Evening star., 1895-08-31
FRENCH LEGION OF HONOR.
some OF the People Who Wear It's
Ribbons and Medals,

Some of the People Who Wear lis
Ribbons and Medals.
Paris Cor. of the New York Post
Before the revolution the monarchy had
three orders of knighthood with which to
reward merit. That Of the Holy Ghost was
exclusively for the nobility; that Of st.
Louis was for the officers of the army, and
that OF st. Michael for the bourgeoise,
among which were counted all lawyers,
physicians, artists and financiers. No
mere writers ever received a decoration. All
these class distinctions We're leveled by the
first republic, which substituted in their
place the Arms of Honor. 1t was the time
when every Frenchman might be called to
serve IN the war which the republic was
waging against the rest of Europe With
the coming of Bonaparte. the new idea was
nr ally organized according to his own plan
OF making France a nation of soldiers He
professedly Instituted the teachings of the
one national university after such a man
ner that the young students should feel no
shock from passing from the discipline of
the college to the drill of the barracks The
Legion of Honor was to keep alive the fell
lowship Of citizens and soldiers. "The Le-
gion OF Honor" he said, 'is the type Of
equality. 1t is to be the reward of civil
virtues as well as of military services Sol
diers who can neither read nor write will
be proud to wear the same decorations as
illustrious men OF science; and the latter
~
recompense Of their labors because 1t will
be the same as the reward of bravery.
lafayette, whose mind was a curious mix
ture of the old and the new, refused to be
made grand officer Of the new order ut
is ridiculous" he said.
Napoleon, however, had teen right in his
estimate of the French love Of exterior dis
tinctions. At the end of the empire ne had
given 25.000 decorations Of the Legion Of
Honor to the army, and only 1.4OO to
civil life. Not one professor Of the uni-
versity In Paris had been decorated. and
only seven counselors of the imperial courts
of justice. No writer had been admitted
unless he was already one Of the forty
members of the French Academy. All this
was in accordance with the relative import
ance of the military element in the society
Of the day. The Bourbons on their return
re-established the old exclusive orders and
deliberately cheapened the Legion of Honor
by throwing its ribbons and crosses every
where. King Louis Philippe in his turn.
suppressed the old orders; but, under pre-
text that all able-bodied Frenchmen had
now some rank in the national guard, he
managed to decorate with the Legion all
the notable shopkeepers and business men
of Paris. This was the triumph of the
hourgeoise. of whom the pear-aninded mon
arch boosted he was the king. Napoleon
III, equally mindful of his own needs cre-
ated a military medal for the glorification
of the soldiers he wished to honor, and
used the Legion to build up the parvenue
ariStocracy of his empire.
After the fall of the empire, in the heat
of the struggle against the Germans par
lament decreed that the Legion of Honor
should be limited to the army. But the
advent of peace and a settled republic soon
changed all this. In fact, the ministers
seem never to have enough decorations for
their favorftes at homs end the admirers
Of France abroad. They have extended
the academic palms'-another ribbon dec
oration-beyond the university pale to law
yers who nave written pamphlet and la
dies who keep a private insane asylum.
Miss Betham Edw ards, who has extolled
the present national education in her de-
scriptions Of province after province, is one
of these officers" There is the Order Of
Agricultural Merit, which was lately be-
slowed on a captain of zouaves. Then there
are any number of new medals and badges,
colonial or otherwise commemorative. A
first effect of these subordinate decorations
has been to make the Legion of Honor
aristocratfc once again. though in a repub-
lican sense. 1t is especially useful for the
universal expositions. Napoleon. when ere
ating 1t, said: This institution puts princes
and drummers on an equality" This Is
still true, says Henry Houssaye, for ''all
the world nowadays has the Legion Of
Honor, except drummers-and princes"