their party. Fireworks, torch-light processions, caval-
cades on horseback or on bicycles, bicycle orchestras,
aquatic parades with hundreds of boats in a row,
parades in the streets attended by large contingents of
the followers of the party, are so many means of testify-
ing to the enthusiasm which animates its members.
Some of these demonstrations attain really gigantic pro-
portions, such as the great parades in New York, for
instance, when more than a hundred thousand men
march past a few leading members of the party, some-
times with the presidential candidate himself at their
head, accompanied by bands, flags, and banners, in the
midst of a million spectators. All classes of the popu-
lation are represented in the procession, from the
princes of finance down to the common people; heads
of business firms and members of the bar fall in, shout-
ing themselves hoarse, in honour of the candidates of
the party, just like ordinary labourers. The ridiculous
side of the spectacle they present does not occur to them
nor to the spectators of the show, -- it is lost in the
feeling of duty towards the party. For they consider
that the party is served by making its numerical strength
conspicuous, by conveying an impression of the com-
bative ardour which animates its adherents, even if this
is achieved by methods savouring of the travelling cir-
cus. The electioneering effect of the parades and the
marches-past is beginning to decline. Thanks to the
spread of enlightenment, those methods are decidedly
going out of fashion, as was manifest in the last cam-
paigns.

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