BETWEEN US

In the art of preserving historical monuments, there are two methods: one that consists of making only the necessary repairs so that the old stones of our castles or churches remain, as they were bequeathed to us by the past. This is the method accepted today by all our artists. The other, very much in favor abroad and especially in Germany, consists of rebuilding, in the taste of the time, all the parts that time has destroyed, so that the monuments appear to our eyes as they were formerly or as they should have been.

Now, supported, it is said, by the offers of rich Americans, an unusual proposal has just been made. It would simply be a question of finishing the two towers of Notre-Dame de Paris.

This church was begun in 1163 on the site of several small churches themselves built on the ruins of ancient pagan temples: Saint-Etienne, Saint-Jean-le-Rond, Sainte-Marie. In 1206, during the great flood of the Seine, the porch was finished, the first balustrade completed, and the towers began to be built.

Let us note in passing the name of the architect to whom the direction of the works is attributed. It is a man named Pierre de Montreuil and not de Montereau as has often been printed. He was originally from the hamlet of Petit-Montreuil-lès-Vincennes. In addition to Notre-Dame, we owe him the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle and the basilica of Saint-Denis.

In the 13th century, Notre-Dame was completely finished, but the two towers, raised to the third platform, had to be completed by two tall pointed spires 125 meters high. But we stopped there. For what reasons? It is difficult to say now. Perhaps for lack of audacity, perhaps more simply for lack of money. In any case, the fact is undeniable, the two towers are not finished and, for six hundred years, no one has dared to undertake this work neglected by our ancestors.

Alone, around 1850, Viollet-le-Duc, who restored the cathedral and built the delightful spire of the transept, established a project for completion which was not carried out, but the plans of which remain to us. These are the plans that we are being asked to resume today. Rest assured! they will not be followed up, despite all the American generosity. Everyone is of the opinion that the work of the past should be respected and maintained as it is.

Turkey

Turkey is modernizing more and more every day. After many other important reforms, the National Assembly of Angora has just issued a vote banning polygamy. It is enough to surprise our Western ideas for whom every Turk, to be a true Turk, must have several wives. But, contrary to what we believe, the Koran has never made polygamy an obligation. It simply authorized it at a time when the Muslim religion, as Mohammed conceived it, was a religion of conquest. It was nothing less than subjugating the entire earth. Now to conquer, one must wage war. To wage war, one needs men. To have men, one needs women who give birth to them. It was therefore with a view to intense repopulation that the Koran authorized multiple marriages. But today's Turkey has given up its crazy ambitions of the past. It has no other goal than to become a civilized nation, in all respects similar to modern civilizations. Quite naturally, she now adopts monogamy as the only one capable of ensuring the dignity and peace of the family home.

The death of harems! Only dreamers enchanted by the more or less true stories of novelists will regret them. Turkish women, now that they receive the same education as their sisters in the West, will be the first to rejoice.

THE INDISCREET.