FRANCE: Est-ce Possible?

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In France grotesque emergencies which no man could foresee are left for solution to the President, normally an honored puppet in his Elysee Palace. Last week sad-eyed President Albert Lebrun brooded over the grotesquery presented by two children of Catillon.

Plump, coquettish Adrienne Delamare, aged 12, wanted to marry brisk, bold-eyed Henri Pinteau, 17. Their parents not only approved—they begged that M. le President sanction by special dispensation a child marriage in violation of French law. M. le President considered the reason: a pink and squawling babe safely born Aug. 28 at which time he weighed nine pounds. "Mon Dieu," murmured President Lebrun, "Est-ce possible?"

"Voila!" was the unanswerable argument of the petitioners. The healthy babe, they added, had already been named Alfred Pinteau. Prudently the President of the Republic bowed to a fact of nature. The law, he decreed, should in this case be set aside. Proud 12-year-old Adrienne Delamare announced that she will be married Oct. 7 by the Mayor of Catillon. "She will be the Youngest Wife in France," boasted bold Henri Pinteau, "and I shall be the Youngest Husband."