The Washington herald., 1914-11-29
Looxzw DoNw uaov ux SAacaezAcuS

to the favor Of fortune. He was the ching
OF destiny. lucky star must have
shone at his birth. He assumed that he
must have been born to rule. Therefore,
he crowned himself. He could ennoble
men by his touch, and new aristocraCy
sprang into being. His omnipotence
crowned his brothers and sisters and d.
vorced his wife that he might surely
transmit the divine spark.
He found himself the superman. set
above and apart from his kind. and con-
demned to solitary imprisonment in a
splendid but pitiable isolation. His
fanatiCal egotism, his self-worship re-
PEELED his wives, his brothers, his sistersF
his associates, whom he loaded with cor
onets and domains without making q
friend among them all. Awe. dread and
envy cut him off from the affections OF
men and women and left him filled with
the bitterness of Byron's cynical lines:
He who zIrra-es or s7Ibdues mankind
Must lOOk down on the hate q thoee below.
He despised men and challenged the
impossible. Il may find the pillars OF
Hercules in Spain he boasted. but
shall not find the limits Of my power"
But he had struck down tho revolu
tion. siIenCed the people and chained the
forces that had filled him with the
strength of a Colossus. He was still
borne on. il is true. hut only by the orig
inal momentum. and where once he had
won campaigns with $4,000 and soon Re
puhliCans he now led 10000 Imperialists
to disaster. At last no military genius
Leipsic or at the gates Of Paris. Wellins-
ton only stood still at Waterloo and let
him spend himself.
Nevertheless, France brought him hack
from the grave after a quarter of a cen
tury and stirred his ashes, in the vain
hope that shN might md live cinier
wherein TO kindle her glory anew. She
transfused his living blood from the veins
of Napoleon III into the anemic body pO-
litic. but only to collapse at Sedan. Then
at last she turned from the tomb, to dis
cover the true source of her power In
the red blood OF her people.
ReIEns But Does Not Rule.
But the exile has his wish. His ashes
repose on the banks Of the Seine. where
the earth-hungry ConQueTor who felt him
self pent and stified within the wide boun-
dGries of Europe rests in the narrow en-
pire of the grave-siN and one-half by
thirteen feet.
There, facing the altar of the King OF
Kings and of that other Victor of Mount
Tabor whose invincible sword, however,
is not of the flesh and whose everlasting
kingdom Is not Of this world, he is en-
thrOned with the vain, almost theatrical
pomp and splendor OF his brief imperial
days. F'-- afternoons a week he holds
his crowded court. with all the races OF
lean and muse on the marble balustrade
gazing down upon his majestic tomb, the
SlanIing rays or the sun, transmitted into
pure gold by the stained glass windows
of the Chapel Of the Dome, light up his
violet red throne with glory not Of
war nor Of earth.
Spite of all efforts to Danish him from
memory and consign him to an eternal
exile. this man who was picked out OF the
street to embody common men, to be
anointed, crowned, sceptered. empurpled
and enthroned above the monarchs OF
long descent: this man who made a
mockery Of the divinity of kings and the
saCredness Of ancient systems and Gus
toms never has lost his dominion over
the imagination Of men. His latest
photography, compiled by a German. con- |
tains the Jules Of no less than 5000 books .
that have been printed about him. In
the catalogue of the British Museum he 4
distances every other man OF action, only |
Jesus and Shakespeare receiving more !
space on the shelves of that great library.
He remains supreme in the admiration
and the disappointment, in the applause
and the reproach OF men:
The glory. jest and riddle q the world
Had he not lost his touch with the peo-
pie he would rule the globe from his
grave. Had he kept his face to the fu- !
ture and not turned II to the past the |
earth would be his empire and the hui
man race his subjects. Had he only seen !
and welcomed the dawning of this age [
of democracy he would be its prophet. /
and the Invalides would be more than a |
brilliant spectacle: it would be the
shrine Of mankind.
TIE END.
Copyright. lsl5H. by James Mo1anl