The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-03-07
THE NEW PRESIDENT OF FRANCE.
A True Civilian-A Man Who Wears No
Orders or Official Dress.
ILondon News.l

In the midst of the recent crisis
which led to Marshal NIacNahon's
resignation, Mr.. John Lemoinne wrote
in the Debats about the Inconvenience
Of military Presidents. The Marshal
is said to have picked up one of his
sentences, and to have remarked on
retiring, I" II you want President in q
black coat, try one." M. Grevy is a
President who has never worn any
other costume but the robes of the nd.
vocate and the modest black coat which
modern civilization is alleged to have
borrowed from the Quakers. He has
not even sported the epaulets of a ma
tional guardsman, though how he came
to be exempt from this obligation
during his eighteen years. residence in
Paris under Louis PhiIlfppe's reign, is
more than can say. When acting as
commissaire or perfect of the Republic
Of 1948 in the Jura, he would have been
entitled to don an embroidered coat
and plumed hat; but he modestly con-
fined himself to tricolor sash girt
around the waist. AS President of the
National Assembly, and afterwarl of
discharged his functions in evening
dress, including the white tie. He is
not decorated. at present, by virtue
of his Office as chief of the State, he be-
comes Grand Master Of the Legion of
Honor, and must consequently wear
the star and broad red ribbon of a
Grand Cross; but hitherto that little
slip of scarlet ribbon which graces the
buttons of so many Frenchmen has not
adorned his. Nay, NJ. Grevy was
among the members OF the Constitu-
tante who voted for the abolition of
the Legion of Honor, and more recent
-. - e., Ill -
ed members of the Legislature from
accepting decorations from the govern
ment. Perhaps it would have been
better to adopt the Belgian system, and
to decree that member of Parliament
who accepted the red ribbon should
simply vacate his seat until his consti-
tuents had reelected him for the
present law has prevented M. Bardoux
from comforting the grand cross on Vic
tor Hugo, as he desired to do. M.
! Grevy is not only the enemy of tinsel
ON mems coats: he is a man of republi-
can simplicity in all his ways. In his
everyday attire, even in Paris, he is
always donned q wide-awake instead Of
q silk hat; and in summer time he
may generally be seen sauntering about
the Boulevards clad in gray, and
crowned with a panama. Though a
man of considerable landed property,
as estates go in France, he never set up
q brougham till he became President of
the Chamber, and he has always kept
this modest one-horse vehicle-with a
coachman out of livery-at Versailles,
In Paris he uses cabs and ornnibuses,
but it must be a very muddy day
which compels him to ride at all. The
state which hedges president will
probably seem irksome to him, and one
may expect to see him cut much of it
down. Marshal MacMahon put all the
servants of his palaces in the the gray
and scarlet Hveries of his household.
M. Grevy, whose domestics have never
worn livery, will, no doubt, clothe his
establishment in plain black suits, q
l'Aaae1icai,ae. He will now have two
official residences-one at Versailles,
located in the ex-Prefecture, and the
other the magnificent EIysee, in Paris.
He will also have the run, for the pur-
pose of sport, or Pleasurable sojourn, of
all the old royal and imperial chateaux,
Fontainebleau, Compeigne, Pierre
fonds. His salary will be s24 900, with
an addition of e2000 table money, and
$4,000 for Office expenses.
M. Jules Grevy is not the first civil
ian chief of the State whom the French
have had, but he will be the first who
will have eschewed official attire.
Robespierre contrived special costume
for himself, and shone gorgeously in a
hat bristling with tricolored ostrich
plumes. Under the Directorate, Bar
ras and his colleagues dressed in fancy
costume much resembling the fashion
of Henry w, their trunk hose and
embroidered scarlet mantles being par
ticularly noteworthy. Cambaceres and
Lebrun, Benaparte's civilian colleagues
in the Consulate, sported coats of red
velvet, and when Prince Louis Napo-
leon was elected President of the re-
public, in 1s4s, he Immediately usurped
the uniform of general of division,
though there was constitutional pro.
hibition against his doing so. An
amusing story is told how M. Theirs
argued in vain with the President that
he should shave off his mustache, and
it is said that he told him petulantly
that a " pekin " in Generals uniform
would look Ridiculous. But Louis Ma.
Poleon answered that, as commander
in-chief of the army and navy, hi
might do as he pleased, and SO, for that
matter yniohf NJ Grox,x, non, II.