The President Tottered

Down the rue de Faubourg Saint-Honore swarmed a cheering mob of ragged Parisian children. As les enfants hurried past the famed emporiums of oriental pearls, certified antiques and exorbitantly priced Russian knickknacks which line that haughty thoroughfare, shop-keepers looked out and prayed to le bon Dieu that He would spare their windows the contamination of too many noses.

Arrived opposite the forbidding stone gateway of No. 55, the 200 ragamuffins sobered to an expectant hush. The Palais before them once served the exquisite Pompadour as a jeweled setting for dalliance. It provided the doughty Citizen Marat with the four walls and roof necessary even to revolutionaries. There the first and third Napoleons reigned for an hour amid the gaudy trappings of essentially bourgeois kings.

The outer portals of l'Elysee swung open, revealing the official residence of M. le President Dou-mergue. With all the cordiality at his command, M. Doumergue made the little children (his guests) wel- come.

Incredible orgies ensued amid mountains of cakes and bonbons. Later a Punch and July show created a diversion while further supplies of food were hurriedly requisitioned. As night fell, M. le President tottered to his rest. The children, questioned by correspondents, opined that he had given them a royal holiday.