davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Taking Alexandria

Napoleon's star had not led him un-
harmed through the perils of the sea
for him to turn back at the command
of an ex-slaVe the shiek of Alexandria.
lie assembled his ships just beyond
the town, where the sands of the Lib
yam Desert roll down to the sea. There
in the night, despite wind and weather
and all the caution of the naval COM
rnanders, he and a detachment of his
army swung from rope ladders into the
small boats tossing in the surf and
waded dripping to the shore of Egypt.
The first thing he did on landing
was to stretch himself on the sand
beside a elump of date palms and
sleep for an hour TO the surging of the
waves. Before daybreak he was at the
the townspeople had noisily swarmed
to repel the invader, chiefly with Arab
ic prayers and curses.
The French quickly scaled the walls
and took the town. whereuon Napoleon
hastened TO spread among the inhabi-
tants the first gospel of his new re-
ligion. which, running 'in the name
of the most merciful Cod and dis
carding both the Christian and repub-
lican calendars he dated 'the 18th
month of Mulharrem, year fthe He
gira 1913" This opening proclama-
tfon of his Egyptian campaign, which
had been printed on shipboard in Arabic
type taken from the College of the
Propaganda at Rome, assured the
Egyptians that he revered more than
the Mamelulses who ruled them, Ma
homet and the Koran. and that he had
destroyed the pope and the knights of
Malta because they were the enemies
If Islam.
When. however, he proclaimed all
men to be equal before God, it was too
much for the Egyptians. They indig-
nantly refused to be placed on a level
with the despised Christians. More
over to the Moslem mind men never
are equal In life but only in death.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
By Pompey's Pillar

Closely the custom house / was fortu-
nate in finding The Path Of Napoleon.
by no meansla easy thing TO do in the
maze of tangled paths which hundreds of
generations of conquerors have opened on
this shore. But the particular path /
sought was plainly marked UP the grassy
slope of a hill which rises among the
warehouses
The hill is crowned now by the signal
station of the port, set in the midst of
trees and flowers and with its pennants
of many colors flutterng in the breeze
beneath the Sultans flag. But it is still
called Fort Napoleon" NY Arab drago-
man with his Oriental imagination In
sisted that Napoleon built the hill In a
night, but the Egyptian clerk of the
weather, like true scientist, assured me
that such feat was impossible. What
really gave the place its name was the
fort which Napoleon established In
night The hill was outside the little
town of that day and commanded the
place as it now commands an excellent
view of the sea.
Pompey's Pillar is another marker on
THE Path of Napoleon" through Alex
andra From the mound above which
its polished and rounded shaft rises
nearly 70 feet in a solid column of red
granite, he watched and directed the
assault upon the town wall In the dawn
of his first day In Egypt.
He promised to inscribe on the pedes-
tai of the pillar the names of those who
fell in the attack, but he failed to do
1t and the poor youths of France missed
immortality. However, they Jared no
harder than the man to whom this COL
umn was raised He is utterly lost in
the vulgar herd of conquerors and his
pillar has been misnamed for Pompey
who was dead hundreds of years before
it was sawed out of the quarry at As
souan.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Bricks Without Straw"

What indeed had he come for and
what did he want of Egypt?
For one thing, the young conqueror
Of Italy was fleeing from the applause
OF Paris. which disturbed him more
OF his poverty and obscurity. "Bahr'
These people would crowd to see me
Just as hard If l were on my way to
the guillotine."
The Directory bade him light rt-
edly to go take London. But in order
Ing him to strike Great Bratain any
where while she remained mistress of
the seas, they were simply command
ing him to make bricks without straw
and he chose to undertake that inn
possible task i'm the land of Joseph and
Fharoah.
As he had found Toulon at LaSeyne
and as he had found Vienna at Mantua
he said now that London was not in
England but In India. Rather than try
to cross the 20 miles of channel crowd
ed with British warships. he preferred
to take his chances of dodging the
ehemy in a sail of 400 miles through
the Mediterranean. Instead of a head
long lunge at England he chose to
take her in the rear by landing an
army in Egypt, and, after compelling
the Sultan of Turkey to be his ally,
march across Asia and seize the British
possessions in India, which the French
imagined were the true source of
Britain's wealth and power.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
q OINzHkP ON Z'ORZEWT
By Ie1wet

cover him in the last stage of the voyage
to send him and his army to thel bot
tom. His one and only chance of sue
cess in all those weeks was to keep out
of sight.
Fortunately for him. the enemy did not
know where he was going or what course
he was taking. While Nelson was flying
up and down the European coast, on the
assumption that he was headed for Ma
Piles or Sicily, Napoleon was steering to-
ward the African shore passing outside
of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily and maxi
ing for Malta. whose outlying island of
Gazo rose to view after a sail of nearly
three weeks.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
In the Path of Napoleon 100 Years After His Doevfa

