Youth
Bonnot was born on October 14, 1876 in Pont-de-Roide, a town in Doubs, France (the same département in which anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was born). At the age of five, his mother died, leaving Bonnot in the care of his father (a factory worker) and grandmother.
As a teenager, Bonnot served time in prison on two occasions (the latter, for assaulting a police officer) and was compelled to leave his work at the factory after being accused of stealing copper shavings.
At the age of 21, Bonnot was conscripted for service in France's infantry, where he served three years as a truck auto mechanic. He was an excellent rifleman and left the army as a corporal first class.
Read more about this topic: Jules Bonnot
Famous quotes containing the word youth:
“I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If youth but knew; if age but could.”
—Henri Estienne (1531–1598)
“Do not think the youth has no force, because he cannot speak to you and me. Hark! in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)