The Washington herald., 1914-07-19

As the prelude to the emperor
divorce, the story today is no lest
instructive than amusing.
~OME one has made the discovery
that Shakespeare, although he had
- ~ 1900 words in his vocabulary, had
to repeat the term love l.6oo times In the
course Of his matchless story OF the hu-
man race. Yet that magic little word
has no place in the biography Of Napol-
con. In the most crowded life that ever
was lived. one chapter was left blank.
Not that the great captain was 6
misogynist II is really amazing to con-
template the time and attention be-
slowed upon womankind by this busiest
man the world ever saw. 1t Is hardly
necessary to bark back to the wild and
absorbing ardor Of his love-making days
when We simply had to love some one
If not the girlish Desiree Clary, then
maybe Nine. Permon, who protested
che was old enough to be his mother. OF
possibly the ancient actress Montasier
who. the lying Barras says, was OLD
enough to be his grandmother, and
finally that elderly cOQuette,' the
widow Beauharnais.
Nor does memory need to be refreshed
with repetitions now Of those flaming
messages to Josephine from that first
Italian campaign. when the Little Cor
poraTs pulse beat higher for love than
for glory The flames subsided, II is
true, but not because the fire burnt out;
it was only smothered. When the bitter
cynic, Marmont, tells us that never
did a purer, truer or more exclusive love
fill a mans heart or the heart OF so
extraordinary a man." We cannot ask
for a more credible witness.
Tender Fancies.
No woman seems to have touched
that heart without leaving upon 1t an in
effaceable impression. Mile. Colombter,
the little girl who picked cherries with
the sublieutenant at Valence, needed
only TO address the Emperor to have
him open wide his cornucopia above her
no longer youthful and comely head and
shower upon her a post on honor as
lady in waiting at the court of Nine.
Mere and upon her husband a baro1y,
with comfortable emoluments. Ano her
maid Of Valence, whose smile had cast
a faint ray upon his melancholy path
by the Rhone, found herself elevated to
the station OF lady in waiting to the
Empress, and her husband, NJ. de Mon
talivet, a member of the ministry and a
count of the empire
Bearing everything from and doing
everything for his most faithless and
useless marshal because he was the
husband Of Desiree Clary, Napoleon
said. "Bernadotte may thank his mar
riage for his baton, his principality Of
Pontecorvo and the crown Of Sweden"
Although his own sisters looked upon
the eagle which freakish nature had
srnuggled into their barnyard brood. as
only a bird to be plucked, Pauline alone
among them having the slightest emo
ton for him, he lavished fopdness upon
his stepdaughter. his sistefcin-law and
upon the Beauharnais nieces and cous-
ins ''Hortense," he said. in his admira-
ton of Josephines daughter. forces me
to believe in virtue.
When Princess Catherine of wurtem-
berg came to Paris to marry Jerome and
kneIt terrified at the Emperor's feet, he
picked her up, gathered the awkward
young German girl in his arms, kissed |
her and with his gentleness did more
than any of the women Of the court to |
place her at ease. In the Princess Au-
gusta of Bavaria, wife of Prince Eugene, |
he inspired the fealty Of a daughter. |
His letter of instructions to the young |
husband discloses a sensible domestic !
code: You need more gayety in your
house; it is necessary for your wife's
happiness and for your health. lead
the life that you lead, but I have an
old wife who can amuse herself with
out me. and besides have more to do"
The Emperor's indulgence toward Ste
daughter, whom he adopted as his own
daughter and married to the Prince of
Baden. made that young lady the spoiled
child Of the empire. When Josephine
brought a little cousin from Martinique,
he promptly married her to the Prince
d'Arenberg. But the marriage was an
unhappy one and the bride ran away
from her bridegroom. The Emperor
threatened to send her back in the
~ hut he s0ffIv |
reIented and gave her liberal allow
ance that enabled her to dispense with
an unpleasant husband.
No Sex Equality.
..Ecind, gentle. persuasive women" were
his choice and such as they could go
far with him At st. Helena he found
FAULT with the English for ''dismissing
the ladies from the table, remaining for
hours TO drink and intoxicate themselves
Society is nothing he contended. 'un-
less ladies' are present. They are the
life of conversation.
from them on anv point. Because one
Of the ladies of his court seemed too
aRgressiveIy moral, he said. Mime. de
Genlis tries to define virtue as II she
were the discoverer Of it
He believed in training wives in the
vay they should walk To the Duchess
said: Madam. recollect I am not your
husband II I were, you would behave
very differently"
He would have no sex equality. wom-
Ell, he insisted. should not be regarded :
as mems equals, for after all they are
only the machinery for turning out chill
dren," He would have thanked a twen-
tieth century emperor for his alliterative
epigram on the limitation Of women to
children. church and cooking" II
In his scheme Of education for girls I
there were to be no blue stockings e
Make them believers not reasoners," ]
ne instructed his educators The weak
ness of the brain Of women, the mobility 2
Of their IDEAS their destination in the Z
social order, the necessity of inspiring s
them with perpetual resignation-all this !
renders the yoke Of religion indispens- ?
able TO them
The Dreaded Feminine.
An amusing dread and Jealousy Of the =
influence and independence Of the sex are | \
betrayed in a hundred Of Napoleon v
sayings. He really placed women On a | b
level with the English. the Austrians
and the Russians a peril TO his mas h
terry. seeming to look upon woman as a D