Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-08-15
SAINT HELENA
Description Of Island Where Allies
Nav Send Former Kaiser.

Description of Island Where Allies
May Send Former Kaiser.
"St Helena, the island whose spec
ialty is the entertainment Of deposed
monarchs, has good economic reasons
for its reported desire to have the
kaiser for a prisoner" says a bulle-
tin from the National Geographic So
ciety's Washington headquarters.
Napoleon was its most famous and
best paying guest though not the only
one. Dinizulu, Zulu king, was more
recent exile; sent there after he led
a rebellion against the British during
the Transvaal in 1899. While Ma
poleon was at st. Helena, 'profiteer-
ing at the expense Of the Bonaparte
household and the numerous MEM
bers of the garrison sent to guard
him, was reduced to fine art by
the island citizens.
"In fact it was the high cost OF
st. Helena living which created part
of the friction between Napoleon and
the British governor of the 1sland'
Sir Hudson Lowe. Instead OF living
within the 5000 pounGs sterling al
lowed for maintenance Of Bonaparte
and the half hundred members OF
his encourage the bills for year
mounted to three times that sum.
Upon complaint Of the governor
which Napoleon resented, the ex-
monarch executed bit Of play to the
galleries by ordering his silver sold
and his bed broken up for WOOD
which, when reported in England
created so much criticism Of the gov
ernor, already none to popular, that
further remonstrances were not MADE
"Napoleon's wants were few. HIS
principal luxury was books; his d.
versions chess playing and digging
in his garden. Like the former
kaiser, he spent many hours with
the Bible. He professed no piety'
however, frankly admitting that ne
was making a study Of certain Old
Testament books to show that mon
arches had divine sanction, and ne
also spoke of wanting to write a
monograph on The Campaigns OF
Moses
"Since st. Helena Is some 700 miles
from the nearest land, Ascension
island, and 1900 miles from the near
est African port, the extreme pre-
cautions taken by Lowe to prevent
the escape of the man who once had
ruled half of Europe, created consid-
erable amusement. Sir Hudson was
greatly disturbed one day to find a
newly arrived Corsican priest riding
horseback In a coat similar to Napole-
on's, believing the compatriot involv-
ed in a plot to deceive the guards
The French commissioner complain
ed that the sight Of passing oos
was enough to induce the governor
to plant a new sentinel on the spot;
but perhaps the most extreme OF the
many amusing stories OF loves So
licitude was the occasion Of his pro-
test against Napoleon's planting some
white and green beans, sensing III
this combination of colors a subtle
allusion to the white flag of the
Bourbons and the distinctive green
uniform of the general.
Living almost wholly within TWO
rooms and his garden, Napoleon In
sisted on all the pomp and ceremony
possible in such cramped quarters
Since his companions necessary were
much in his presence his insistenc-
upon their standing sometimes brought
them to the point Of fainting. None
might speak unless spoken to ana
all became extremely bored with court
life in a shanty involving all the bur-
dens, without any of the splendors
| Of a palace
"At first the exile rode horseback
hut soon abandoned that rather than
have an English guard along. HIS
seculsion is best attested by the fac'
] that for five of his six years sta!
he did not exchange a word witn
the governor; and Of the three com
| issioners-Russian, Austrian anc
Notwithstanding there by the pro-
| visions of a treaty to assure them
selves of his presence one saw hin
1 through a telescope once. a SECOND
looked into his face for the first time
| when he was to be buried, and the
third saw him not at all.
"Napoleon's days at st. Helena
were not wholly devoted to killing
time. He dictated his voluminous
| memoirs, and military commentaries
| while a number of his associates
later added to these diaries, CONVEX
sations and memoirs Of their own
inaccurate or deliberately misleading
in large part Now this activity would
be called propaganda. 1t was highly
effective propaganda, too. Though
| Naponeon's escape was prevented
by vigilance to an absurd degree
| and though the effect Of his winning
| personality was guarded against by
forbidding visitors to see him, his
writings and those Of Montholon and
! Les Cases resulted in the royalistic