The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-29
SCRAP BOOK FOR TO-DAY

1 One year from today, May 29 1914, l the people of the French colony of
 Mar unique will hold solemn memorial exercises to commemorate the centen-
 ary of the death of the Empress Jos l ephine. In the meantinDg sz7a7 S7sszzss celebrate next month the 150fh anui- versary of the birth of Martinique's greatest daughter, Marie Joseph Rose
 Tascher de la Pagerie was born at | Trois lets, near St. Pierre, on June 24, 1763, and her poverty-striclen
 youth was spent in a sugar house near
 the gay little West Indian capital that
 was utterly destroyed by an earth quake in 1902. IA monument to the Elm
 press Josephine was St. Pierre's proud
 est possession, and this will be restor- ed and will occupy a prominent site in
 FSort-de-France, the present capital l and chief city of the island
 All students of history are familiar with the career of the West Indian
 girl who went to Paris to wed the ViscolInt de Beauharnais-have read of
 terror, of her subsequent irregular love affairs, of her marriage to the enamored young Corsican officer, of her wild extravagance as an Empress,
 her divorce, her pathetic attempts to hold the affection Of the Man Of Des- tiny to whom she had given no son, her death at Malmaison on May %, 1874. Few know that she left a last will and testament, for this document, which was a profession of faith rather than a disposition of property, disap-
 peared the day after her death. An authentic copy Of this win recently came into the hands of an Italian sen ator, and has just been made public.
 Josephines will begins with a fer vent statement Of her belief in God and Christianity, and declares that she had always retained her religious faith stin spite of the efforts of Napoleon to destroy it.'' She asserts that all of NapoIeon's professions of religious be- lief were spurious. and made only for effect. AHe was an unbe1iever and an atheist declared Josephine in her will, 'sbut the fault lies on the vile courtiers who by their sycophaIEcy made him believe there was no su- prene being above him. They made of trim a god, and how then could he retain any Christian humility
 Tn her will Josephine denies that she had any part in the death Of the Duke dsEnghien, and she reconmend her children Queen Hortense and Prince Nugene to the kind offices of the Bourbons. Tthe will concludes with the expression Of a. pHous hope that B1apo- leon will come to recognize how great the difference was between herself and Marie Louise, for whom he sacr1hced her.
 One of New Yorl,s most famous landmarks, the old Astor House, will close it's doors to-day, and so will pass into history a hostelry that Tn It's era of glory was the most lu7cllri oa1s and magnificent in America Seventy seven years ago, almost to day, the wealth and fashion Of Gotham took r,a rt in the Fousewarning of the AsboT described by the press Of the day Ha a yeritabIe "palais royal. z It was built by the first John Jacob Asbor- On it's registers have been written the names of some Of the worlds greatest rnen-Hawt wthorne, Irving. Louis Kos 11tI, Dickens. Lincoln, Jefferson Da- wis. Daniel webster, Poo, t11e late king Edward, Thackeray, Jenny Lind, Grand Duke Alexis. Walt Whitman, and . host of others equally famous in all walks of life.