Mr.. Morgan comes today to a sud
den turn in "The Path of Napoleon,
which opens to the view of the reader
the always strange and fascinating
orient.
1t is the opening story of the most
spectacular exploits in a most spectac-
ular life, Napoleon's flight over 1400
miles of the Mediterranean with a
fleet of 400 ships, pursued by Nelson,
his startling descent upon Egypt, his
march up the Nile, his battle in the
shadows of the pyramids, his long
march across the desert and through
the Holy Land, his battle at the foot
of Mt. Tabor and in sound of Nazar-
eth, his defeat under the walls of Acre
at the hands of school-day foe and
another young man seeking personal
revenge, his terrible retreat of 400
miles in tropic summer and his time
ly victory at Aboukir.
It is the story of an expedition that
was not only spectacular but highly
significant, for Napoleon was the first
soldier of the modern world to burst
in upon the ancient world, the initia
tor of the great movement which has
carried occidental civilization around
the earth, and, for good or ill, bound
together the east and the west.
Mr.. Morgan in his journey of 20,-
600 miles followed in the wake of the
mighty Armada of France from
Toulon to Alexandria and followed
1.-THE Path of Napoleon" through
Egypt and Palestine into Syria. He
begins today virtually a new series of
sketches of romantic interest, with
Egypt and the Holy Land for back
ground
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
FOOling the British

Still styling himself the Commander
in-Chief of the army of England, al
though it had been privately re-
cliristened the army OF the Orient he
hsstily assembled his military and
naval forces and a great fleet of trans
ports in the Mediterranean at Toulon.
While he advertised it as an expedition
against the British. he kept his direc-
tion and destination a close secret
among a very few.
All the ships of the British navy were
drawn about the English coast, and
blockading the northern ports of
France. There was not a warship of
that power left in the Mediterranean
until Nelson arrived off Toulon two
days before the sailing time of the
French fleet, but--and this is only the
first line in a chapter of unfortunate
accidents that were to befall him-he
was blown away in a storm.
Notwithstanding the secrecy In which
Napoleon had enveloped his purpose,
all adventurous spirits were eager
tlindly to follow his star Every bright
and shining lance in the army was
proffered him. and he gathered about
him many of the men destined to share
his fame--Marmont Lannes. Desaix,
Nurat, Duroc, Berthier. Junot, Lefebre.
Bessieres and Rapp
He had a whole regiment of geogra-
piers and geometricians. astronomers
and chemists. mineralogists and geolo-
gists, botanists and zoologists, linguists
and orientalists. architects and drafts
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Highway to Empire

But no shadow of doubt crossed the
mind of their great Genera1-in-Chief as
he strode the quarter deck of LOrfent.
At last he was the high road to
empire. Alexander and Hannibal, Pom
pey and Caesar. the Phoenicians the
Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans
and the Saracens sailed the Mediterran
can on their conquests of the earth, and
Peter and Paul on their conquests of
the soul 1t was the theatre of the war
of the Titans, where Jupiter won the
sovereignty of the world and Neptune
ruled the waves; where Hercules la
bored and Jason cruised. Ulysses wan
dered and Aeneas yoyaged.
For on the Mediterranean mythology
and history are as one and fables are
facts and facts are fables. The gods
are as real men, and Homer and Her
odotus, Virgil and Plutarch are equally
storians. When he heard Troy
doubted while he stood upon Achilles
tomb, Byron Indignantly declared Time
would some day doubt Rome.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Hide and Seek

