Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-06-04

But he had had an ilegitimate son in America.
ne had been arrested in an evil resort in Paris.
ne had been promiscuous in his love affairs he
mad an unattractive personality, bad skin, poor
eyes. poor carriage Yet he was attractive to
women who did not think he ever would be an
emperor.
He was fascinated by Eugene and made love
to her in an informal, easy-going manner. But
he tried hard to marry some princess of an es-
tablished dynasty. No woman of royal rank
would accept the adventurer. Had anyone sig
nifed her willingness to do so Eugenie had never
been empress of the French.
II is said that he at first offered her NOR
ganatic marriage. This she refused and also
refused to him again. Chance drove Napo-
leon into the marriage. His uncle Jerome, for
mer king of westphalia. circulated rumor that
he was incapable of marriage Bismarck, it is
said. believed the story To dsprove it. Napoleon
asked Eugenie de Montijo to share his throne.
They were married January 80. 1858. at Notre
Dame. Paris and began reign of seventeen
years, in which good was iptermngled with much
evil.
Their positions were hard at first. Not being
of royal blood royal families looked askance
upon them. They circulated all sorts of stories
about them. In his marriage proclamation the
emperor said: 81 hope that she will revive the
virtues of Josephine" Cynical Paris roared 1t
remembered the easy virtue of Josephine before
and after her marriage TO the great Corsican.
postcard bearing the picture of the empress had
this sentence upon it:
THE portrait and virtues of the empress-alI
for two sous"
None the less Eugenie's influence was great
She urped her husband to undertake many ell
terprises that proved dangerous 10 his empire
but for twenty years France successful in
peace and in The court glittered. Every
form of pleasure encouraged. The empress
shone with the supreme radiance of womanly
fascination. Paris the center of interna
tional society. Whatever Eugenie did was done
by the of all the world She wore the
ridiculous crinoline and huge, fantastic chgnon
The world them too. She had Haussman
remodel and rebuild Paris. The great boule-
wards and avenues of today the work of the
little old woman who moves among the
wounded in England.
In 1856 heir born the little Louis
whose end to be so tragic. She dabbled in
politics and offended her husband She even led
a party which opposed him in the chamber of
deputies. He found out that the love letters
which had charmed him had been written by the
distinguished academician. Prosper Merimee,
hired by Eugene to do it, When Eugenie had to
write herself her letters better than
those of a semiterate peasant girl. Asked about
it Merimee said: God gave her the choice be-
tween beauty and brains and she chose beauty"
Eugenie loved bohemianism and laxity and
Paris became efeminate Handsome faces a
small gift of epigram. romantic past. the
credentials to the court of the empress A grad.
ual decay honeycombed society and the army and
the foundations of Sedan were laid.
Eugenie was not popular with princesses who
houted her birth or with French women who
felt that when Napoleon made up his mind to
marry a woman Of less than royal rank he