It is curious comment on women in a democracy that it should be possible to mention them in the same breath with Josephine, Empress of the French.

Napoleon at the beginning of the Empire allowed Josephine $72,000 a year for her toilet; later he made it $90,000.

But there was never a year she did not far outstrip the allowance.

Masson declares that on an average she spent $220,000 a year, and the itemized accounts of the articles in her wardrobe give authority for the amount.
Josephine's case is of course exceptional in history.

She was an untrained woman, generous and pleasure-loving, utterly without a sense of responsibility.