The French papers announce the death of Jacko, the famous parrot of the War Offica in Paris. Jacko was first brought into the office in IS3O by Marshall Sonlt, and he remained for forty years at his post, uuaffecte.l by revolutions or party conflicts. After a time he became to be looked upon as an ir> dispensille appange of the War department, and when there was> a cabinet crisis peoplo used to ask who was to get, not the Wsr Office por'.'olio, but the War Office parrot. Thouij); he served under eighteen Ministers, he always remained consis rat to tho principles which were instilled into him when he first entered office. Both under the Republic and Second Empire he remained a stanch Royalist, and there were few members of his party who spoke their minds with so much frankness. One day his repeated cries of " Vive le Roi !" so anaoyed Marshall St. Arnaud when he was War Minister that ! he ordered the indiscreet bird to be turned out. Jatko had a friend, however, in the porter, who took him into his lodge and taught him to add "de St. Aruaud rto his usual cry. Tlie bird was tliea put back into his room, and as the Marshal was passing, sereaived out, " Vive le Roi de St. Arnand .'" " A la bonne bem-e," said the Minister, and Jacko was at once retaken into favor. Of late years the clerks tried to teach him "Vive i'Fmpereur!" bit he never could bring out tho entire sentence without tremendous efforts. He got on very well as far as " Vive l'Empe — - ." but at this point he seomeu to choke, his feathers stood on end, and his eyes rol-'o I with an ah anxious expression as if he felt his conscience reproaching him. At last, after several minutes' intense struggling, he would jerk out the last syllable "reur' iv a hoarse, sepulchral tone. Fe died immediately after the Duchess of Berry, and on the anniversary of the death of Napoleon 1., three days before the plebiacitum.| ■ ' ■■-■-■
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Bibliographic details
Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 721, 1 September 1870, Page 2
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339Untitled Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 721, 1 September 1870, Page 2
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