arms hanging by the side, the hands
open and the palms forward. A sufficient force of gendarmes kept this
somewhat incongruous parade in due order. And yet, in summer, a certain
odor arises which compels the least delicate of the judges to have
frequent recourse to flasks of smelling-salts judiciously provided. The
decisions of this court are without appeal, and are pronounced by the
president, either after having consulted his colleagues or in voicing
their common opinion. The conscripts are then directed by the gendarmes
toward the neighboring salle, where they resume their garments. The
_reserves_ pass into a special chamber, where a _medecin-major_
examines them carefully, either as to their eyesight or as to the action
of the heart. Attempts to avoid military service are comparatively rare
in the conseil de revision of the Seine, and the shammers are readily
detected.

[Illustration: COMPAGNIE CYCLISTE: ECOLE MILITAIRE DE GYMNASTIQUE AT
JOINVILLE-LE-PONT.]

Theoretically, there is an absolute equality of all classes before the
conscription. Even the law-givers have not been supposed to be exempt
from the obligation of military duty. The law of the 24th of July, 1895,
declared, in its first article, that no citizen was eligible as a member
of the Parlement unless he had fulfilled all the conditions of the
military regulations concerning active service. Those residing in
Algeria or in the colonies came under the special regulations of a law
of 1889. By article second, no member of the Parlement was to be called
upon to do military duty during the sessions of that body, unless it
were on the request of the Minister of War, by his own consent, and with
the approval of the Assemblee of which he was a member. By article
third, the members of the Parlement while doing military duty could not
participate in the deliberations, nor in the voting, of the Assemblee.
In case of convocation of the Assemblee Nationale, their military
service was suspended during the session of this body.

This general abolishing of social privileges to maintain the military
strength of the nation naturally works with a good deal of friction. On
the one hand are what might be called the inevitable tendencies of all
human society to oppose it and to violate it; and on the other, the
fierce watchfulness of the demagogues and the socialists to maintain it.
M. "Job's" amusing sketch on page 126 of the arrival of a rich conscript
at the caserne, ad