IN MY OPINION

A friend pointed out to me the day before yesterday, in Versailles, with some disrespect but not without plausibility, that things were happening here much like the Ceremony of the "Imaginary Invalid"...

You know the rites of this Ceremony, at the Comédie-Française or at the Odéon, and that it is above all a pretext, for the public, to see each of the artists of the house parade one by one on the stage, and to welcome according to their preferences, each of the artists of the house.

We have also seen the principal actors of the Luxembourg and the Palais-Bourbon, at this gala performance given in honour of the future President of the Republic, appear one after the other, the great leading roles, the utilities and the "failures", go up to the tribune to deposit their ballot paper, - it is the Juro!... of the "Ceremony" -, then come down after provoking cheers, and boos, or more simply and most often in the midst of general indifference...

Was not the most significant example that of Mr. Chéron? Mr. Chéron obtained, by unanimous opinion, the greatest success of the day. Now, without wishing to diminish in any way his personal value, it seems that at first sight he deserved "neither this excess of honour, nor this indignity"... But here it is: Mr. Chéron is popular, he is a "roundness", he acts on the public, that is not debatable, it is a fact. And I know many, among the parliamentarians, who are perhaps superior to him, in spirit if not in beard and corpulence, and who, during the parade, did not produce the slightest little effect, the "tap"...
It was not for want of wishing it, however, because they lingered near the ballot box, they shook the hands of the scrutineers for a long time... Ah! a little boo of nothing at all, a "various movement", a whistle: anything, rather than this silence... Happy Chéron!...

All this, alas! is theater, and it is not even very good theater... And when you think that the play that is being performed is the Happiness of France!...

Franc-Nohain.