"The heritage of honor and integrity that he had handed down while in his affluence, was never squandered nor dissipated, and so he bore the respect and goodwill of the best of his people to the end. The jokes played upon him had been harmless, and the merriment that he sometimes excited had been without the bitter venom of ridicule. If sincere, his was a career of long heroic sacrifice; if an imposter, he must be ranked as one of the most extraordinary of that class who has yet lived. He left no successor. The emoluments of an unattractive throne and an empty royalty were not alluring; there was none strong enough to follow him; and finally the world was entering upon an epoch of materialism in which there is no provision for such a monarch. From that strange stage through the doors of oblivion, thus passes forever Norton I, Emperor of the United States, and Protector of Mexico. L'Empereur est mort."
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Norton I : Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico (Joshua A. Norton, 1819-1880) (1923) by Ernest Cowan
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton
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Emperor Norton
Joshua Abraham Norton (also known as Emperor Norton) (4 February 1818 – 8 January 1880) was an eccentric resident of San Francisco who proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States.
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