Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1886-09-16
SOCIETY IN FRANCE.
HOW THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
OF FRANCE ARE HOUSED. p

HOW THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
OF FRANCE ARE HOUSED.
Theodore stanton Tells About the Palaces
Inherited by the Republic From the
Monarchy and Empire-The Etiquette
That Prevails in Ofiicial Circles.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Aug. 23.-The French presi-
dent, the French cabinet ministers and the
other high state officials, such as the presi-
dents of the senate and chamber OF deputies,
the prefect or governor of the department of
the Seine, in which Paris is situated, and the
director of the Bank of France, are SO well
housed that they can entertain in a way be-
fitting their public station, no matter what
their private fortune may be.
In Washington a member of the cabinet
often lives in hotel or in some house whose
rooms are SO small that he would find trouble
in accommodating a whist party, not to speak
of the multitude that always responds to a
public reception. About the same thing is
true of the official world of London. But in
Paris the situation is quite different. The re-
| public has inherited from the monarchy and
empire large number of palaces, some of
which were constructed centuries ago to be
the residence of princes Of the blood, while
others are of recent origin, and were built for
this or that ministerial department. Thus,
the Elysee, where President Grevy lives, dates
from IT'S, and has had as master or mistress
Murat, Mime. de Pompadour, the great
Napoleon, who retired here after Waterloo,
and here signed his abdication; Wellington,
| low I 1 oY1ic
Napoleon, when president, resided in the
Elysee, and it was in this same palace that he
planned and executed the coup Petat that
made him emperor. The president of the
chamber is lodged in a wing of the Palais
Bourbon, and the home of the Prince de
Condo; while the Petit Luxembourg, the resi-
dence of the president of the senate, has
sheltered Louis XVIII, Napoleon and his
brother Joseph.
When Gambetta became president of the
council few years ago he created two or
three new portfolios, and forthwith the gov
ernment provided the titularies with suitable
official homes. For example, the minister of
commerce was installed in the former embassy
of Spain Oh the quay facing the Tuilleries,
and thus it happens that NJ. Lockroy, the
present minister of commerce and a member
of the Victor Hugo family, a plain man Of
advanced democratic principles, is living in a
mansion elegant enough for prince.
But the high officials of the French Repub-
lie are not simply provided with a roof and
four walls. The same generous state fur
nishes the houses in the completest fashion
Carpets, curtains, chaigs, pictures, dishes,
kitchen utensils, liveried servants, bed linen,
everything, i'll short, except what the minis
ter wears and eats, is given him. When he is
offered portfolio he has simply to pack his
trunk, call q cab and drive to the palace Of
which he is henceforth the master, and when
the ministry Of which be is member falls he
has only to pack the same trunk, take another
cab and return to his old quarters. In each
ministerial department there is u special bu-
reau charged with the business of looking
after the material wants of the minister, buy
ing carpets when necessary, mending weak
backed chairs, d;scharging on hiring servants,
etc. 1t has been said, and perhaps with some
truth, that one of the causes of the frequent
change of ministries in France is the ease
with which minister can take up and lay
down the household part of his office.
Besides giving them u furnished house, the
state also provides a decent salary for its
ministers. Under the empire they used to
get 100000 francs. To-day the sum is re-
duced to 10000. But this is a large salary
when you take into account the above men,
toned perquisites. President Iirevy receives
in all ,200, 900 francs. No wonder then, that
there is no end to social festivities, and that
a man who is poor out Of Office can give en-
tertainments when in office that only million
aires would undertake in private life. For
instance, NJ. Goblet, minister of public in
struction, invited several thousand people
last season to a musical and dramatic enter
tainment where the leading singers and actors
of the capital held forth, and where the re-
freshments were offered on the most elaborate
and bounteous scale. / have seen balls at the
foreign office where they give you at supper
whole bottles of champagne, which you set
on your table and use as you might at your
own house or in restaurant. At the Elysee
balls the buffets are besieged from 10 o'clock
until daylight, and an appreciable hole must
be made in NJ. Grevy's salary, large though
it be-
The etiquette that prevails in French Official
circles is in many particulars very simple,
though little more rigorous than that of
Washington. A lady may 60 to public re-
ceptiOns in any kind of dress, but gentleman
will not be admitted if he has not donned a
''swallow-tail" and a white neck tie. Some
bucks had the doors of the Elysee shut in their
face year or SO ago. because they wore pink
neckties, for some reason or other.
An English female esthete Of the Oscar
Wilde school, created no little sensation last |
winter at one of NJ. Grevy's receptions, but |
the ushers never dreamed of stopping her at |
the entrance door, because she was not in low |
neck and had discarded the regulation bustle |
But let amy man thus venture to disregard |
the behests of the tyrant Fashion, and he will |
never be able to shake hands with the president
of the French republic. The advocates Of
wOmans rights should make a note Of this
concession i'll favor of the fair sex.
In order To go to an official ball or musical
and dramatic entertainment ticket Of inyi-
tation is necessary, and it is often very hard
to get one, unle you are on good terms
with the American legation, or have friends
in the chamber or senate. There was such
demand for tickets to M. Goblet's entertain-
melt, which has already been mentioned, that
the rather small pariors of the minister's
house were so full that nine-tenths of the
guests could neither hear nor see anything. At
M. Grevy's balls you are packed as tight as in
an elevated railroad car when the surface
roads are on strike.
NJ. Floquet, president of the chamber Of
deputies, IS an advanced democrat. So
when he was chosen by his colleagues to the
high office which he fills with signal ability,
he decided to give more popular tone to
official society. Consequently, he announced
through the public prints that there would