FRANCE: Virtue’s Reward

At 67, Louis Eudeline looked back on 26 years of perfectionist service to his country. As official silver polisher at the Palais de I’Elysee, he had rubbed eight hours a day, through war and peace, at the 7,500 pieces of silver plate which the French Presidents took over from the Bourbons. When the silverware went with the President on state visits to Belgium and Britain, Eudeline journeyed with it; when World War II broke out and the silver was taken for safety to a country chateau, Eudeline went along to guard it. During the German occupation, Hermann Goring laid even heavier burdens on Polisher Eudeline by ordering 100 more place settings, but the steady rhythm of Eudeline’s buffing arm never faltered. When he retired recently, not one man, but two, took his place.

Last week Eudeline went back to the presidential palace to receive his reward. On Eudeline’s chest, President Vincent Auriol pinned the white-enamel-and-silver cross of a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, founded in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte to honor those who, “by their knowledge, their virtues, their talent,” have upheld the principles of the French Republic. He will be entitled to wear the inconspicuous red lapel ribbon, and will find special seats reserved for him at parades and other functions—joining the democratic company of the 196,146 Frenchmen who also have the Legion of Honor.