Ladies and Gentleman, may I present the EMPEROR of the USA!

 Preeeeee--senting!  

The one!  The only!  The true and beloved Emperor Joshua Abraham Norton!

No, seriously.



Who is this guy?  Joshua Norton was born in England, educated in south Africa, and immigrated to San Francisco.  He was ungodly rich.  A brilliant investor.  Until he tried to corner the rice market right before a price collapse and was reduced to penury.

Nine years later, in 1859, after people had largely forgotten him, he re-emerged with the following notice in a San Francisco paper:

At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.

— NORTON I., Emperor of the United States.

Wotta flake, right?  Well, yes and no.  He became a local tourist attraction.  He was, in his way, respected.  He was a character in a town that yearned for one.  He had a uniform, lots of attention and became a beacon of sorts.  People came to the city so they could brag that they'd met him.  And local merchants profited from figurines and pictures.  When he died, it was said that 10,000 people honored his funeral procession.

Years after Norton's passing, Mark Twain wrote this to a friend:

O, it was always a painful thing to me to see the Emperor (Norton I., of San Francisco) begging; for although nobody else believed he was an Emperor, he believed it....

What an odd thing it is, that neither Frank Soulé, nor Charlie Warren Stoddard, nor I, nor Bret Harte the Immortal Bilk, nor any other professionally literary person of S.F., has ever "written up" the Emperor Norton. Nobody has ever written him up who was able to see any but his grotesque side; but I think that with all his dirt & unsavoriness there was a pathetic side to him. Anybody who said so in print would be laughed at in S.F., doubtless, but no matter, I have seen the Emperor when his dignity was wounded; and when he was both hurt & indignant at the dishonoring of an imperial draft; & when he was full of trouble & bodings, on account of the presence of the Russian fleet, he connecting it with his refusal to ally himself with the Romanoffs by marriage, & believing these ships were come to take advantage of his entanglements with Peru & Bolivia; I have seen him in all his various moods & tenses, & there was always more room for pity than laughter.  


We have some San Francisco folks here on Snowy's page, so they'll be familiar with this fellow.  But most Americans have never heard of him.  

Is he new to you?  Have you any favorite flakes to honor?  Let's hear!

          AlextheKay doffs a cap to Norton's memory          




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