ally, coarse, vain-glorious bully and
| egotist, we have abundant testimony for
| believing, and none to the contrary.
"There is no rule of measurement
which can be applied to julius Caesar
| and Napoleon Bonaparte which will not
result to the disadvantage OF the latter.
The one was a king OF men. The other
was a desperate gamester. The one
raised Rome to the highest of human
grandeur. The other left France a prey
to human vultures and sowed seed whose
evil growth may still be SEEN The grave
OF Caesar is unknown and unmarked; but
two thousand years hence the New Zea
lander. who has sat upon a parapet OF
London bridge and surveyed the ruins
of st. PauIs Cathedral, may find some
thing to interest and amuse him among
the debris of the once famous city OF
Paris. and standing amid the excavations
of this Hotel des Invalides and beholdinG
few fragments OF this noble monument
NAV ask, And who was Napoleon Bona
parte?"
Thus does Mr.. Watterson, with his gray
goose Quill dispose of Napoleon. Mr..
BRYAN, who meditated an hour, bare
headed, before the tomb of this poor,
puny, pitiful, pusillanimous person, ac-
cording to Mr.. Watterson, whose pen
natural gait is running away might
assault the Little Corporal on the same
line of attack, concluding with suca mus
ings and moralizations as he thinks
would sound we'll in print or before an
audience that never had an opportunity
to glance at the tomb in question. much
less to mediate befoRe it, bareheaded.
for an hour. Let it be understood here
that the word "bareheaded" in these re-
marks refers not to the hour, nor to the
tomb, nor to Napoleon, but to the mall
who is engaged in the act OF meditatlng.
Having made this clear, let Us proceed
to suggest that if the man from Nebraska
prefers not to use the Kentucky mans
plan of attack as a model, he might draw
on Robert G. Ingersoll for few meta
phors and fancies. Ingersoll also INDUCED
in meditations before Napoleon's tomb,
and this was the result, il memory plays
US no trick
"a little while ago l stood by the grave
of the old Napoleon-a magnificent tomb
of gilt and gold-ft almost for a dead
deity-and gazed upon the sarcophagus
of black Egyptian marble, where rest at
last the ashes of the restless man. L
leaned over the balustrade and thought
about the career Of the greatest soldier
of the modern world. l saw hm Wa
upon the banks of the Seine, contemplat-
ing suicide. | saw him at Toulon; / saw
him putting down the mob in the streets
of Paris; / saw him at the head OF the
army of Italy; l saw him crossing the
bridge of Lodi with the tri-color in his
hand l saw him in Egypt in the shadows
o. the pyramids; / saw him conquer the
Alps and mingle the eagles OF France
with the eagles of the crags. l saw him
at Marengo at Ulm and Austerlitz.
saw him in Russia where the infantry oil
the snow and the cavalry OF the wild
blast scattered his legions like winter
withered leaves. / saw him at Leipslc IL
defeat and disaster-driven by a million
bayonets back upon Paris, clutched like a
wild beast banished to Elba. l saw him
escape and retake an empire by the force
of his genius. / saw him upon the fright
full field of Waterloo, when chance anu
fate combined to wreck the fortunes OF
their former king. And / saw him at ST.
Helena, with his hands crossed behind
him, gazing out upon the sad and solemn
sea- I thought of the orphans and the
widows he had made, of the tears that
had been shed for his glory, and of the
only woman who ever loved him pushed
from his heart by the cold hand OF am
bition. And l said / would rather have
been a French peasant and worn wooden
shoes. / would rather have lived in a
hut with the vine growing over the door
and the grapes growing purple IN the
kisses of the autumn sun. | would rather
have been that poor peasant with ny
loving wife by my side knitting as the day
died out of the sky, with my children
upon my knees and their arms about me;
would rather have been that man and
gone down to the tongueless silence OF the
dreamless dust, than to have been that
imperial impersonation of force and mur-
der known as Napoleon the Great. And
so I would ten thousand times"
With this as model and with the
incalculable advantage of an hours med
itation, bareheaded, before Napoleon's
tomb william Jennings should be able
to get up "a right good little piece on
Napoleon.