AS Napoleon entered the Ionian sea
from the Malta channel. Nelson race in
on the more northerly course. Both were
now heading straight for Alexandria, for
the admiral at last had suspected that
the French were going to Egypt one
day there was nothing but the horizon
and so miles of water between them.
That night, indeed, moonless night,
Nelson probably ran through the fleet
without seeing it. With the impetuosity
of despair, the Briton flew on the wind
so fast that he sailed past the huge,
slow going armada and hauled up at AL
exandria. The Egyptians thought their
strange visitor was crazy. or concealing
some design of his own upon them when
he inquired if they had seen few hun
dred French ships floating about their
shore They told him no and they told
him to go away, even refusing him per-
mission to take water.
When he flew off toward the Syrian
coast on his wild hunt the sheik and
lated one another on having flight
ened him away. But Napoleon had been
gone only two days when one morning
they saw the sea white with the sails
of France. AS the English admiral
had been As hours too early for Ma
poleon at Toulon. he was again AS
hours too early for him at Alexandria,
and the long voyage was finished in
safety.
The sheik told the French as he had
told the English, to go away. but Ma
mo- co hn In, n
port of ris ambition, within a ftw
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Quoted by Bourrienne.

Pompeii's Pillar rose above the roofs
and towers. But the famous lighthouse
of Pharos no longer casts its beams on
a wondering world and we saw a useless
fort cumbering its site as the barefoot
pilot guided us into the Greek port past
the shining white palace and harem of
the khedive.
After being carefully examined as to
cigarettes and cholera. two native iD-
dustries which the Egyptian government
zealously protects from foreign competi-
tion. | found myself in Alexandria, but
yet not really in Egypt. The street names
are French the architecture is Italian
and the Greeks own the town Even
the sand beneath 1t is not Egyptian, but
Turkish. and that Is covered in turn with
a first and second English mortgage.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Taking Malta

In the dusk of a June evening the
French fleet came to anchor within a
gunshot of the great gray heap of ma
sonry which the knights of St John
had piled up for the defense of Malta
against the Turk. These last of the Cru
saders, after having been driven from
Jerusalem to the rock of Acre and from
Acre to the Island of Rhodes had found
refuge from the Saracens behind the bas-
tions of this barren island.
From the battlements of St Elmo the
eight-ponted cross had waved defiance
at the crescent in stubborn and disastrous
sieges. Challenged now by a nation of
the west. which had torn down the cru
cifx from its churches and did not hold
itself bound by the agreements of Chris
tendon to respect this outpost of the
Christian world, those soldiers of the
Maltese cross, who had followed 1t for
nearly 800 years, furled their banner be-
fore Napoleon and gave him the keys of
Malta.
Climbing the steep steps TO the town,
he reorganized the community. with his
usual rapidity. Pensoning the knights,
setting free their Moslem slaves. estab-
fishing a new government with modern
laws. ordering the Improvement of
streets and the erection of fountains, in
Producing system of common schools
and even prescribing a course of studies
remodelling the curriculum of the uni
versity and installing French garrison,
he sailed away in less than a week with
all the cannon and powder he cared to
take and all the gold and silver orna-
ments which generations of knights had
accumulated in the treasury order.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Empty FleshpGts

No wonder the 2o,ooo soldiers who fol-
lowed The Path of Napoleon along the
banks of the Nile We're exasperated al
most to the point of mutiny when they
contrasted the country with the land of
smiling plenty that lay before them.
when he had led them around the Alps
into fertile Piedmont and down into lux
uriant Lombardy. They looked back with
longing even upon the snow and sleet
of an Alpine winter in the mountains OF
Styria.
The men of France had sailed into the
harbor of Alexandria with their mouths
watering for the tabled flesh pots of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
"Dninp Egypt"

As stood by Pompey's Pillar. in the
midst of the scattered ruins of the Tenn
pie of Serapis, literally in the dump of
the ages where the wreckage of pagan
affairs. Christian churches and Mahome-
dan mosques strew the ground. | found
it easy to sympathize with the forgetful-
ness and indifference of Egypt In mat
ters of history. She is so long accustomed
to seeing alien conauerors come and go
trippers and cookies" who are here to-
tripper sand Cookies who are here to-
day and gone tomorrow. She hardly
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Alexandria Today

