JOSEPH 



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JOSEPHINE 



Settling His Family in Egypt. At first Jacob 

 could not believe that his son Joseph still 

 lived and was a great ruler in Egypt, but when 

 he saw the wagons sent to carry all his family 

 into the new land, he said, "It is enough, 

 Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see 

 him before I die." So all of his children and 

 grandchildren and even great-grandchildren 

 loaded their things into the wagons and jour- 

 neyed to the land of Goshen, where Joseph 

 met them. 



When Joseph told Pharaoh that his people 

 had come, he asked what their occupation was, 

 and as soon as he found that they were shep- 

 herds he told them to settle right where they 

 were, for it was a rich country. So Jacob 

 blessed Pharaoh for his kindness and lived for 

 seventeen years in the new home. Joseph lived 

 to be 110 years old. 



Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, 

 who became the fathers of the half tribes 

 of Israelites that bore their names. This story 

 tells us how the Israelites were led into Egypt 

 where, after Joseph's death, later Pharaohs 

 made them slaves. E.G. 



JOSEPH, the husband of Mary, the mother 

 of Jesus, was a carpenter in Nazareth. Being 

 a descendant of David, he had to go to Beth- 

 lehem for enrollment according to the decree 

 of the Emperor Augustus, so he was there with 

 his wife when Jesus was born. Warned by an 

 angel in a dream that Herod wished to murder 

 the baby, Joseph took his small family to 

 Egypt, but they returned to Nazareth soon 

 after they heard of Herod's death. Once a year 

 he went to Jerusalem with Mary to attend 

 the Feast of the Passover, and when Jesus was 

 twelve years old they took him with them. 

 Little is known concerning Joseph from this 

 time on, although he probably lived until the 

 beginning of Jesus' public ministry. At the 

 time of the Crucifixion Jesus asked John to 

 care for his mother, so Joseph must then have 

 been dead. 



JOSEPHINE, jo'zejeen, MARIE ROSE (1753- 

 1814), wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, and there- 

 fore empress of the French, was one of the 

 most pathetic figures in modern history. When 

 she was seventeen years old she married Vis- 

 count Alexandre Beauharnais. Two children 

 were born to them a son, Eugene, and a 

 daughter, Hortense. . The husband was one of 

 the last victims of the Reign of Terror, and 

 after the fall of Robespierre Alexandre Beau- 

 harnais was led to the guillotine. Eugene, the 

 young son of Josephine, presented himself 



THE EMPRESS 

 JOSEPHINE 



before Bonaparte, then in command in Paris, 

 and begged for his father's sword, which had 

 been taken from him when he was imprisoned. 

 The general gave the boy the sword, when, 

 to his surprise, 

 the boy burst 

 into tears and 

 kissed it. The 

 next day the 

 boy's mother 

 called on Na- 

 poleon to thank 

 him for his kind- 

 ness to her son; 

 Bonaparte fell in 

 love with her im- 

 mediately, pur- 

 sued and courted 

 her persistently 

 and later married 

 her. 



When Bonaparte was made First Consul 

 Josephine was invaluable to him, and later, 

 when the Consulate became the Empire, she 

 conducted herself with tact and grace. Shortly 

 after the marriage of Napoleon and Josephine 

 the former purchased a little estate near Paris, 

 called Malmaison, for his wife, and Josephine 

 spent her happiest days there. When Napo- 

 leon was crowned Emperor, and Josephine's 

 time came to take part in the greatest drama 

 of modern times she descended from the throne 

 and advanced to the altar of the Cathedral 

 where the newly-crowned emperor awaited her. 

 He took the little crown in his hands, placed 

 it on his own head, then on hers, lifting it off 

 once or twice in a playful manner, as if to 

 assure her that she should wear it lightly. 



The question of the succession to the throne 

 became a grave one to Napoleon. He feared 

 that if he died without issue the splendid 

 organization which he had created would be 

 destroyed. He decided to divorce Josephine. 

 After dinner one evening he made his decision 

 known to her, as gently as he could. Jose- 

 phine's little boudoir was the scene of the final 

 chapter of the great tragedy. It was here that 

 the last good-byes were said. The empress 

 begged her husband not to forget her. She 

 promised to follow his wishes in caring for her 

 health, to turn a deaf ear to any gossip con- 

 cerning him, and never to doubt his love. She 

 spent the few remaining years of her life at 

 Malmaison. On March 12, 1810, Napoleon 

 married Marie Louise, daughter of the Emperor 

 of Austria. A year later, when the long-desired 



