The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-06

1 at one time when out or employment anu
 desponding over the almost hopeless
 plight of himself and his family, he
 went to the middle of one of the bridges acrosse the Seine with the fixed purpose of throwing himself into the dark waters below. The tide of the revolution ebbed and flowed. Napoleon stood behind a pil- l lar of one of the portcoes and witnes' the slaughter of the Swiss guards by the mob of Paris he saw the ghastly tuin- brils rolling through the streets rom | morning until night, containing men anu women who were regarded as the nower
 of the gay populace of Paris. On on they came in steady streams to the gull lotine The Reign of Terror was at US height. Then there came a calm. Ine kings head had fallen and even the beautiful and delicate Marie Antolhette' the queen of France had passed thfousn the awful ordeal of the guillotine, ana from these orgies of death France was evincing symptoms of marvellous new life. The republic had been declared anu it's armies were successful on many fields but in ga the English had a fleet of war ships besieging the port Of Iouion anu the land forces there had failed to dis l lodge them.
 1t was at Toulon in that year that Ma poleon first commanded the attention or men in authority by his brilliancy and success in handling artillery Ills pians were adopted and the British were orlVeh out of Toulon. During the struggles be- tween the revolutionary factions which immediately succeeded the success at Toulon, Napoleon narrowly escaped being crushed between the upper and nether mllstones of contending facuons. bus after the overthrow of Rebespiere ana Danton and the successful coup by Which Barras made himself master of the situa- ton, Napoleons star began to ascend because his genius was recognized by | those who had power and place al their disposal
 The young soldier barely escaped the guillotine It seemed almost like an ln- terposition of Providence like that Whlch on an earlier period had saved him rom suicide His mother and sisters had re- turned to Corsica and thither he went to visit them for a time. But increasing discords at Paris caused him to return. His success at Toulon had made nm 1 general of a brigade or as we say, a orlg- adler general. in his twenty-fourth year. And in 1795. when the National Guard at | Paris attempted to overthrow the eohVeh- ton. Napoleon was given full command of the conventions forces and completely overthrow the National Guard Ihls made him military commander of Paris and the interior and he was much sought after and courted by the most brilliant and prominent men and women Of the day
 It was at this time that his first record ed romances began to develop. One day a small boy came to his office and insist ed on seeing him in person. An orderly brought him word that the boy wished to recover a sword which belonged to his father. one of the victims of the Terror, who had perished on the guilotine. The bows errand so interested Napoleon that he had him brought in listened to his story and granted his request, The boy was Eugene de Beauharnais, and his wid- owed mother was the beautiful and ac- complished Josephine, who was destined to become the empress of France through her marriage with the little general from Corsica, who was already known to his soldiers as the Little Corporal
 In the memoirs of Mime. de Remusat, and in other semi-historical memoirs which have appeared more recently, facts and insinuations are brought out which cast serious reflections on the private character of Josephine and tend to modify the harsh judgments of posterity touch i Ing the selnshness and cruelty of the most famous divorce in history which separat- ed Bonaparte from the woman he really loved.
 
 faults may have been. does not admit of doubt. In spite of his greatness in his public life he was small and mean in some of his personal traits. But he does not seem to have admitted even to him self that Josephine ever did him any wrong. and in his rhapsodies about her memory during the terrible exile at St Helena, he does not even hint at such a thing Their married life had ended some fxra tapfA fo fa n 1874. which led to the first overthrow and exile of the conqueror in the Island of Elba Marie Louise departed with her private secretary, but Josephine asked to be permitted to go to Elba to care for the man who had cast her aside. The powers denied her request and she died. many think of a broken heart, over the fall of Napoleon's fortunes, in about a fortnight after his removal to the mock kingdom assigned to him in the Meditter- ranean.
 Who shall tell the story of the marvel lous exploits of this man from the time he became the commander of the army of Italy in 1796 to his final overthrow at Waterloo in 1915.
 In that brief period of twenty years is bound up the history of the civilized world and many of the most significant military exploits recorded in the annals of man. kind. As a general he surpassed all other military commanders in the brilliancy and success of his movements and in the care and handling of his armies. For six con- secutive years he was engaged in almost constant war, but on the establishment of the consulate Napoleon began to show his ability as an administrator and perform ed for France services of such value as no ruler of France. before or since. has approached. He established the rule of merit in all departments of the govern ment. both civic and military He inn proved and simplified the public service in all departments.
 He built roads throughout France that are as good today as when he completed them and set on foot all manner of inn provements and reforms, which quickly transformed France into the most pro gressive and prosperous nation of the world.
 I have always held that the American republic really owed to Napoleon a tre- mendous debt of gratitude for keeping England busy through all those years of its struggling infancy, and 1t Is practical ly certain that the republic would have been seriously crippled or entirely de- stroyed between 1910 and 1915 had not the vast naval resources of England been re- quired to protect her interests on the other side of the Atlantic.
 The proof of this is found in the fact that in the war of 1872 between this coun- try and England British men-of-war pen committed depredations on the nations years afterwards But probably the great
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