At my journeys end in '"The Path of
Napoleon through the Mediterranean, a
tez crowned and barefoot Egyptian pilot
steered my ship into the harbor of a city
as changed from the town Alexander
built and Napoleon captured as anything
can be in this unchanging land of Egypt
Out of the desert of water In front of it
and the desert of sand behind 1t. the
minarets and marts of a modern city OF
100000 rise on the shore where Napoleon
found only squalid village of 5000 peo-
pie huddled amid the ruins of splendid
imperial capital which before the opening
OF the Christian Era boasted million
inhabitants Those figures reflect the
vicissitudes of Alexandria in a period Of
more than 1000 years
One landmark only has survived most
of those centuries. Straight ahead of us
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
If Nelson Had Found Him

So too. Time may yet doubt Napo-
Icon and his journey to the Pyramids
Already 1t is an impossibility. In this
age OF steam and wireless his expe-
dltion would be smashed and sunk in a
week. Even in those days of sails and
no telegraph it was only by the most
incredible good luck that he and his
Dig fieet floated safely over the Medi-
terranean for six weeks with the great
est OF British sailors chasing back and
forth and ransacking the sea to find
him.
At any moment Nelson might pounce
upon him from the horizon and spread
panic among his transports, for the
French convoy of fighting ships could not
have protected all of them from harm.
His pursuer. who was constantly receiv-
ing reinforcements, needed only to dis
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
A Mighty Armada

For the third time "The Path OF
Napoleon" had led him to Toulon in a
little more than four years in the
earliest instance as a penniless exile
from Corsica, then as an artillery cap
tain at the seige of the town and now
as the General-in- Chief of the first mill
itary expedition the west had ventured
against the east in the 500 years since
the failure of the Crusaders
His flagship, LOrient. loaded down
With 1000 passengers, freed herself with
difficulty from the mud. and rounded
the point LEguillette, where the
flowers of May were blooming on the
earthworks of the Fort of Men With
out Fear.
AS she passed out into the great
harbor he stood on deck with a spy
glass to his eye, watching the flutter-
ing handkerchief of Josephine, who
leaned on the balcony rail of the port
intendant's house. and continued to
wave a farewell. not only to him but to
the manly youth by his side, her own
spyglass dimmed with tears at her part
ing from her son as we'll as her hus-
band.
out of Toulon streamed the mighty
armada of France. more than twice the
size of Spain's, When it was Joined by
reinforcements from other ports, 1t
plowed its way through the ivory
crested waves of the blue sea with the
prows of 13 ships of the fighting line,
/ frigates. 72 corvettes and nearly 400
transport vessels carrying $4,000 troops
of the republic, who no more knew
where and why they were going than
the weeds that danced in the wake of
their boats on the bosom of the waters.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01

pulls of the oar from the cradle of en-
pire and the nursery of fame. Before
him lay the low crescented shore
where at Alexandrias bidding a mag
nificent city rose to be the treasure
house of his conquest of the universe
but where now only a miserable hamlet
huddled amid the noble ruins Beyond
stretched the magic east,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Growling and Testing

The volatlle spirits of the French fen
as fast as the thermometer rose, and
their marching songs turned to sulleu
srowL Are you going to India by thia
road?' one of them demanded in a dis
gusted shout as the Little Corporal'a
passed by. Not with such soldiers al
you!" he retorted IN no better temper
The Gallic sense of humor was the only
salvation of the army See. there's
your slx-acre farm" a grenadier cried to
his comrades he pointed to the desert
all about them. alluding to the promise
which had been held up as a bait when
they were leaving Europe As General
Caffarelli, who had lost a leg In the rev&
olution stumped by the army on hia
wooden peg one hot and weary day, q
veteran exclaimed, "Pardie you donV
care. do you for YOU have at least one
foot in France," That Jest, runnina,
through the ranks, was as stimulating an
drink of wine.
When the marchers had passed the.
desert back of Alexandria and come in
sight of the Nile, they were disguised Ia
find even the cultivated delta a scene
of poverty worse than anything a Euro-
pean could imagine. The miserable hab-
itations of the people only Knocked tho
hunger of the foraging soldiers, who
found nothing In the lean larders fit foH
the French palate To set an exampla
of self denial Napoleon himself slept
without ten in the midst of his army
and at meal time limited his fare to
dish of lentls
Instead of living off the fat of this
land for which the children of Israel
sighed and murmured when Moses had
led them out OF Egypt, the invading
army advanced with it's supplies jealousy
guarded in It's center for fear of losing
even what 1t had brought from home.
assailed as II was by Mamelukes and
Bedouins. who forever hovered on the
horizon.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01

men, actors and singers, poets and
chroniclers. Having himself been elect
cd an acedemician, he proudly signed
all his orders as Member of Insti-
tute of France" as well as General
in chief"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
Beating st. Louis

