The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-07-03
GREAT MEN OF .
 FRANCE ARE PLAIN Come From Ranks of People
 and Are Proud of It YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS
Pontifical Zouaves Are Timing ir France-OnIy About 200 Answered Roll Call at a Very Recent
 Muster In Paris

hour In FTance are all men or simple habits. The quiet, unassuring democracy of President Fallieres is perhaps his most noteworthy characteristic; M. Briant, the premier who may succeed Fallieres, is also man of the people and is not ashamed of it. M. Brisson, who has been elected president of the chamber of deputies, is a worthy conferre of Failliers and Briand
 He measures up to former President Roosevelt's ideal citizen of a republic. If he has no children, he and his good and accomplished late wife adopted three orphans, whom they brought up as if they were their own. They belonged to a close friend, M. Albert Joly, an advo- cate who rendered noble services to the cause they had at heart under the em- pire during the moral order regime.
 M. Brisson takes life and his duties as a public man too seriously not to look a little solemn.
 Yet he can be witty and even humorous and is man of the finest culture Ne has never attempted to climb the beaten PdtHo 0A diidoouS. 4NOiio tHo ACoS hS might have some on them, for he is a poet of rare finish and delicacy. He never took up residence in his wifes time in the Petit Bourbon. They gave their official dinners, concerts and receptions, but continued to have their home among his electors in the unfashionable neigh borhood of the chateau d'Eau. More than ever he prefers the home where he lived with her in close community of sentiment and intellectual pursuits and of parentage of the orphans of the dear, cherished friend, whom they adopted. His private fortune, without being large,
 is sufficient. to secure independence. The great part of his salaries as deputy and president goes in works of republican and Masonic fraternity, for he is a devoted free Mason. All his influence, tact and experience will be needed in presiding over this chamber. It contains far more young members than any previous one.
 It is by the way a somewhat peculiar development of French political life that an unusual number of quite young men are taking an active interest In politics.
 cynic suggests that the perquisites of a seat in the chamber may account for this part at least
 seat in the chamber now brings salary of 16000 francs a year, a first-class ticket through four years on all the rail- ways of France and Algeria, patronage in all directions, the freedom of stalls and balconies of all of the subsidized the- atres and access to the wings
 Think of the field of operations which this gives to theatrical sirens and the susceptibility of a young. provincial to their wiles! A hardened Boulevardier slips through their hands. They can do what they please with member green in years and in want of knowledge of la vie Pariesienne. At the last elections the young candidates seemed ravenously alive to the good things membership of the chamber offers. They elbowed out with spirit the bald-pates and the gr,ybeards
 The Pontifical Zouaves are thinning they were about 20O0 50 years ago when they fought for the Pope. But recently at the muster in Paris only about 200 an- swered the roll call. The celebration be- gan by parade outside the Sacre Occur the great basilica that dominates all Paris, and the flat Seine valley from the northern point, the one hill of the city the Mount of Martyrs. The veterans, gray or white all of them, but straight backed still, as fighting men. should be, were reviewed by their own chief, Gen. eral de Charette, who gave them all the touching French accolade and the greet. ing of an old brother in arms. After the review, high mass, with an oration by M. de Cabrieres, Bishop of Montpelier who made the interesting reflection that most of the volunteers in the papal ser vice were Of noble blood, so that an Ital- ian general into whose hands a good batch of them had fallen by the luck of war said the roll of his captves read like a guest list from the Court of Louis XIV. The De Profundis'' was sung for the dead of the legion, and then the vet erans drove off to the social celebration under the presidency of their chief.
 The winding-up of the estate of the widow of a former French consul gen. eral at Jerusalem, an old lady who died two years ago, leaving property valued at $500, 600. will be no easy matter. The de- ceased seems to have been necessarily oc- cupied in making wills and adding codi- cils. The last codicil discovered, which Is dated August 16s 1907. confirms the two. last testaments," revoking all others. But the lady drew up In all, 15 wills Nine of the number are plainly revoked by the above codicil, but six others all bear the same date, May g. 1904. Two of these ap- pear to be the Hast testaments' referred to in the codicil, as no later wills have so far been found. But which two of the six are the latest? The lady evidently wrote them at different hours of the same day, but there is no indication in any of them of the precise moment The point Is an important one, as by three of the six wills but not by tho others, female relative of the deceased inherits large sums, which the universal legatee may or may not have to pay.
 The courts are now engaged in an at-