Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-28

Around the Palace When the Chamber
Is In Session-Two Salaries.
To Americans, who know that after
the excitement of the presidFnt cleo
ton is over there will be no change of
Importance for four years, these contin-
ual ministerial notifications of the
French cabinet appear strange, and their
effect is prejudicial TO France both as
regards her domestic prosperity and her
international prestige. Under the di-
rectory there were two legislative bodies
the Five Hundred" and the ''Ancients."
After holding their sessions in various
places-more or less eonvenient-it was
decided to give them the Palais Bourbon,
which had been built in 1929, but never
occupied. They took possession of the
building in the year VII of the republic
Q79s). During the preceding year the
necessary improvements had been made
to render it suitable for the use to which
it was then devoted.
From that time, under the different
titles of Palace of the Council of the
Five Hundred, ;" Palace of the Legisla-
tive Corps and Chamber of Deputies"
it has always remained consecrated to
the service of the peoples representa-
tives.
From time to time such improvements
as economy would permit were made,
but it was not until 1907, under Napo-
leon l, that the grand staircase, sur
mounted by the portal facing the Place
de la Concorde, familiar to all visitors
to Paris, was constructed. Then it was
also that the colossal statues of Justice
and Prudence, Sully, Colbert, L'Hopital
and D'Aguesseau were placed where they
now stand. These statues, by the bye,
which look like marble, are in reality
made of stone and covered with coat
ing of white glaze.
Under Napoleon the building was at
first called the Palace of the Legisla-
tive Corps" and the deputies wore bril-
liant uniforms. This caused a writer of
the time to say, ''He gave the deputies
brilliant costume, embroidered with
gold, and at the same time withdrew
their right of free speech
1t was in 1914 that the name was
changed to that the building bears to-
ties" or, as it is more generally called
now, Chamber of Deputies" But if
the legislators of the year of grace 1898
do not wear gold embroidered uniforms
there still remains in their ceremonies a
good deal of the pomp and ceremony
which usually appertain to monarchies.
The president of the chamber lives in
a mansion on the Quai d'Orsay, the
grounds of which join these surrounding
the chamber of deputies. Before the
opening Of each sitting he is escorted
through the long Sale des Pas Perdus
preserved for the use of members of par
lament and journalists by a detach-
ment of infantry in command of a cap
tain. The drums beat. and the process
sion is preceded by gorgeously attired
usher, who announces, Monsieur le
President"
Thus escorted, the president mounts
his seat, high above the tribune from
which the members speak, and immedi-
ately there is a noise of members scram-
bling to their seats, like schoolboys afraid
of being marked late This part of the
proceedings is about as undignihed as the
entrance Of the president is imposing.
After tapping his desk with large paper
knife, or In case of much noise ringing
a brass bell, the president declares the
sitting open, and a relative silence is es-
tablished for a moment. The formal
business of reading the minutes of the
last sitting is gone through, and then the
discussion upon the question of the day
begins. When unimportant, everybody
who is not engaged in letter writing
talks. When the question before the
house is of interest, silence is maintained
until somebody sets the example of inter
rupting or perhaps insulting the speaker.
Then the scene is one which has often
been described by clever writers and art
lists, but which must be seen to be ap-
preciated. The ushers inside the cham
Der, who wear evening dress, white ties
and swords, have frequently to come be-
tween excited deputies, who, but for their
Intervention, would often come to blows
These ushers form in reality the most
conservative part of the assembly, for
they, with few exceptions, grow old in
the service. They are almost as familiar
with the rules of the house as the presi-
dent himself, and they regard newly
elected members very much as an usher
in public school regards a new boy.
They know that every deputy drinks
while speaking, and one of them is espe-
cially told off to order from the buffet
the particular beverage with which a
speaker is wont to moisten his parched
lips during heated debate.
1t is upon these occasions that the
French chamber treats the world to
some of those surprises (which no fellow
can understand" What is called In
France lie petit jeu des combinations is
played, and often government major
ity of today is turned into minority to-
morrow.
The fact is, that the majority of the
deputies are men who would be loath to