13th President

In the sumptuous palace of a courtesan (Madame de Pompadour) the 13th President of France was inaugurated on Saturday the 13th last week, swore no oath, placed his finger tips upon no Bible.

Women had no part in the Presidential drama. Mme Doumergue, 12-day bride of the outgoing President, impatiently awaited the bridegroom at her rural estate near Toulouse. Mme Doumer, wife of the incoming President, ate lunch with her husband on the great day--no more.

At 2 p. m. a cavalcade of the Garde Republicaine pranced and clattered up to the Little Luxembourg Palace, in which are the sumptuous apartments of the President of the Senate. Here Mme and M. Paul Doumer have lived for the past four years. Last week, only four days before President-Elect Doumer's inaugural, he resigned as President of the Senate (which elected as its new President Senator Albert Lebrun). As the horses stamped and swished their tails in the courtyard last week, Premier Pierre Laval arrived. He and President-Elect Doumer then motored slowly (so that the Garde Republicaine could keep up) to the Palace of the Elysee.

In this palace have slept Madame de Pompadour, the Emperor Franz Josef, Tsar Alexander I, Queen Victoria and the Sultan Abdul Aziz--though not all at the same time. Here Napoleon Bonaparte signed his second abdication as Emperor of the French. Here since 1873 have slept the twelve Presidents of the French Republic.

Two have died in office: Sadi Carnot and Felix Faure. Six have resigned: Adolphe Thiers (1st President), Marshal MacMahon and Alexandre Millerand under political pressure; Jules Grevy because of scandalous traffic by his son-in-law in Legion of Honor decorations; Jean Casimir-Perier because he was "irked by the restrictions upon the President"; and Paul Deschanel when his health broke down.

Only four of the twelve Presidents have completed their seven-year terms: Emile Loubet, Armand Fallieres, Raymond Poincare and Gaston Doumergue. If the President is a snooper he can have great fun--for a duplicate of every letter, telegram or cablegram received by the French Foreign Office goes by right and custom to the Elysee.

At the Elysee as the Garde Repitblicaine clattered up last week, MM. Doumer and Laval alighted, there waited impatiently Bridegroom Doumergue. He was not going to stay for the whole ceremony, had given fair warning that he would make the next train for Toulouse.

Solemnly Doumer faced Doumergue. In one minute flat the retiring President made his speech of welcome. In one minute flat the new President replied. Both then signed a document which officially transferred the Presidential Mandate. But that was not all.

Portentously the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor, General Yvon Dubail, approached President Doumer bearing the red cordon and Grand Collar of the Legion of Honor, a collar made of 15 gold medallions, 13 of them inscribed with the name of a President of France.

"Monsieur le President," said General Dubail, bestowing the cordon and collar on M. Doumer, "we recognize you as Grand Master of the Legion of Honor."

Man can say no more. Conceived by the Emperor Napoleon, the Legion of Honor is French honor incarnate--and to the Latin honor is all. As a supreme honor to Emperor Napoleon the original Grand Collar reposes in his tomb. The President of France wears only a duplicate. Man can do no more.

"I was Hungry." Off to catch his train dashed Bridegroom Doumergue. Thus he broke the tradition that the retiring President drives with the new President to call formally upon the "Mayor of Paris" (President of the Municipal Council), Count Jean de Castellane at the "City Hall" (Hotel de Ville).

In his fairly long speech at the Hotel de Ville, last week, white-haired, white-bearded President Doumer recalled the fall of Sedan in 1870 and the ensuing siege of Paris.

"I was in Paris then," said M. le President who was born in Auvergne, "and I was hungry. Food during the siege was scarce and dear. I was a boy and I was poor. . . .

"In 1914, as a man already old, I was witness to the courage, gayety and fortitude of Paris under the German bombardment!"

Back to the Elysee drove President Doumer to receive the resignation of Premier Laval and his Cabinet. As custom decrees M. Doumer asked M. Laval to form on the spot a ''new'' Cabinet exactly like the old. He did so. He could then say: "I have been twice Premier of France."

Enter Madame Doumer--as the statesmen depart. This good lady declined last week to move at once into the Elysee. By her actions, not by words, she showed that she thought M. Doumergue during his six years and 117 months of bachelor residence at the Elysee had been about as good a housekeeper as most bachelors are.

The Doumers did not actually move in until the Elysee had been furiously swept, scrubbed, dusted for two days. After this preliminary assault. General Housekeeper Mine Doumer will lead a frontal attack on the old palace by painters, paperers. floor-waxers, basement-scrubbers, waterspout fixers.

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