home, the plan
of M. Maronini. He has as yet done nothing to entitle him to the
suffrages of the electors beyond making printing presses, which are
excellent and very cheap; so he heads his posters with a likeness of
himself. Why an elector should vote for a man because he has an ugly
face, I am not aware; but the Citizen Maronini seems to be under the
impression that, from a fellow-feeling at least, all ugly men will do
so; and perhaps he is right. Another candidate commences his address:
"_Citoyens, je suis le representant du_ go ahead." In the clubs last
night everyone was talking, and no one was listening. Even the Citizen
Sans, with his eternal scarlet shawl girt round his waist, could not
obtain a hearing. The Citizen Beaurepaire in vain shouted that, if
elected, he would rather hew off his own arm than sign away Alsace and
Lorraine. This noble figure of rhetoric, which has never been uttered by
a club orator during the siege without eliciting shouts of applause, was
received with jeers. The absurdity of the proceedings at this electoral
gathering is, that a candidate considers himself insulted if any elector
ventures to ask him a question. The president, too, loses his temper
half a dozen times every hour, and shakes his fist, screams and jabbers,
like an irate chimpanzee, at the audience. If the preliminary electoral
meetings are ridiculous, the system of voting, on the other hand, is
perfect in comparison with ours. Paris to-day in the midst of a general
election is by far more orderly than any English rotten village on the
polling-day. Three days ago each elector received at his own house a
card, telling him where he was to vote. Those who were entitled to the
suffrage, and by accident did not get one of these cards, went the next
day to their respective mairies to obtain one. I have just come from one
of the rooms in which the votes are taken. I say rooms; for the
Parisians do not follow our silly example, and build up sheds at the
cost of the candidate. At one end of this room was a long table. A box
was in the middle of it, and behind the box sat an employe. To his right
sat another. The elector went up to this latter, gave in his electoral
card, and wrote his name; he then handed to the central employe his list
of names, folded up. This the employe put into the box. About thirty
National Guards were on duty in or about the room. The box will remain
on the table until to-night, and the National Guards during