The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-06-23

RrrLAnIS OF KTcN
~ URING a s%ojourn on the French
West India island of Marti-
nique, where Theodore de
BODY was engaged in making
an archaeological reconnaissance in
the interest of the Museum of the
American Indian (Heye foundation) of
New York city, he was enabled, thanks
to the kindness of Mr.. Simon Hayot,
a resident of this island, to visit the
birthplace of Josephine Tascher de la
Pagerie, who subsequently became the
wife of Napoleon Bonaparte and EN-
press of France.
The great events in the life of the
unfortunate empress are too well
known to students and historians to
need recital in this short paper, says
Mr.. De BODY in the French edition of
the Bulletin of the Pan-American
Union. The writer thinks it may be
of interest to Americanists, however,
to have some record of Josephine'S
birthplace. Due to the various politi-
cal changes that took place in France
after the fall of the first empire and
to the republican form of government
which was subsequently adopted, no
efforts were made to preserve the
buildings in which Josephine spent her
childhood. A" the time of writing a
movement has been started by the gov
ernor of Martinique, NJ. Camille Guy,
an historian of note, to preserve what
ruins still remain Of La Pagerie and to
erect within the walls of what once
was the plantation residence a fitting
monument to the empress.
Famed for Its Hospitality.
The property of La Pagerie, ances-
trail home of Josephine Tascher, sec
ond daughter of Messire ]. G. Tascher
de la Pagerie, lies some two miles west
of the small village of Trois Islets, on
the southwest coast of the island of
Martinique. No record can be found
as to how long this La Pagerie prop
erty had been in possession of the
Tascher family. That it vas famed for
hospitality, even in the days when Gre
ole hospitality in the West Indies was
at its zenith, is a cherished tradition
among the inhabitants of Martinique.
%Sugarcane was extensively cultivated
at La Pagerie, and there can be no
doubt that, with a large number of
slaves, and with the high price that
sugar commanded in those days, Mon
sieur Tascher was a well-to-do planter.
There still remains on the plantation
the ruin of the old sugar house, where
the cane was ground by the windmill
process and the juice boiled in the open
copper kettles.
Local traditions have 1t that 10
sephine was born in the old sugar
house, instead of in the plantation res
idence. 1t seems that the island OF
Martinique was visited by one of the
typical, all-destructive hurricanes
which are such a common occurrence
in this region; the family, anxious fol
its safety, took refuge in the more sub
|. stantially constructed factory, and /
. was here that Madame Tascher's sec
ond child was born on the oath of June
1853.
Not Much Of Residence Left.
But little remains of the Tascher res
Idence. Successive hurricanes sue
, ceeded but too well in effacing the hand
work of man, and one can now finC
but the low, th~ree-foot-high walls O
, the residence proper. These walls arr
so overgrown with tropical vegetation
that 1t is well-nigh impossible to pho
, tograph them. 1t is the plan of TIL
|. commission headed by Monsieur Guy
, the governor of the island, TO remov,
this vegetation and the debris insld'
the walls, and to erect therein the mon
ument to Josephine.
Strange to say, the best-preserve,
ruins on the La Pagerie estate consis
of the kitchen walls. What higher trib
ute can II writer pay to the delight
Of the far-famed Martinique cuisin
than to say that he considers ii a I'll
ting tribute to the hospitality of JIG
sephine's parents that of all the plan
tatiOn buildings, this should be the on
: to be the best preserved? One ca.
: even see the old fireplace, where tn
Tascher cook prepared her deliciOu
creole connections.
+ Local tradition has 1t that it wa
young Josephine's custom to daily b'
/ take herself, accompanied by a faithfU
. old negro "mammy" to a certain poe
e on the property to indulge in a bath i
h the refreshing waters of a limpid riv'
n let. This nanny" named Euphemit
r was an old family slave, and was gel
orally credited as being a PROPHECIES
/. Of no mean order. 1t seems TO hay
been her custom to allow herself to