The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-30

and near to Cont street, in New Orleans one comes to an old curio shop, where more dust, cobwebs and trash have ac- cumulated than ever settled on the sur face of the "Old Curiosity shop made immortal by Dickens. General disorder is the apparent condition of things.
 Here is for sale antique furniture, bric- a-brac, pictures. personal effects of the illustrious dead, and various arehaies and curios. I have visited this estab- lishment many times and always saw something attractive and productive of reminiscent thoughts.
 On balmy morning. the 127th anniver- sary of the Declaration of Independence, in front of the antiquarian's establish ment, it was by chance I stopped.
 A petite Creole maiden of sixteen or more summers sat with queenly pose at the door, holding in her hand an artis- tcally carved curio which she claimed to be a piece of stone dug from palace amid the ruins of Pompeii. Her lustrous eyes and long lashes might have excited the admiration and envy of "the dark eyed girl of Cadiz." Bearing no evidence of being from Pompeii, more than any other piece of stone, l asked what did the stone cost by the square yard in Mis- sissippl?
 Oh, my! How her penetrating eyes eyes flashed, and with what scorn she. looked upon me. Her bellicose perform ances and language caused me to hesi- tate. l soon calmed her into state of ordinary quietude, but not until by her anger she had demonstrated the truth of Napoleon's estimate of Frenchman. Bonaparte said Frenchman has two characters. One the Frenchman who takes the boulevards. singing the Marseillaise, making love to his fiancee, loving the grand opera, and worshipping le grand monarque. As long as he could enjoy this pleasure he was docile and easy of control and was content. The other character manifested itself only after the first has been shot out of him in battle, and then he becomes GauL organized against all forms or government, an ln- fidel establishes the commune and man. ifestS the vandalism of destroying the monuments erected to commemorate na- tional glory In this instance the only way to control him is to give him grape shot I will be pardoned to say the only way to govern a Frenchman is to let him smell hell or cologne Under the circumstances Gene Fields in describing how the little Creole be- guiled me would say:
 "To stop was hesitation-in moment I was lost,
 That kind of hesitation does not hesi- tate at cost;
 I spied q pewter tankard there, and my! 1t was gem,
 And the clock in the old St. Louis tolled
 the hour a. m.
 "Three quaint Bohemian bottles, of yell
 low and of green,
 Cut in archaic fashion, I never before
 had seen,
 A lovely hideous platter. wreathed about
 with pink and rose,
 With it's curious depression into which
 the gravey flows;
 Two dainty silver salts-oh, there was no
 resisting them,
 And I'd blowed in twenty dollars by
 9 o'clock a. m.
 "oh, mean advantage conscience takes
 (and one that l abhor),
 In asking one this question: What
 did you buy it for?
 Why does not conscience ply It's blessed
 trade before the act,
 Before ones cussedness becomes bald
 accomplished fact?
 Before ones fallen victim to the temp
 ter's strategem,
 And blown in twenty dollars by 9
 o'clock a. m"
 After the little Creole was appeased she very cheerfully and in a delightfully."- courteous manner gave the history or the curios. Her soft voice and mellow accent as she gave the history of each curio brought to mind what Charles XII said of language, When l am at the head of my troops to give commands l use the strong forceful German; when l want to delude. l use the musical ltal- ian; when 1 desire to charm and woo my lady love l speak the soft the gentle and fascinating French"
 l saw in a case and examined the watch of the Duke Fourbscal, command CT of the 43rd regiment of the Imperial Foot Guards of Napoleon. The watch has the ducal crown engraved on 1t. It plays French march every hour. It strikes hours, half hours and quarter hours, wakes you by gong at any hour and gives you the time at any moment in the night by automatic action.
 Napoleons officers had seven of these watches made at Strasburg.
 The Duke Fourbiseals daughter mar ried Colonel Ferrere and both died in New Orleans. Colonel Bouton, who came 10 New OfieanS, was a Ielu olllctI III tnt imperial guard of Napoleon. The watch Napoleon gave Ney on his return from Moscow, is in this shop, and Is the same make as that of the Duke Fourbiscal.
 Ney was an honorary colonel of the 30th regiment of the Imperial Guard Such colonelcies were actively sought by Napoleon's marshas. A colonel of regiment of the imperial guard was an honor, even to French nobleman. Lannes would not accept such office as he and the commander of the guard, Marshal Bessere, were enemies. on ac- count of Pauline Bonaparte who Lannes desired to marry Bessieres defeated this purpose of doing out to Pauline islander against Lannes while he was in Egyt These worthies came near fight ing in Massenas camp at Essling and few days before Lannes was killed he denounced Bessieres as not being gem tleman as traducer and coward. Mas sena being a gruff old warrior arrested both of them and sent them to their re- spective quarters.
 Marshal Ney willed the watch to his son Joseph Ney, who brought it in 1888, and his fathers sword and portrait to New Orleans. He left them with Dr. Ney on Royal street, who was a first cousin of the marshal Young Ney was l accompanied to New Orleans by Marshal | Bertrand, who was with Napoleon at St. Helena. They expected to meet Dr. Antommarchi. Napoleon's last physician, | but death claimed him just before they arrived and the hope of starting a new French revolution was lost forever. A e siper ha hakk id-