Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 126, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1909 — Presidential Car in France. [ARTICLE]

Presidential Car in France.

Is a novelty, dating from the Czar’s visit in 1896. Until then, whenever the President traveled, a parlor car was hurriedly cleaned up, varnished and ornamented with three flags and two palms. Jules Grevyi introduced the special train, composed of ordinary carriages, for which he paid out of his own pocket. Its three carriages are given the names of Presidence 1, Presidence 2 and Presidence 3. The Presidence 1 IS reserved for the personal use of the chief of state. It is composed of a parlor or study draped with red damask and garnet velvet, and furnished with a little mahogany desk, a table with drawers, a pink silk screen, a little bookshelf surmounted by a Jardiniere, and several easy chairs. A sleeping roottt, draped with moss-green damask, contains a green and old-gold bed. This comes next to the salon. A bathroom, fitted up in red marble completes the presidential compartment. Two staterooms for attendants fill the rest of the car. Presidence 2 Is the reception room, a salon on wheels, where presentations take place at brief halts, and where, between stations, the high officials of the region traversed can be provided fdr. It is capable of holding forty guests very comfortably. Pre 'dence 3 is reserved for the officers of the military establishment, who are provided with two compartments with cot beds, and a little green stateroom and a large red one for the general or the civil secretary general.