The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-16

vi aPPCllc - ltI1 DT6SluSnI. Cd,
lie vieux farceur!': Call that a presi-
dent, that old jol<ar!" 1t was not very
terrible after all, this vinous outburst
only a lingering echo of the old re-
proach of M. Loupet's excessive sim
picity and Vonhomie; and l learned
from the indignant police officer that
the assembled mixers promptly
avenged the insult on the sportsman of
Rambouillet by llinging the critic out
at the door.
On His Good Behavior at Marty.
The offending youth would be happy
probably, if fate had cast his lot at
Marty. Here he would not be shocked
by the sight of a President shooting in
an old blue coat At Marty poor M.
Loubet has to be on his good behavior
and play part
For it is in these classic, kingly
woods that take place the state shoot
ing parties which are de rigueur in
this curiously hide bound democracy.
Just as the President must never APP
pear on the streets of Paris except in
quasi royal state, so he is strictly
bound to hold at fixed in
tervals solemn official battues
which the official world attends
by right and not by invitation. There
is the shooting party for the Senate,
the shooting party for the ministers,
the shooting party for the deputies
and / know not how many others.
These are state functions, controlled
by rigorous etiquette, arranged by a
protocol as rigid as that which at
tends the reception of a. reigning SOW
ereign. The guests are formed into a
long firing line with the President in
the center, every gun" occupies. rel
atively to the President, the exact
spot to which his Office or his rank en-
titles him. The Commandant Lamy,
who fills the ancient court office of
Grand Veneur (High Hunting Master)
is there to see that the precedent is
observed precisely; jokers say he
would commit suicide on the spot If a
simple deputy for example, got one
place nearer to the President than a
deputy that had been minister.
Behind the firing line is the serving
line, to every guest gilly with a sec
ond gun. The double long winged file
advance in rigid order in an immense
cleared space in front of the coverts.
a bugle blast is blown, the heaters send
the game flying to their death; the
President fires first: in one second all
the guns join in. and then 1t is every
man blaze away as hard as he can,
snatching fresh filled gun from the
man behind after each shot.
FrigbtfuI Slaughter of Birds.
The havoc is frightful. The birds
fall in hecatombs. They are put into a
common bag" and divided up after
wards-so many to the President, so
many to the guests, according to their
rank, so many to various local OFF,
Gals CMayors, Sub-prefects and so
forth), the rest to various hospitals
and benevolent institutions depending
the q aU
big bag for the hospital of Montelimar
1t is said, apropos. that the President
had quite a squabble with Command
ant Lamy over this last bag
Montelimar had no existence on
the ancient protocolian map;
but M, Loubet held firm and the
sick of his native village eat
of the state game in season. 1t was a
kind of a revolution.
ut is magnificent but Il is not
sport" one may suppose that M. Lou
bet says to himself. for it is known
that he dislikes the whole business
unlike President Faure who beamed
with joy on these occasions and show
ed plainly that he felt himself, when
center of the Marty firing line,
worthy successor of the long line of
Kings of France who had shot thus in
state before him.
for his dislike of these solemn massa-
ores even apart from the stiff cere-
mony which attends them. The birds
are practically tame; a host of keepers
tend them all the year round: thew
are protected from the severity of the
winter; they are fed on ants eggs to
make them the more worthy and the
fatter for the glorious death that
awaits them. The peasant soul within
the Prncidanf raunIfe OF arss
cratic refinement of cruelty; he would
rather take his chance shot at a chance
bird in good fighting, or flying condi-
ton.
He is very fine marksman, by the
way, rarely missing He keeps his eye
in very carefully, and when he is out
walking in the country without a rifle,
one may see him suddenly raise his
stick to his left shoulder-he is left
handed shot by way-and gravely
cover" his aim. think | would have
had him. hein!" he will say to his
companion.
This they say is almost the only sort
Of remark he is likely to make when
he is indulging in one of those brisk
sturdy-stepping country walks of his.
At home he talks freely, boisterously
even, according to general rumor, but
out of doors he seems to resume the
taciturnity of the peasants. He likes,
however, to be talked to as he trudges
along and is supposed for this reason
to take especial pleasure in the COM
pany of Col. de Lastours, commander
of the garrison of Rambouillet, who is
one of the liveliest conversationalists
q man would hear in a lifetime.
He is very thick" also with NJ
Gautherin' the Mayor of Rambouillet
a lawyer OF the old school. VINO is
often invited to dine sans ceremonie
at the chateau and whose dry Eigh-