Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 142, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1917 — Birthplace of Empress Josephine [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Birthplace of Empress Josephine

DURING a sojourn on the French West India island of Martinique, where Theodore dq Booy 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 empress 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 Booy 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 political 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.. At’ the time of writing a movement has been started by the governor of Martinique, M. 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, ancestral home of Josephine Tascher, sec-, ond daughter of Messire J. 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 property had been in possession of the Tascher family. That it was famed for hospitality, even in the days when creole 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, Monsieur 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 It that Josephine was born in the old sugar house, instead of in the plantation residence. It 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 for its safety, took refuge in the more substantially constructed factory, and it was here that Madame Tascher’s second child was bora on the 24th of June, 1763. Not Much of Residence Left. But little remains of the Tascher residence. Successive hurricanes succeeded but too well In effacing the handiwork of man, and one can now find but the low, three-foot-hlgh walls of the residence proper. These walls are so overgrown with tropical vegetation that it is well-nigh impossible to photograph them. It is the plan of the commission headed by Monsieur Guy, the governor of the island, to remove this vegetation and the debris inside the walls, and to erect therein the monument to Josephine.

Strange to say. the best-preserved ruins on the La Pagerie estate consist of the kitchen walls. What higher tribute can the writer pay to the delights of the far-famed Martinique cuisine than to say that he considers it a fitting tribute to the hospitality of Josephine’s parents that of all the plantation buildings, this should be the one to be the best preserved? One can even see the old fireplace, where the Tascher eoek prepared her delicious creole concoctions. Local tradition has it that it was young Josephine’s custom to dally betake herself, accompanied by a faithful old negro “mammy” to a certain pool on the property to indulge In a bath In the refreshing waters of a limpid rivulet. This’mammy,” named Euphemia, was an old family slave, and was generally credited as being a prophetess of no mean order. It seems to have been ner custom to allow herself to go

Into a sort of trance, and to then reveal future happenings. Josephine, brought up with all the ideas and superstitions of the creole child, which from its birth assimilates all sorts of African folklore, due to its constant association with negro slaves and servitors, was far from scoffing at her nurse’s revelations and constantly lived in the hope that slfe,also might some day be the subject of Euphemia’s prophecies. Prophecy of Euphemia. It seems that Euphemia, however, no matter how easily she revealed the future of other people, seems to have possessed & strange reticence about Josephine’s fate. And it was not until the beautiful young creole had reached the age of fifteen years that the old “mammy” could be made to speak on this subject. One day, while seated under the shade of a giant mango tree, near the pool where Josephine took her daily bath, guarded by her faithful servant —the visitor to La Pagerie is still shown the gigantic tree and the shaded, pool where these events took place—Euphemia’s eyes took on the far-away look that always preceded her prophecies, and she spoke:

“You will be married to a man of fair complexion, Intended to be the husband of another of your family. The young lady whose place you are called to fill will not live long. Your star promises you two marriages. Your first husband will be a man born in Martinique, but he will reside in Europe and wear a sword; he will enjoy some moments of good fortune. A sad legal proceeding will separate you from him, and, after many great troubles which are to befall the kingdom of the Franks, he will perish tragically and leave you a widow with two helpless children. Your second husband will be of an olive complexion, of European birth; without fortune, yet he will become famous; he will fill the world with his glory, and will subject a great many nations to his power. You will then become an eminent woman and possess a supreme dignity; but many people will forget your kindnesses. After having astonished the world, you will die miserably. The country in which what I foretell will happen forms a part of Celtic Gaul; and more than once, in the midst of your prosperity, you will regret the happy and the peaceful life you led in the colony. At the moment you shall quit it (but not forever) a prodigy will appear in the air—this will be the first harbinger of your astonishing destiny.” It All Came True. How true this prophecy became is, of course, well known. The man of fair complexion whom Josephine first married was the viscount Alexander de Beauharnais, who was first affianced to Maria, the eldest daughter of Monsieur de Tascher. Maria, however, died in Martinique before her marriage took place. Shortly afterwards Josephine married De Beauharnais, after a brief engagement, and sailed for France. De Beauharnais was then in the French army of King Louis XVL For various reasons he instituted legal proceedings against Josephine after a few years of married Hfe. He was guillotined during the French revolution, leaving Josephine a widow with two children. She then met Napoleon Bonaparte, who at the time was but an humble lieutenant of artillery, and subsequently married him. Her rise to eminence at Napoleon’s side and the incidents of her unhappy life with the emperor are but two well known. _ Even the latter part of Euphemia’s prophecy came true, for, when the ship which carried Josephine to France left the harbor of Martinique, the masts of the vessel seemed to be tipped with fire, according to traditions which have been handed down. This, of course, was nothing but an atmospheric phenomenon known as St. Elmo’s fire, but it must have astonished the youthful mind of the futiwe empress of France to see this sigff upon her departure from her native shores. The third Napoleon, son of Hortense de Beauharnais and, in consequence, grandson of Josephine, made some few efforts during his turbulent reign to preserve the memory of the Tascher family. He had a tombstone erected in the church of the' dftiall village of Trols Islets to perpetuate the memory of Madame Tascher, his great-grand-mother. *

REMAINS OF KITCHEN AT PAGERIE