When Napoleon left Alexandria said
that st, Louis, the latest French COM
mander to invade Egypt. took four
months to march TO Cairo, but that he
would do 1t in two weeks. In despite OF
all the hardships that presented them
selves he kept the schedule to the hour.
The morning of the 1tth day was Just
breaking over the Mokattom hills when
three great heaps of yellow limestones
rose to view on the edge of the Lbyau
desert and he fired the fanting spiritq
of his tired and homesick soldiers with
the memorable reminoer that from these
pramids of Ghizeh 40 centuries looked
down upon them.
without a tent In the midst of his army
Next Sunday-"The Battle Of the
Py ramids"-Mr. Morgan will sketch
the remarkable scene of that cela-
brated combat from the Pyramids OF
Ghizeh. where 40 centuries watched the
first battle between the west and the
east In 500 years-a visit to the Cairo
OF Napoleon--How Napoleon lost the
Empire of the east.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01

land of Egypt. while their commander
had confidently looked for the Egyptians
to welcome him with joyous acclaim as
their deliverer from tyranny. The coun-
try then, as now, was supposed to be
under the Sultan of Turkey, but the mar
tial Mamelul<es really ruled it in that
day, as the British are it's real rulers in
our day.
Alas, the soldiers found the flesh pots
empty and Nap9eon found that the peo-
pie preferred their old yoke to a new one.
Liberty, fraternity and equality. the
magic watch words of the French revolu-
tion with Which lie had conquered the
hearts Of the Italians. were as sounding
brass or a tnbling cymhal in the duh
ears of the wretehed dweIlers along the
Nile
After long ages of grinding despotisms
hope was dead beyond revival in tho
breasts Of the Egyptians. In their stoica1
philosophy the world Is only a place 90
going, not place of staying" and
dreaming of no release or reward this side
of heaven they did not look up from
their hard nndequited toll to see the le-
gions of the latest alien conqueror pasa
by their little patches of earth.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
The Fountain of Glory
By NAPOI .EON

This little Europe does not supply enough glory for
must seek it in the east the fountain OF glory.
Europe is a molehill. There have never been great
empires and revolutions except in the east where there
are 600,000,000 men.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01


Napoleon started Egypt out of a sleep
the dawn of day in July in
the year 1898. he raped at the gate
of Alexandria. over her hoary head
five centuries had rolled since she
hurled the crusaders from her shore
and. lying down to rest on her sandy
couch, yielded herself to the dreams
OF the Orient.
The Christian dogs had been beaten
off and the European barbarian had
disappeared into his native wilderness
Egypt thought no more about him than
we think of the grasshoppers when
they they are gone.
That he had discovered a new world
and in the discovery had all but for
gotten the old; that he had found an
ocean highway to the east by the Cape
of Good Hope and no longer depended
on the humpbaclxed ships of the desert
Tor his transport never entered her
thoughts. She drowsily noticed that
his sails had vanished from her shores,
but only to assume that they had ig-
unanimously fled before the prowess
Of the triumphant crescent on the pi-
lat flag of the corsairs of Barbary
When. therefore, the long haired boy
of France rudely invaded her slumber
she knew nothing of the great revoIu-
tioE which had reused the sleeping ma
tions of Europe and which at last was
b1dding her wake again. Egypt hard
ly remembered there was a France
and could not imagine what the French
should want of her. To NanOleon's
command for her to rise. therefore, she
only yawned and begged. please go
away and let me sleep"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01
A Long Race With Nelson

DATES AND ENENTS-AGE q.
December 5, 1797-Returned to Paris fron,
Italy.
April 70, 1797-General in Chief, Army of
the Orient.
May 10. l79S-Sailed for Egypt.
June II. 179S-Toolk Malta
July 1, 179S-Arrived at Alexandria
July ., 179s-Took the town.
July I, 179s-Started for Cairo
July 81, 179S-At the Pyramids