For most of the afternoon President (speaker) Fernand Bouisson of the Chamber of Deputies had little to do. On his high rostrum at the front of the Chamber he stroked his little white beard, tapped for order occasionally with an ivory paper cutter, but there were few occasions to ring the huge brass bell reserved for bigger ructions. A nervous crowd, kept in hand by a line of police, moiled about the Place de la Concorde and over the bridge to the Palais Bourbon, shouting "Save the franc!" Inside, important speeches were...
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