Legion d'Honneur

Gaston Doumergue, President of France and Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honor, was received by General Dubail, Grand Chancellor; General Nollet, Minister of War; Marshals of France Foch and Joffre, in full-dress uniform, U. S. Ambassador Myron T. Herrick, in full evening dress, when he arrived at the Palace of the Legion of Honor on the Quai d'Orsay.

The occasion was the opening of the Order's Museum, recently built beside the Palace. In the course of his opening address, the President referred to the generosity of William Nelson Cromwell, American, who contributed 700,000 of the 2,000,000 francs ($100,000) raised for the new building, and of an unknown American (who persisted in remaining anonymous) who also lavishly contributed.

Premier and Mme. Edouard Herriot were also present, but the former, as he was suffering from a cold, did not speak, but sat huddled in a greatcoat, the collar of which was turned up during the whole ceremony. He, however, remained heroically bareheaded until the conclusion of the President's speech.

The Museum contains such interesting relics as Napoleon's* riding whip, a lock of his hair, the red ribbon of the Order worn by him the day of the Battle of Waterloo; the oriflammed mantle of the Ordre de Saint Esprit (Order of the Holy Ghost) worn by the Kings of France; the chain of the same Order worn by Louis XVI.

An "American Room" was replete with prints, portraits, busts of Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, Pershing, Harbord, William Nelson Cromwell.

*Napoleon I was the founder of the Legion of Honor, 1802.