BETWEEN US

The day after the elections, statistics were published giving the composition of the new Chamber from the point of view of political opinions. This is the point of view that usually interests voters the most the day after the major national consultation. But there is another way to distribute our representatives. It is to classify them by profession.

Here is what the Chamber of Deputies taking office on June 1 will include: 143 lawyers (it is a tradition that they are always the most numerous, eloquence being the first quality required of a representative). 53 farmers (these are not too badly shared, as we can see. And nothing could be fairer); 46 industrialists; 38 publicists, 33 traders; 33 academics 31 doctors 30 workers or artisans 28 employees; 19 civil servants; 13 engineers; 11 officers; 8 teachers; 8 attorneys; 6 magistrates 6 pharmacists; 4 state councilors; 4 notaries; 4 Catholic priests, 3 pastors, 2 bankers; 2 architects; 2 dentists and 2 veterinarians. Finally, 44 of our deputies are classified as unemployed. They are, for the most part, owners or renters.

Professional representation, as we see, is very largely included in this list. Of course, nothing in their costume will differentiate them from each other. And that’s too bad for the picturesque! However we will have an exception.

The Palais-Bourbon once saw the deputy Garnier who, converted to Islamism, came to sit in gandoura and burnous; then the deputy Thivrier, who put on his workman's blouse to attend the sessions. This time, we will have a representative very different from the others: it will be Mr. Cadic, newly elected from Morbihan, who intends to keep his Breton costume among the uniform crowd of jackets and jackets.

Everything is transformed, everything is modernized. A few years ago, the creation of a chapel on board a barge, a floating chapel for the use of boatmen, was cited as a curious innovation. In the United States, we wanted to do even better. There are chapels on wheels of all kinds there.
Firstly, chapels fitted out in wagons built especially for this use and which can travel on all the lines of the vast American network. It was Catholics who had this idea. One of these cars, placed under the name of Saint-Pierre, serves both as a mobile temple and a comfortable home for the chaplain, his acolytes and his servant. The other, the Saint-Antoine, brother of the first, travels, like this one, the immense expanses of the Far West, where the settlers are scattered very far from each other.

Both, built in steel, are paneled inside with mahogany wood. They measure approximately twenty-five meters in length. The oratory itself occupies half of the carriage. Around sixty people can take place there. There you can see an altar, an organ and a confessional. The other part of the car has a dining room, a library, an office, bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen.
The chapel car can only follow the rails. There are also self-chapels in the United States. Less large than the first, but more manageable, they pass through the most difficult roads and, arriving at their destination, open their door which reveals the altar and the objects of worship inside. While the priest officiates, the faithful gather outside. Finally, a sort of platform, placed at the back of the car, allows the preacher to speak and be heard by everyone.

In America, we see, religion strives to be as modern as commerce or industry.

THE INDISCREET.