In 1853, Joshua Norton is a successful commodities trader in San Francisco. His latest financial coup is having purchased a shipload of rice from Peru. Unfortunately, more shiploads of rice arrive and the price drops dramatically. He is ruined. Now destitute, he bemoans the state of affairs in the country and declares that there should be an emperor for a country the size of the United States. Epiphany! Dressed in outlandish finery, he arrives at a local newspaper and requests that his proclamation of being emperor be published. The paper does exactly that, tongue in cheek. However, the city of San Francisco embraces Emperor Norton I. Soon, Norton has an entourage of 2 dogs, Lazarus and Bummer. He has regular proclamations published but none are obeyed. However, he does drive George Washington II, a man who claimed to be the reincarnation of the first president, to leave San Francisco. When Norton I died in 1880, his funeral was attended by thousands.
Ludicrous as this sounds, it is all true. Born in England in 1818, Norton grew up in South Africa before migrating to the United States in 1845. He arrived in San Francisco in 1849 and was quite successful for several years before his rice disaster. The Presidio provided uniforms, local businesses accepted his scrip as money, and the local police saluted him on the streets. Lazarus and Bummer were stray dogs who were often associated with Norton I on account of political cartoons by Edward Jump. Frederick Coombs, another Englishman, bore a striking resemblance to George Washington and declared himself the reincarnation. Norton issued a proclamation to have GW II sent to an asylum; GW II departed San Francisco, but resumed his claims on the east coast.
Emperor Norton was an inspiration for one of the characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain; Twain had lived in San Francisco during part of Norton I's reign.
Entertaining and educational.
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